How to keep heat down (!) without creosote

[thinkxingu]

Hello There,
Got a new Homestead installed and I'm trying to figure it out: what should I do if I want to keep the heat down--if this thing is cookin', it cooks us out and I can see me trying to use this in the shoulder season so as to keep our electric off. By the bye, 45 minutes and the top floor of our house (1,100 square feet) went from 65-70 (it's only 45 degrees out, but that's still good 'for soapstone,' no?!).

SO:
1. One or two splits at a time with air halfway and a decent fire

or

2. Three or more splits with air almost closed and less fire?

Either way, it seems like I'm not in the 'good burning' section of my thermometer.


S

 

[savageactor7]

Cut a bunch of splits in half and burn hot with a smaller fire. Or just open some windows...that's our fav thing to do. Consider fresh air a luxury while you continue heat the house...

...what, me worry?

 

[North of 60]

A cat stove without fooling around with onesy twooseys is the real answer. OR what you have mentioned. Been there done that with my Napoleon.

 

[BrotherBart]

A cat stove without fooling around with onesy twooseys is the real answer. OR what you have mentioned. Been there done that with my Napoleon.

Get over it cat maven. The 30-NC is cruising nicely at 450 tonight with a big pile of you guy's famous pine splits. Ya just gotta have the touch. Well, that and blocking off the damned EPA required air leaks. :coolsmirk:

Ship me that Nap stove. Let a real wood burner get his hands on it. :lol:

 

[meathead]

I'm with savage - a half an arm load of small (1/2 to 1/3 normal size) splits stacked all willy nilly in there so air can get at everything and they burn fast. Hot 30 min to 2 hr burns, that's what works for me during shoulder season anyway.

 

[lexybird]

open your windows up and release the hot air

 

[jbrown56]

Let it rip and shed some clothing!

Jim

 

[Ithaca]

just throwing my vote in for smaller hot fires.

 

[Highbeam]

Well you're pretty much stuck with an EPA non-cat stove that can't be turned down too far. What we did is improve our insulation and heat the house in bursts meaning that when it gets into the 60s we'll start a fire that runs the house up into the upper 70s, we then let the fire go out and the well insulated house will cruise for quite some time down to the upper 60s again. The time between these fires gets smaller when it's really cold out and longer when its warm. Maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to keep the fire going 24/7 in the cold winter but it is then a low low cruise. Sometimes I have to restart a fire from kindling twice in one day. The stove never gets cold.

Of course, always with a closed draft once the fire will burn cleanly with the draft closed.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Have lots of kindling on hand for spring and fall. Light a small fire and just let it go out. Don't put in more than 3 small splits.

 

[SPED]

Have lots of kindling on hand for spring and fall. Light a small fire and just let it go out. Don't put in more than 3 small splits.

This is what I've been doing, small fires like that during the day, a little bit more on there during the colder nights. Kind of a pain to keep lighting the fire, but on the plus side, I've got my top down technique perfected.

 

[oconnor]

Have lots of kindling on hand for spring and fall. Light a small fire and just let it go out. Don't put in more than 3 small splits.

This is what I've been doing, small fires like that during the day, a little bit more on there during the colder nights. Kind of a pain to keep lighting the fire, but on the plus side, I've got my top down technique perfected.

To keep from relighting, once down to coals, bury them in the back corner away from the primary air, and shut the air off. They should still be there to relight in a few hours. I keep more ash this time of year to do just that.

 

[firefighterjake]

+1 to Backwoods, Sped and Highbeam . . . get a fire going when you're cold . . . if need be reload once and then let the fire die . . . relight when necessary (unless you have some coals buried in the ash like oconnor mentioned (I don't purposefully bury them, but often find the coals in the evening long after the morning fire has died out.)

 

[dondude]

Work at a printing company lots of skid wood. Hot fast fires till the real cold weather gets here.

 

[katwillny]

Go for it dude.. In my case the hotter the house gets the more skins that get shown. AIAIAIAIAIIAIAIAI (thats my mating call by the way) LOL.

 

[BrotherBart]

Go for it dude.. In my case the hotter the house gets the more skins that get shown. AIAIAIAIAIIAIAIAI (thats my mating call by the way) LOL.

Not around here dude. We are both in our sixties and it would not be a pretty sight. :shut: