It is the first season in our new home. The weather has been freakishly warm this autumn, but a week ago it was a frosty Saturday morning. The house was cool, so I decided it was time to christen the new Caddy wood furnace in our basement.
The moment I have been planning for a long time is finally here! There are lots of construction scraps for kindling, the firewood tested at about 16% moisture so everything looked good. Got the stove loaded & the fire started. A bit later the fire is burning, the secondary burners are kicking in, the fan turns on, everything is looking great. Upstairs there is that smell you expect any time a furnace is lit for the first time, is that a bit of haze in the air..........
And then the smoke detectors go off. All of them in the house (they are all tied together). Can't turn them off. Ear splitting alarms. 'Fire' 'Fire' they tell us. Ugg! Open all the windows, open the doors, turn on the fans, the dogs have their paws over their ears...... you get the picture!
There is a line in the furnace manual "It is normal that smoke and odours emanate from the unit when you first light it. It is recommended to burn it at high rate and ventilate the building until the odours disappear." They mean it! I put some more wood in, I only want to do this once!
I'm expecting a lot less excitement when it gets cold enough to fire the furnace again. I know it is coming, this is Wisconsin after all. This time I'm ready
The moment I have been planning for a long time is finally here! There are lots of construction scraps for kindling, the firewood tested at about 16% moisture so everything looked good. Got the stove loaded & the fire started. A bit later the fire is burning, the secondary burners are kicking in, the fan turns on, everything is looking great. Upstairs there is that smell you expect any time a furnace is lit for the first time, is that a bit of haze in the air..........
And then the smoke detectors go off. All of them in the house (they are all tied together). Can't turn them off. Ear splitting alarms. 'Fire' 'Fire' they tell us. Ugg! Open all the windows, open the doors, turn on the fans, the dogs have their paws over their ears...... you get the picture!
There is a line in the furnace manual "It is normal that smoke and odours emanate from the unit when you first light it. It is recommended to burn it at high rate and ventilate the building until the odours disappear." They mean it! I put some more wood in, I only want to do this once!
I'm expecting a lot less excitement when it gets cold enough to fire the furnace again. I know it is coming, this is Wisconsin after all. This time I'm ready
