How do you use wood heat in your home?

[precaud]

The purpose of this poll is to find out how people's woodburning setup (be it stove, insert, fireplace, or whatever) fits into their overall home heating scheme. Any relevant comments about your burning habits that you've tailored for your useage are welcomed.

Since I'm starting this thing, I can't participate :-( But I fit into the second category.

 

[Roospike]

Primary or sole heat source, burning at least one stove 24/7

Free standing stove , 2 story house , stove first floor,middle of the house.
Controlling home heat by/with 4 base units & 7 wireless thermometers
Ceiling fans

(is this the information you are looking for ?)

 

[BrotherBart]

The big stove on the main floor, smaller one in the basement office. 24/7. They are our only source of heat. The heat pump died years ago and is just a lump on the side of the house now.

 

[citizanken]

One big insert in the family room, heating most of the house when we are home. Baseboard electric for alternative.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I'm not sure how to really answer the poll. I don't think I really fit into any of the options.

So far this year, the stove has provided 95% of our heating needs. But as it gets colder I know the stove will not be able to hold the house. The stove provides 1/4 the BTU that the furnace provides. It was mainly installed for emergency situations and fall/spring burning to keep the furnace off. So while we run it all day now and probably will later this year, I don't kid myself and think when we see single digit weather the furnace won't be on...

Matt

 

[ourhouse]

Wood stove in the basement heats 1st floor to 72-76 2nd floor is about 62-65 we use the furnace to help out when needed.

 

[precaud]

Matt, it sounds to me like you fit into the second category. Thanks.

 

[wingnut]

Last winter I ran 24/7 in Jan and Feb. and part of March. I did not get my insert installed until mid Jan. My new 90% furnace never got to run much until spring when it was to warm for burning and but cool enough for a little heat. I Guss I do both today in Toledo Ohio it got up to 62 tonight in the low 40. The colder it is outside the more serious I get about burning 24/7. By the way I was on the budget with the Columbia Gas until I got my Osburn they owed me money for about 6 months (I love it) Oh and no I never had any problems with the stove or how it burns.

 

[Mo Heat]

Nice survey.

Let me add something else I do (I am #3 BTW). I've lowered the whole house gas forced air furnace by several degrees. It's hard to remember how high it was the first few years here, but likely around 70 - 72. Now it is set at 66 except for a two hour period in the morning to fool Mother Mo Heat.

To do this I added an electric floor convection heater in Mother Mo Heat's room, replaced one of the hinges with a spring door closer, but keep it proped open about 6 inches so the dog can come and go and Mother Mo Heat doesn't feel isolated. I also added one of those Economy Electric Heater Panels (concrete with element inside) to the kitchen island in between the two 24" bar chairs where she eats all meals (and tomato time at 10:30pm--don't ask).

This way I am space heating the two rooms Mother Mo Heat (in her 80's) uses. Each evening (most evenings) I light up the Winter WArm Large in the huge finished basement and bask in it's glow.

This has cut the gas bill in half, but I haven't actually done any hard numbers lately. Might be slightly better or worse.

 

[recppd]

I checked off option 2, but I never end up using the furnace in the long run. I work in the same town I live in, so it's not difficult for me to stop in at lunch and throw a few logs on the barbie...

 

[suematteva]

Checked 1 we will load and leave. 95 percent comes from stove.

 

[Mike Wilson]

Insert runs 24/7 from December through the end of February, and is the main source of heat for the main zone of the house (3 zones). During the day it keeps our bedroom zone warm, however at night I close our bedroom off and let the boiler carry that. The third zone is all on the boiler.

-- Mike

 

[Gooserider]

We have two pre-EPA smoke monster stoves, one in the living room that we run almost 24/7 if it's cool enough to need heat. Depending on how hot we run it, the stove keeps the living room in the 70's and the rest of the house in the high 60's.

I currently have a fan controller on order that is supposed to periodically cycle the HVAC distribution fan, and am hoping this will help to even out the house temps a bit.

We keep the gas HVAC furnace set at 50 - 55*F to keep things from freezing if we are away from home long enough that the stove goes out. We also have gas cooking and hot water, so we still use some gas, but the difference is major - As an example, according to the GF, in March '06 we used 37 therms, in March '05, before we started burning, it was over 300 therms.

The second stove is in the basement, and is almost never used.

At night we have an electric mattress pad that we use underneath, and a down comforter on top. Some mattress pads have an automatic shutoff, but ours doesn't and we leave it on 24/7 - it keeps the bed toasty all the time, and uses about as much juice as a small table lamp.

(IMHO a heated mattress pad is WAY better than an electric blanket. It uses less electricity to keep you warmer, and is more comfortable than an electric blanket.)

Gooserider

 

[PAJerry]

So far, we've been successful with 24/7 - the gas boiler hasn't been on at all. This being our first full winter with the insert, time will tell how good it will be, but I suspect it will do just fine. If not, there are a few minor insulation projects that just might make the difference but are kind of a pain to get at so I'm putting them off.

 

[njtomatoguy]

Category one.

Last year I used a Gas vent free wall heater(home) and electric portable radiator(away) for all but a two week cold spell, then the furnace was at 60 to keep thing from freezing.
This year I hope to use stove for all, and am getting comfortable with loading and leaving for the day. I will also put the electic radiator in the utility room on low to prevent having to heat those 2 rooms and let the stove do the rest.
Caulking, insulating, weatherstripping and storm windows really helped.

2 Br, 1 bath bungalow ranch.

 

[jabush]

I checked #2, but this year I am going to start loading the stove in the morning before I go to work. Now that I'm getting good overnight burns, I won't have to spend the time restarting in the AM. The morning reloads should get me to late morning/early afternoon before the furnace kicks on. Oh...furnace stays set (pretty much) at 66*.

 

[elkimmeg]

For the most part my furnace is set to 64 degrees. it is up to me to see that it never turns on. I have two Wood stoves here. One pretty much carries the main zone.
When the colder weather arrives, the second stove opperation will approach 24/7 usage as well. It is located up a set of open strairs in my familly room. If I warm my familly room to above the main level that effectively allows the main stove to direct it heat there, plus more to the bedrooms

 

[colsmith]

Woodstove in in the middle of the living room on the first floor, we use it to heat the whole house. We control the heat upstairs by leaving the doors open to rooms we want to heat, and closing the doors of rooms we just have junk in. We leave the door to the upstairs room with the chimney going through open, too, as it is also a source of heat. We only turn the heat on when we are leaving for more than a day and it will be cold. Right now it is probably set to 45 or something, however low it goes. We just got our stove in Feb. but haven't used the furnace when we are home at all. We live in WI so heat is critical here. The basement is always 50 or 55 on its own depending on the season, so that hasn't been an issue so far.

I am surprised so many of you big time wood heating dudes have your thermostats set around 65 "just in case." In all the years of relying on gas furnaces we only turned it up that high in the daytime, we had it at 60 overnight if I was home or 55 if I wasn't cuz hubby doesn't mind being chilly. (We occasionally lived in separate countries! Not anymore, we find that is not conducive to marital bliss.)

 

[jtcedinburgh]

I'm at 3 - not having an open plan living space, and not having a particularly large stove, it heats only 1/4 of our home - but now that I'm getting used to it, I'd say it heats it well.

I have a slightly off-topic question:

With central heating, is it better to have it on most of the time at a lower setting, or for fewer hours at a higher setting? Or does it depend on the house?

I've got the gas coming on at around 4pm each evening until 11pm, and again at 5am until 9am. It's set at 3/6 max, but I wondered if extending the heating times to basically 5am->11pm at (say) 2/6 would have the same effect but lower costs (due to smaller variations in temperature)?

john

 

[begreen]

It's a function of temperature. At 40-45 we burn from about 3-11pm. In the 30's and below either I or my wife starts the stove so it could be from 18-24 hrs. Below 30 we are 24/7 wood. Above 45 we are on the heatpump unless we want an evening fire.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I heat a big, old house in a very cold climate 24/7 from October through April. We like to keep it between 70 and 75, though that's tough when it's below zero for extended periods. We have an indoor boiler and cast iron radiators with a natural gas backup, which is switched off when the wood boiler is operating. Last winter we burned 16 full cords of dry hardwood. The boiler also provides all our domestic hot water.

I think we saved around $5,000 on the natural gas bill last winter, and I managed to stay in shape cutting all that wood.

 

[axleman]

This will be my first winter attempting to heat with primarily wood. My house is 2500 sq. ft; about 1500 on the main floor and 1000 in the finished basement where the insert is. The heat pump is set to kick on at 64 degrees (thermostat is upstairs), but like Elk said, I view it as my job to keep that from happening. Being in Alabama, it hasn't gotten what we think of as really cold yet, just down into the low 40s and mid 30s mostly, but so far the insert has done a great job. The heat pump only kicks on in the early morning when the insert has cooled off to about 250 or less. I have probably been burning it when it really wasn't efficient or necessary to do so, but have been using this milder weather to get to know my stove and how to best operate it and how to distribute the heat around the house as best as possible. (Oddly enough, I am finding that leaving all of the ceiling fans *off* gives me the most even temps between upstairs and downstairs, within 2 or 3 degrees usually.) Time and colder weather will tell if the little Napoleon will keep us toasty all winter. If not, there is always room for another in the upstairs fireplace... >

 

[babalu87]

I shudder when the boiler turns on.
It only runs to give us hot water though I do let it heat the house once in the fall and again in the spring at the end of burning season just to be sure everything is OK.
I will be exploring passive solar in the spring to try and get the boiler to heat the water more efficiently.
The water from the well comes out VERY cold.
Stove is in the living room and the house has an open floor plan on the first floor with all bedrooms upstairs.
When we do the job right with the stove its in the mid 70's in the living room and the mid 60's in the bedrooms.
Sometimes, it gets a little warm in the living room ............ is 82 warm

Two zones and the thermostats are set at 62

 

[Saurian]

I voted 1, as the furnace only comes on for about 2 hours in the morning right before I get up and stock the stove with wood. If it was up to me, the furnace would be set to 60, but it's at 68 to keep the animals warm.

We have an insert in the family room, it's not at all in a central location, but with fans set properly, and the ceiling fans going, it keeps the lower floor in the mid 70s, and the upper floor with all the bedrooms in the mid 60s. As long as it's cold outside, there is always a fire going, ash is scraped between reloadings. When the lower floor is getting too hot, I'll throw on the furnace fan to circulate and even the air in the house. As long as the fire is going steadily, the furnace is not running, and the gas bill is getting lower and lower as the heating season goes on.

 

[raiderfan]

I picked choice 3. The stove is in my basement, which is my Man Cave space. It is used to heat that space alone. Any heat that makes its way upstairs to the first floor is welcome, but not banked on. I spend most time down there on weekends for the football games, but maybe a couple nights during the week, as well. I can tell you this though, with a new stove this year, I plan to spend more time than last year down there!!

I have a Weil Mclain Ultra Mod Con Natural Gas boiler as my main heat source, which replaced an old Crane oil fired boiler 3 years ago.