Shoulder seasons... gas or oil?

[Mr. Kelly]

Hey all!

Happy shoulder season!

How many of you guys say, "The heck with it..." and go ahead and turn your oil or gas thermometer up a few degrees when it gets cool in the house?

Or, how may folks chill yourselves out and ignore the cold, and go ahead and throw on a heavy sweater and an extra pair of socks?

How many of you grin and throw a couple of splits in the ignored firebox, instead?

Will be interesting to hear what you guys choose!

 

[fox9988]

I'm 100% wood heat, can't wait for the 1st fire of the year after long hot summers.

 

[Mr. Kelly]

Are you saying that you have another form of heat, but just don't use it? How cool do you let your house get before you fire up the flames??

 

[ailanthus]

Or, how may folks chill yourselves out and ignore the cold, and go ahead and throw on a heavy sweater and an extra pair of socks? How many of you grin and throw a couple of splits in the ignored firebox, instead?

I prefer the sweater & socks approach at least for a little while. But everyone else in the house grins when I finally give in a light the first fire - they usually wear me down pretty quickly

 

[Todd]

In the Fall I'm usually itching to burn wood so I'm more likely to build a fire but come Spring time I get sick of burning wood and tend to burn more gas.

 

[ScotO]

All wood here, too. I have two gas furnaces, I test fire 'em (I don't really even know why, honestly) in the fall, but that's it. We usually start burning around the end of Sept/early Oct right through early May.....

Had my first fire in the NZ3000 last night, which was the earliest I've ever had a fire in the house. I DID have the summer bypass open, but still, it was cozy in there!

 

[fox9988]

Are you saying that you have another form of heat, but just don't use it? How cool do you let your house get before you fire up the flames??

I have a pro-pain space heater and a couple of electric space heaters, never use them.

 

[akbear]

Being that I have used a toyo laser 30 for a dozen years and even if it ran steady on low burner around the clock it would only amount to a gallon of fuel, but considering it would have to be well below zero for it not to cycle on and off, this time of year is negligible in fuel consumption, as well as avoiding some issues that can crop up by having it shut down for any great length of time.

 

[Tenn Dave]

We do the sweaters & heavy socks first, then the gas boiler, and when it really starts to get cold, the wood stove. I tend to really appreciate the wood burning stove more when I wait until cold weather sets in.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

My stove works a lot better when its good and hot. I dont like to fiddle with small fires. Its like having a big diesel engine in your truck and driving on idle. I wait for some serious cold before i start the big diesel.

 

[begreen]

We run the heat pump until temps get in the 40s. It's a barely noticeable blip in the electric bill and saves our wood fuel for when it is really needed and appreciated.

 

[Nick Mystic]

We tend to do the sweaters and extra blanket before we go to any heat source. We start out by first closing up the house. Last night we shut up the house, except for the bedroom windows, which we left open a few inches. It had only gone down to 69 in the house by morning with it dropping into the lower 50s outside. As much as I enjoy building a fire I usually wait until the house gets down into the mid-60s for the first burn. When that occurs I generally begin with a fire in the old Woodstock Classic on the lower level of the house, rather than the big Jotul F600 in the main living room upstairs. After a few hours of burning the Woodstock enough heat makes it upstairs to take the chill off without cooking us out.

We have a central heating system that burns propane and I like to fire that thing up a time or two near the beginning of the season for general maintenance reasons, but we don't heat with it unless something unusual takes place. Hard to say when the first fire will take place this year since we've had such unusual weather all year. It wouldn't surprise me if we needed one next week or if things held off for another month or more.

 

[SteveKG]

100% wood for us. Small fire is no big deal. Just use a little bit of smaller wood. Lately, we've been building a small fire in the open fireplace just after dinner and that provides ambience and the efficiency does not matter. But we've had two of the stoves going a few times, too, each with a handful of small splits.

 

[Mr. Kelly]

Fun reading, guys!

My wife came down today, and was grumpy that it was cold in the house. Wall thermometer said 63 in the house. Given that I'm working on the wood stove, a fire wasn't an option anyway, so I cranked up the oil heat for about 15 minutes, to take the chill out of the air, and then shut the system down again. Wife was fine with the few degrees of increase!

I'm hoping to wait for another month before getting any "real" fires going, although it might be nice to have a fire for ambiance when you don't really need one!

 

[begreen]

Occasional cycling of the furnace or boiler throughout the season is actually a good thing to do.

 

[Seanm]

I don't mind turning on the furnace a bit to take the chill off the house. My wifes office and my daughters bedroom are downstairs where it can get cool when the stove is off. Natural gas heat doesn't break the bank so im fine with using it from time to time. Its hard this time of year because its quite cool in the morning and then summer heat during the day.

 

[Seanm]

So I just looked at the forecast and Wednesdays forecast is calling for rain with highs of 8c/46f and lows of 6c/42f so I think it will be my first burn of the year. Time to top cover the stacks!

 

[firefighterjake]

My wife may turn on the oil boiler around this time of year for a limited amount of time to just bring the house up to temp . . . as mentioned it's not necessary a bad thing to make sure the system is working OK and the amount of oil used is pretty minimal.

That said . . . Me . . . I like playing with fire . . . in fact I've got a small fire going tonight and had one this morning to just make things a bit more comfortable for us while sitting.

 

[BrotherBart]

I turned on a space heater for twenty minutes to knock the chill off downstairs this morning. Ain't firing that stove until I have to.

 

[Mr. Kelly]

When would "most" say they'd HAVE to?

Our oil system is also used for creating hot water, so our burner fires up all year round.

 

[JBinKC]

My usual initial way of generating heat in the house during the shoulder season is through drying clothes in the dryer which I vent indoors during the heating season and/or baking something in the oven. Secondarily will turn on the electric base board heat. I will only do this if I think the conditions are not optimal for a fire.

 

[BrotherBart]

When would "most" say they'd HAVE to?
.

Some morning always just comes where I say "The heck with it. It is cold in this joint.". And then the game is on till May. Usually mid October. I go through knocking the chill of with the space heaters, then warmer clothes etc. and then that morning just always comes around.

 

[lopiliberty]

How cool do you let your house get before you fire up the flames??

Usually between 72 and 75 depending on what the outside temperature is and were it heading

Are you saying that you have another form of heat, but just don't use it?

I have a heat pump but only turn it on once a month during the winter to make sure it still works

 

[Oregon aloha]

We have a 43 year old propane forced air furnace . Usually only fire it up once in the fall to make sure it still works and generally for a couple of weeks in the spring to take the morning chill off. This year we a rebuilding our fireplace and installing a new wood stove. With the mason still three or four weeks out we may be needing to use the furnace this fall as well.

 

[StihlHead]

100% wood here. Have an electric furnace that gets tested once a year, b/c a bank will require one if I ever sell this place. I had a fire last week when a cold front came though and we got a lot of local flooding. That was just to take the chill off the house though and to burn some odd splits that do not stack well, as well as some pith wood I had around. Its 6- outside now, 70 inside. Perfect weather for me.