how hot does your house get

[Clyde S. Dale]

We are very well insulated, but also up on a hill surrounded by open fields with no close by wind-break. The stove room is the warmest 70-72 degrees on average. The rest of our main floor probably averages 66-70 degrees depending on outside temperature and whether or not it is windy. The upstairs benefits the most and the kids bedrooms are usually between 72-74 degrees.

 

[lindnova]

1500 SqFt. ranch well insulated with an open unfinished basement - open stairwell. At 10° outside it is 70 in middle of basement across from stove and 68 upstairs. Bedrooms are 66°(above the stove and the chase is between them. The heat always rises upstairs and I have a hard time overheating the basement. When warmer out the basement might get to 72 or 73 and the upstairs will go higher until my wife opens the windows.

This setup works quite well without any fans. I should have got a larger stove for longer burn times, but I only use it when I feel like it or when the power goes out.

 

[Typ0]

Something doesn't seem right. Why does it take several hours for your stove to get going? Is it a boiler system? I work a weird schedule and am away from home for 24hrs at a time. When I get home I lite my stove and within 10min it is pumping out warm air. It quickly heats the living room but does take some time to fill the rest of the house.

I've been thinking about what you said too. Something doesn't seem right I agree. Smoke doesn't always pour out of the front of my stove but it does sometimes...like when there isn't a healthy flame in the box and some wood is working on getting started ... or I open the box while stuff is burning to put more in because I want more heat.

I agree it takes too long. The MC of my wood seems to be ranging from 20 - 28%. I'm starting to use smaller splits and will begin loading with things I have split down even further this weekend. I know the MC is a big issue for me right now but I also feel like something else might be wrong. On the other hand I can hear the flow up the pipe it sounds healthy.

There is info about my setup in the bottom two posts of this thread:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...y-king-legacy-2150.137363/page-2#post-1850706

 

[Firefighter938]

First of all, I apologize if I ask a question that you already posted about in that thread you linked to. I read the last two posts. I think you should go post in the forum about wood stoves. Take pictures of your setup and tell the guys your model stove. They will be able to fix you up.

I did see that you said a metal rod in the middle of your stove was gone. Is this a pre EPA stove? It is possible the previous owner warped the damper and took it out. If so you may not be able to control your draft and a lot of your heat is going out your chimney.

I'm not sure about the smoke into the room problem. Maybe it's a cold flu on light up? Not enough clearnceuptop? A lot of knowledgable people here. I bet they can get you figured out.

 

[Typ0]

Yeah I did post in that forum but didn't get any responses to that thread after I put up the specs...maybe I will bump it thanks for the input!

It is an EPA stove. It's firebrick lined top to bottom. I have the metal bar and could weld it back in for the next season probably...but I'm kind of curious what it does. I like to know the whats and hows myself am kinda useless without knowledge!

Maybe it's always cold....nothing seems to get hot enough. I'm a little discouraged as I thought converting to wood heat would mean warmth not freezing all the time....I will keep trying I guess.

 

[Kaptain]

The stove (NC30) is installed in a fully insulated basement with open stairwell in the center of the house. 1150 sq ft raised ranch - heating a total of 2300 sq ft.

I've been keeping a bit warmer than I normally do with the basement temps in the 75 - 82 degree range. With the open stairwell the heat is very well balanced with the basement typically only 5 degrees warmer or so.

When it's this cold I aim for 80 degrees in the basement before putting a full load in before bed. Last night I did this, loaded at 10:30 PM and at 6 AM it was still a toasty 76 degrees in the basement - upstairs was around 74.

Insulating and semi-finishing the basement has made a tremendous difference in keeping the heat in the house and letting convection do its thing. Anxious to see how the black locust and oak loads will do the next couple days.

 

[Applesister]

3400 sqr ft and the house flatlines around 60° all winter. (Thermostat setting) Right now its at 54° in the main part of the house. Havent switched to fuel oil yet.
-25° windchill and we have a wind advisory. Its a serious test on insulation and airtightness. Im on a hill unprotected, great for drying out firewood but tough on heating bills.
Wood stove in large sunroom on the northwest face of the house. Stove runs nonstop from Oct to May.
Thank God I love the cold, arctic sweaters and splitting wood.
Oh, and no one likes to come visit me.

 

[Applesister]

The ongoing joke at my house is to put the butter dish in the refrigerator to soften it up.

 

[Fod01]

I'd be divorced by now

 

[kennyp2339]

The stove (NC30) is installed in a fully insulated basement with open stairwell in the center of the house. 1150 sq ft raised ranch - heating a total of 2300 sq ft.

I've been keeping a bit warmer than I normally do with the basement temps in the 75 - 82 degree range. With the open stairwell the heat is very well balanced with the basement typically only 5 degrees warmer or so.

When it's this cold I aim for 80 degrees in the basement before putting a full load in before bed. Last night I did this, loaded at 10:30 PM and at 6 AM it was still a toasty 76 degrees in the basement - upstairs was around 74.

Insulating and semi-finishing the basement has made a tremendous difference in keeping the heat in the house and letting convection do its thing. Anxious to see how the black locust and oak loads will do the next couple days.

I have a similar house, similar square footage, semi finished UN-insulated basement, while not complaining about the temps - low70's upstairs, I'm running my stove pretty hard, I will be insulating this spring, hopefully it makes a huge difference

 

[Plow Boy]

Suppose to get down to 10 tonight. Not common for around here can't wait to see how the stove performs!

 

[Rossco]

The stove (NC30) is installed in a fully insulated basement with open stairwell in the center of the house. 1150 sq ft raised ranch - heating a total of 2300 sq ft.

I've been keeping a bit warmer than I normally do with the basement temps in the 75 - 82 degree range. With the open stairwell the heat is very well balanced with the basement typically only 5 degrees warmer or so.

When it's this cold I aim for 80 degrees in the basement before putting a full load in before bed. Last night I did this, loaded at 10:30 PM and at 6 AM it was still a toasty 76 degrees in the basement - upstairs was around 74.

Insulating and semi-finishing the basement has made a tremendous difference in keeping the heat in the house and letting convection do its thing.

Ah music to my ears.

Iam planning this. I would say 1/3 is already done.

The biggest difference I've found is providing outside air to the rear of the stove. Positive pressure conquers everything else we have tried to do. I now have a smaller temp difference up & down compaired to the wall of heat I encounter in the basement.

 

[HarvestMan]

Quite surprised by many of the posts, was expecting higher temps (old childhood memories of neighbors houses that used wood stoves still burning HOT there I guess).

Most important temp is furnace thermostat set at 65 in kitchen adjacent to living room where stove resides. We aim for 69-71 on thermostat. At 70, living room is about 71 and balcony upstairs is 74/75 while 1st floor room furthest from stove is mid 60s. Once we reach 73, I can't take the heat anymore and let the stove go out. Mornings are usually around 66 if I stop feeding stove around 11pm. On really cold nights like last night (4 F) I get up and feed the stove around 3:30am. Furnace has only come on once in the last week; I want to just turn it off, but wife wants it set to 65; chose not to fight that battle.

 

[bsruther]

1000sf ranch. OT is 11, 86 in the stove room right now, but I just now opened the bedroom doors. Should even out pretty quickly since it's 50 in the bedrooms. I use the bedrooms as valves. We only use one to sleep in, the other 2 are a dressing room and multipurpose room. We like a cool bedroom, so we close off 2 bedrooms at night and leave our door open 6 to 12 inches, depending on OTs. Doing this makes the stove room sometimes as high as 90 or more during the night. Makes for a comfortable house in the morning. Looking forward to seeing how the stove performs tonight, forecast is -3. It's an Osage night for sure.

 

[john11756]

I was expecting some higher temps as well. is everyone purposely keeping temps low? or the stoves just not putting out the high temps.
I can get my stove room to 90 pushing it hard and the back rooms will hit 70 at best.

 

[Rossco]

How hot do you guys want it?

23-24C is perfect. Anymore and I get sweat rings around my neck.

 

[ADK_XJ]

Just hit 0 outside, 1600 sq ft mostly uninsulated farmhouse is on the coal end of a cycle and it's 68 in the front half, haven't check upstairs. Just threw two oak splits on the coal bed for another round of secondaries.

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm in a fight here. It's 5 and still a little breezy, though the wind is slacking off now. Log home, but wind pushes cold air between logs and wallboard, so it's like having no insulation. I've made progress weatherizing but still have a ways to go. 2 rooms, 1000 sq.ft. Got the bedroom door open only about 6" to focus heat in the main room. Bedroom 60 now. Started at 66 in the main room this AM, fought my way up to 68 in about 4 hrs. Then I left for 5 hrs. and room temp went to 67. Nice thing about the little black stove is that I can burn down coals and keep 375 stove top for a couple hours. Will reload in about an hour. Need to get the Keystone back online to battle this kind of weather!

How hot do you guys want it? 23-24C is perfect. Anymore and I get sweat rings around my neck.

More like 21-22 for me. If I've been working outside, say hauling up more firewood , I don't want to be having to peel a lot of layers when I come back in.

 

[Andy S.]

I have a 2500 ft2 colonial with a heat pump. The insert room (family room) is mid 70s, the living room with the thermostat is at 67-68 and the upstairs is in the low 60s. I leave the thermostat at 67* and let it do what it needs to do.

 

[Hogwildz]

7 here at the moment -12 real feel. House was at 64 downstairs when I got home a few hours ago. I said F it and turned the oil furnace on, 1st to make sure it is running right, 2nd, I can.
Need to make sure it works when I am visiting the lil woman in 2 weeks. I am even going to get the oil tank filled(3rd fill and 1-100 g delivery in 9 years . Have to run the furnace while away for the week.
Still, the furnace is backup/supplement to the wood heat. I splurged and set the thermostat to 68, that's plenty warm enough for me.
I'm sure somewhere down the road, when I have the house paid off, and getting too hard to get around, I'll just turn the thermostat up and say fug it.

 

[CenterTree]

Some like it hot.

 

[bsruther]

7 here at the moment -12 real feel. House was at 64 downstairs when I got home a few hours ago. I said F it and turned the oil furnace on, 1st to make sure it is running right, 2nd, I can.
Need to make sure it works when I am visiting the lil woman in 2 weeks. I am even going to get the oil tank filled(3rd fill and 1-100 g delivery in 9 years . Have to run the furnace while away for the week.
Still, the furnace is backup/supplement to the wood heat. I splurged and set the thermostat to 68, that's plenty warm enough for me.
I'm sure somewhere down the road, when I have the house paid off, and getting too hard to get around, I'll just turn the thermostat up and say fug it.

As low as oil prices are, I'm tempted to use the oil furnace IF the temps get higher. With my luck, the prices will shoot up when I refill.

 

[john11756]

Chugging along baby o yes some like it hot for sure. 8°f house toasty as hell

 

[KenLockett]

-11 DegF out right now. Went to bed at 11:00PM with insert stove room at 75. Just woke to coals with room at 69. Wood boiler thermostats set to 66 downstairs and 68 upstairs. in years past wood boiler or oil only would not have kept up on a cold night like this. Smaller stove insert great for auxiliary heat on the really cold nights and just sips the wood

 

[Gboutdoors]

0 deg. Out now heating 1442' main floor 1100' walk out lower stove level. New house well insl. but I did not put any insl. in the ceiling/floor so the heat would warm the main floor. 75 down stairs and 67 up no fans just open stairs. I put a Dutch door at top of stairs to help regulate the main floor temps. If I close the bottom half and leave the top open it slows the heat down nicely. Furnace set at 58 just to keep the house warm if something should go out at night.