Pumping heat but a cold house

[JA600L]

I was over at a friends house tonight and they have a woodstove insert with secondary air tubes and a blower running.

This was a kitchen install with open access to the living room. We were in the living room wearing blankets watching a movie because it was freezing. I watched the stove. It was running full bore. The air control was wide open, and the wood was fully lit but I was not seeing good secondary activity. In about 3 hours time I watched them load 3 times full each with dry white oak.

The secondaries went wild with the off gassing of fresh wood but before long they diminished and the wood was just being consumed. Then I decided that's why we are cold. If they would shut the air down and allow the secondaries to control the heat, the heat would stay in the house instead of going up the chimney.

The amount of wood they wasted I could have probably got a 24 hour burn out of the Ideal steel and the whole house would feel warm.

 

[fossil]

Why tell us and not them?

 

[BrotherBart]

It was a really, really good movie?

 

[JA600L]

I did. They are stubborn in their ways. I'm just trying to learn from it myself.

 

[begreen]

Send them here and we'll try to help.

 

[weatherguy]

I did. They are stubborn in their ways. I'm just trying to learn from it myself.

You should have asked them if you could burn a load, then you could have showed them. I know some people don't like other people touching their stoves but you could have asked.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

If they are freezing now in lancaster Pa, wait till winter gets here. Its not that cold yet. I hope they have another source of heat or at least move the TV into the kitchen

 

[dafattkidd]

Even burning that way they should get heat into the room. I wonder if they have a block off plate installed. If they have a drafty house, no block off plate and no outside air kit, the cool air from the drafty areas will be rushing towards the heat while a large percentage of the heat is pushing up the chimney.

Also something else is wrong there. Three loads of oak in three hours seems crazy. They mush have a gasket that's leaking, or a super tall chimney. It's bazaar they don't realize their unit isn't performing well.

 

[Cory S]

Three loads of oak in three hours seems crazy. They mush have a gasket that's leaking, or a super tall chimney. It's bazaar they don't realize their unit isn't performing well.

MANY do not realize that they are not taking full advantage of their wood burning setups. I talk to people on a WEEKLY basis who are proud of ONLY burning 6-8 cord of wood in a heating season...... They get all 6-8 cords delivered green in September...... I heat ONLY with 3-3.5 cord in a 1900sq ft home.

 

[Newschool]

Wet wood. This is exactly how my insert behaved the first year when burning wet wood.

Lots of flames (once I got it started) but little heat and lots of reloads.

I doubt that dry white oak is anywhere dry enough.

 

[hoverwheel]

Send them here and we'll try to help.

Having benefited last year with the pellet stoves, I've been doing this very thing. Nobody (to my knowledge anyway) has done so. They gotta learn it for themselves, I guess.

I was at my cousin's place yesterday. Warm enough house, heated with wood only, but the chimney was smoking away and a small, smoldering fire was burning in the stove. They did recently re-line the chimney and extend it above the roof line (it previously stopped even with the rooftop).

 

[tarzan]

They should still stay plenty warm just carrying in wood and tending to the stove.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

If i can heat 3 floors from the basement in the coldest weather in a poorly insulated house with 1 stove im sure they are doing something wrong. Sounds like green wood because in this weather i can do it on one load of seasoned oak a day.