Heating during the day.

[Osage]

To conserve wood I have been thinking of not heating during the day when we are both gone. Only loading the stove in the evening when we get home.
House would probably be in the uper 50's when we get home.
Would this be self defeating due to having to warm not only the air in the house but the walls and other things. What do you guys think?

 

[jeff_t]

I guess you would have to try it.

When we are gone for a weekend, it takes the stove, the l.p. furnace, and the wood furnace warning up the basement to bring my house up to a comfortable temp in a couple of hours. The air temp comes up pretty quickly and the furnace shuts off, but not for very long. Takes a long time to warm everything up. I leave the thermostat at 50 when we are gone.

 

[brad wilton]

if you just heat casually don't see a problem.if trying to save money on heating different story

 

[velvetfoot]

I think stoves usually put out the most heat early in the burn, so that might be a good fit. The stove isn't in the basement, is it?

 

[newyorker]

i heat with a wood furnace and just keep it at 70 all the time it sucks alot of heat up trying to warm everything back up i think its a wash

 

[prezes13]

I think so, last year I didn't have enough wood so I just but in the evening so when I got home after work to a cold stove and the house in a low 60 high 50 it took the stove a couple of hours to bring it back to a comfy 72. I have a young daughter so by the time her bath time came a lot of time I had to get the furnace going. Now I load the stove about 5:30 am if I am home back from work before 4 usually I have a nice bed of coals left so I can get the stove going in no time. Takes me about 1.5-2 hrs to go from low 60 to a toasty 74.

 

[tarzan]

As JeffT say's, guess you would just have to try it. You would probably save a little wood but need to put up with coming home to a cool house and a stove that will require constant tending till bedtime just to warm it up enough to do it again tomorrow, but your mileage may very.

 

[Andy S.]

Would this be self defeating due to having to warm not only the air in the house but the walls and other things. What do you guys think?

I think it would be self-defeating in that you'd be cold for well into the evening as the stove tries to catch up. Most of your waking hours in the house would be cold. If conserving wood is an issue, maybe run only a small load overnight while you're sleeping to leave coals for start-up and then load that beast up so you come home to a warm house?

 

[Tenn Dave]

It certainly won't hurt to give it a trial run............go for it and let us know the results.

 

[Highbeam]

From an energy standpoint, letting the house cool for part of the day will save energy and wood. Your comfort will decline and the trade-off may not be a good enough reward for you.

 

[Osage]

I think stoves usually put out the most heat early in the burn, so that might be a good fit. The stove isn't in the basement, is it?

Stove is not in a basement. Our house is about 1200 sq. ft. Heating with a Lopi M520, so I can get the house up to a comfortable temp in 45min. or so. Have a furnace but only use it when we leave for longer that a day.

 

[Ashful]

To conserve wood I have been thinking of not heating during the day when we are both gone. Only loading the stove in the evening when we get home.
House would probably be in the uper 50's when we get home.
Would this be self defeating due to having to warm not only the air in the house but the walls and other things. What do you guys think?

In theory, this would conserve wood. Heat lost (BTUs wasted) is directly proportional to the difference between indoor and outdoor temperature (in deg.K), so the cooler you allow indoors to be, the less BTUs you throw away.

In reality, you'll have to try it. For example, you put more BTU's up the chimney trying to burn the stove hot and get the house back up to temp, after you let it go cold. Also, if you're house is like mine, you might never get it back up to temp with a stove after it gets cold.

 

[Seanm]

Ive wondered this to. I keep it going while Im gone to work. Part of it for me is laziness, we have a long shoulder season and I get to the point that I dont want to see another top down fire ever or at least until spring!! Its so much easier to rake the coals forward when I get home and fill up the stove. If I had a wood shortage I would maybe try it.

 

[F4jock]

I'm with the crew that says it takes more to get the house back up to temp than if you kept it relatively constant. I "proved" this at least with AC over several summers where I cut back and let the temp rise as much as 10f. Over three years I came to the conclusion that restoring a temp variation of more than three degrees sustained over eight hours costs at least the same as keeping a constant temp. I thus knock the temp down two degrees at night to make it better sleeping and let it go up during the day. CAUTION: Your mileage will doubtless vary based on your house, the weather and your location.

 

[HotCoals]

Usually takes way less wood to keep the temp up during the day also.
I don't think my house hardly ever sees temps below 68.