Thermostat at 61

[mainemac]

Quick question

I heat with oil and turned down Tstat to 61
Temps outside between 20-45 last few days.

Been burning the insert almost round the clock and keeping temp at low of
65 when I get up and high of 71 in the afternoon with some passive solar help, thus Furnace runs only to keep hot water going.

My question is what is more efficient?

1) Keep the fire going ( we are around more this time of year) and keep a buffer at 65-70.
Hell it is more comfortable!!

2) Occasionally let the fire go out and let temp dip into the 62 area then rebuild the fire again.


I feel like the thermal mass momemtum is better with the continual feeding of the stove
than with trying to reheat the whole house as it dips down then going up then down again?

Kind of like the tortoise and the hare............

Tom

 

[CTburning]

My stove is a little different as I can turn her down and come home 12 hours later to a 200 degree stove. I load her up and 15 minutes later I set the cat and pretty much forget about it. I waste a little extra wood this way but it is such a nice convenience to just be able to get her roaring quickly rather than heat up the stove for an hour to get usable heat. On really mild days I can do the same thing after 24 hours with usuable coals but it takes a little longer to warm up. With my stove I burn about the same amount of wood buring 24/7 as I would if I skipped the morning load. I would have to run it hard when I got home from work to heat the place up and then put in another load after a couple of hours.

I loaded up my stove this afternoon at around 2 and came home at 1am with the temps outside at 28 and 68 inside. If I didn't have the fire the temp inside would be much lower and I would have to run the stove hard to catch up. Tonight is different but if I were coming home at 6pm I wouldn't want to have to wait several hours to heat the place up, just in time for bed. I'd rather have it comfortable when I'm home and then let it cool down as I"m sleeping.

 

[vvvv]

lower house temp saves fuel. hot woodstove burns more efficiently than cold startup

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Quick question

I heat with oil and turned down Tstat to 61
Temps outside between 20-45 last few days.

Been burning the insert almost round the clock and keeping temp at low of
65 when I get up and high of 71 in the afternoon with some passive solar help, thus Furnace runs only to keep hot water going.

My question is what is more efficient?

1) Keep the fire going ( we are around more this time of year) and keep a buffer at 65-70.
Hell it is more comfortable!!

2) Occasionally let the fire go out and let temp dip into the 62 area then rebuild the fire again.


I feel like the thermal mass momemtum is better with the continual feeding of the stove
than with trying to reheat the whole house as it dips down then going up then down again?

Kind of like the tortoise and the hare............

Tom

Tom, you answered your own question! My feeling is that inside my home, I want it to be comfortable and I do not want to have to wear a sweater or anything else like that. I prefer to dress light inside and the lighter the females dress, the better I like it too. Therefore, I never hesitate to throw a log on the fire.

 

[firefighterjake]

I'm with Dennis on this one . . . while cost was my original reason for heating with wood vs. oil . . . now comfort is one of the driving factors. If you have the wood . . . and prefer it warmer . . . keep the fire going. My own take is that it is far, far easier to keep a relatively steady temp going in the house with regular burning in cycles (i.e. adding wood to the coals) vs. letting the fire die and then rebuild the fire just for the sake of trying to be a little more efficient.

That said . . . in the shoulder season I do light a fire and let it go out . . . if temps are warming up during the day . . . in the past week or two however we have started shifting over to 24/7 burning.