Coldest day of the winter

[jetsam]

Here we are... the coldest day of the winter, where I am anyway.

What are you burning? What's the temperature difference between inside and outside? What's in your glass? Split any wood today? Tell us a story about your fire!

 

[Swedishchef]

Loaded with yellow birch this morning..-27C outside, +22 inside.

No splitting today, trying to handle my first bad head cold in 3 years while playing with 2 young boys.

Andrew

 

[Squirrel]

Inside

Outside

-19f Yep, those are icicles.

 

[Swedishchef]

You must have just lit the fire in order to still have icicles? Mine all melt off while burning...

 

[Squirrel]

You must have just lit the fire in order to still have icicles?

Nope, it's been burning for several days. Wind chill of -43 C or f right now.

 

[baseroom]

-4f here 25mph wind. Reloaded with mostly ash couple hours ago. Room with stove in the 70's. Other parts of the 2000sq ft high 60's. Love burning good dry wood!

 

[heavy hammer]

Seven outside 82 plus in stove room a little warm but feels good after being outside with dogs for a little bit. Stove loaded with mulberry and locust, with little hedge here and there. Had the room over 87 last night to hot till I turned stove down, don't know how the dogs can sleep in front of it all night. I can only sleep in front of it all night after a long cold day of work in temps like these, but I usually wake up around two or three all dried out.

 

[lopiliberty]

Packed the stove last night at 8:30 with locust red and white oak. Reloaded this morning with red oak at 9:00 with a stove top of 300 and a large bed of coals. Temp at 9 this morning outside was 9 degrees with winds blowing 30 MPH and 79 inside. I don't have any wood to split and even if I did its just too dang cold and windy to be out

 

[heavy hammer]

Awesome view, agree just to cold unless you have to be outside. I'm glad they decided not to work this weekend to cold to be 100 plus feet in the air. Great day to just sit in front of what ever stove or insert you have and enjoy.

 

[woodhog73]

-10 F actual temp wind chill much colder.

2 year seasoned red and white oak. 74 degrees in living room and kitchen. Rest of the house low 60s. I'll be staying in the living room today. Too cold everywhere else.

As a side note it's amazing ( for me anyways) how much of a difference the sun beating down on my house makes. I've got a wall of windows in the hearth room ( crappy old windows) and last night when the sun went down, with -15 outside, best I could get was 70 in the hearth room. I often wonder how warm my hearth room would be with new windows. Some day hopefully.

 

[becasunshine]

Packed the stove last night at 8:30 with locust red and white oak. Reloaded this morning with red oak at 9:00 with a stove top of 300 and a large bed of coals. Temp at 9 this morning outside was 9 degrees with winds blowing 30 MPH and 79 inside. I don't have any wood to split and even if I did its just too dang cold and windy to be out
View attachment 174717

Ooooh, PRETTY!

 

[LocustBurner]

Packed the stove last night at 8:30 with locust red and white oak. Reloaded this morning with red oak at 9:00 with a stove top of 300 and a large bed of coals. Temp at 9 this morning outside was 9 degrees with winds blowing 30 MPH and 79 inside.
View attachment 174717

26 out in bright sunshine and 76 inside after a medium-size morning reload of locust. Be adding more after 3.

See you are from the eastern panhandle.
I know some folks fom Mace and Mingo Counties down south.
The Maceonites and Mingoloids as some say.

 

[becasunshine]

DUDES. AND LADIES.

When we arrived here last night, the HVAC unit had frozen up some time previously. We left the HVAC set on 50'F. Fortunately the condenser drain line must have frozen up and shut down the furnace relatively recently, so the temp inside the house was 44'F. Not as bad as it could have been by a wide margin, but the Princess was the only heat source we had at that point.

The biggest challenge was that we lost the heat sink: the floors and the walls and all the furnishings were 44'F as well as the ambient air.

The Princess saved our bacon last night- made the difference between a challenging night (think camping with wind and precip protection) and a comfortable night. We turned the t-stat down to 1 when we went to bed. This morning the house was in the upper 60's when we got up. Loaded the stove and opened up the t-stat. Now we are in the 70s, with the stove alone.

We are burning dry oak.

Hubs got the condenser drain thawed and the gas furnace is back online if we need it. So far the stove is carrying the house just fine. We thought we'd addressed the condenser drain line issue adequately when this happened once before in a cold snap. Obviously not. The drain line on this system needs to be re-worked and that's now at the top of the agenda (again.)

I snapped this picture off of our deck a little while ago. The shadow in the foreground is a tree at the edge of our property. There are 2-3 empty lots between us and the water, and then 2.5 miles of water to the other shore. It's 25'F in the sun with a temp of 15'F with wind chill factored in. Wind is blowing off of the water against the back of the house at up to 25 mph. It's brutal out there right now and tonight will be dangerously cold in the wind. Lovin' on this wood stove!

 

[SpAmSoNiTe]

My phone says its 8f outside. Inside is 63 in my swiss cheese house by the furnace thermostat. Prob. 70-ish by the nc-30. Due to my schedule I usually have about 10 hours between loads. Loaded wih mixed maple and oak slabwood.

 

[baseroom]

We had a similar situation about a month ago. We were traveling and thermostat set to 55. Never came on! 38 in the house! Got the Isle Royale Quad fired up and we too were in the 60's the next morning. We were fortunate! One more day gone and.....all we lost was one basil plant next to the window!

 

[becasunshine]

We had a similar situation about a month ago. We were traveling and thermostat set to 55. Never came on! 38 in the house! Got the Isle Royale Quad fired up and we too were in the 60's the next morning. We were fortunate! One more day gone and.....all we lost was one basil plant next to the window!

A good stove makes *all* the difference. We didn't have the wood stove installed here when this happened the first time. We got the line thawed and the furnace back online. The house and everything in it was 33'F. Thank goodness we arrived when we did, before we lost pipes.

It took a full 24 hours that time for the gas furnace alone to bring the house and furnishings up to 65'F. We were in the 60's in the area around the stove before we went to bed last night, and the whole house was in the 60s this morning when we got up. The direct heat coming off of the wood stove and into the living area of the house has warmed it more quickly and efficiently than sending air warmed by the furnace through the HVAC ducts.

 

[DougA]

We were at -9 and if you factor wind chill it was -29 outside last night. It's 77 inside right now with the sun out. The stove was almost at max. last night and it was 70 inside the house when my wife reloaded this morning. One of the great benefits of having an oversized stove.
I walked the dogs a few times today and there's no way I want to work outside. I don't mind the cold but not when the wind cuts through your body.

 

[becasunshine]

We were at -9 and if you factor wind chill it was -29 outside last night. It's 77 inside right now with the sun out. The stove was almost at max. last night and it was 70 inside the house when my wife reloaded this morning. One of the great benefits of having an oversized stove.
I walked the dogs a few times today and there's no way I want to work outside. I don't mind the cold but not when the wind cuts through your body.

I seriously considered a King over a Princess for this very reason. Occasionally I wish we'd gone with the King for that reason. The stove shop owner felt that we'd end up burning the King on low all the time; he thought it was too much stove for the average winter temperature in central Virginia and for a well-insulated, 2000 sq ft one level house.

It's difficult to convey to people who don't live here that this ain't "typical Virginia" in the winter. The Princess holds her own, though. We just have to be a little patient in challenging situations. BTUs are BTUs. Given enough time and some patience, the Princess will warm the house and everything in it, and anecdotally, from our experience, quicker than the gas furnace in similar conditions.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

16 here supposed to be 11. Just finished some additional insulation ,just in time . Heat used to run constantly below 20 degrees outside now it shuts off periodically. That insulation makes all the difference ,especially the air sealing. Ill see how we fare tonight when its down to ZERO!

 

[heavy hammer]

We definitely went to big with the stove we have but I love it. Stove guy recommended the castine 400 but the Oslo 500 side door sold me. It can get a little warm but that's ok, glad we went bigger. Many here seem to say they wish they had bought the larger stove, it is easy to crack a window or open the back French door a little to cool it down. But when you want some serious heat quick I love the bigger stove, especially on days like today.

 

[becasunshine]

We definitely went to big with the stove we have but I love it. Stove guy recommended the castine 400 but the Oslo 500 side door sold me. It can get a little warm but that's ok, glad we went bigger. Many here seem to say they wish they had bought the larger stove, it is easy to crack a window or open the back French door a little to cool it down. But when you want some serious heat quick I love the bigger stove, especially on days like today.

Please send picture of Chocolate Labs. <:3~

 

[heavy hammer]

They are not in front of the stove but here is copper on the left he is three, chase on the right he is seven.

 

[xman23]

4 F at 1:45PM here in NE PA. The winds are blowing. Tonight, I think at least -5. The house is a toasty 70F with the Oslo just idling along at 350F. It's real easy for this stove to keep this house at any temperature you want.

 

[becasunshine]

View attachment 174742
They are not in front of the stove but here is copper on the left he is three, chase on the right he is seven.

Gorgeous, healthy Labbies! <:3~

Here's a picture of Sam in front of the stove last night, after a romp in the yard in the sub freezing weather, when the stove was the only heat we had in the house. Sam loves it here. <:3~

The wind is still howling here. 27'F with a wind chill of 14'F per our little weather station. Winds are average 13 mph with peaks in the mid-20s mph. Our wind indicator is in a relatively protected location now. We had it mounted on the roof but the wind blew it off so now it's on one of our clothesline poles, somewhat protected by what wind break we have. I think the wind on the water is much stronger. The river looks like the ocean right now.

Tonight's going to be brutal.

 

[heavy hammer]

We have the same weather here in northeast Ohio these are the days the Oslo is built for 74 degrees four rooms away and stove turned down just above 350 temp.