Are you stubborn like me?

[Wolves-Lower]

The way I figure it is yes, I am stubborn.
I cut, split, stacked and built the woodshed.
That is my sweat burning in that stove.
I have taken the stand and oath of fire.
I am not going to run my furnace this year.

But wait...I am getting flanked.
The Fiancé say's, "It’s to cold in the kitchen, let’s turn on the furnace."

Unknown to her, I took the fuse out of the furnace, now it won't work.
I am playing dumb.
I have tried like heck to circulate that warm fire heat to the northern part of my house. I have done my best and that will have to do.
It is 60 in there...plenty warm.
If she wants it warmer she should bake a cake, because gosh darnit...I am stubborn and people like me!

 

[Todd]

Yes I'm stubborn like you. My furnace is off and will stay off unless go away for the weekend. Did you try a fan on the floor of the kitchen pointed towards the stove room? Maybe a small electric space heater for the kitchen?

 

[MALogger]

Get her a sweater and a nice pair of slippers. Also remind her that at other times of the 60 is a very comfortable temp.

I agree with you, you put alot of work into heating your home with wood and to run the furnace it just seems wrong!

Craig

 

[begreen]

Did you say ex-fiancé? A successful marriage is based on compromise. 60 degrees may be ok for sleeping with a good comforter, but not for working. Put a wood or pellet stove in the kitchen and keep her warm or you may be the one that will be spending cold nights.


BTW, running the furnace/boiler occaisionaly is good for keeping it in working order. The last thing you want is to have an emergency where you are called away or sick and the system stops working due to a clog or rust.

 

[carpniels]

How about one of those fancy norwegian wool sweaters? They are gorgeous, come in a cardigan style (no pulling a sweater over just combed har) and they are very thic kand warm. No way, she can complain then.

They are expensive (about $150 -300) but there are good deals on Ebay ($40-100). Most people only wear them twice a year, so they don't wear much. Plus X-mas is around the corner and most women have everything they need anyway, so this is a good, unique gift that gets you many points and gets her to stop wining. PLUS, if she complains say:" DIdn't I get you a nice warm Norwegian cardigan for X-mas? That should keep you warm!!

I got my wife one and I have not heard any complaints since.

carpniels

 

[lvfd50]

Same here. My mother always said I was a stubborn German.

 

[begreen]

What temp is your kitchen Neil?

 

[Wolves-Lower]

Did you say ex-fiancé? A successful marriage is based on compromise. 60 degrees may be ok for sleeping with a good comforter, but not for working. Put a wood or pellet stove in the kitchen and keep her warm or you may be the one that will be spending cold nights.


BTW, running the furnace/boiler occaisionaly is good for keeping it in working order. The last thing you want is to have an emergency where you are called away or sick and the system stops working due to a clog or rust.

Good advice, both parts.
Usually the kitchen is around 60.
My setup to distribute heat goes like this.
In the woodstove room, which has a cathedral ceiling, I have a duct at the peak. In the duct I placed a inline duct fan that feeds a insulated pipe (18 ft) to the kitchen, which also has a cathedral ceiling. There a ceiling fan rotates. Also I have two corner fans in the top of my long and narrow hallway that goes from my stove room to the kitchen.

I think I am resigned to a space heater.

 

[swestall]

My gal just goes over and adds a few splits to the stove. We got the NC Defiant this year, and she has given me a month to learn its ways, now she is watching and asking questions. I play dumb and answer them like she might not be getting it. Before you know it, that stove will be ripping when I come down in the AM in Feb! As for the oil man; he knows he won't be buying much but a few cups of Java with the money he makes on me....

 

[DoubleClutch]

If you have hot water baseboard heat, be careful your pipes don't freeze!

 

[begreen]

Think of it this way, as backwoods just posted. A warmer house (and kitchen) is going to mean less clothes. Keep her warm and you'll be seeing better meals and more snuggle time in front of the stove.

BTW, the losses in ducted systems often make for a net zero heat gain. Now folks are understanding why our elders didn't build houses with cathedral ceilings. This is not a temple, it's a house. Cathedral ceilings belong in cathedrals, not in kitchens. Why heat a large roof, 18 ft. above? If you went to old European church in winter, you would see that they are damn cold places. Personally, if I had a cathedral ceiling in a kitchen I would rig a temp plastic ceiling at 9 or 10 feet for the winter.

Make like a hero, bang on the ducts for a while and then put in the fuse. What you might want to consider is zoning the heating system and giving the kitchen it's own thermostat and zone. That should bring peace and comfort to you both. Best of luck. When's the marriage?

 

[Corey]

If I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times, "Dang - I must be lucky!"

The wife's typical routine when the house starts getting a little cool:

1) Look for house / garden work that needs to be done - get up and get the blood pumping

2) Put on a sweater or some heavier clothes

3) See if any cooking / baking needs to be done - Pizza, cookies, bread, muffins, etc all get the house a little warmer - something to remember in the summer time, too!

4) Light the fire (by herself)

She knows not to even look at the furnace button, the pilot is not even lit so far this year. Plus, 90% of the time I cut wood, she is along, too. I do the felling / cutting and she drags limbs away and hauls out the cut pieces. It helps me out and makes here aware of the 'sweat equity' in 'free' wood also!

 

[begreen]

You're a lucky man Corey. My wife and I are getting on in years, but she still hauls in the wood and starts the fires when it's cold and I'm not home. She's a pro chef, so I be sure, first and foremost, her kitchen is always warm.

 

[jpl1nh]

Did you say ex-fiancé? A successful marriage is based on compromise. 60 degrees may be ok for sleeping with a good comforter, but not for working. Put a wood or pellet stove in the kitchen and keep her warm or you may be the one that will be spending cold nights.


BTW, running the furnace/boiler occaisionaly is good for keeping it in working order. The last thing you want is to have an emergency where you are called away or sick and the system stops working due to a clog or rust.

Good advice, both parts.
Usually the kitchen is around 60.
My setup to distribute heat goes like this.
In the woodstove room, which has a cathedral ceiling, I have a duct at the peak. In the duct I placed a inline duct fan that feeds a insulated pipe (18 ft) to the kitchen, which also has a cathedral ceiling. There a ceiling fan rotates. Also I have two corner fans in the top of my long and narrow hallway that goes from my stove room to the kitchen.

I think I am resigned to a space heater.

Just curious what would happen if you turned the two corner fans in your hallway around and moved them down towards the floor to move the cold air from the kitchen towards the stove room so you set up a circulation pattern. Seems like right now your trying to move air only towards the kitchen with both your cieling ductwork and the fans but you have no way to move cool air out.

 

[eba1225]

Oh I am so stubborn. I am the type of stubborn that makes my wife nuts. If I know something is possible I an the type of person that keeps trying until I am able to do it. My kitchen usually runs about 62-64 as well as the 2nd floor while the room with the stove is 70-72.

 

[Wolves-Lower]

Just curious what would happen if you turned the two corner fans in your hallway around and moved them down towards the floor to move the cold air from the kitchen towards the stove room so you set up a circulation pattern. Seems like right now your trying to move air only towards the kitchen with both your cieling ductwork and the fans but you have no way to move cool air out.

I have kind of tried that, but only with a floor fan, placed in the kitchen blowing toward the woodstove.

BeGreen said,

Best of luck. When’s the marriage?

Oh I don't know, maybe in about 40 cords or so.

 

[annette]

I'm approaching this problem by thinking outside the box, or rather, the kitchen. If she can't stand the lack of heat, she needs to get out of there! I guess that means that since you think it's warm enough in there, you'll be doing the cooking, while she stays warm by bringing wood to the stove and..."monitoring the fire."

Seriously, I definitely understand not wanting to turn the furnace on, but 60 degrees isn't warm enough, especially since the areas closer to the wood stove are probably a lot warmer and the contrast is high. My kitchen doesn't get as much heat as the rest of the house, (It's around the corner from the wood stove) but frankly, I don't spend much time in there! Plus, it's not that much of a temp difference. Your removal of the furnace fuse is showing a controlling aspect to your personality that is not likely to go over well with her. She will find her own retaliation, which may be bringing in a furnace repair person and/or a huge fight with you, or she may do what my aunt does when my uncle won't allow the furnace to be run: she runs the oven all day. (They despise each other, by the way. Just a word of warning)

The wood stove is apparently meant to replace your furnace, but unless you kept your house at 60 degrees before the wood stove, your stove has not replaced it! Depending on the rates for electricity and gas/oil, running the furnace a little may increase your utility bill less than using an electric space heater: when I tried to run the furnace less and just heat the room I was in, the electric space heaters cost as much as just running the furnace more. Also, you may find the furnace’s air handling system will also move the wood stove heat around better.

I hope you two work this out. Maybe 5-minute meals will just be the norm for your winter dining! Or you could become the master of wood-stove-top cooking. Just try not to get like my aunt and uncle—that would be pretty sad.

Oh, I think the suggestion of using a fan at the floor to blow (or suck) cool air out of the kitchen should be tried. Increasing the cool air moving out may help pull warm air through that duct.

 

[begreen]

I like zoning the system best, with a high return in the kitchen if there isn't one there already. But a second stove in the kitchen could also work. Or perhaps add a wood furnace tied into the ductwork?

 

[rdrcr56]

Forget the Norwegian sweater, buy a good thick Icelandic one instead, better wool according to the wife's family.

 

[Wolves-Lower]

I'm approaching this problem by thinking outside the box, or rather, the kitchen. If she can't stand the lack of heat, she needs to get out of there! I guess that means that since you think it's warm enough in there, you'll be doing the cooking, while she stays warm by bringing wood to the stove and..."monitoring the fire."

Seriously, I definitely understand not wanting to turn the furnace on, but 60 degrees isn't warm enough, especially since the areas closer to the wood stove are probably a lot warmer and the contrast is high. My kitchen doesn't get as much heat as the rest of the house, (It's around the corner from the wood stove) but frankly, I don't spend much time in there! Plus, it's not that much of a temp difference. Your removal of the furnace fuse is showing a controlling aspect to your personality that is not likely to go over well with her. She will find her own retaliation, which may be bringing in a furnace repair person and/or a huge fight with you, or she may do what my aunt does when my uncle won't allow the furnace to be run: she runs the oven all day. (They despise each other, by the way. Just a word of warning)

The wood stove is apparently meant to replace your furnace, but unless you kept your house at 60 degrees before the wood stove, your stove has not replaced it! Depending on the rates for electricity and gas/oil, running the furnace a little may increase your utility bill less than using an electric space heater: when I tried to run the furnace less and just heat the room I was in, the electric space heaters cost as much as just running the furnace more. Also, you may find the furnace’s air handling system will also move the wood stove heat around better.

I hope you two work this out. Maybe 5-minute meals will just be the norm for your winter dining! Or you could become the master of wood-stove-top cooking. Just try not to get like my aunt and uncle—that would be pretty sad.

Oh, I think the suggestion of using a fan at the floor to blow (or suck) cool air out of the kitchen should be tried. Increasing the cool air moving out may help pull warm air through that duct.

Well as I stated I am stubborn. Good thing I am not stupid, because I am going to address the heat issue in the kitchen with either a space heater or zone heat...and yes I am a control nut as well %-P , especially when it comes to issues pertaining to my house/cabin. I will go to some anti-control therapy sessions...Happy thoughts...Happy thoughts..
Thanks all!

 

[annette]

Well, at least you're "Really Hot" -- that helps make up for a lot of issues.

 

[RedRanger]

You should seriously consider BeGreen`s comment about running the furnace occasionally to keep it in good working order. If you only use it for the occasional "boost". Then, the wood heat should keep the temp up for quite a while. We use our old oil-fired boiler for that purpose and for an over-nite setting of 60. Last year we only burned 125 gallons. Quite a modest cost considering the comfort level attained. Seems to me that to try and heat an entire house with wood, then the home has to be designed that way in the first place with that in mind. And that doesn`t appear to be case . Good luck!!

 

[bmwbj]

My "Better Half" complained about my kitchen being cold to, I told her to turn the oven and stove on and get cookin.
Holy crap, that was the wrong thing to say...LOL

:grrr:

 

[Jimbob]

^ :lol:

 

[karl]

Although I'm between wives right now. I have to agree with BeGreen on this one. If she puts up with you droping bark and wood dust on her carpet, and is willing to throw a few splits in the stove, then turn the furnace on for her. Block off all the ducts except the kitchen. Shoot put the thermostat in there so that room will be warm for her. And Anette's right. 60 is too cold in there. I live alone right now and this is my first year with a stove, but I can tell you when I do get another significant other, my goal is to hear her say it's too hot in here, so I can say,"Take some clothes off, if you're too hot."

And if you're really stuck on being hard headed then take a couple of hundred bucks you save on not running the furnace and go buy her something; and not warm clothes either.