Its been a long project, but its in and working swell. As I sit writing this, I am have the primary air down to just off closed and am admiring the secondary burn. For lack of having a supply of good seasoned wood, I am burning dry hardwood pallets at the moment. I do have some good black spruce in the wood shed, and I won't get at it until the pallet supply gets used.
I do notice a couple of things, one of which is the stove really heats the living room. Its 80 degrees in here right now, my boiler has not run for several hours, so the back rooms are about 65. I need to get a fan to move some air. Last night the wind was blowing about 30 mph, and I notice the stove does not shut down with the primary air shut off. It got to a point with the air shut off during this wind that the stove percolated happily while maintaining 500 degrees on the stove top corner Rutland thermometer. Until the large hot bed of coals slowly died (a hour or more), the temp stayed right there. So, its hard to regulate a wanted temperature when the wind is howling.
All in all, the stove is fantastic! Its been a revelation using it the past three days when I compare it to my non-cat Blaze King, circa 1988. Since home heating fuel here is $6 a gallon, and I historically use 150 gallons per month in each month of Dec/Jan/Feb, 100 gallons each in November and March, it will be very eye-opening to find out how quickly the Castine pays for itself.
Carry on, 'gents. This website is fantastic, and I am reading cool stuff everyday.
I do notice a couple of things, one of which is the stove really heats the living room. Its 80 degrees in here right now, my boiler has not run for several hours, so the back rooms are about 65. I need to get a fan to move some air. Last night the wind was blowing about 30 mph, and I notice the stove does not shut down with the primary air shut off. It got to a point with the air shut off during this wind that the stove percolated happily while maintaining 500 degrees on the stove top corner Rutland thermometer. Until the large hot bed of coals slowly died (a hour or more), the temp stayed right there. So, its hard to regulate a wanted temperature when the wind is howling.
All in all, the stove is fantastic! Its been a revelation using it the past three days when I compare it to my non-cat Blaze King, circa 1988. Since home heating fuel here is $6 a gallon, and I historically use 150 gallons per month in each month of Dec/Jan/Feb, 100 gallons each in November and March, it will be very eye-opening to find out how quickly the Castine pays for itself.
Carry on, 'gents. This website is fantastic, and I am reading cool stuff everyday.
