Supplementing wood stove heat

[Stelcom66]

When I come home from work weekdays I typically turn the furnace to it's lowest setting. Before retiring at night I set the thermostat back to 'Auto' mode for some heat in the morning before going to work. On Friday after work the furnace is at it's lowest until Sunday night. The furnace must remain on since that's my hot water supply.

It was quite cold here overnight - the living room was 49 degrees. I wonder if others will run their furnace when temps get into the teens overnight?

 

[maple1]

You mean boiler?

I think the answer to your question would be a resounding yes. Especially if not doing so would mean 49° temps inside.

 

[Woodman1]

49 degrees inside!?! That would be grounds for divorce in my house!!

 

[Stelcom66]

Yea 49 degrees is on the extreme side. I need to pay more attention to the overnight low forecast. Usually it's around the low to mid 50s inside which isn't bad. Weekday mornings it's a bit warmer since the furnace (boiler) is set to turn on automatically early in the morning.

Taking a break from splitting wood - nice day for it, sunny in the 20s.

 

[NateB]

I am a bit confused? When you say "turn your furnace back" are you talking about a wood burning appliance, or your Oil NG or Electric furnace?
I would say if your house is getting into the 40s. You should watch for frozen pipes.
I think this is in the wrong forum.

 

[Bad LP]

Lot of fiddling around with the stat. Why not just put a programmable stat in?

 

[Stelcom66]

I do have a programmable stat for the oil furnace, I suppose I don't need to turn it down weeknights after work since it's programmed to go into 'night mode' after 5pm, I usually have the wood stove started by then. I could program it to stay in 'night mode' Friday - Sunday night as well.

I think 49 degrees is a record low in the house. Don't want that to happen again. It was unusually cold this weekend.

 

[Bad LP]

So if you are running the t stat why is your minimum higher than 49? What am I missing?

 

[Stelcom66]

I usually keep the system in 'Night Mode' Friday - Sunday night where the system effectively bypasses the t stat. Won't do that again when it gets very cold overnight. Since I'm home weekends I keep the wood stove going all day/night, but not overnight. Usually the room where the wood stove is temps are in the mid 50s weekend mornings, and the wood stove does a decent job after awhile raising the temp to near 70.

The reason for the post was I wondered if others typically ran their furnace along with the wood stove all the time, or just during unusually low temperatures.

 

[Highbeam]

I usually keep the system in 'Night Mode' Friday - Sunday night where the system effectively bypasses the t stat. Won't do that again when it gets very cold overnight. Since I'm home weekends I keep the wood stove going all day/night, but not overnight. Usually the room where the wood stove is temps are in the mid 50s weekend mornings, and the wood stove does a decent job after awhile raising the temp to near 70.

The reason for the post was I wondered if others typically ran their furnace along with the wood stove all the time, or just during unusually low temperatures.

If it's really cold I run the woodstove harder to keep the house warm. Are you not stoking the thing before bed? It can be 5 degrees outside and we don't even turn on the furnace. Still 75 in the stove room every morning.

Since your boiler (you keep calling it a furnace) also makes DHW you're going to be running the boiler all the time. What most people on this forum seem to do is set their central heating controls to a low temperature. The lowest that they want it and just leave it alone. Hopefully the heat never comes on if they're doing their job with the woodstove. If it does, no problem. This is a safety backup for if you get sick, go on vacation, incarcerated, hospitalized, whatever.

 

[Bad LP]

^^ This.^^

I leave it at 70. If the room gets hotter than that fine but I don't want it lower. It's RFH so I don't get instant response like a hot air furnace.

 

[Highbeam]

It's RFH so I don't get instant response

I tried but can't figure out what RFH means. Really F'n Hot? Radiant forced heat? radiant forced hydronics? radiant free heat. I'm sure it's obvious to most.

 

[Bad LP]

Radiant Floor Heat.

 

[Stelcom66]

I only guessed the 'R' correctly...

If it's really cold I run the woodstove harder to keep the house warm. Are you not stoking the thing before bed? It can be 5 degrees outside and we don't even turn on the furnace. Still 75 in the stove room every morning.

Since your boiler (you keep calling it a furnace) also makes DHW you're going to be running the boiler all the time. What most people on this forum seem to do is set their central heating controls to a low temperature. The lowest that they want it and just leave it alone. Hopefully the heat never comes on if they're doing their job with the woodstove. If it does, no problem. This is a safety backup for if you get sick, go on vacation, incarcerated, hospitalized, whatever.

That's great being able to sustain above 70 degrees with single digit temps. I've done it as long as I'm tending to the stove - but weekdays typically no one is here. I haven't been stoking the stove before bed - I should and will.

I hear ya re: keeping the boiler set at least on low for unforeseen circumstances. New Year's Eve/Day I caught some kind of nasty bug - didn't even feel like getting the wood stove going New Years Day.

 

[Highbeam]

Radiant Floor Heat.

Dang it! I knew it would be simple. Thanks.