Perplexed

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fireview2788

Minister of Fire
Apr 20, 2011
972
SW Ohio
Saturday night the wife and I went out to dinner and I told my girls the stove would be fine. We came home and it was running around 400F but the house was cold. I can usually get the house up to around 74F but the stove was struggling. I loaded it up and it worked itself up to around 500F but the house was still not warming up. I set it up for an all night burn and we went to bed. When we got up for church I had coals and a cold house with the heat pump running. :sick: Weather was 16F, clear skies and no wind.

Sunday night we had the same weather and pretty much the same thing. We get home and I stoke the fire and get her cruising around 500F. This time the house heated up nicely, got it to 76F as a matter of fact. Went to bed and slept hard but woke up @ 0550hrs to a heat pump running :sick: , again. I reloaded the stove (still working on a good all night burn) and she took right off. Within an hour I had the house back to 72F and the stove was cooking at 560F. Overnight temp was 19F.

Any ideas why one night the stove would heat and the next it wouldn't? Both days the stove ran all day to keep the chimney warm. The wife and I scratched our heads and have no ideas so I once again come to the wise sages at hearth.com.


f v
 
Were you using the same wood both nights? Need to look for any settings or conditions that were different. Air settings?
 
I have found that it has to do more with daytime temps than overnight lows. And how diligent I am about keeping the house warm all day or not. Here's my theory. When day time temps drop it prevents warming of the house from the outside and there is no recovery period. So when I try and warm up the house at night I can get it warm but the house is pulling the heat off fairly quick. If I am diligent about keeping the stove warm all day and actually getting the house a bit warm I can maintain those temps longer and don't get the big swings. Regardless of what I do I have to run my gas furnace for one cycle in the morning to take the chill off for the wife and girls (or else I would be in trouble).
 
Wood is a mix (well seasoned scrounge so I am not sure what kind) and air setting were almost the same. Why would this have an effect when the stove temps were the same?

Air settings were pretty much the same, close to 1 each time.


f v
 
Did the stove heat one day, fail to heat the next, then return to its previous performance? That would seem to indicate the wood or weather are to blame (those things change constantly). If the change seems permanent, could the flue be partially blocked? Could the outside air intake be blocked (if you have one)?
 
Someone left a door open?
 
fireview2788 said:
Wood is a mix (well seasoned scrounge so I am not sure what kind) and air setting were almost the same. Why would this have an effect when the stove temps were the same?

Air settings were pretty much the same, close to 1 each time.


f v

That probably has the most to do with it. I can tell a big difference in heat output between different kinds of wood. Most of this year I was burning half punky Oak and it was doing ok until the outside temps dipped into the 20's or below then the stove seemed to struggle to keep up or had to light off the other stove. Now I'm into my good 3 year old Oak and it has no problems keeping up where the other wood could not. Your stove top temps may spike at about the same place but they won't hold there as long with less dense woods.
 
I agree that daytime temps really do dictate how much heating you'll have to do that night. Even more, how sunny a day you've had. I figure that the bricks on the outside of my house, and the passive solar properties of my S. facing windows account for a substantial radiation benefit t/o the night. Also, I think that we underestimate how long it takes for the ground/foundation to reach temperature equilibrum after the warmer months. Even on a day when the outside temps are low (for these lattitudes anyway), but sunny, the temperature in my attic will be in the high 70's. That is huge for heating the house the rest of the day. I notice that it is only about New Year's day before I beging to notice that below grade temperature starting to drop to the point where I need turn on the downstairs furnace. It is around this time of year that my Castine has trouble keeping up with the defecits....but I didn't install that to heat my whole house (it never would) only to supplement my gas furnace upstairs and keep the living areas at a higher ambient temp.
 
I will agree with the natural heating is likely the issue. The stove had NO problem getting and maintaining a temp of 500F but it was the house that was the issue.


Thanks!

f v
 
fv, I'm not sure why you don't get that stove up to 600+. Sounds like there may be a fuel problem there. And there may have been some weather problems to cause the difference but my bet is fuel. We have the same stove and I can put 4 small splits in and get the stove over 600 rather quickly.
 
rwhite said:
I have found that it has to do more with daytime temps than overnight lows. And how diligent I am about keeping the house warm all day or not. Here's my theory. When day time temps drop it prevents warming of the house from the outside and there is no recovery period. So when I try and warm up the house at night I can get it warm but the house is pulling the heat off fairly quick. If I am diligent about keeping the stove warm all day and actually getting the house a bit warm I can maintain those temps longer and don't get the big swings. Regardless of what I do I have to run my gas furnace for one cycle in the morning to take the chill off for the wife and girls (or else I would be in trouble).

+1

When the structure itself is "cold-soaked," it takes a lot longer to warm up a room.
 
Backwoods S, I'm guessing that it's me still learning the stove. I'm regularly getting it over 550 and have hit 600 several times. I am just now getting into some regular splits instead of chunks and uglies so loading is getting easier which is making getting it to push 600 is easier too. The splits have only surface moisture and isn't bubbling so I know it's not wet as well as the cat burns VERY well. Most of the time there is no smoke coming out of the chimney even without the cat engaged.


f v
 
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