Really low temps coming up!

Woke up to 6 F, it's currently 16 F.

68 F in the house, and also going thru a larger than normal coal bed, but I suspect the Dixette came in and added some wood to my reload. Tended the 13 as well this AM, and it's 72 F in there.

Was 75 all day in the solar room saturaday,19 outside. Would have been hotter but its heatin the whole house. Gives the stove a rest. AS long as its sunny its warm. So far today sun is out today and expected to be sunny monday,by the time the clouds move in tuesday it will be 30 deg. I know im cheatin with all the free heat.

nearly coughed up my cup of tea as I galnced at the outside thermometer, -21C. The beautiful sunshine is most deceiving. The 30 had a good bed of coals and was easy to continue in its work and the Newmac even had some hope left in it. Only 14c in the basement and 18c on the main floor. The house will be warmed up just in time to leave for church.
Temps set to head up mid week, Alberta can keep its Clippers, we have enough snow.
Keep warm.

-15 F this morning. Had both the stove and insert going at bedtime last night, and woke to a house at 71.
Was surprised to see both red coals and a clean window on the insert which has a pretty small firebox.

Some friends were saying last night that the low would get to -20. They were right.
Woke this am and on the way to the coffee maker, glanced at the outside thermometer. I thought I was seeing things when it was showing -20.
This one has temp markings down to -60, and I hope to NEVER see that when I get out of bed.
The stove is winning the re-warming battle, but it's a tough slog. Our bedroom in the back of the house through 2 doorways at 90 deg. to each other was at 52. We didn't sleep back there last night.

We stock up on bleach because we need it to make beer....

It was 4 degrees yesterday morning; 5 this morning; supposed to be -2 tonight. Still no supplemental heat necessary. We love the new stove.

Hows that AB workin for ya? gettin the hang of it yet?

Well, the really cold temps are supposed to hit here tonight (-10ish predicted). However last night was cold too well into single digits so I had expected the central heat to have to kick in. I was pleasantly surprised this AM when I got up to find the house warmer than yesterday morning. I guess that extra load at 11p (vs normal 8p) was a good investment.

Tonight, however, I highly doubt we'll avoid burning a bit of oil. I can't be up feeding at midnight and still make it to work awake enough to be useful.

I am force feeding the stove today though to try and get the place a bit warmer to start the night. Will see if that is a wasted effort tomorrow I suppose.

-13F this morning when I woke up. Didn't watch the weather last night but it ended up a little cool out.

Good luck. better get a thermometer that goes a little colder for the climb.
Maybe not, you may not want to know it's -30F out there, the mental thing.

Any plans to climb "McKinley" ?

Grumble, grumble. We can't get it to kick in today for some reason. Sigh.

Solar Room was 80 today , heated the whole downstairs, outside was 10-18 Expecting -4 tonight.

When I came in from the woods it was -8, at the moment we're at -23.5 and dropping. Decided tonight we would run the pellet stove(Yankee) with the Lopi Liberty, both are installed in the basement.

Basement temps are 82 with the main floor at 72.

Edit/ Make that -25 and dropping. Time 10:59


Zap

OK, we'll get down to -14 or so tonight. Bring it on. This morn it was 68 @ 7am and 7 deg. outside. Last load was put in @9pm. We'll see what happens tonight! I just set the overnight burn and now it's just sit back and stay warm.

I loaded up the stove around 10p last night with (among other things) the largest old oak round I've used. This piece barely cleared the door and had been drying out for a couple years before I got it and let it sit for at least 2 more years. Anyway, it was burning just about as fast as I could set it in the stove so it was dry. Burned great - I suspect that density helped a lot in maintaining house temps - we only lost about 5* overnight.

So we did better last night than I had expected. House didn't get cold enough to kick in the oil, however my wife did want to heat the house up a few degrees with the oil and not wait for the stove to do it when we got up. My thermometer showed slightly below 0 when I got up and about the same at 9a so it is cold.

At any rate, hopefully she will keep up the aggressive feeding schedule and we'll minimize our oil burn today.

Well! It passed the test! House was 68f at 7 am this morning, -13 outside. There was still a good chunk burning in there. Last load went in at 10pm, but I kept stuffing it with more small splits as the space became available, until about 11pm. Both cat and stove were below 250. The furnace thermostat was set at 67 and never got a chance to kick on.

The wood makes all the difference. I love to load up with good size oak, maple and cherry. The oak lasts and heats up great, the cherry burns quicker and maple is just between, the stabilizer. Most of it was oak last night, maybe one cherry and two maple. It's a toasty 74 in the hallway now, stove room is in the high 70's. I wish I had a water jacket hooked up to this thing and some radiant flex pipe running under the oak floors.

http://www.hilkoil.com/

I have a similar setup to the above. I built it myself, my version is not as good (steel rather than stainless) and cost almost as much in parts. The hilkoil has a lifetime garantee and is very easy to intall. It may not work in a VC though, due to the complex baffle system. The stove I used is a huge box stove.

Oh, sorry, I asumed you burned a VC from your screen name.

VC Burner, I am in the next town over, Leicester (figured Worcester would be more recognized).

It's so cold out, Chuck Norris actually put on a jacket.

My Merrimack is struggling a bit with temps below 10 degrees to keep the house 70 or so. It was a cold 58-60 degrees in the house when we got up. But, the Merrimack is rated for 2,000 (likely lower realistically in our zone), and my house is 2,500 or so square feet. So it's not unexpected. I should really spend some money on updating the insulation in the attics...

I should also pick up a stove thermometer. How much are they and anyone recommend one?

Hey Dune, I grew up in Hyannis and boy...do I miss those dunes!
The Dutch is made by VC. Dutchwest was purchased by VC in the early 80's I think. But, you're right it isn't like the other VC stoves, as far as the exhaust being at the bottom of the fireback. Thank you for the link, I'll check it out. VC used to make water jackets for domestic hot water on the Defiants. I don't know why here in the US we don't come up with more of these. The Europeans frequently use their stoves to heat their water. It makes a ton of sence!

office is closed today because a plow hit a transformer and no heat / power

came home to feed to the stove

life is good

Hey T, we moved from Rochdale in 2007. I have a Rutland thermometer from Rocky's Ace Hardware, $20. Klems has some on hand for the same price, I think. Souds like you need a bigger stove or a second one! Our little 1250 square foot ranch stays warm with my stove. We really only heat 1000 with it. One room off to the side stays closed, it used to be a three season room between the garage and the main house. I replaced the back and front windows (louver type, jealousy) with a sliding door and a bow window. I also added a deck to the back. I still have to put in a new front door and sheet rock the walls in place of the panelling. Luckily the room was well insulated complete with oak floors, aluminum foil faced fiberglass batts and a poly vapor barrier. Outside the walls have two layers of siding and homosote for insullation. It's a work in progress! The walk out basement is also a work in progress. I'm finishing 750 square feet down there with a garage occupying the other 250 ft. of the cellar. Next winter we'll have another stove down there!

I hear you about the cold, Keep that insert packed! Take care,

Chris

Yup, that 4 cords I have left to cut will not down themselves, although if we get the 1-3 feet of snow they are talking about for Wednesday, perhaps the trees will come down to me!