Morning temps and reload

[ChadMc]

Curious to hear some different results here. Obviously every house layout and stove is different but I’m curious on an over night burn what does your morning temps read in the house when you wake up?! Also how long does it take to bring your house up to a comfortable temperature.

For example here’s my routine!
-load up around 930-945pm
-hang out in front of the fire for a little before shutting the air down. house temp at 70-72. Perfect for our layout!
-if it’s a really cold night I’ll run the fan on low all night. Seems to help
- this morning I woke up at 545am and the outside temp was 18. House at 64. Which for sleeping is nice!
-load the stove and get dressed and ready to take the dog for a hike in the woods.
-shut the air down and put the fan on high and leave for a hike

Walked in the woods for about an hour with the dog. Came back around 715 and the house was at 69! So from 545-715 if went from 64-69. By the time my wife and kids woke it was 71. This is all heat from the stove! Still amazes me, all there’s years later you can heat your home with such efficiency from something renewable from the woods. Love it!!

 

[BigJ273]

Usually between 72-76 when I head to bed. Depending on the temps, could be between 64-69 when I wake up. Which is fine by me. Backup heat kicks on at 64 (oil baseboard)

 

[stoveliker]

69 in the evening. Reload with oak at 8.30 pm. 69 in the morning. And when it's 25 for a low, I reload around 2.30-3 pm, when (if I'm late) the coals can't keep the 69 and it's fallen to 68 inside.

And this is measured on the main floor, the stove (2.9 cu ft firebox) is heating us from the basement.

 

[Jason721]

We like it a bit warmer than most 74-76 . I load it up at 8:00-8:30 pm
When I wake in the morning ( 5:00am) the house is usually 72-73. Stove always has good coals. I put in a couple of splits and run the stove up good and hot. By 6:00am I load it up full and close it down ...roll out to work.

 

[Highbeam]

Load the stove after work at 5-6 pm, house warms up from 70 to 76. Go to bed at 10pm when house temp is 76. Wake up and house temp is 76. Don’t touch stove, it still has lots of fuel. Go to work, come home and fuel is mostly spent, house has cooled to 70.

That whole temperature cycle due to short burn times in a noncat is why I upgraded to a cat stove. Slow and steady wins the race.

 

[ChadMc]

I’m impressed how well your homes hold heat throughout the night. I would assume these temps are based on wood as the fuel and now secondary heat source.

 

[stoveliker]

Not only that, it's also the stove that can keep a very constant heat output, which stretches the burn time. (And yes, it can do a low output which goes well with a well-insulated home, and which also stretches the burn time.)

 

[St. Coemgen]

I do not burn over night. I often let the fires die out, starting at about 7 PM.

Went to bed with 20°C/68°F inside (I have a digital thermometer by my bed so I know indoor temp, but I did not note outside temp).

Today's outside versus inside at 9 AM:

-5°C / 23°F outside, 18°C/64°F inside.

Having a well insulated house helps.

 

[Jason721]

I’m impressed how well your homes hold heat throughout the night. I would assume these temps are based on wood as the fuel and now secondary heat source.

House was built by the wifes parents in 1978. After we bought the farm the house got a remodel. New windows, installed better.. its only 1100sqft that's counting a half loft. I could probably heat it with a couple of candles. I turn the heat pump off in the winter.. unless we go somewhere on vacation or a long weekend. Otherwise its heated by wood

 

[kennyp2339]

Set the scenario. 35 deg f high temp, 18 deg f low temp.
Wake up around 5:45am, house is 68, go downstairs and stir up coals in the stove, load 4 or 5 splits, turn air up, pour a coffee, drink coffee, go back downstairs and turn air down, hour later the upstairs is 69 /70, go to work, come home and throw 2 or 3 splits, turn air up, house rises from 70 to 72, turn air down some, house maintains temp, load stove up around 8pm let fire catch, turn it down house sitting 72 at bed time, wake up, rinse and repeat.

 

[Highbeam]

I’m impressed how well your homes hold heat throughout the night. I would assume these temps are based on wood as the fuel and now secondary heat source.

It’s not that my home holds heat very well but that my stove makes a steady low output for 24 hours that matches the heat loss from the home. It took a stove technology upgrade to accomplish this. Uglier stove but high performance. I heat 100% with wood and my climate isn’t as cold as some folks to the east. Use 4 cords per year over an 8-9 month burning season.

Previously in this home I had a modern noncat soapstone stove that barely held a fire overnight. I would wake up colder with that.

 

[stoveliker]

Example from today. Yesterday night, 7 pm reload with pine.
It was 37 outside then, and increasing. Rain started at 2 am. Max temp today was 45 F. Sun came out at 11 am. Very windy from 4 pm

Tonight at 7 pm (38 outside and decreasing) I reloaded (pine again). The house was 68 all those 24 hrs. This is what was left onto which I reloaded at 7 pm.

Same tech as high beam.

 

[Todd]

Load the stove after work at 5-6 pm, house warms up from 70 to 76. Go to bed at 10pm when house temp is 76. Wake up and house temp is 76. Don’t touch stove, it still has lots of fuel. Go to work, come home and fuel is mostly spent, house has cooled to 70.

That whole temperature cycle due to short burn times in a noncat is why I upgraded to a cat stove. Slow and steady wins the race.

View attachment 288230

Sounds great but I bet you couldn’t get away with that if you had morning low of -15 and a high of 15 like I did yesterday.

 

[Todd]

Depending on the temps outside I will see inside temps in the morning of 65-70 then I’ll try and keep the cabin around 75 during the day. Usually go with a 3 load per day schedule this time of year but sometimes need 4 when it’s below 0.

 

[Highbeam]

Sounds great but I bet you couldn’t get away with that if you had morning low of -15 and a high of 15 like I did yesterday.

Correct. I tried to convey that. Even with single digit temps and wind (forecast for next week) I will only need to add some fuel at the 12 hour mark. I prefer those lower outside temps and higher burn rate because I’m always reloading a hot partially loaded stove and the glass stays way cleaner. Prettier fire to watch.

The chickens don’t like it as much.

 

[begreen]

We like it cooler for sleeping. 68º at night. In the morning around 7am I start up the stove. House reaches about 72º by around 10am. Stays around 72-73º all day and evening. Next reload is in the 5-7pm time range, depending on how much wood and how tightly packed it was in the morning. I do a partial load around 10…30-11pm so that there will be enough hot coals for a relight, but will allow the house to cool down for sleeping. We see even house temps, with a non-cat stove.

 

[stoveliker]

My bedroom is the farthest, and is thus also cooler - I actually prefer a bedroom at 60. So I have to keep the door closed otherwise it's upper 60s...

 

[begreen]

However, temps will be in the teens and 20s next week. I will be reloading on a 6-8 hr reload schedule instead and running full loads of hardwood with each reload.

My bedroom is the farthest, and is thus also cooler - I actually prefer a bedroom at 60. So I have to keep the door closed otherwise it's upper 60s...

And in the master bedroom, my wife will have the electric blanket running next week for sure.

 

[DonTee]

I don’t mean to threadjack, but just curious. For those of you with cat stoves in this thread, what are your average stovetop temps with the stove on the lower temp setting?

 

[stoveliker]

I don't know; it depends on position - above the cat or not..also my stove has a jacket.

In the end it doesn't matter; if I want more heat I dial up the thermostat. If I want less heat, I dial down.

Cat gauge is important; needs to stay active. Flue temps too: a bit easy to drop below 250.

 

[White ash]

I can hit 800 right above where the cat is. Model kuma cascade le. Pretty hard not to when the secondaries are a blaze and the cat is glowing away.

 

[weatherguy]

I don’t mean to threadjack, but just curious. For those of you with cat stoves in this thread, what are your average stovetop temps with the stove on the lower temp setting?

My stove top temp is about 500-550 on low, I'll usually get 12 hours when I burn like that, when its gets real cold I burn a little hotter and my burn times go down. I have a hybrid though so the BK's may be different. Right now I'm at 450 and the house is still 72 but its 24 degrees out, will fill for overnight in a couple hours.

 

[DonTee]

I read all these things about how cat stoves just kind of idle along on low, but there isn’t a lot of talk about what the stove top temps are. I didn’t know if people are talking about like 300 degrees or 500 degrees.

If I could keep 500 degrees stove top for even 8 hours I’d be very happy with that.

I’m considering buying a cat stove in the spring. I really don’t know how to compare stoves except by what stove top temp it takes to keep my house warm.

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.

 

[stoveliker]

I have just not measured because (jacketed and) it's not relevant to me - I know what to set the thermostat to keep my house at the temperature I need (different settings for different weather, of course). And where would I measure, above the cat (small area) or elsewhere? There is no single number that captures what you want to know.

And yes, while on low they can go
on exceedingly long, running them higher will give higher output. Mine is rated for 36000 BTU per hr on high - whatever that may mean (testing methods etc).

Stove top temperature is not telling the whole story anyway because it is the total radiation and convective output that matters, and whether the stove top is hot (or hottest) is not germane to answering the question of what the total output is.

In fact, for a given firebox volume and burn time, the most relevant parameteris the flue temp; if you're chewing thru xx lbs of wood in yy hrs, but have a lower flue temp than other stoves, you'll get more heat out into your home than the others.

 

[Smokeyhollow]

10-12 hr load times in my timberline, plenty of coals in the box for reload after work in the evening and in the morning before work. Temp never gets before 70 in our home. Usual mix of hardwood. Heat solely with wood.