TL; DR I seem to be burning through a ton of wood in my old drafty house, probably 3 or 4 decent size logs an hr.
OK so I am only into about my third or fourth month on experience burning wood for heat. We have a new Regency 5100 80'000 BTU wood stove. I'll explain my habits and than questions. I start all fires with poplar softwood to get nice big hot coals started before placing seasoned dry hardwood after. We live in a 60 year old farm house with more than a few drafts. We have 4 cord of wood in our shed. In order to get the house to a comfortable temperature (20-23C) I find I have to run it wide open for about 2 hrs and in that time I'll usually burn about 6 good size pieces. From that point I can close the damper down about halfway and carry it through the day (albeit my wife forgetting to feed the fire and having to restart it once in a while). Night time burn is a struggle, I've not figured out how to get it to carry heat through the night, there are coals in there in the morning but almost no heat retained in the house. Our stove room is on the main floor facing the hallway to the stairs and next to our dining room. We have placed one fan next to the stove to push heat around. Our main living room is adjacent to the dining room. Is this stove acceptable for a main heat source or should we be supplementing with oil. My father runs a wood stove right in his living room in a small home with one straight shot hallway to their bedroom. He seems to think I'm excessive in my wood burning thus far and that I will easily burn through 4 cord. The heat travels upstairs easily enough but is this just going to be the norm? Wide open and half damper all winter?
OK so I am only into about my third or fourth month on experience burning wood for heat. We have a new Regency 5100 80'000 BTU wood stove. I'll explain my habits and than questions. I start all fires with poplar softwood to get nice big hot coals started before placing seasoned dry hardwood after. We live in a 60 year old farm house with more than a few drafts. We have 4 cord of wood in our shed. In order to get the house to a comfortable temperature (20-23C) I find I have to run it wide open for about 2 hrs and in that time I'll usually burn about 6 good size pieces. From that point I can close the damper down about halfway and carry it through the day (albeit my wife forgetting to feed the fire and having to restart it once in a while). Night time burn is a struggle, I've not figured out how to get it to carry heat through the night, there are coals in there in the morning but almost no heat retained in the house. Our stove room is on the main floor facing the hallway to the stairs and next to our dining room. We have placed one fan next to the stove to push heat around. Our main living room is adjacent to the dining room. Is this stove acceptable for a main heat source or should we be supplementing with oil. My father runs a wood stove right in his living room in a small home with one straight shot hallway to their bedroom. He seems to think I'm excessive in my wood burning thus far and that I will easily burn through 4 cord. The heat travels upstairs easily enough but is this just going to be the norm? Wide open and half damper all winter?
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