When it become too cold to keep up...
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ryanm527 said:
Wow! Something aint right if your burning through 30 splits per day, takes me 3 days to burn that much. I suggest you start a new thread and let some other Mansfield burners troubleshoot your situation.
Dairyman
Minister of Fire
Todd said:
I'm in the same boat as Ryan, yesterday was a challenge to keep the house warm. I'm pretty sure I have an insulation problem along with borderline wood and still learning the stove. I only have wood heat so I better learn fast! I had no problems keeping the house warm with the old smoke dragon down to -5 last year.
Mine seems to be below 30 lately. Above that and I don't really struggle at all, below that and I have to use the furnace some. When I first got this stove it didn't seem like there was a tipping point, heat output was so consistent that I could keep it warm in the teens pretty easy.. Maybe I'll see those days again soon!
Jason
Jason
oldspark said:
Should be here in a couple days. No thawing yesterday or today but not real cold at night yet. Actually, we've be pleased if you keep the real cold out there.
Todd said:
+1 - the 20's are a breeze to maintain warm temps in my 3000sqft - with only the Manny. That's three loads per day at about 10 splits per load (of very dry wood). Can you (both) explain your setups and house layout? I think a new thread would be a good idea here, as Todd suggested. Cheers!
Mid 20's and below and my stove cant keep up. Of course my insulation and airsealing is no where near up to par. I can almost feel a breeze from the cold air rushing toward the stove.
oldspark said:
+1
North wind over 30 mph, 0° & colder.
Run on high & sometime the furnace still kicks on once in a while, to keep the house 68°.
I still know I'm saving allot on my energy bills, furnace would be on constant with out the wood stove.
Wow, this is interesting! I have a tiny stove heating just the first floor of my 1,300 sq house and I have no worries until it gets down to single digits outside. Yeah, I have to be careful about my choice of wood when it gets into the low 20s (no ash or even maple, just beech, black birch, other high-BTU stuff) and more care to reload at exactly the right time. Even those occasional double-digit-below-zero nights, my main room is still somewhere in the 60s as long as the fire's going. It's a super-short burn cycle, though, so I do end up with the boiler running for some hours overnight when it's well below freezing outside. (I have it set to 55). My house is a 175-yo farmhouse with thick walls, storm windows, lotsa cracks and crevices I haven't been able to get at to fill up, and decent but less than A++ insulation.
My guess is the folks a lot further south have trouble at 20 with much bigger stoves than mine mostly because of less serious insulation/construction than even old northern homes have always had.
My guess is the folks a lot further south have trouble at 20 with much bigger stoves than mine mostly because of less serious insulation/construction than even old northern homes have always had.
I really like the reduced wood consumption (even though I have unlimited supply) and the long burn times. But I'm no way convinced about the warmer thing.
KaptJaq
Minister of Fire
My insert does well until the highs for the day are below freezing. During the days it gets a little ahead, at night it falls behind a little. Once the highs are below 32F (0c) it needs some help from from the stove downstairs. If it is only going to be a day or two with highs below freezing then I burn wood in both. If it is going to be an extended cold spell I burn coal in the downstairs stove. Once both stoves are burning I'm good for whatever mother nature throws at us.
KaptJaq
KaptJaq
Hasn't gotten cold enough here that my stove couldn't keep up, only got down to -20* though. 20s-30s it's been lately so I only put 2-4 splits as not to overheat the house.
When it get well below zero if I want to keep the living room/kitchen/dining room area comfortable, lets say 75*, the back of the house will be only in the mid-upper 60s... Just can;t flow the air well enough.
Sounds like a few of you guys are heating screen houses if it's hard to keep the place warm at 20* outside!
When it get well below zero if I want to keep the living room/kitchen/dining room area comfortable, lets say 75*, the back of the house will be only in the mid-upper 60s... Just can;t flow the air well enough.
Sounds like a few of you guys are heating screen houses if it's hard to keep the place warm at 20* outside!
Wow....Quite a few interesting comments there, just glad to feel that I'm not alone in that boat. However, as far as my setup: I'm adding as I do the individual rooms. The living room and Dining room got the first dibs. While the Bed rooms & Bath are to follow ( thats where it gets cold at). Basically the floor plan is a Figure "H" that I heat, with the stove just outside of the center connecting line. I'm learned to blow the cold air into the warm air to get it to warm up the hall way. The NC-13 was the size that would fit in the space allowed, would have loved the NC30 but the clearance killed me. Actually this stove fits the bill quite well. I'm still trying to control the amount the central unit runs, but knowing that its always there as a back up. Yes, I started to pull the good wood out of the pile (hedge and Hard maple).
But like its about 28 degrees right now, the NC-13 is cruising and its nicely setting about 75 degrees in the living room. I dont know its just kinda of interesting how a few degrees at these temperatures make all the world of a difference.
But like its about 28 degrees right now, the NC-13 is cruising and its nicely setting about 75 degrees in the living room. I dont know its just kinda of interesting how a few degrees at these temperatures make all the world of a difference.
Dairyman
Minister of Fire
My house is an converted beach bungalow so it is real hard to keep temps up. I used to struggle to keep the house warm when it dropped below freezing when I had a smaller insert. Last January I upgraded to the Osburn 2400. The same week I installed the Oz we had the coldest temps i can remember. We hit 10* as a high and a low below 0. I was so happy that we didn't have to turn the heat on at all to keep the house above 68*(of course warmer in the livingroom) I'm pretty sure that long island temps are no match for this beast.
The Fireview keeps our drafty 1800 sqft comfortable until around 30°. At that point we need the furnace to keep the far end of the main floor warm, or do some baking in the kitchen. I have two seperate zones of heat upstairs that almost never turn on. A second small stove in the cold end of the house would probably allow us to keep the heat off all winter. Something that has about the same output as 400° oven.
Gosh, this thread has been so enlightening! I had let myself get intimidated by all the talk of long burn times and was letting the stove cool down too much before reloading. I had a thick bed of coals but the temp was dropping down to about 250/300 degrees. It was topping out at about 450/500 degrees burning 1 1/2 year old ash, cherry and some box elder chunks and uglies. I can barely palm the majority of the splits so there is a lot of wasted space in the large firebox. Time to start resplitting some so I can repack tighter and go for higher temps.
The stove is on the west outside wall and the floor plan sucks for heat transfer. Now I know to get the stove top temp up in the 600 + range and just reload sooner to forestall the fuel oil furnace from kicking in. Reloading sooner will help me get to bed earlier. I hate staying up till midnight because I was reloading at 11:00.
Thanks to all for such great info! It sure helps the learning curve to have you folks here.
The stove is on the west outside wall and the floor plan sucks for heat transfer. Now I know to get the stove top temp up in the 600 + range and just reload sooner to forestall the fuel oil furnace from kicking in. Reloading sooner will help me get to bed earlier. I hate staying up till midnight because I was reloading at 11:00.
Thanks to all for such great info! It sure helps the learning curve to have you folks here.
When it is very cold we reload 4 or even 5 times a day compared to 2 or 3 now. My Fireview is a bit underpowered for the draftiness of the house.
My old insert has always heated my house just fine as long as I am around enough to feed it. When there is a fire going in my old stove (insert) it will crank out serious heat. I am really enjoying having the second stove though. I don't have to fight it as much when it gets really cold. Single digits and below is where I started to have to work pretty hard at it. I think it will be different this year......is so far.
If I had to put wood in teh stove 4-5 times a day I would have a cold house quite often! I load the stove once or twice a day at most.
I think you guys have a better understanding of insulation are air sealing up there than most builders do down here. You have to.
No idea yet since it's a new stove this season and we've only had lows in the Mid 20's. Lately I've been loading a full load between 7-9 pm and in the morning before work(7am) I put what I can fit in the stove.(about 4-5 average sized splits) When I can start burning the stove hotter I hope to be able to have two full loads a day. I figure once we have days with highs in the single digits I'll be loading full in the morning/evening and a small load after work.
Another piece of info that may be helpful for others to compare are the inside temps people are allowing their furnace to turn on at. I set mine at 60 and very rarely will it get that cold in here even with the old stove. With the BK this year we've never been below 70 but as I said it hasn't been cold yet. This weekend looks a little more chilly with lows in the high teens/low 20's so we'll see how it goes.
Another piece of info that may be helpful for others to compare are the inside temps people are allowing their furnace to turn on at. I set mine at 60 and very rarely will it get that cold in here even with the old stove. With the BK this year we've never been below 70 but as I said it hasn't been cold yet. This weekend looks a little more chilly with lows in the high teens/low 20's so we'll see how it goes.
Interesting thread...
Over here Ive got an Encore 2550 on the ground floor of a 1400ft2 200 year old Cape.
The past couple years we couldn't light the stove unless the daytime highs were under 50F, and didn't have any trouble till it got down to the single digits. Then we might need to run a short cycle of the gas boiler in the morning to help even out the heat while we get the morning load burning.
This year we did a lot of insulation and air sealing work and I'm relearning the stove. Overheated the place a couple times. Last night the low was in the low 30s so I put 4 big splits in and dampened it down all the way.... normally the stove would slow way down and just hold the living room around 74-75 for a few hours before slowly dipping overnight to the high 60s by morning. This time as I was going to bed the temp in the house was still rising... I think it hit 78, and was at something like 74 when we got up in the morning.
Over here Ive got an Encore 2550 on the ground floor of a 1400ft2 200 year old Cape.
The past couple years we couldn't light the stove unless the daytime highs were under 50F, and didn't have any trouble till it got down to the single digits. Then we might need to run a short cycle of the gas boiler in the morning to help even out the heat while we get the morning load burning.
This year we did a lot of insulation and air sealing work and I'm relearning the stove. Overheated the place a couple times. Last night the low was in the low 30s so I put 4 big splits in and dampened it down all the way.... normally the stove would slow way down and just hold the living room around 74-75 for a few hours before slowly dipping overnight to the high 60s by morning. This time as I was going to bed the temp in the house was still rising... I think it hit 78, and was at something like 74 when we got up in the morning.
I'll take a few pics of what I've got going on and start another thread as requested. I think in my case, as someone else had stated it's a combination of the house being difficult to keep warm, so/so quality wood, and still being fairly new to wood stove operation.
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