Temperature Regulation

[moterhead3]

Finally outside temperatures in the 40's. Lit the stove, dampered it down, house goes up to 80 degrees. Is my house to tight? It's about 1600 square ft, I put a couple logs in my napolean 1402 and the temperature shoots up. Should I try to burn all day, or mayby let it go out, and relight it after the temperatur goes down? What's the trick to letting it burn all day without over cooking the house. I'm tring to keep the stove temp between 250 and 600 degrees and the house gets to hot How can I regulate teperatures better?

 

[begreen]

Burn less wood and smaller fires. When the temps are mild consider a morning and evening fire, let it go out in between. You might also try larger splits that will burn slower.

I think you'll be surprised the difference when the temperature outside is 20 degrees colder and downright pleased when it gets into the single digits.

 

[jpl1nh]

Be Greens right (usually is!) smaller fires and if possible use lower btu wood. I think heating with wood in fall and spring is an art. I use small wood, even 1-2" branches, or smallish splits of hemlock, elm, poplar, pine. I find that a mix of small pieces of hard wood with the small to medium splits of soft wood work especially well. You need at least enough wood to get to clean burning temp for a little while. Then let it coal, damp it down low, let it burn out. Repeat as necessary. Its a great way to get really good at lighting fires :cheese:

 

[BrotherBart]

The guys advise you well. I call fall and spring wood burner's hell because this ain't a thermostat setting thing. Once it is burning, it is burning.

And when the weatherman misses the overnight low by twenty degrees it gets real warm in the house that night.

 

[RonB]

I've been burning a fire at night and a smaller one in the morning. Low's are in low 30's with day time highs 50. It will be a whole lot easier when I can keep it going 24. It's no fun restarting it every day--but my option is to let the furnace kick on.

 

[titan]

I'd say being heated out of 1600 sq.'with your mid-sized Napoleon is a good complaint to have.You be glad to have all its'capacity come winter.

 

[North of 60]

The guys advise you well. I call fall and spring wood burner's hell because this ain't a thermostat setting thing. Once it is burning, it is burning.

And when the weatherman misses the overnight low by twenty degrees it gets real warm in the house that night.

Was actually looking for Gunner. But......
Sure would be nice if they made a stove that you could load up to the gills and dial down to lets say... Hmmmmm 7000 to12000 btus and produce a clean burn for the chimney. YA know like enoufe heat to blow you out of the broom closet. Would sure help for these types of situations, and of course capable of that 40 to 50000 burn when needed. :blank: Toot Toot Hey Buddy ;-P

 

[Robbie]

I'm having the same problem and I thought I knew how to do it since this is my third year..............

45 outside and 80 inside, put on three splits of poplar and dampered down to avoid too much heat.......mistake.

It belched on me............ :cheese: .

After opening the doors to air the house a bit I realized I did the same thing last fall..............too much too soon.

Problem solved...........I will NOT choke it down any more and I will burn one split at a time..........until I can let it burn like it should............crazy weather is really making it hard to regulate.

Robbie

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good problem to have!

People sometimes wonder why I cut some really small branches. For fall and spring, that's why. I also split quite a bit of really small splits. One other thing is to cut some "junk" wood like poplar or such that doesn't burn long and doesn't give much for coals.

 

[Robbie]

My problem last night of temperature regulation because of temps outside (45) was real easy to solve after I realized my mistake.

Solution: I added 1 split at a time until bed time and then added one fairly large split of beech at bed time...........no damper used and one split put out heat (76 degrees) until 7 am with blower on low.

Pretty cool I think.........went to bed at 2 am (78 degrees in house) and at 7 am it was 76 degrees from one split of beach.

Of course any wood stove could do this.........it's just an adjustment to control high inside temps until it finally gets real cold outside.



Robbie

 

[moterhead3]

Thanks for the advice. I'm just glad I never replaced my big drafty living room window, would have cost as much as the stove but I'd still be using heating oil. I cut and split some popler today, I'll try a little bit of that, might burn a little cooler than locust.

 

[JohnnyBravo]

Thanks for the advice. I'm just glad I never replaced my big drafty living room window, would have cost as much as the stove but I'd still be using heating oil. I cut and split some popler today, I'll try a little bit of that, might burn a little cooler than locust.

nice rational. stove is cheaper than new windows. next time the girlfriend asks when im going to replace the windows i'll tell her we don't need to.

 

[Lignums]

When it's that warmish/coldish out, having a bunch of splits the size no bigger that the handle of a good baseball bat is how you manage that. Or the other option is waking up and seeing your wife have all the windows open....and the fire still going.

Not Hakuta Matata