Time to give the EKO a bit of a workout

[stee6043]

This won't be the coldest stretch I've seen since running my EKO but it certainly beats anything we had last year. I doubt I'll have to do any midnight loads this week but I certainly will be starting my fires almost immediately after getting home from work as opposed to the normal cushion I have at the end of the day.

• Today: Snow showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 20.

• Tonight: Snow showers. Low around 11. Wind chill values as low as -1.

• M.L.King Day: Snow showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 15. Wind chill values as low as -4.

• Monday Night: Snow showers likely. Cloudy, with a low around 4. Wind chill values as low as -10.

• Tuesday: Scattered snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 11.

• Tuesday: Night Cloudy, with a low around 7.

• Wednesday: Cloudy, with a high near 17.

• Wednesday: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 8.

Bring it on. I don't want to be putting wood back on the pile again this spring. We might as well live in Ohio with these winters we've been having!

 

[Fred61]

I hope your weather report is accurate. We're supposed to get that same bubble of air in the next few days and forcasters are calling for -15 no wind chill. However when it does get that cold, it always brings a smile to my face when I evaluate how comfortable my house is at those temps. Silent heat, no roaring oil burner.

 

[mikefrommaine]

Those temps are a pretty normal week for us. Is it wrong that I'm Actually looking forward to -15 coming this week? Want to see how my new storage handles some cold weather.

 

[flyingcow]

thanks for sending the arctic blast this way......-4f is the expected high on Wednesday. And i am not even in the northern part of the state. But not much colder than -20 at night. At least the wind won't blow.

20yrs ago I saw -54 on the thermometer. It was an isolated area, the rest of my area was about -45f. Haze/fog was hanging over the roads, from the vehicle exhaust. Smart people did not shut their vehicle off. But home heating oil was 85 cents a gallon, maybe a buck. That furnace wasn't so loud then. When oil became $3 a gallon, it sounded very loud.

 

[taxidermist]

Throw in high winds and no power for 24hrs and you will be just like me ! Lol I build one fire lastnight and with a high of 18* today I just had to go make another fire to charge storage

 

[BoilerMan]

We just had -22.5F a couple of days ago here, and it's supposed to stay below zero for a few days. I like the cold, thats why we live where we do right? It gets me when people complain about the cold, ummmm, you live in the NE, it happens for like 10 months a year, sometimes 11.....

TS

 

[stee6043]

Throw in high winds and no power for 24hrs and you will be just like me ! Lol I build one fire lastnight and with a high of 18* today I just had to go make another fire to charge storage

You were one of the unlucky that lost power? I like hunkering down but I think I'd rather not have to wheel out my generator in this weather!

 

[Pat53]

-9F here this morning and about -25F windchill....must be a Mother-in-laws convention in town !? ....

 

[taxidermist]

You were one of the unlucky that lost power? I like hunkering down but I think I'd rather not have to wheel out my generator in this weather!

Yep I was the lucky one! A few days of this and I am sure the wife will demand I follow thru with our plan to get the lp auto start gen this summer.

 

[Pat53]

Yep I was the lucky one! A few days of this and I am sure the wife will demand I follow thru with our plan to get the lp auto start gen this summer.

I put in an 8Kw propane powered stand-by this summer. no more worries about losing power when your gone and having the boiler blow. I've also got a fish pond next to the house that needs aeration and filtration. The only way to go IMO.

Pat

 

[stee6043]

Well the truck told me it was -7 this morning so the forecast was a bit off. High of +7 today. It looks like we might get some sun at least for part of the day. Tanks were 186 top to bottom this morning so I should be set until I get home from work without much trouble. Still not much snow though...

 

[Pat53]

Yeah, we've only got 4" on the ground here. Had almost 10" from the storm on December 20th, but that all melted. They are getting hammered up north along the Lake Superior shore with lake snows. In a normal winter we would normally have about 18-20" on the ground now, but we don't seem to get anything "normal" anymore !

-12F here this morning and -33F windchill, all the schools are closed. Coldest temps we've had in about 3-4 years now. Once again, these kind of temps would be "normal" in years past. And supposed to get back up into the low 30's by Monday....crazy.

Pat

 

[kopeck]

A few years ago I went ice cutting over the MLK weekend (Taylor will probably know what I'm talking about). They set records that weekend for lows, I spent a day out side moving blocks of ice and the thermometer never got above -30.

-30 in a out house is not fun, just an FYI.

The next day it got up to like 4 and started snowing...it felt like a heat wave!

To stay on topic I like giving my boiler a workout. Hearing it buzzing away non-stop down stairs makes me feel good about it being there and not the oil boiler firing away!

K

 

[mikefrommaine]

A few years ago I went ice cutting over the MLK weekend (Taylor will probably know what I'm talking about). They set records that weekend for lows, I spent a day out side moving blocks of ice and the thermometer never got above -30.

-30 in a out house is not fun, just an FYI.

The next day it got up to like 4 and started snowing...it felt like a heat wave!

To stay on topic I like giving my boiler a workout. Hearing it buzzing away non-stop down stairs makes me feel good about it being there and not the oil boiler firing away!

K

I remember that cold stretch. Most boilers in my neighborhood didn't shut off for a week straight.

 

[kopeck]

I remember that cold stretch. Most boilers in my neighborhood didn't shut off for a week straight.

That was a cold winter, not that it was that cold the whole way through but still chilly.

The southern half of the state was completely "open" too, no real snow to speak off. They were doing road work not far from my place and found 7' of frost. I remember a bunch of septic systems freezing up. Ice fishermen had to buy extensions for their augers.... I like cold weather but that was a pretty extreme case.

K

 

[kopeck]

Well the workout continues!

I loaded it up with pretty much all poplar last night and it burned it up so fast I didn't get to it fast enough to throw in my extra overnight sticks on. Whoops.

K

 

[BoilerMan]

A few years ago I went ice cutting over the MLK weekend (Taylor will probably know what I'm talking about). They set records that weekend for lows, I spent a day out side moving blocks of ice and the thermometer never got above -30.

-30 in a out house is not fun, just an FYI.

The next day it got up to like 4 and started snowing...it felt like a heat wave!

To stay on topic I like giving my boiler a workout. Hearing it buzzing away non-stop down stairs makes me feel good about it being there and not the oil boiler firing away!

K

Yup, was ice cutting last year, they had so much "help" that my wife and I were just there for moral support and to drive the sleds LOL. Great seafood chowdah too!

On topic, there is nothing like looking at the oil tank, and remembering when you last filled it oil was $2.60, and it still being over half full! The rumble of secondary combustion coming from the wood boiler, and a plume of white steam out the chimney on a clear sub zero night!


TS

 

[heaterman]

Those temps are a pretty normal week for us. Is it wrong that I'm Actually looking forward to -15 coming this week? Want to see how my new storage handles some cold weather.

LOL.

It's not wrong. You've just been infested with the little known disease called Cellulosic Combustionitis

 

[mikefrommaine]

So is there a cure?

Storage handled these temps great. -5 when I went to bed, -9 when i got up to thermostats 1 degree above the set point
Though one zone lost heat, 3 degrees below the setpoint. Not bad for baseboard and storage down to 125.

Without storage I would have had to get up in the middle of the night and still have to start another fire first thing in the am.

 

[stee6043]

Well the workout continues!

I loaded it up with pretty much all poplar last night and it burned it up so fast I didn't get to it fast enough to throw in my extra overnight sticks on. Whoops.

K

Agreed! It was -2 at my house this morning. The cold persists. I've been trying to pick mostly oak from my closest pile this week but last night I grabbed a bunch of beech instead thinking it would be warmer. My tanks are a bit cooler this morning than I'd like.

The good news - looks like we might have some sun today. That'll help.

 

[maple1]

We had sun yesterday, cloudy today. -23c when I got up, -21c now.

I had to take a kid to see a Dr. first thing - and this turned out to be the first morning in the almost-seven years we've had it that the Civic wouldn't start. And the hood latch was frozen so I couldn't get the hood open to hook the battery charger up. Nice start to the day - but back to good now, for the time being.

My storage is still 165 at top after filling the boiler at 10pm last night. I'll be good until early afternoon to burn again, I think. Wish this sun would come out though.

Feeling very fortunate to be able to burn free wood - feeling very sorry for those maxing out their oil & electricity consumption right now.