Still not using the furnace to heat

[lowroadacres]

For those of you who are using stoves sized to your home or who designed your home specifically for wood heat please bear with me this morning.

We woke up to minus 20 Celsius temperatures this morning and yes the house was pretty cool but we are agressively pursuing or own personal record for not using the furnace to heat our home yet this fall.

It's been a while since I have posted but a quick review is in order....

Our woodstove is a Drolet Jasper non-EPA that is apparently designed for 1200 square feet or less. It is in the basement.

We have an open fireplace on the main level that has a simple heat exchanger system with the two small fans, one on either side, that draw air through a set of tubes just above the firebox. Late last winter we installed a new "wall of fire" style grate that our son made in welding class.

While we are going through more wood than I would like we have been able to keep our 1400 square foot cedar log home warm through to this point in the season. In total we are heating 2800 square feet. Today is the first real test given the cold temperatures which are supposed to be with us through tomorrow midday.

We have been using a combination of fans to move the air through the house.

Our wood supply is the best quality and the highest volume that we have ever had to this point in our wood heat journey so we are not worried about running out this season.

As soon as the parts we have ordered arrive I will be finishing off the restoration of an older Regency 2000 that should increase our heating capacity substantially.

Some of the other things we are also using in our battle against our energy cost cash output are sealing up as many windows as is possible with shrink plastic, installing insulated drapery on our large set of South windows in our living room, and working to use our South windows as a passive solar system.

Still hoping for the day when our cash flow allows for the right insert in our fireplace so as to use wood more efficiently but for now, getting this late in our heating season without flipping the switch on the electric elements is, for our household, a significant victory.....

The nice part is, the forecast is for above freezing daytime temperatures for the next week....

 

[PapaDave]

Whoa, that's a little chilly for this time of year......for us anyway.
Nice job keeping the KWh monster at bay.
That's my biggest nemesis.

 

[Grisu]

Wow, that sounds brutal. Have you never thought of swapping that Drolet out for an Englander NC-30?

 

[Waulie]

Sounds like you're doing great. I just mentioned to my wife yesterday that we should probably turn on the furnace to make sure it still works, since we're going away for a long weekend soon and will be gone for over a week for Christmas. She agreed that we should. Neither of us got off the couch in front of the warm fire to turn on the the thermostat though.

 

[Mercury220]

We have only seen temps as low as 32 degrees Fahrenheit here in Delaware, but I still have yet to turn my furnace on. That reminds me... I'm still out of oil!

 

[Todd 2]

We woke up to minus 20 Celsius temperatures this morning

Burrrr, sell out and move further south !

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Below zero weather in November makes one thing that January will be one huge ice cube. Good on you for heating with wood to keep that cold at bay.

 

[lowroadacres]

I would love to swap out the Jasper for an NC 30 but the budget is pretty tight so the upgrade to almost double the BTU's from the Regency that we are waiting on for parts will have to be the next step.

We have almost pulled the trigger on an insert but the right used one hasn't come along yet.

As far as temperatures, yes, December through February are often nasty cold here in Manitoba.

The saving grace is when it gets the coldest then it is usually sunny. As long as the wind stays down we can usually do alright with the South windows and the wood heat.

Moving far enough South to make a difference on temperatures for heating would mean a lot of paperwork for a Canadian to find work stateside...... The hunting and the ability to have a skating rink in our backyard are pretty good consolation in exchange for the cold.

With the quality wood pile we have this year we are being much more aggressive than we have in years past. We started the heating season with 3 cords of poplar, 7 cords of ash and a cord and a half of oak...... All of which is testing at 14-20 percent. The oak is being saved for the coldest months and for the "new to our house" Regency.

The mini cold snap is supposed to go away tomorrow and daytime temperatures will be above freezing for a few days.

If it gets too cold for us to keep up or if we are away for more than 24 hours we will have to flip the switch.

If the long range forecast holds we may be able to get close to the end of November before giving the utility company any $$$$ for heating. If I could eliminate the dryer and the hot water heater that would save us even more dollars but with the busyness we don't have the time to use the clothesline for every load of laundry, especially at this time of year, and with 3 teens, a 20 year old, and my wife and I in the house the HOt water heater gets a workout.

 

[lowroadacres]

Quick update....

It's November 21st....

Minus 22 Celsius, windchill making it feel like -32.....

Still not using the furnace to heat, just using it to circulate air....

Going through a pile of wood....

Parts for the Regency supposed to be here by Monday which, when the Regency restoration is complete, we should have significantly more heating capacity with the same amount of firewood or possibly less wood.

That will be another thread to compare burn times and wood usage when switching from a small smoke dragon to a mid sized EPA stove.

Flame on.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Wow, you must be feeding that little stove!

Stay warm!

 

[lowroadacres]

It's one of the side benefits of being able to work close to home some days in addition to my wife being a full time domestic engineer. We also have teenagers who are wood heat savvy.

But yes, going through more wood than I like but I didn't CSS ten cords plus just for lawn ornaments.

 

[BurnIt13]

Good work! Although here in Massachusetts it is tropical compared to where you live.....we just hit 14F (-10C) last night. I stuffed my Englander 30 with some pine before bed at 9:30pm and woke up to a 72F house at 5:30! ...well in the stove room, other rooms were in the mid 60's.

I prefer the colder weather because the stove wont cook me out! I also take it as a personal challenge not to use the primary heat just like you. The only time it goes on is when we are away for a few days to keep the house at 55.

 

[lowroadacres]

By way of an update.....

With the temperatures plummeting yesterday morning to minus 31 Celsius and a wind out of the South West, one of the few directions that directly hits our house, the furnace elements had to go on.....

If we had not had to be away from the house for much of the day we would have been able to battle through the day by shovelling wood into the fire but we had hockey out of town.

We actually left the house without turning on the furnace but to save our sanity when we got home I broke down and flipped it on to get the house up to temp quicker.

Now we have a better idea of how hard we have to work to keep the house warm and at what thresholds we have to hit to need the furnace.

I can hardly wait to add BTU and firebox capacity when the parts come in this week for the Regency.

I am trying to curb my enthusiasm in case the larger EPA stove doesn't actually make much difference.

In the meantime the weather has allowed us to set another record. The backyard rink in my avatar is ready for skating at the earliest date ever.

I guess we can't have it both ways.

 

[brenndatomu]

Meh, the stove sits here cold as I type, I went ahead and turned the furnace on a couple weeks ago...

 

[rideau]

lowroadacres, I put a timer in line for my hot water heater. It is set to go on twice daily, at off peak times, works great and saves a great deal of money. If I ever need more heat during the day, I can just go throw the switch on the timer and the heater goes on and stays on through the next heating cycle. Have cut my power bill for the hot water heater by 2/3s. (Bought extra pips so I could have multiple heating times set).

 

[lowroadacres]

That sounds like an interesting mod for a HWT.... I journal case, with 6 adults/teens showering at odd times it likely wouldn't work at this stage of our lives.

When our kids move out, someday, that might be a fine tuning thing we do.

 

[robertmcw]

I feel for you lowroadacres. Here in Magnolia (45 miles north of Houston), it is the low 30's now and with my 1200 sq ft home with my EPA stove it stays in the high 70's all day. Tell you wife to put her socks on!!

Robert

 

[lowroadacres]

My wife and I are both believers in "sweaters and socks". My wife also loves wood heat and she is very involved in keeping the fires going.

I fact our entire family is wood stove and fireplace "friendly" and the entire crew is involved in the CSS process as well as keeping wood boxes loaded.