I must be doing something wrong. After learning from so many on this forum, I've found that my house is warmer when I do small fires, with smaller splits than when I pack the stove full (obviously, I stack if full for overnight, but this question is just about the waking hours).
I've tested this with same relative temperatures outside, and have found that if I burn a couple of splits at a time only, the heat seems to radiate better through my house. I feed it a new split every 90 minutes or so. Temp on the oven is about 450F. If I pack it full, open the air to char the wood real good, then adjust to about 1/2 open, the temp on my oven is still about 450F, but the temperature doesn't seem to radiate as well through the house. Temperatures far from the stove read about 3 or 4 degrees cooler than temps when I do just a couple splits at a time. Can someone describe what I'm seeing here, or does this not even make sense?
To be honest, since this is still new to me, I don't really mind tending it every 90 minutes or so, since "tending" it means banging the burning splits with my poker and throwing a new split on top. But, if my "style" of burning is all wrong or I'm somehow hurting my stove, I'd love to get it right.
I've tested this with same relative temperatures outside, and have found that if I burn a couple of splits at a time only, the heat seems to radiate better through my house. I feed it a new split every 90 minutes or so. Temp on the oven is about 450F. If I pack it full, open the air to char the wood real good, then adjust to about 1/2 open, the temp on my oven is still about 450F, but the temperature doesn't seem to radiate as well through the house. Temperatures far from the stove read about 3 or 4 degrees cooler than temps when I do just a couple splits at a time. Can someone describe what I'm seeing here, or does this not even make sense?
To be honest, since this is still new to me, I don't really mind tending it every 90 minutes or so, since "tending" it means banging the burning splits with my poker and throwing a new split on top. But, if my "style" of burning is all wrong or I'm somehow hurting my stove, I'd love to get it right.