Barely keeping up with the demand.

[Gasifier]

The Wood Gun is barely keeping up with the heat demand yesterday and today. If it is not firing with every nozzle the oil boiler kicks on for a few minutes. There is a slight wind and with these temperatures it is down right nasty out there. School delayed for two hours yesterday, and closed today. The boiler is eating through an incredible amount of wood. Glad I am not heating with oil!

 

[91LMS]

gasifier, you suppliment with the woodstove too to help the gun out in those temps?

 

[firebroad]

35 below!?!
WOW!!
And I was complaining about 1 this morning....

 

[Gasifier]

gasifier, you suppliment with the woodstove too to help the gun out in those temps?

Nope. The oil boiler kicked on for a bit this morning. Then I went and turned two of the zones down to give the Gun a chance to catch up. No need in burning oil!

 

[Gasifier]

35 below!?!
WOW!!
And I was complaining about 1 this morning....

That is actually 25 below! But the wind chill in the area was closer to 40 below feeling! It's friggin cold.

 

[firebroad]

That is actually 25 below! But the wind chill in the area was closer to 40 below feeling! It's friggin cold.

Never said I could type
STILL Bloody cold!

 

[MarkW]

Happily, we only had -4 this am. My 60's doing fine keeping up, so far. I'm fine with the temps not dropping enough to find out where the fall off point is though.

 

[infinitymike]

The wood gun is eating a lot of wood but she is cranking out some btu's
House is toasty.

I don't know how you do it up there with those kind of temps
All I can say is BUUURRRRRRRRR

 

[Chris Hoskin]

wood boiler not quite able to keep up at -20 = perfectly sized. And some thermal storage to help when it is +40. Well done!

 

[kopeck]

The wind really makes a difference here. The cold we had a few weeks ago was about the same as today but that wind just knocked the heat out of the house! I have a fairly tight house too!

When I left I was putting heat in storage so I'm still on the winning side.

K

 

[Gasifier]

You sure are right about the difference the wind makes. We have had some wind, and any wind at these temps really puts a hurtin on the warmth of just about any structure. Unless you are underground, or mostly underground.

 

[MarkW]

Unless you are underground, or mostly underground

What I wouldn't give to convince my GF to go earth sheltered verse conventional. Easy to heat a structure when you get to start from 50.

 

[Gasifier]

What I wouldn't give to convince my GF to go earth sheltered verse conventional. Easy to heat a structure when you get to start from 50.

I have looked into them a bit for a retirement home. Interesting.

 

[henfruit]

Retirement house will be six feet under!

 

[Chris Hoskin]

here's hoping I'm not six feet under before I retire....

 

[flyingcow]

I think I prefer -25 or lower compered to -15 with a 10 mph breeze. Usually below -15 the wind doesn't blow. i have to spend a bit of time outside every day.....it sucks when the wind blows. And genius me has a house built(almost 20 yrs ago) on a hill, in northern Maine, with avg insulation. I truly amaze myself.

 

[laynes69]

I found the limit to our furnace, back on the last cold snap. We were at -15* with chills up to -40*. It hasn't been that cold since '94. We kept up until overnight, and when I woke it was 65. I kicked on the lp furnace for a couple minutes, loaded the furnace and then things kept up. I figured heat loads around 0*. Even though we didn't quite keep up, I'm happy with the outcome. This morning it was -5* and after 7 hours of loading, it was 69. 72 degrees is about our comfort zone, but not burning any propane brings comfort. I would rather have something a little undersized than too big. Considering the size and age of our home, I chalk it up as a win.

 

[Gasifier]

I am happy with my sizing of my boiler. I think the boiler with the 400 gallon tank works great. Very nice in the shoulder seasons as well as mid winter. I wish I had 1200 gallons of storage though. Maybe some day. I thought from the last ten years, these temperatures are very rare and will only be a few days this year. And that is generally true. We are past that now though. We have had some seriously cold weather this winter.

If it kills all the ticks in this area and most mosquitoes, I hope it is like this next winter too! Bring it!

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Good news is ,all those who oversized their heating system, get to use it at full capacity for a change.

 

[kopeck]

I think I prefer -25 or lower compered to -15 with a 10 mph breeze. Usually below -15 the wind doesn't blow. i have to spend a bit of time outside every day.....it sucks when the wind blows. And genius me has a house built(almost 20 yrs ago) on a hill, in northern Maine, with avg insulation. I truly amaze myself.

Every time I'm heading up RT1 in the winter I look at all those old farm houses sitting in the those big fields and wonder what it must have been like keeping them warm back in the day...never mind today.

K

 

[McKraut]

The Wood Gun is barely keeping up with the heat demand yesterday and today. If it is not firing with every nozzle the oil boiler kicks on for a few minutes. There is a slight wind and with these temperatures it is down right nasty out there. School delayed for two hours yesterday, and closed today. The boiler is eating through an incredible amount of wood. Glad I am not heating with oil!

This makes my nipples hurt just looking a this....

Bob

 

[jebatty]

-22F and -36F windchill as I post this, and the temp likely will drop a couple more degrees before sunrise. -31F is the lowest I've seen this winter at our house. The current cold snap (lower than -20F real temp) is the 5th this season. Very unusual in my memory, although the coldest I remember was in the early '90's when for five days the temperature did not get above -30F.

The 140,000 btuh rated Tarm Solo Plus has no problem heating the shop, with a design heat loss of 35,000 btuh at -30F, and charging 1000 gallon storage, although slower than "normal," at the same time. But burning lots of wood this year.

 

[MarkW]

If it kills all the ticks in this area and most mosquitoes, I hope it is like this next winter too! Bring it!

I am SO with you on that! I'd like to throw in the black flies, while we're at it.

 

[flyingcow]

Every time I'm heading up RT1 in the winter I look at all those old farm houses sitting in the those big fields and wonder what it must have been like keeping them warm back in the day...never mind today.

K

In the farm house I grew up in we had three wood stoves. Usually 15 cord a year. No wood splitter. Just a 6lb maul.

 

[kopeck]

In the farm house I grew up in we had three wood stoves. Usually 15 cord a year. No wood splitter. Just a 6lb maul.

The house I live in now was the same way. 2 parlor stoves, 1 cook stove and A LOT of wood. We get the wind here too as I'm in a field but nothing like your neck of the woods and you have more impressive temps too!

Now it's insulated and has central heat...how times have changed!

K