The first real test of the '08-09' season

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

came to NY last night.

11PM - 13*
2 large (50#) Oak rounds
1 medium (35#) Oak round
1 medium Cherry round
1 small Oak round

5:30AM - 10*
Remnant of one round, plus a coal bed that probably would have sustained heat output for another hour
Oil used - ZERO :coolsmirk:

While it is supposed to stay cold today and part of tonight, Wednesday it is heading for 50 and rain! If the ice ever melts out its back to the woods I go for more Oak :cheese:

 

[henfruit]

we are lucky just 2 here this am. -24 on top of mt washington.

 

[WoodNotOil]

We had a temp around 0 last night and very high gusty winds here in VT. My old house lacks greatly in insulation and usually has a couple degree difference on the windy side of the house. The winds were so strong last night there was a 10* difference on the windy side. Filled up at 10pm and at 6am found the Tarm having reached its low limit and storage running. The east side of the house was in the upper 60s where we keep it set at night, but the downstairs west side where there is only radiant floor was only in the upper 50s. Luckily this situation only occurs a handful of times in a heating season when the winds are just right. Underscores the importance of insulation though! We have a renovation slated for the next year or two which will solve the problem. Until then I need to switch from series hookup to P/S and get some baseboards working on the west side of the downstairs. The system did its job though, poured as much heat as it could into the house for 8 hours!

 

[Birdman]

Yup. Same thing here. Central NH. 2 degress this am. Gusty hard winds all night. Filled up the Tarm all the way at 10 pm. At 6:00 am still alot of hot coals and boiler still up to temp. However... as a test.. I kept all thermostats up to 70 last night to see if I could reach these temps in the whole house during severe cold outside. The whole house was at 66. All 3 heating zones were calling for heat.... but when this happens... it doesn't put out alot of heat... at least not enough when it is 2 outside. I also have a drafty log cabin and big cathedral area. I will be fixing some areas this December where there is subpar insualtion in an upstairs sheetrock wall(kneewall?) and a bathroom where the ceiling is not great. Hopefully this will add a few degrees? Maybe a little plastic on a few windows too. Overall... happy with the performance. If I need to run a little electric heater during these sever times.. I can do that. Positive part?..... have only used a few gallons of oil since install 5 weeks ago. Prime outside temp for using Tarm seems to be between 10 and 40. Can use it above 40.. maybe... 40 to 48? use small quick fire? Pine?

 

[WoodNotOil]

Birdman

The tarm will heat our drafty houses even at 0 if there is not wind. Once there is some snow piled up it will help with the the drafts near the floor. I don't burn any oil anymore! All year! We have a good supply of sweaters for mornings like these. It only takes a couple hours to get the heat back up during the day.

 

[Nofossil]

Storage paid for itself this time. I couldn't build a fire until 9:00 last night, but the storage had enough to keep the house cozy until then with a good deal left over. I built a fire with about a half firebox load, then packed it to the gills at 10:00 and went to bed.

Unfortunately, a lot of my wood is poplar and the fire only lasted until 1:00 in the morning. That's too short a burn to provide a day's worth of heat in this weather, but it was enough to heat the house and put enough in storage to last until sometime this afternoon. With the sun shining and relatively light wind, I might even make it until tonight.

I didn't weigh the wood last night, but one and a half fireboxes full on an EKO 25 burning about half poplar burns about 4 hours flat out and provides about 360,000 BTU.

 

[AndrewChurchill]

It was -5F at my house this AM when I left for work. The PB105 was chugging away and the house was nice and warm. Right now it's only 3F. I don't think it's going to make it to the predicted high of 15.

 

[verne]

I went out to the barn last night at about 7:30 , 1000 gal tank at 183 / 168 so I loaded about 1/2 way and left it for the night. at 6:45 this morning tank was 153/138. that was after heat demand , but 4 long showers to come .temps were at 10 degrees . I did start a fire this am . my question is at what temp storage is there still usable heat? I have baseboard heat with out many long runs .I dont want burn without reason , but also dont want to come home to an ice box with circulaters running all day

 

[Birdman]

I don't have storage.. and I have tons of questions about how it works and when to load and so forth. My question to you... why did you load yoiur eko only halfway last night? Why not send your 1000 gallons of storage up as hot as it will get? Does it go up to 200 degrees?

 

[verne]

I can get 190 if there is no demand ,I didnt load it all the way because , higher heat more heat you loose . my barn is insulated well and so is the tank but, if you dont need the btus then your going to loose them into the air . I think it is a fine line? I wish my lost heat heat was inside my house but that dosnt work as well for summer storage, I guess.

 

[Duetech]

Loaded my EKO40 at 9 pm last night and again at 6 am today. Had a couple of logs still on the coals and a good bed of coals as well. Went from 10-14 last night with a brisk wind @8-10 mph down to about 5 mph this morning. No storage but the house went from 70 at 10 pm and lights out to 68 for the night then didn't get back to 70 for the am because I forgot.