dialed down to low again for the day - yesterday this kept the house at 17*C which was good enough.
Yikes! I would need a few extra layers at least to survive low 60s, sitting at the computer generating no body heat.
in Mac’s case (he will correct me if I am wrong), he is pushing the Princess to its limits and only getting the stove room temp to 20*C.
He's apparently under-stoved when it gets cold out. By EPA high-output numbers, the Ashford is a notch lower than the Princess, which is a notch lower than the King, which is a couple notches lower than the Buck 91 I had at my MIL's house. When that thing is firing, you can't hold your hand where the heat blows out, for more than two seconds. The Ws hybrids are ranked at the top of the charts for high-end heat. The Ashford is given about the same high-output numbers as my Dutchwest 2460 Small Convection, which ain't a lot I can tell ya.
The nc30 can make heat! Gobbles up wood like mad though
I'm perplexed as to why it doesn't rate better for high end on the EPA list? They show it about the same as the lowly Ashford. Maybe their BTU/hr. figures are averaged over the
entire load, at the high burn rate, or whichever of the four burn rates they do for each stove? Or maybe they had a bad test, for some other reason? Hmmm..
That brings up another question; In the EPA tests, are free-standing stoves tested with the optional blowers installed? That would definitely yield a higher BTU/hr. output, based on what I've seen with the blower on my Dutchwest 2460, vs. uninstalled. The blower was the difference here between keeping up and not keeping up when it got cold and windy out.
it was definitely colder than we like, especially in the far side of the house where we sleep. had my little hood on in my pjs. and when it's this cold, we definitely notice some of the drafts that we have
Get some fleece blankets and a down comforter. We let our bedroom goes down into the low 60's to concentrate more heat in the main room, but it's toasty out there after about 5 minutes under the covers.
If you have an IR thermometer gun, walk around the house when it's cold and windy out, find out where your worst air leaks are and work on those over the summer.
Does the BK/Ashford 25 have an automatic blower that turns on when the stove comes up to temp?
No it does not. Unless they changed it for the gen 2s.
My 2012 princess has a fan system from bk that turns off and on with temperature automatically. New models lost that feature.
What? I figured that only low-end stoves wouldn't be equipped with a variable speed auto-blower like the Buck 91 had.
Why in the world would one remove that feature? Should have read up more on the Ashford 25. I would have went with a different model, or something that had this feature.
It's hard not to get swept up in the moment, and buy before you have done much research. I bought my stove in a rush as well, to beat the deadline on the federal tax rebate. I got lucky, and ended up liking most things about the stove I grabbed.
Ashful said:
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This is the way I run my house, since i̶t̶’̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶o̶ ̶l̶a̶r̶g̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶l̶e̶ ̶e̶n̶t̶i̶r̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶w̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶s̶t̶o̶v̶e̶s̶ I bought little stoves because Kings clash with my doilies.
To each, his own, but if I'm going to the trouble involved with wood heating, I'm not messing around with the "gentleman wood-burner" approach. And like I said, you don't have to load Kings as often so that would be a bit less hassle than the 30s. You'd obviously be hauling more wood with my approach though, and he said he doesn't have time..the time he spends posting notwithstanding.
if you car was sitting in the driveway with a flat tire, I suppose you would wait till you needed to go some where to think about fixing it.
Yes I would, if it was -40 out.
Last post here for a little while, I need a break from this, actually feel a little emotional
Ah cheeze, crank up the furnace, ya tightwad! Or your gas cook stove at least. A few generations back, they froze their butts off all winter long, whether they were inside or out!
why are BKs so popular in Alaska?
i can unequivically say (but not spell) that a BK burns soft, light woods better than a non-cat. lots of spruce and such up there....i have a choice here in MD, and get wood of all BTU's and densities but i actually really like the way lighter wood burns. easier to get, easier to split, dries quicker.
In AK, I bet they pay a lot more attention to insulation and air-sealing than most of us do. If your place is tight enough you can heat it with a candle.
Agreed, it's nice to have a bunch of lower-output woods on hand, Red Maple, Black Cherry etc. Another feature is that they start quicker in a cold stove. You don't want to be trying to start a load of Black Locust or White Oak with a couple chunks of SuperCedar.
Red Oak is a good middle of the pack wood for all-around utility.
