My first posting

[Ubookz]

Hello to forum members, I am new here. I am retired and live in a small town in Princeton BC. Canada. I have an older single level house-1000 sq.', it has 2 gas wall heaters and 2 electric baseboard heaters. I decided to go to wood heating.Wood heating is in my past from the air-tight my parents had to a cast iron (made in Ireland) wood stove in years past and open air fireplace.

A lot of searching done; ended up buying a Pacific Energy super 27 black pedestal model along with an Excel chimney system. My w.e.t.t. safety inspector said I will cook myself out of the house! with that stove. I said I was looking for an over night burn which I thought the smaller Vista may not be able to do. Maybe I can burn at a lower rate or reduce the size of the firebox with additional firebrick?

So in process of installing everything. Hoping for a long use of this stove.

Started to collect firewood, have about 1 cord now of lodgepole pine. That is the common wood here. So far There are 2 fence post mills that provide cut-offs free and at $10/pick-up load.

Looking forward to warm nights this fall!

 

[soupy1957]

Here's the list I hung on the refridgerator, for all those (mostly my wife, since the kids are grown and gone), who would help with keeping the fire going, during the winter. Perhaps you'll find it useful for YOUR refridgerator:

1. Remind yourself every day, while you are lugging wood, or cleaning ash: “I love to
burn wood; I love to burn wood!†If it becomes a “chore,†you’ve lost the
essence of what it’s all about.
2. Get the fire going like you always have, and keep it going. No fire, no heat!
3. Keep the wood dry out in the yard. You can’t burn soaked wood!
4. If you try again to cook potatoes in a pan on top of the stove, leave them there
longer this time. If you can’t afford to wait any longer, use the microwave!
5. The stove and flue thermometers are just there to give you an idea of how things are
going. If the outsides of either the stove or flue are cherry red, I’d back down on the
heat if I were you!
6. Open windows and doors to cool things down. The cat likes the snow anyway.
7. Wave politely at the oilman as he passes our house without stopping. It’ll confuse the
HECK outa him!!
8. It’s all about keeping the fire balanced. I know it’s been a long time, but try.
9. It’s tempting to toss trash in the fire but don’t! I wanted that last issue of Yankee Magazine!

-Soupy1957

 

[certified106]

Welcome to the forums there is a lot to be learned here! I'm glad to see you are getting ahead on your wood supply. As far as the Super 27 goes just don't pack that baby tight on a fall evening when you don't need as much heat but in the dead of winter when you don't have to get up at night to load the stove you will love it.

 

[Jags]

Welcome to the forum.

The Super 27 has a good reputation for being a reliable heater. Feed it good dry wood and it will be happy, and that will make you happy. If you are used to the old air tight stoves, there may be a bit of a learning curve for the new EPA stove, but nothing that can't be overcome for sure.

 

[shawneyboy]

Ubookz,

Welcome to the forum. Since you are new here just a fair warning, it is a bit slow untill we get back into the heating season, but take that time and read everything you can. Heating with wood isn't rocket science but it isn't just a matter of throwing a log on the fire.

First bit of advice, you already are on top of, get wood. Whatever you think you are going to need for the first year, double that, and go from there. Speaking of wood, per one of the many resident experts here, 90% of all problems are because of the fuel. You need to get that stuff, cut, split and stacked (c/s/s) as soon as you can. Now since you are using pine from a mill it may already be somewhat seasoned, but as a general rule you want to be at or about 20% moisture content before you chuck it into that PE27.

I hope you become an active member here, and I look forward to hearing about how you are doing with the install and when you burn up there in BC.

Cheers for now,

Shawn

 

[Ubookz]

:cheese: Thanks for the warm welcome!; I will be busy for a while until the 1st break-in fire, installing the chimney support now-so a ways to go, hearth last.

 

[begreen]

You're off to a nice start. That is a great stove.

 

[Woody Stover]

ended up buying a Pacific Energy super 27 black pedestal model along with an Excel chimney system. My w.e.t.t. safety inspector said I will cook myself out of the house! with that stove. I said I was looking for an over night burn

Welcome, Ubookz!
That does sound like a lot of stove for that space, unless your house is as leaky and uninsulated as mine. But it looks like you have new windows in there...
I'm heating 970 sq.ft. but it's an open floor plan. If you have to move the heat around to a lot of rooms, your stove might not be oversized by a lot. At any rate, I think you should be able to burn smaller loads at a slower rate, and still get the overnight burn you want. We got good overnight burns with our little Keystone, but we haven't yet used it in super-cold weather where a faster burn rate will be required.

You're stock-piling wood with a maul and a bow saw?!! You're a stud! You are the man!

 

[PapaDave]

Ubookz, Welcome to the Hearth.
Looks like you're getting a handle on things.
We'd love to see pics of the install......even if you aren't done. Those are the best.
Bow saw......Really? Wow. Think I'll go hug my chainsaw. On the other hand, n/m. :lol:

 

[Dix]

Hello to forum members, I am new here. I am retired and live in a small town in Princeton BC. Canada. I have an older single level house-1000 sq.', it has 2 gas wall heaters and 2 electric baseboard heaters. I decided to go to wood heating.Wood heating is in my past from the air-tight my parents had to a cast iron (made in Ireland) wood stove in years past and open air fireplace.

A lot of searching done; ended up buying a Pacific Energy super 27 black pedestal model along with an Excel chimney system. My w.e.t.t. safety inspector said I will cook myself out of the house! with that stove. I said I was looking for an over night burn which I thought the smaller Vista may not be able to do. Maybe I can burn at a lower rate or reduce the size of the firebox with additional firebrick?

So in process of installing everything. Hoping for a long use of this stove.

Started to collect firewood, have about 1 cord now of lodgepole pine. That is the common wood here. So far There are 2 fence post mills that provide cut-offs free and at $10/pick-up load.

Looking forward to warm nights this fall!

.


Welcome to the forums.


That fire box will serve you well. And yes, you can always load it with less wood

 

[raybonz]

Welcome to the forum! I am in the process of installing the Alderlea T-5 which is based on the Super 27 firebox... Those are nice looking stoves especially in porcelain enamel!
Ray

 

[heatwise]

welcome, this is a good place to be.

 

[fossil]

Welcome to the forums, Ubookz. Yeah, you might cook yourself out of the house once or twice as you learn the stove...once in a while I still manage to get my workshop up to ~80°F (~27°C) if it's relatively mild outside and I'm not paying attention. But hey, that's what doors and windows are for. Again, welcome. Rick

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

Welcome! You can burn a larger stove hotter by slitting the wood smaller and burning, quick hot fires. Just don't fill up the firebox. Get the chimney hot when you first light the stove by burning the stove with the air control wide open for about 20 min.

 

[North of 60]

Ubookz, welcome to the forum. I spent much of my time fly fishing Ludwig, Johny,Prosser and Thailia Lake @ Pike mountain for my getaways from Vancouver. I also did the set up work in your old closed mine on the boilers and process furnaces. Princeton gives me good memories. The Yukon is my home now and does have alot of similarity's. Even the wood you are burning. Good luck on your new hobby and self sustained heating.
Cheers

 

[Hogwildz]

No need to add firebrick, just burn smaller loads, for overnight, load large splits. Good to go.

 

[greythorn3]

Howdy pardner!

Welcome to the shootin match! theres pleanty of things to read and good advice around these here parts.

Yeehaw!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Ubookz.

Do I see an axe used for splitting the wood?! That is good to see. I split with an axe for many, many moons. If it didn't split with the axe then I'd use a sledge and wedge.

You are doing well by getting your wood put up now. If you can get yourself 2-3 years ahead with wood then you are really sitting nice. That is because the wood has good time for drying and if something happens where you can't put up wood some year then you have a year's cushion and won't have to worry about having to buy gas for heat or use those electric heaters.

As for the size of the stove, some have put in extra firebrick to make the firebox smaller but it seems more normal to just not fill the firebox so full if you don't want that much heat.

Back to the wood. It appears that you have stacked the wood directly on the ground or on cement (can't tell for sure). You can do yourself and your wood a big favor by raising that wood so there is an air space under it. The wood will dry better and won't soak up ground moisture. We usually go anywhere from 2" to 5" off the ground and just use some saplings that we cut. I usually cut them to around 8' length. They will last several years. Or you could use something like landscape timbers. Many on this forum like to use old pallets to stack wood on but I really do not like them at all. But use what is available to you.

Good luck on learning that new stove but you will learn super fast. There is a big difference between the newer stoves vs the older stoves but it really is a good difference. We cut our wood use by half when we installed our last stove and we stay warmer too. I hope you find the same.

Be sure to go to the Wood Shed part of this forum too for more good reading and some great folks who frequent that forum. Join right in with us.

One more thing is that you might go to your control panel and edit your signature line. It is great if you can put the name and model of your stove so others can see what you have. It also may help in answering questions you might have in the future. Most of us also put in what saw we have and how we split wood and/or other information.

Good luck and welcome aboard.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

[quote author="Wood Heat Stoves" date="1308294648"]Welcome! You can burn a larger stove hotter by slitting the wood smaller and burning, quick hot fires. Just don't fill up the firebox. Get the chimney hot when you first light the stove by burning the stove with the air control wide open for about 20 min.[/quote]

Whoa! I really do not want to disagree with such a good fellow as Wood Heat is but I do hesitate to recommend burning wide open for 20 minutes. The reason is that sometimes you can do this but sometimes you can not! For example, I rarely can leave the draft fully open for longer than 10 minutes on our stove and many times it is only 5 minutes. Otherwise our flue temperature would soar well over 1000 degrees; well over that! So you may or may not be able to burn wide open for 20 minutes.

Each stove and each installation can and will be different so one has to learn his stove and to do this good one needs to have thermometers on the stove top and flue if at all possible. I've found on ours that we dial down the draft when the flue thermometer is around 500. After the fire is established then our flue temperature runs around 300 or a bit over. Stove top temperature for us is from 500-700 normally in winter and we are refilling the stove when that temperature gets down to around 400-425.

 

[firefighterjake]

Welcome to the forum . . . and consider me impressed with anyone that has got that much wood stockpiled already with just an ax and bow saw.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

Congrats on your decision to heat with wood, an incredible feeling when you enjoy what your doing. I agree with alot of other posts here, in that stove for the amount of square feet you have will definitely keep you warm. Dry wood and some fine tuning in how you operate the stove will get you where you want to go. Good luck and welcome to the forums...

 

[Ubookz]

:roll: Thank you all for the terrific welcome! This will be a good place to be! That old shed I have is where I can load in about 2 cords, I have the chimney adapter fastened in place, will have to do some reinforcements in the attic-this is an old house! maybe 60 years old! will be going through a metal roof over lap boards.

Have had some concerns: my neighbors seem a little cool to my prospect of burning wood. The new neighbor on my other side converted from an older style wood stove to a modern gas furnace, I remember his complaint to me of high gas bills!(he did not like the smell of wood smoke) My main reason is to save money, to be as warm as I want!-and want to see that hypnotic secondary burn. Don't mind the extra work of wood-I need exercise!!Also my insurance company seem to have a negative view of wood stoves and encourage to change over to Gas!Will look for an insurance company that has a better outlook towards it's customers.

There is some discussion about air pollution also,BC gov. had a retrofit program encouraging old to new EPA stove rebate program. Lots of wood fuel in this area.

 

[gdk84]

Congrates on your purchase of a great stove! You have purchased one of the very few stoves that shuts both primary and secondary air down when you shut that draft lever, a wonderful design. I heat my home with the PE27, I burn 24/7 all winter. After tweaking a few things with my excel chimney (suffering from over draft) I now have proper stove and pipe probe temps and life is good thanks to my dealer. Im almost approaching burn times of a 3 cubic foot firebox with good seasoned hardwoods. Like the T5 cast iron model (same firebox) i can easly get 11+ hours with plenty of coals and a toasty warm house. Not too shabby for a 2 cubic foot stove. I also burn pine, hemlock, poplar, cherry, ash, maple, birch, beach, oak and pretty much anything in my area. I get it for free, in the stove it goes. I hate to see things wasted. You will enjoy burning wood i bet, it actually becomes a hobby. Other than reloads, there is zero smoke from my chimney. Actually, my neighbor never even knew i burned wood until I told her. Which is the way it should be done with a new EPA stove properly operating. Welcome to the forums!

 

[raybonz]

Congrates on your purchase of a great stove! You have purchased one of the very few stoves that shuts both primary and secondary air down when you shut that draft lever, a wonderful design. I heat my home with the PE27, I burn 24/7 all winter. After tweaking a few things with my excel chimney (suffering from over draft) I now have proper stove and pipe probe temps and life is good thanks to my dealer. Im almost approaching burn times of a 3 cubic foot firebox with good seasoned hardwoods. Like the T5 cast iron model (same firebox) i can easly get 11+ hours with plenty of coals and a toasty warm house. Not too shabby for a 2 cubic foot stove. I also burn pine, hemlock, poplar, cherry, ash, maple, birch, beach, oak and pretty much anything in my area. I get it for free, in the stove it goes. I hate to see things wasted. You will enjoy burning wood i bet, it actually becomes a hobby. Other than reloads, there is zero smoke from my chimney. Actually, my neighbor never even knew i burned wood until I told her. Which is the way it should be done with a new EPA stove properly operating. Welcome to the forums!

Wow those are impressive burn times on your stove! The T-5 we bought should be similar I would think.. I wonder if the T-5 draft works the same as the Super27? I am looking forward to actually see a view of the fire!

Ray

 

[begreen]

The Spectrum/Super 27 are legendary for long burn times. My next door neighbor has a Spectrum and gets pretty much the same burn times as I do with the T6. You should be seeing the same with the T5 raybonz.