10 degrees and can't keep up....

[TTigano]

Pretty cold around here the past few days.... Can't really keep up with the temps....I'm lucky to get the stove room to 68.... I even bought a ton of the canawick bricks to help the less than ideal wood supply. I really wish I went with a free standing stove rather than an insert..... Better luck next time.

 

[EvilRoySlade]

I'm running an insert also, it's like bringing a Prius to a drag race. I do like it but wish I had the layout for a real stove.

 

[milleo]

Pretty cold around here the past few days.... Can't really keep up with the temps....I'm lucky to get the stove room to 68.... I even bought a ton of the canawick bricks to help the less than ideal wood supply. I really wish I went with a free standing stove rather than an insert..... Better luck next time.

Cheer up things will get better, the temp. will be warmer real soon and next year you hopefully will have drier wood. Alot of people are struggling to keep warm right now.

 

[mfglickman]

See my post from yesterday. Seems there are plenty of us feeling like we have not quite got it yet. I'm running some oil in this cold too but far less than if I did not have the wood heat...

Anyway, it's not just you, if that helps...

 

[Hearth Mistress]

I've got a free standing burning kiln dried hardwoods, even oak and I'm fighting to stay at 70. It's 11 degrees, wind chills near 0 (not helping matters as we live in a old drafty old bank barn)

I keep telling myself it will be 50 next week and i won't have to try so hard. It just KILLS me doing all this work css all the time and I'm still cold! Even when the oil furnace kicks in overnight, that 68 ain't no where near the hot heat of woodstove 68

 

[lopiliberty]

It been cold here to but I love it. Warmest since Monday was 22 and the coldest was 7 and my house has not dropped below 80. 10 outside now and 90 in here. Looks like next week back to the middle 50s again and that mean starting a fire letting it go out, starting a fire letting it go out, ect. Thought we was done with all that kind of weather? Oh well it will give me a change to clean out the stove good.

 

[begreen]

Often in this case, it's not the stove, it's the house. I feel for you folks. These cold snaps get old quickly.

 

[NextEndeavor]

5 degree low last three nights ..... No problem here with this insert. Right now 77 in hallway around the corner out of site of stove. I do fill it to 3/4 though and go to 700 before backing off the air to level out around 550 until coaling stage. Definitely use more wood this week.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

Oh, it's definitely my house, no doubt, draft city, stone walls, old construction, need I say more.

My kitchen is attached to my living room, where the stove is, it's 48 in there and so drafty thanks to a crappy build job in the 30's, just drywall, no insulation, all exterior walls - you'd swear a window was open. If you stand in front of my cabinet drawers, you can feel the breeze between the slats. We are getting new roof and siding in a few weeks thanks to Sandy damage so the draft will eventually be fixed.

However, while it was $40, I bought a vornado whole room circulation fan, best purchase I've made in a long time (other than my fiskars x27). It's small like a desk fan, with a fully adjustable head, but I put it on the floor of the kitchen doorway and that sucker moves air thru my house literally like a tornado. It has helped move the cold air from the kitchen into the living room to get warmed by the stove and move upstairs. Up there the ceiling fan pushed the air back down so we FINALLY have even temps, for the most part throughout the house, within a few degrees. I have a big heavy curtain hanging in the doorway between the kitchen and living room, if I block off the kitchen, it stays 48. Stove crankin and fan on, its 66-68 in about 30 minutes. If you also have this issue, check it out, they play a video at Bed, Bath, Beyond, it sucked me right in but glad we have it now.

 

[Ashful]

Often, begreen, but apparently not in my case. Here, it was the operator! I finally got my head out of my posterior, and started properly STUFFING my stoves, starting with last-night's overnight load. Things have been much warmer, since.

A stove capable of taking 22" splits, filled to it's max height and depth with 16" splits, is still only 70% full. I'm filling that remaining space with oak and walnut shorties, now.

 

[Ashful]

My kitchen is attached to my living room, where the stove is, it's 48 in there and so drafty thanks to a crappy build job in the 30's, just drywall, no insulation, all exterior walls - you'd swear a window was open. If you stand in front of my cabinet drawers, you can feel the breeze between the slats. We are getting new roof and siding in a few weeks thanks to Sandy damage so the draft will eventually be fixed.

Heh... our kitchens must have been built by the same guy. We get some crazy drafts out of our kitchen cupboards, etc. This is an addition built onto the house in 1894, and I suspect it's completely uninsulated balloon framing. The exterior is worse than the interior, so I suspect we'll be tearing off the stucco and doing all the insulation from the outside.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

Heh... our kitchens must have been built by the same guy. We get some crazy drafts out of our kitchen cupboards, etc. This is an addition built onto the house in 1894, and I suspect it's completely uninsulated balloon framing. The exterior is worse than the interior, so I suspect we'll be tearing off the stucco and doing all the insulation from the outside.

That's funny, I never knew how bad it was until I used an IR gun and measured the floor. There is no foundation, it's an 1860’s bank barn, it's just dirt under the floor boards, even where the kitchen addition is which also draft up! We have asbestos shingle siding so I'm REALLY glad enough of it got damaged in Sandy to tear it all off on the insurance's dime, not mine. We are adding tyvek wrap and foam insulation so that should help everywhere. For now, it blows my mind how well that little fan works!

 

[weatherguy]

My stove struggles once it gets below 15 degrees, its a newer house I had built and well insulated, my stove just isnt big enough for this size house on these cold nights, that said Im happy with it, my goal was to lop off 50% of my oil usage and Ive been averaging 75% so if the furnace needs to kick on now and then its no big deal. Its still much more comfortable in here all winter long than it ever was running just the furnace no matter how much it ran.

 

[ChadD]

My insert is struggling to keep it at 67 but without the insert and burning oil my thermostat would be set at 59 so I can't really complain!

 

[scottgen20]

Same boat as most of you guys.. If it were in the upper 30's, I'd be at a toasty 75, at the moment it's 10F outside and I'm at 69 in the stove room and in the low 60's for the rest of the house. Can't complain, it's a small and drafty 1750's log house and I'm thankful that the central heat is not running for hours on end. It's set at 66F and hasnt been on since yesterday while I was at work.

 

[nate379]

Dealt with that mess when I lived in a 1900s era house in Idaho. I realized it was pretty bad when one day I grabbed the bottle of Windex from under the sink and it was slush!

Heh... our kitchens must have been built by the same guy. We get some crazy drafts out of our kitchen cupboards, etc. This is an addition built onto the house in 1894, and I suspect it's completely uninsulated balloon framing. The exterior is worse than the interior, so I suspect we'll be tearing off the stucco and doing all the insulation from the outside.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Often in this case, it's not the stove, it's the house. I feel for you folks. These cold snaps get old quickly.

Damn right. My house is middling OK, but the little Tribute just can't cope with single digits and below like we've had for the past few days. I've had to resort to the oil burner in the basement, which always feels to me like it's burning dollar bills by the fistful down there.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Heh... our kitchens must have been built by the same guy. We get some crazy drafts out of our kitchen cupboards, etc. This is an addition built onto the house in 1894, and I suspect it's completely uninsulated balloon framing. The exterior is worse than the interior, so I suspect we'll be tearing off the stucco and doing all the insulation from the outside.

My house is around 1850, and the extension that contains the kitchen put on around 1900, and same thing. The cabinets, I think, were put there to compensate for the thin walls and of course lack of insulation. The advantage is a vast expansion of, in effect, refrigerator space, but man, the blast of cold when you open a cabinet door is fearsome. The main part of the house was built with thick walls, 12-inches thick on two of them. But that thin-walled extension, 4 inches above bare earth with no foundation to speak of-- whew!

 

[gyrfalcon]

Dealt with that mess when I lived in a 1900s era house in Idaho. I realized it was pretty bad when one day I grabbed the bottle of Windex from under the sink and it was slush!

Heh. Same here. I have to keep my butter and my bread in the stove room in winter, and I'm about to add the dishwashing liquid and the olive oil...

 

[TradEddie]

OK, I admit the propane had kicked in before I got home to light the insert, but I was very pleased to see this: 80F in the stove room. The odd thing about this recent cold snap is not the overnight lows, it's those daytime highs that provide no relief.

TE

 

[velvetfoot]

"Pretty cold around here the past few days.... Can't really keep up with the temps....I'm lucky to get the stove room to 68.... I even bought a ton of the canawick bricks to help the less than ideal wood supply. I really wish I went with a free standing stove rather than an insert..... Better luck next time. "


We've managed so far-wife has been a good sport, but I don't know for how long. She has been feeding stove during day. Shooting for 70 downstairs but insert needs more attention than usual. Gets to 50's upstairs-use spot electric heat. Insert on high. Wood probably could be better - I have no idea on species identification (on to-do list), but not super light. Have fan on high all the time. There was no way I was gonna sell wife on freestander, but this one is a lot better, ie, bigger, than the Quad 2700i, and it's in a zc fireplace.

 

[Huntindog1]

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[savageactor7]

This has been the coldest 3 day period since we got the stove (-16) and the 1st time ever turning the fan on high from its constant low speed. Once we did that the heating capability resumed to be satisfactory for us...I should have held out for the next biggest stove.

Hard to believe we were reluctant to ever get a fan with this stove but it has proved it's worth. Now I'm of the opinion there an absolute necessity on these jacked stoves.

 

[bad69bird]

Could be worse you could be struggling with two stoves like me, room with freestander is great, cranking at 95* right before bed, my insert is struggling at get livingroom,kitchen, dining room, hallway area to 66 which is fine by me, finace doesnt agree

 

[ohlongarm]

Pretty cold around here the past few days.... Can't really keep up with the temps....I'm lucky to get the stove room to 68.... I even bought a ton of the canawick bricks to help the less than ideal wood supply. I really wish I went with a free standing stove rather than an insert..... Better luck next time.

Been bitter here for almost a week,house never got below 72*re-loading every 12 hours,could go longer but no need to 12 hours works perfectly.