I have been running a Pacific Energy Vista for a few months now and it seems that on a 30 degree day, I can maintain 70 degrees in most of my house with one or two splits at a time, burning them down to coals before I reload. If I put in twice as much wood, it does get hotter but I wouldn't say it gets twice as hot, nor does it burn twice as long. Is there some kind of obvious truth here that I am missing? Maybe hotter fires have more BTUs escape up the chimney or the warmer house leaks more BTUs out the windows because of a greater temperature diff? I welcome any science lessons here.
Small Loads More Efficient Use of Wood?
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My wife runs our stove that way. It may be less efficient, but ok if there is enough wood and heat for good secondary combustion. Running larger loads requires a different strategy. The wood needs to be packed fairly tight and the air regulation needs to be more aggressive.
I would say how well your house is insulated also plays a role. I also have the Vista installed in June and we love it. House is 1,800 sq ft insulated well. If I load it with 2 medium splits and 2 small of mixed hardwood with a redstone brick on top I can get STT to 575-625 and it heats up the house well over the course of 4 hours. Great secondaries. The house easily gets temps on the main floor to 77-78 if I don’t cut back the amount of wood on reloads. We normally like 75 downstairs and 70 upstairs. Right now Its 76/72. Also sometimes I delay reloads until STT is 250. If I want to heat up the house faster I reload at 350. Like begreen said air regulation is important especially with larger loads so there was a learning curve with the stove. Turning the air down keeps more BTU’s inside the stove/home vs up the flue.
Same issues with my little Lopi answer. Ive only had it a year. Wish I had a bigger stove. Reloading every 3 hours gets bothersome.
I work from home and actually enjoy reloading. I can get longer burn times by stacking tight but like the OP I load with a smaller number of splits. We should have a small stove forum 😂
Lol not that young and my knee arthritis is killing me. At least the heat from the stove makes my joints real better 😂 temporarily!
I work from home as well. Tinkering with my insert is my favorite form of procrastination!
Warmer temps.in the home certainly makes for.more BTU leakage to the outside, per hour.
I'm not sure about BTUs up the chimney,. because while.flue gas temps may be higher, the time BTUs are expelled burning high is shorter than burning the same amount of wood on a lower setting. (I.e a short.burst of high heat up the chimney may be the same amount of BTUs lost as a longer lasting lower heat up the chimney.)
A lot depends also on the combustion efficiency of your stove, whether it changes or not with burning modes.
It's hard to definitively answer your conundrum...
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