What can I get away with to heat a big house?

[georgepds]

In Alaska the same article states nothing dries in the winter. I suspect it is the same here in the northeast. My wood is covered by an impervious tarp, and, usually, a foot or two of snow or ice. In February, Where the tarp parts I have to pound the iced wood out with a mallet. Hard to see how anything would dry more under those conditions

 

[heavy hammer]

Look at kuma, I have a free standing sequoia in my basement. As others have said keep it fun and as additional heat nothing worse than trying to feed a stove a 1am to keep the house warm when it's -3 out, let the furnace work too. I have two stoves to feed but it's something we like the wood heat. If I had to depend on it to heat my house 24/7 I'm sure the fun would be gone.

 

[georgepds]

I depend on it, it's not so bad. It's a lot better since I got the wph and it burns all night

Truth be told, a couple of years back I put in 2 Fujitsu 12kbtu heat pumps. They do take the chill off when my attention wanders, but it's mostly the wood stove

You get into a rhythm: seasonal,weekly, daily

 

[bholler]

Never heard of the moisture meter thing or saw one used by anyone heating with firewood for decades. Only on this site is there that need to check splits for seasoning. The need for apps or devices to play with ?
on one of the other firewood blogs there is a technique for how to tell when your wood is ready. It is what most of us have done for years without much thought..
2 spits banged together should sound 'ringing' not a thud.
Clear cracks in the ends of splits in your woodpile.
The splits will weather to a gray.
Check the split weights---remember when you split them green what they weighed then compared to seasoned?
And....you know the wood ain't ready when it sizzles. Been there.
You actually have the time to check every split for the right level of moisture ?

Most long time burners dont use one and no one tests every split. But it is a very good tool for new burners because the majority of the problems start with wood that is not dry enough. That is why we carry one one our van. When someone is having problems we test their wood and it is usually wet. Once you burn for a while you learn to tell if wood is dry enough and you dont need one. I still test samples because i have a meter and i can but i really dont need to anymore.

 

[Ashful]

Look at kuma, I have a free standing sequoia in my basement. As others have said keep it fun and as additional heat nothing worse than trying to feed a stove a 1am to keep the house warm when it's -3 out, let the furnace work too. I have two stoves to feed but it's something we like the wood heat. If I had to depend on it to heat my house 24/7 I'm sure the fun would be gone.

Two stoves, one of them a Kuma, and you still use the furnace to keep up? Don’t tell @Cast Iron, or he will accuse you of abusing your servants.

 

[heavy hammer]

The furnace is more for our two daughters rooms that are over our garage. This is going to sound horrible but my wife doesn't like the girls sleeping if their rooms that are cold, and to her cold is below 74 or so. We keep our house very warm, 75-76. I love the heat in the winter a warm house is great. But I can't figure it out if the house is 76 in the winter it's cold, but this time of year she wants the air conditioning at like 73-72. I will never understand it, 75 is my perfect temp but it's not worth the fight. If I spend a couple hundred bucks in the winter to heat a couple bedrooms, and the wife and little girls are happy it's worth it. On that same note my mother in law watches our younger daughter when my wife works and we showed her how to use the summit upstairs. The upstairs can be 80+ and she is sitting there under a blanket feeding that stove like there is no tomorrow. Nothing better than opening a window in January, when it's single digits out to cool the house down, but once again not worth the fight. She does help us out a lot and she loves the wood heat.

 

[begreen]

LOL, sounds like my next door neighbor's in-laws. They come up and sit in the living room at 80º, next to the woodstove, in heavy sweaters while the family escapes to the far corners of the house where it's cooler.

I'd be uncomfortable with a bedroom temp that warm in winter. It doesn't seem healthy. The air has to be desert dry in there. My mom would leave our bedroom windows open a crack in all but the coldest weather. Even today our winter bedroom temp is around 65º.

 

[heavy hammer]

It can get dry we run a humidifier a lot in the winter. I agree sometimes it is to much, but she feels the girls are cold. I'll never figure it out, it's just easier to roll with it. like I said this time of year I like it warm, nothing worse than a cold house from the air being on, but not about to go there. You know what they say if she is happy you are happy.

 

[heavy hammer]

What I do find funny is I have that sequoia in my basement, my two labs stay in the basement. They will sleep in front of that thing all day in the winter when not outside. I can't figure it out when that stove is cranking you can barley stand in front of it with that natural blower built it. The heat is a lot, but some how they do it.

 

[Ashful]

I had a lab growing up, who used to lay right on the hearth extension of our largest open fireplace. You’d go to pet that dog, and just about burn your hand on her side. I’d swear she was within minutes of going up in flames, sometimes.

It’s just one of the factors that makes dogs so entertaining, IMO.

 

[BKVP]

Don't have to understand French!

 

[begreen]

Our cat loves our stove so much he sits in front of it wistfully when it's not burning. When it is heating he often can be found under the ashlip and frequently rubs up affectionately against it in spite of the stove being in full heating mode. A couple times a year the end of his tail gets singed as he waves it too close to the door glass. If it weren't for the cast iron jacket he would singe a lot more than just the tail tip.

 

[Highbeam]

For the kids' rooms when they were babies we used a programmable thermostat on the electric wall heaters. Our insulation was a lot worse back then and the non-cat stoves couldn't burn long enough to keep those back rooms warm enough for infants overnight. Then, we moved to electric blankets which really are a nice thing for all of us. Even just to preheat our beds and avoid the cold shock before the body heat takes over. It's extra nice to slide into a preheated bed.

Due to home construction and physics of wood heat, our central stove room stays at about 75 and the bedrooms at 65. We've really grown to like the cooler bedrooms.

 

[Cast Iron]

Don't have to understand French!

Chien urine sur la cheminée Philly aussi.....not on BK stoves.