Was away from home for a few weeks, Came home to 40 degrees, wet, strong wind blowing from the North over the lake. House 50 degrees, about noon.
Unpacked, installed new inconal screen on my Woodstock Progress Hybrid, lit a fire about 5 PM. Before lighting the fire, noticed the draft was really something in the flue...couldn't miss the sound.
Used a homemade firestarter, some dry, small dimension unsplit dogwood, ditto sugar maple.
Loaded the stove maybe 1/6 full....not very much wood. Intention to burn down to just coals, then load about 1/2 with some splits and go to bed....very tired after two days with no sleep, and a long drive.
Life happens, tied up with family stuff til about 11 PM, house 68 degrees. Noted the wood was in coals, but large coals, still could see the original shape of the wood. So decided to let the fire burn down to less coals before reloading, so I'd be loading on a smaller bed of coals and get a slower burning fire for the night. Sat down with a book, and next thing I knew it was 4:45 AM, stove and double wall flue temps both about 100, stove still good and warm to the touch and radiating heat, room temp down to 63.
Opened the bypass and air, raked the ashes away from the front, noted the only coals were about 2 cups of very small coals in the back of the stove, Everything else powder white ash. Raked the few coals to the front, ash to the front as well, loaded a flat piece of very dry maple, cut off the outside of a log, 5" on bark side, but only about 2 inches deep, on top of the coals, then about 5 2" diameter unsplit dogwood in the back of the firebox, then a bunch of 1 inch dogwood branches...for maybe a 1/3 fill of the firebox. Shut the door and walked away. In well under 5 minutes had good flames in the firebox, within 10 minutes a good fully engaged fire, turned the air down to about 1/8. Five minutes later, lots and lots of flames, stove top temp 150, but double wall flue 150. Engaged cat, closed air completely, within a few minutes down to cat flames and stovetop 300, flue 170. 6:30 or so now, stovetop 350, beautiful, very active fire in the firebox, both cat and secondary burn (sometimes both at once, sometimes jumps between the two) lots of flames, air completely closed. Room is 69 and climbing, rest of the home is heating up. Have over 1400 square feet each floor, three stories, though top floor is under steep roof, with huge shed dormer (20 feet long), so much less area to heat on the third floor. Point being, there are a lot of cubic feet of cold air for the stove to heat initially when I start at 50, so the first floor temps are not rising with a very small fire, as much as they would had the fire been burning in a warm home....
I'm impressed, though, with enough coals after 12 hours to light right up, even after a very small fire intended to just establish a coal bed....
Unpacked, installed new inconal screen on my Woodstock Progress Hybrid, lit a fire about 5 PM. Before lighting the fire, noticed the draft was really something in the flue...couldn't miss the sound.
Used a homemade firestarter, some dry, small dimension unsplit dogwood, ditto sugar maple.
Loaded the stove maybe 1/6 full....not very much wood. Intention to burn down to just coals, then load about 1/2 with some splits and go to bed....very tired after two days with no sleep, and a long drive.
Life happens, tied up with family stuff til about 11 PM, house 68 degrees. Noted the wood was in coals, but large coals, still could see the original shape of the wood. So decided to let the fire burn down to less coals before reloading, so I'd be loading on a smaller bed of coals and get a slower burning fire for the night. Sat down with a book, and next thing I knew it was 4:45 AM, stove and double wall flue temps both about 100, stove still good and warm to the touch and radiating heat, room temp down to 63.
Opened the bypass and air, raked the ashes away from the front, noted the only coals were about 2 cups of very small coals in the back of the stove, Everything else powder white ash. Raked the few coals to the front, ash to the front as well, loaded a flat piece of very dry maple, cut off the outside of a log, 5" on bark side, but only about 2 inches deep, on top of the coals, then about 5 2" diameter unsplit dogwood in the back of the firebox, then a bunch of 1 inch dogwood branches...for maybe a 1/3 fill of the firebox. Shut the door and walked away. In well under 5 minutes had good flames in the firebox, within 10 minutes a good fully engaged fire, turned the air down to about 1/8. Five minutes later, lots and lots of flames, stove top temp 150, but double wall flue 150. Engaged cat, closed air completely, within a few minutes down to cat flames and stovetop 300, flue 170. 6:30 or so now, stovetop 350, beautiful, very active fire in the firebox, both cat and secondary burn (sometimes both at once, sometimes jumps between the two) lots of flames, air completely closed. Room is 69 and climbing, rest of the home is heating up. Have over 1400 square feet each floor, three stories, though top floor is under steep roof, with huge shed dormer (20 feet long), so much less area to heat on the third floor. Point being, there are a lot of cubic feet of cold air for the stove to heat initially when I start at 50, so the first floor temps are not rising with a very small fire, as much as they would had the fire been burning in a warm home....
I'm impressed, though, with enough coals after 12 hours to light right up, even after a very small fire intended to just establish a coal bed....
