there was a discussion i think last year about heating an old drafty house almost exclusively with an nc-30. i have an approximate situation and right now it is 12 degrees outside, wind howling. last night it was 8. inside it is 73 downstairs and 70 upstairs. i remember a lot of back and forth about the inability to do the job. unless its -30 or -20, it will definitely do the job. also, my install is on an old porch addition facing into the house, not a center house install.
nc-30 for 3100 sq ft drafty farmhouse
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That's all and well it works for you, but this is a big YMMV
That would never happen at my house and today is good proof. Just look at your 73 downstairs and 70 upstairs figures. Regardless whats heating the downstairs I have it hotter than yours (~76-78) downstairs and my upstairs was below 60. A little warmer when I have 2 stoves going (which surely is more BTU than an NC30) but still not as good as your numbers. And my house is slightly smaller than yours.
So 'drafty' can be a big variable.
That would never happen at my house and today is good proof. Just look at your 73 downstairs and 70 upstairs figures. Regardless whats heating the downstairs I have it hotter than yours (~76-78) downstairs and my upstairs was below 60. A little warmer when I have 2 stoves going (which surely is more BTU than an NC30) but still not as good as your numbers. And my house is slightly smaller than yours.
So 'drafty' can be a big variable.
i don't see how your upstairs can be so much colder. i'd love to have it 60 upstairs, the i could sleep without sweating
Well, being the first cold & windy day of the season I was surprised as well and started checking things out and also used my IR temp gun. Attic crawl space shows missing insulation all over the place. Also none of the 3 access doors are insulated, and some have as big as 1/4" gap around the door, to which you could see the metal roof through. Pretty big leak between the panes of a double hung window too. Also in the great room I have one section of the wall that drops about 20 degrees compared to the studs to the left and right of it. Somehow straight up cold air is getting in there. The list goes on. Heck my pipes froze last winter and went down there to figure out what the heck was going on. Found a foot wide groundhog hole right into the basement and my hair was practically flapping in the breeze in the middle of the cellar! So 'drafty' can mean different things to different people.
that's drafty, but i had a resident baby possum in my garage and skunk dens in my basement. bear tracks around the barn.
SpAmSoNiTe
Member
+1 on the YMMV With the "drafty" house. Mine is a little under 1800 s.f. This morning in NE Ohio it was extremely windy(20-30mph) and cold (10°F) and my Nc30 couldn't get up above 65. Started this morning at 55. House is insulated like Swiss cheese with nothing to block the west wind. Probably would have been better if I didn't have to leave it for 10-11 hours at work. I don't fault the stove though. I think it's more on how I have to run it with the work schedule.
i think the problem is letting the house get down to 55. bringing it up 20 degrees would take a long time. i'm home all the time and i keep it roaring constantly
SpAmSoNiTe
Member
Agreed. If someone was home to tend or we got home from work sooner it would be much better. With mine and the better 1/2's schedules, it gets filled almost to the tubes around 1:00 pm and doesn't get and doesn't get reloaded till we get home around midnight. We usually get it ripping for an hour or so before we go to bed but it spendsa good portion of the 24hr period on low.
Swiss cheese lol. I was hoping putting in an OAK would cut down on pulling these drafts for us, but if its windy out it'll practically blow out candles in the middle of the house!
I kid of course. Is it bad if you can stand in a room and look through a gap in the wall at the white underside of the metal roof?- Status
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