During this time of year I find myself running a small fire in the morning just to bump the internal house temp a couple degrees. If have chunks, uglies and small stuff for this job, and I usually try to load only enough that by the time the stove gets to operational temp the fire is at coaling stage and will die out fairly quickly. In essence, just heating the stove up and letting the fire die. I know there are others on the board that do this as well.
Now for the observation. Even if the fire has virtually died off, closing the primary air control helps maintain the stove temp. Seems obvious enough...restricting the cool air entering the stove and up the stack is less cooling of the stove body. Or on the flip side - maybe you loaded a bit more fuel than needed and want to cool the stove body a little quicker. Leave the primary open (obviously monitoring temps). I guess my brain has never formally put this into thought and action before now (I can be a bit aloof on occasion
). Anyhow, just sharing and maybe it will work for you...
Now for the observation. Even if the fire has virtually died off, closing the primary air control helps maintain the stove temp. Seems obvious enough...restricting the cool air entering the stove and up the stack is less cooling of the stove body. Or on the flip side - maybe you loaded a bit more fuel than needed and want to cool the stove body a little quicker. Leave the primary open (obviously monitoring temps). I guess my brain has never formally put this into thought and action before now (I can be a bit aloof on occasion
). Anyhow, just sharing and maybe it will work for you...
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