Help!!

[Klav76]

Hi everyone! So quick backstory my husband works out for state for months at a time. So it’s just me here trying to figure all of this out. I have a medium sized wood stove. Now here in Alabama we get like 4 super cold days in a whole season. And so I don’t have experience with fire maintenance during those days. So I have to add wood to my stove like every hour or it will die out. Now I’m a little intimidated with this thing but I’ve done really well for the last 6 years on my own. I split my own firewood and kindling and all that jazz. But on these days when it’s 20 degrees or less I’m struggling just a little. I work a full time job about 30 min from home and this is my only source of heat. I’ve got a 1300 sq foot house. So when I’m gone it gets kinda chilly inside. I need to know how to stack this wood inside the stove so that I can get like multiple hours of heat. Like over night and not have to get up constantly all night making me just plum grumpy the next day. On a normal Alabama cold day I use two decent size hunks on the bottom and put kindling in the middle of them. Then I stack 3 smaller pieces long ways on top of that and one medium flat piece on top of that kinda like Jenga blocks. But it doesn’t last long without having to get up and add more. We are getting single digits this weekend and I need to sleep. What can I do to make my fire last over night?

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I general, just stack the wood on top of each other with as little air space between as possible. Cross crossing the wood creates more air space which will shorten burn time. That is, after you had a fire going for a bit and have some decent coals to build on. Initial start up going criss cross works well.
Do you know how old the stove is? What kind is it?

 

[Dix]

Welcome to the forums Always nice to see another Sistah here

Need more input. Stove make, age? A pic would probably help is possible.

 

[barnaclebob]

In general, if you are reloading the stove when there are coals you just need push the coals to the front, load it up as much as you can, open the air until they are flaming good, then close the air back down to whatever keeps the min temp you want. Depending on your particular stove it could be a little different i.e. opening the bypass if its a cat stove etc.

Cross stacking in the stove jenga style wastes a lot of space and you probably dont need kindling unless its a cold start.

 

[weatherguy]

Reload when you have good coals and just use the bigger splits, stack as many as you can, once you get it cruising get a good nights sleep.

 

[Dix]

I think we might need to talk about an air control, too.

 

[weatherguy]

I think we might need to talk about an air control, too.

Yes, tell us your procedure from start to finish and maybe we can help with that.

 

[kborndale]

Cross stacking becomes necessary if your wood isn't dry.