What does "my stove heats my house" mean to you?

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trguitar

Feeling the Heat
Dec 2, 2011
265
Harvard, MA
We all write this in posts, but I think it means different things to each of us.

Here's what it means to me.
  1. Every room on the first floor is at least 70, with the stove room being much higher (80s).
  2. Upstairs (bedrooms) are at least 65, but usually at least 68.
  3. The stove can do the above into the single digits by itself without additional help (except from another stove!)
If the stove and setup can't at least satisfy the above criteria, it is not heating the house. It may be adding heat to the house, but it is not "heating the house."

What does it mean to you?
 
It means I can heat the house with the central fan going and keep it around 76 degrees, and if the power goes out I can keep the living/family room warm into the upper 60s.
 
It means I can keep my house around 70 - 75 with out paying for stupidly expensive electric heat.
 
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I can heat my house, keep it at a comfortable temp (around 70), and not use any additional source for heat....
 
I can heat my house, keep it at a comfortable temp (around 70), and not use any additional source for heat....
+1. Live with no other heat source, year round.
 
It means I can keep the house comfortable without turning on electric baseboard heat. House temps drop about 5 degrees from the room stove is in and the bedrooms are usually between 60-65 which makes for good sleeping.
 
When I say my stove heats my home I mean to say 95% of the time it provides the heat to the home.

The remaining 5% the oil boiler kicks on since either a) my wife has turned up the thermostat upstairs in the bedrooms on a cold evening, b) we're having a long run of single digit to sub-zero temps and either the stove needs a little extra help (especially in the early morning after running for several hours) or I've purposefully run the boiler to bring some heat into the crawl space/basement to prevent frozen pipes or c) I've gone away on a vacation or simply been out of the house all day long and the oil boiler has kicked on at 60 degrees so I don't come back to a frigid home.

I've never had any issues by admitting that I use the boiler as a back-up heat source.
 
The forced hot air gas furnance never comes on when we are home.
 
For us it means the Buck does the work of keeping the house as warm as possible. It means we get to play in the woods with chain saws, splitters, and tractors. This benefits us health wise. The satisfaction of a full wood shed is interest paid for the electrical savings. Who wants to hear a heat pump run?
 
I think an addition to the answers would be what are your outside temps to be able to achieve the temp inside and maybe even the size of the house. Here in Northern VT, during the dead of winter our temps outside can struggle to make 20 in a normal winter (which we havent had the last couple). When this goes on for days, its all we can do to get the rooms near the stove room up to 65-70*. When temps are a little higher, we can be comfortable on the main floor and cool upstairs which is how we like it to sleep. Our high temp Saturday was 6* and the warmest place in the house was 67 and that was keeping the stove going strong and reloading often. Contrast that to today and tomorrow where the temps will be 40s-50s and we do a fire in the morning before work and wont reload again until before bed and the house will be cozy. This weekend they are saying highs in the teens again so will be hanging with the stove again. We have a large log cabin so asking the single stove to take care of it is asking alot but it helps keep the oil usage down.
 
For me (and I'll never really claim that it actually heats my house because it wouldn't keep the bedrooms comfy), it means keeping my basement warm (which is the primary goal) and supplementing the NG boiler for the upstairs. For the main living area (family room, dining room, kitchen), it does pretty well at this.

Temperature wise, depending on how cold it is outside, this means the basement is anywhere between 72-83 and the main living area is between 69-71.
 
No need for supplemental heat!
 
For me its being comfortable. I cant take the house past 74. It means i heat my home with just the stove day and night with out any other heat source. I keep the house at like 70 to 72. My bedroom is like 2 degrees cooler then the rest of the house, sometimes i need to close the door to keep it cool. I am lucky my floor plan is very open. The smallest opening from the dining room, kitchen, and living room is 16 feet. I have an air circulation system that moves heat from the living room to the kids bedrooms and my master bathroom when it gets into the teens, if need be. Moving to wood heat has been one of the best things for us. My home has never felt so warm, heated so evenly. Its really the best thing ever.
 
I am standalone wood heat so as long as we have enough wood cut the house will be as warm as we desire. We are in the south so single digit temps for days on end is not a reality here, Lows near 30 and highs near 50 are the norm most winter days. I shoulder burn all winter adjusting my fire size to the forecasted night time lows.
 
As others have said, keeping the house comfortable without kicking any additional heat on. My parents do this, their electric baseboards haven't been on in years. Above about 20 degrees, I only need a baseboard on at night in the bedroom and through the day for the dog upstairs. Dips into the teens means I need some support from the baseboards on the first floor (basement stove).

I hope to be able to heat the whole house with the install of a ZC fireplace in the living room this spring/summer. I'll still have the basement stove in case I need it (power outage, very cold temps, using g the basement, etc...)
 
To me that means I save enough on the heating oil bill to pay for all the wood I am burning and actually pay myself some other funny money in oil savings to cover the time I spend splitting - and have that money in my pocket to buy things for my boat.

And the house warm enough the wife wears her better nightie by default.
 
To me it means that the heat pump quit in the 90s and I never got it fixed so we don't freeze to death since the stove heats the house.
 
To me its keeping my just over 3k sq ft comfortable. That would be 70-72 in all areas of the upstairs, heating from the basement. I can do it effectively with certain fans running in certain places depending on temps, and when it is windy or really cold the central fan circulating as well seems to do the trick to balance the heat. "Heating my home" is being comfy but not being a slave to the stove. I don't mind the NG furnace kicking in if it had too when it gets real cold. When it comes to being a slave it looses its appeal and fun.
 
keeping the house warmer for way cheaper and not having to worry about the electric going out in the winter.