Tips To Regulate Stove Temps on Warm Winter Days?

[Hearth Mistress]

Newbie Question Warning

I thought I would have a few months until Spring to work this out but just when I started to figure our stove out (it was installed last Tuesday) it is 60 today and will be in the upper 50's all weekend. I do have an oil furnace as back up but would rather not use it as our house is stone and the wood stove heat removes the dampness unlike no temperature the baseboard heat can.

What is the best way to regulate the temperature on warmer days? I have plenty of seasoned split wood and I used it early this morning but now that it has warmed up outside, I have been using cut pallet slats and runners (free wood) to keep the flue temps around 500 and has been keeping the house comfortable - it just is the matter of putting a few in the stove every hour or so. Because of the way our stove had to be installed, thanks to wood steps and window frames - it is all double/triple wall pipe and I have a probe thermometer through the double wall pipe coming directly out of the stove to the chimney pipe which is what I am monitoring my temps with. I do not have a magnetic one to measure the actual stove top temp - should I have both?

Having a small stove, Napoleon 1100C, if I load it up with splits, as I normally would, it will be 80 in here in no time!

Any suggestions, best practices, methods, etc are appreciated.

THANKS!

 

[tcassavaugh]

i try and burn smaller fires when it gets warmer.....or i might not refill the stove so fast and let the coals sit longer, or, i let the stove go out in the morning....like today.....and i'll start it back up tonight as it gets chilly. thats about all you can do other than open up the doors and windows.

cass

 

[lopiliberty]

Most of the time when I know its going to warm up outside I let the fire go out, but this winter it seems like all I get done doing is starting fires. If you don't want to have to start a fire everyday I would suggest only putting 2 splits in the stove at a time but sometimes it will still get to hot. I didn't let the fire go out last night and its 51 here, have 2 splits in the stove and its still 84 degrees in here, but its always that hot if not hotter so it doesn't bother me to at all.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

With those temperatures if we had a fire in the stove at all it would probably be in the evening and then just let it go out. But the key to regulating temperatures in cool vs cold weather is simply to not put as much wood in the stove. We heat entirely with our wood stove and we've filled it probably only 10 times so far this winter simply because not much heat has been needed. In fact, we've not had the stove going all day today but will no doubt have it going this evening. Present temperature is 39 and it is sunny outside and decent inside.

 

[pen]

I used to try and nurse things along until I bought a box of super cedars. Now I just let the thing go out.

pen

 

[Huntindog1]

Along with Pens super cedar suggestion and cass 's suggestion of letting the coals go longer.

The coals in these stoves will go for a long time, if your home and the out gassing of the splits is finished which means there isnt much fire going on and the secondaries have died , you can close the flue damper and the air intake to make the coals last for a long time. Precaud talks about this in his posts

These stoves with the air intake closed down completely tend to make for alot of coals as most the air comes in from the top. This means as the stove burns down the coals left are farther removed from the air source as very little air comes in thru the dog house air and shutting the air intake down will almost completely reduce the primary air which is the air wash air coming in at the top of the door.

I noticed in my old Pre-epa Buck Stove called a "Buck Saver" and hell I dont know why they named it Buck Saver but I put in some secondary air at the top of the stove and the big difference in the operation of the stove was that with shutting down the primary air at the hot coals level and having most the air come in at the top of the stove, the difference was that i had alot of coals left for a fire restart.

With shutting the air down when the out gassing stops no worry about the creosote forming smoke.

 

[corey21]

Like others have said just let the fire go out. Or if you have a good sized coal in my stove that will last for a long time.

 

[Ken45]

Some people say to use "small hot fires" but "small" doesn't seem to give hot enough for a thoroughly clean burn. I tend to let ours go out too. That's when we use the pellet stove or the heat pump.

Ken

 

[madison]

I used to try and nurse things along until I bought a box of super cedars. Now I just let the thing go out.

pen

+1 24/7 burning used to be addicting, now after woodstove rehab, I can let it burn out overnight... And as a result I sleep much better when the bedroom is less than 70 degrees

 

[tcassavaugh]

I used to try and nurse things along until I bought a box of super cedars. Now I just let the thing go out.

pen

+1 24/7 burning used to be addicting, now after woodstove rehab, I can let it burn out overnight... And as a result I sleep much better when the bedroom is less than 70 degrees

woodstove rehab.....thats funny :lol: . i agree, super cedars are great, i just got some....AND sleep much better when the bedroom is less than 70 degrees. i normally keep those doors closed anyway, just for that reason.

small wood = small fires...... todays another day where i just three a couple of small splits on the jotul...it was 37 outside, but i'm probably done for the day as its supposed to get up to mid 50's here. this warm weather may be a pita, but i'm loving it and savinging a bundle on my overall wood usage. at this pace, i'm already ahead for next year.

cass

 

[LLigetfa]

Some people say to use "small hot fires" but "small" doesn't seem to give hot enough for a thoroughly clean burn.

Ja, small and hot are an oxymoron. Replace small with short.

I let the stove go to the brink, then I rake the few coals forward and reserrect it with small splits. I leave the fan off so the box stays hotter and I crack open a window if it gets too warm.

If too warm out for that, the stove goes cold and the gas furnace kicks on.

 

[Ken45]

Some people say to use "small hot fires" but "small" doesn't seem to give hot enough for a thoroughly clean burn.

Ja, small and hot are an oxymoron. Replace small with short.

I let the stove go to the brink, then I rake the few coals forward and reserrect it with small splits.

Now that makes more sense.

Using small splits, etc. makes sense, heat up the box for a short time. Clean fire that doesn't go on forever.

I leave the fan off so the box stays hotter

Ah! Good idea. Seems like the stove would then store the heat longer using it's thermal mass. I'll have to give that a try.

Thanks!

Ken

 

[mossycup]

I've been leaving coals alone after a medium to full overnight burn and bringing them into play about mid morning. Using a few whimpy coals and some small, stringy kindling is always fun and challenging;-)
Also, assuming a ridiculous daily/evening start up routine as moderate temps arrive I ordered the 30 pack of Super Cedars which will give me 120 fresh starts until warm weather.

 

[oldspark]

Small and hot works for me, been burning small and hot fires when needed for over 30 years, oxymoron or not.

 

[LLigetfa]

Small and hot works for me, been burning small and hot fires when needed for over 30 years, oxymoron or not.

Since there were no EPA stoves 30 years ago, perhaps your response would be better suited to the Classic Stove forum.

By definition, small and hot could be a a burning wooden match but it certainly wouldn't keep the flue hot enough.

 

[oldspark]

Small and hot works for me, been burning small and hot fires when needed for over 30 years, oxymoron or not.

Since there were no EPA stoves 30 years ago, perhaps your response would be better suited to the Classic Stove forum.

By definition, small and hot could be a a burning wooden match but it certainly wouldn't keep the flue hot enough.

Still doing it in the Summit, I guess I dont understand your response.

 

[begreen]

Some people say to use "small hot fires" but "small" doesn't seem to give hot enough for a thoroughly clean burn.

Ja, small and hot are an oxymoron. Replace small with short.

I let the stove go to the brink, then I rake the few coals forward and reserrect it with small splits. I leave the fan off so the box stays hotter and I crack open a window if it gets too warm.

If too warm out for that, the stove goes cold and the gas furnace kicks on.

This is just semantics. Fire size is relative to the stove size. For our stove, small means just 3-4 splits and yes, it is hot. Hot enough to promote a short secondary session. Depending on the temps, we may not refeed the fire. Or it may get another couple splits if need by. For mild weather in the 40's we often burn short, small, hot fires. One in the morning and sometimes one again in the evening. For mild weather in the 50s, we burn electrons.

 

[MofoG23]

Small and hot works for me, been burning small and hot fires when needed for over 30 years, oxymoron or not.

Since there were no EPA stoves 30 years ago, perhaps your response would be better suited to the Classic Stove forum.

By definition, small and hot could be a a burning wooden match but it certainly wouldn't keep the flue hot enough.

huh? I have no issue burning a small "hot" fire in my insert....heck, I'm doing it right now.

3 medium splits, stove temp 460, glass is spotless, some reburn action going with basically zero smoke coming out of the chimney....and this is a "small" fire compared to what I normally burn.

 

[firefighterjake]

I think I pay a lot more attention to the daily weather forecast in the winter simply so I can know if things are going to warm up or not . . . this year I've been doing a lot more "cold starts" as the warmer days have typically meant a single, hot fire in the morning to warm things up and then I have let the fire go out (or possibly done a single reload before letting the fire go out) . . . or at the very least letting the coals burn down much more than typically.

I also tend to not fill the firebox to the gills and start looking for any punks, chunks and uglies that I may have tossed to the side in the woodshed . . . along with any wood that is not high on the BTU list (i.e. for me this means using my poplar and pine.)