Still issues with wood stove

[04HemiRam2500]

So, I guess what I am asking now is if the furnace will give me hotter air for a longer time compared to the stove. I also like that the furnace will not be hot as you can touch the air jacket.

I do understand that I need to finish the new edition so my heat loss is not dramatic. But when I bought the 30 I like the upstairs cooler and my downstairs is 2000 sq ft so I thought I would be good.

I just see the furnace with the big blower and think that is a huge difference but my main question is what I asked above about overnight burns.

 

[dmmoss51]

Hemi - I followed your first post as well. I think you're dead set on the furnace anyway.

My inlaws have one in their basement that is nice. They burn a lot more wood because it is not as efficient but it does a better job of distributing warm air to the whole house. It really depends on what you are trying to do. My guess is that you will be happy with the overall heating of the furnace, but burn through much more wood in the process. There's going to be trade offs either way.

 

[begreen]

I hate to say it, but the response seems like another impulse purchase without sitting down and figuring out what it will take to do the job well. The best thing to do right now is to look at past heating bills and calculate the hourly heat loss of the home. That will determine the size of the furnace needed to heat the place. I can guarantee it's going to be larger than the Lowe's 8" furnace.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Before buying another heating appliance I would close up that huge heat stealing missing wall and door leading to an unheated garage. Even the largest furnace will have trouble trying to heat the outdoors. Its like having all your windows open. A wall and door should cost less than a new furnace and ultimately reduce heating expense dramatically no matter the fuel type or the heat source.

 

[04HemiRam2500]

I think that you are right seasoned oak I am just jumping to conclusions because I am sleep deprived. I am going to sea;l the wall and finish the insulation then see what happens. Again, I would rather use less wood and have my house at 70 than get the furnace. I do need to seal the wall because when I open the garge door the cold air comes rushing up and you can feel it. I put a thermometer hallway up the stairs and it is reading 51 and not moving so that 51 degrees I am trying to bypass with the heat from the stove is near impossible.

I JUST NEVER REALIZED HOW IMPORTANT INSULATION ANDD DRYWALL IS FOR HEAT UNTIL NOW. WILL KEEP ALL OF YOU POSTED ONCE IT IS SEALED.

 

[bluedogz]

Well here is the thing and I might have found the problem. It is in my new addition that was built and I have yet to finish insulation also my stove is facing toward the old side of the house where the new edition connects to it. Where it connects there are stairs that go down into the garage and this wall has no door walls or insulation yet. I bet I am losing alot of heta for a whole wall letting cold air from the garage get into the house.

I bet that is part of my problem. Also, when it is in the 30s outside I can get the new edition to 77 it is just when it got 12 yesterday I could not get it to heat. up again if it is that cold out with a leaky garage door that might be the problem will fix tomorrow.

My stove room is next to the garage- they share a standard 4+" insulated interior wall. I can tell you that if we leave the roll-up garage door open, the stove becomes useless.

The other problem I am having which is HUGE is how do3 you get overnight burn times. When I close the air inlet I get the tubes going great but then die off in an hour? I am thinking that this could be draft issues again or no? Know that I know my wood is dry and I checked it with the meter. IT is good to note that because I can not get overnight times I woke up to the house cold on that 12 degree morning and this is why I need the stove to run really hard. That and the wall is probably my issue.

How do you get the stove to heat your house though if the entire thing gets cold like what happen to me this is why I kept reloading.

Maybe this is a communication issue? "Overnight burn" doesn't necessarily mean "see flames and secondaries all night." It's more an "overnight warm."

For my 30, I can fill it for the night at 8pm, and when I get up at 0530, the first thing I do is throw on a small split and puff it with a bellows, then refill for the day. The stovetop is around 550-650 when I leave it for the night, and has dropped to 250 by morning. I suppose if I dragged my butt downstairs at 3am, I could reload, but my eyelids don't work like that.

And when I say, "load for the night," I mean LOAD. Big split in the center, as many small ones as I can fit all around it, then paint sticks and toothpicks and whatever in the little gaps, all stuffed up against the burn tubes (cautiously.)

Lastly, I know this is rated for 2200 square feet and my house is just under 3000 2950 but I have seen stoves with the same size fire box be rated for 3000 so I think my expectations are okay I just need to fix a few things to my house and maybe even put a through the wall fan to help move heat to the other side.

I say forget the "rating." I too heat close to 3000sf with a 30, and it requires very dry wood AND correct burning AND sensible air movement. Before you mess with through-the-wall fans, try a regular fan, like on a table. My 30 can heat my house because of one little fan pushing cold air down to the stove room, thus pushing hot air up and out to the rest of the house- when that fan is running, you can stand two floors up and feel warm air moving up the stairwell.

 

[brenndatomu]

Yup, I think that you would be disappointed in the results if you went to all the work of swapping appliances out. Gotta fix that heat loss first, even if you just put up a piece of plastic over that doorway (temporary, even if it is just for test purposes) that would help a lot!

 

[04HemiRam2500]

Hey brenndantomu I took your advice and put a temporary piece of drywall that covers most of the doorway in the garage right away the thermometer went from 51 to 53. Now this is down stairs so if I seal off the top part of the stairs and insulate I think that I will gain a good 5 to 8 more degrees.

I agree with you bluedogz I feel that the size of the firebox and build of the 30 is enough to heat the house to 70-72 no issue. I just got to insulate the house and play with air movement. Once figured out I will be set to go.

When I purchased the stove I thought every meant they kept the stove at 400-500 all night I did not realize that it would dip down like that.

I also wanted to get everyone opinion if it would help to place a door at the bottom and top of the stairs or is this useless? I might not be able to unless I box the bottom out and frame it but if it makes a great difference I will do it just wanted to get an opinion. In my mind as long as I insulate drywall and put a door at the top cool air settles so I should be okay.

 

[04HemiRam2500]

After I sealed it temporarily it is 33-34 outside and just inside the old house where the new edition connect I am getting 71 and the stove is starting to cool off it is currently at 350.

 

[04HemiRam2500]

My latest question is when should I refill. I am now doing it when the stove hits 250. Also, at the end of the burn cycle, do you open the air all the way then rake the coals forward after a few minutes?

Lastly, since I need air to move laterally alot when it it down to the coal stage I have the bigger blower is it best to leave it on high or turn it down some?

 

[04HemiRam2500]

Thinking about my previous post and one of the many issues I am having. (lets face facts murphy's rule applies to everything). I need to move heat laterally across the house. I liked the furnace because of the large blower.

Why cant I put a small furnace blower on the back of the stove? After all isn't the furnace just a stove inside an air jacket? I do not mean putting a 1400 cfm blower on the stove but maybe a 550 cfm??

 

[04HemiRam2500]

Hey guys the other thing that I noticed from pics and other videos of people that have the 30 is that my door handle goes down farther and is not at as an angle as others. Is this a big deal? Does this mean the rope gasket needs replaced. When I bought the stove at HD the stove has been there since 2011 and it has a 2011 date on it but was still new in the box!

 

[bluedogz]

Thinking about my previous post and one of the many issues I am having. (lets face facts murphy's rule applies to everything). I need to move heat laterally across the house. I liked the furnace because of the large blower.

Why cant I put a small furnace blower on the back of the stove? After all isn't the furnace just a stove inside an air jacket? I do not mean putting a 1400 cfm blower on the stove but maybe a 550 cfm??

You could if you wanted to, but remember that a household fan of any kind is going to push more cold air than hot. So, if you're going to "fan" air around, push cold air and let the warm air do what it will. Like I mentioned, my fan is on "barely moving" pushing cool house air into the stove room, which is outside the regular rectangle of my house's footprint. This gentle push moves a wind chime two floors up in the 2d floor stairwell. Our natural instinct is to try to move hot air, but it doesn't quite work that way.

Does this mean the rope gasket needs replaced.

Search on this site for "dollar bill test" and report back. IMHO, I doubt it, but verify.