I have seen several posts recently, of new folks suffering through the same course I did three or four years ago. Trying to heat a large or drafty space with a single woodstove, in cold weather.
I moved into a house with a single wood stove at one end, and a gas fireplace at the other end. Un-insulated stone house with various additions totaling 6660 sq.ft., with lots of original windows and doors built in 1773, heated primarily by oil fired boiler.
After allowing my wife to convince me to give this Jotul Firelight 12 that came with the house a try, rather than just rip it out and have a nice open fireplace, I was very quickly hooked. I found this forum, and read about people keeping their house heated with a single (much smaller) stove, on 6 cu.ft. of wood per day. I set about keeping that sole Jotul cooking all day and night for a few weeks, and very quickly learned you're not going to make much of a dent in a heating bill such as ours with a single stove, no matter how large that stove may be.
I installed a second Jotul F12 in place of the gas fireplace part way into my second season, and went all out in my efforts to keep the boiler from running. I was chewing thru wood, albeit a mix of walnut and poplar, at a rate of a cord every 8 - 10 days in cold weather. Our house was still cold, and my wife was getting very grumpy, between the enormous time I was spending on wood processing (ever try to get 3 years ahead when you're burning a cord every 10 days?!?) and the constantly cold house.
Things have been done, within the limits of historical correctness, to tighten up this house and make it a bit more efficient. However, that's a long road, and this will never be a super-insulated house. A change in attitude toward woodburning was necessary, if I was going to maintain my sanity.
One of the mod's (I wish I could remember which) once said something to the effect of, "as long as the stove is running, you're still adding BTU's to the envelope," and that was the key for me. I re-programmed all of my thermostats (we have numerous zones on multiple heating systems) to just put the various parts of the house at the temperatures we want them, regardless of whether I have the stoves going or not.
Now, rather than me killing myself, and my wife being upset that she's cold, it is just my personal little game to keep the stoves going as much as I can. If she gets home from work before me, the house is warm... I load the stove when I get home. As long as I keep the stoves loaded 2x per day, they're constantly adding BTU's to the house, and reducing the slack the boiler must pick up. I'm back to enjoying woodburning at a much more sane rate (not a cord every 8 days), our house is warm, and I'm still saving over $3500 per year in oil.
Let this be (hopefully) good advice to all the guys I've seen posting on here recently, trying to heat similarly large spaces, or poorly insulated houses.
I moved into a house with a single wood stove at one end, and a gas fireplace at the other end. Un-insulated stone house with various additions totaling 6660 sq.ft., with lots of original windows and doors built in 1773, heated primarily by oil fired boiler.
After allowing my wife to convince me to give this Jotul Firelight 12 that came with the house a try, rather than just rip it out and have a nice open fireplace, I was very quickly hooked. I found this forum, and read about people keeping their house heated with a single (much smaller) stove, on 6 cu.ft. of wood per day. I set about keeping that sole Jotul cooking all day and night for a few weeks, and very quickly learned you're not going to make much of a dent in a heating bill such as ours with a single stove, no matter how large that stove may be.
I installed a second Jotul F12 in place of the gas fireplace part way into my second season, and went all out in my efforts to keep the boiler from running. I was chewing thru wood, albeit a mix of walnut and poplar, at a rate of a cord every 8 - 10 days in cold weather. Our house was still cold, and my wife was getting very grumpy, between the enormous time I was spending on wood processing (ever try to get 3 years ahead when you're burning a cord every 10 days?!?) and the constantly cold house.
Things have been done, within the limits of historical correctness, to tighten up this house and make it a bit more efficient. However, that's a long road, and this will never be a super-insulated house. A change in attitude toward woodburning was necessary, if I was going to maintain my sanity.
One of the mod's (I wish I could remember which) once said something to the effect of, "as long as the stove is running, you're still adding BTU's to the envelope," and that was the key for me. I re-programmed all of my thermostats (we have numerous zones on multiple heating systems) to just put the various parts of the house at the temperatures we want them, regardless of whether I have the stoves going or not.
Now, rather than me killing myself, and my wife being upset that she's cold, it is just my personal little game to keep the stoves going as much as I can. If she gets home from work before me, the house is warm... I load the stove when I get home. As long as I keep the stoves loaded 2x per day, they're constantly adding BTU's to the house, and reducing the slack the boiler must pick up. I'm back to enjoying woodburning at a much more sane rate (not a cord every 8 days), our house is warm, and I'm still saving over $3500 per year in oil.
Let this be (hopefully) good advice to all the guys I've seen posting on here recently, trying to heat similarly large spaces, or poorly insulated houses.
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i'm looking at about 15 to 20 cords a winter c'est la vie
