Too much wood

[mainemac]

New to woodstove heating:


I am really enjoying the heat the flames and the decreased dependence on oil.
Need some help on how often to keep firing up the stove:


Heating with an insert in the Living Room. We have a 2000 ft house trying to heat 1st and maybe a bit of 2nd floor
Keeping finished basement cool with blankets for TV watching

Observation:
Temps in the 40 : Thermostat for oil set to 60
Had fire all day nice and toasty got LR Hot , so even kitchen ( 2 rooms away from insert) was reading 72 degrees.
Let fire burn down; last wood put in 300 pm , but burned down by 600 pm went out until 900 pm, thinking the damn oil would be back on but to my astonishment
still hanging out 68!

Checked the embers still warm; stove still pumping out air out of blower on low setting and stove warm but hot to touch

Question:
How long do you let fire burn down:

Previously would have stoked and stoked the fire with more and more wood (running low here) but maybe I should be letting
it burn nice and low?

Ready for Spring!

Tom

 

[bmwloco]

Mainemac,

Your experience burning is close to my own.

I have an old VC Resolute in the living room. As the ceilings in this old '26 Arts & Craft house are high, we have the ceiling fan on reverse and a Stirling Engine fan on the stove itself.

With a full stove, temps stay at about 500F. The Sterling Engine fan spreads the heat very well around the room, and into the dining room. Our thermostat for the natural gas heater is set at 64F. If the stove is "up" and has been running for more than an hour, temps in the bathroom, at the back of the house, is 72F and generally stays there until the morning.

I found a few soapstone bricks on the stove top also help hold the radiant heat in the room. After a long night, I can easily, when needed, restart in the morning just stirring a few coals and putting on some kindling.

Combined with our hot tub, it's the best "quality of life" features in our home. I dig the fact, too, that I work to keep it running. I've been gathering wood, now, to get ready for next winter.

 

[savageactor7]

It's 50* here now and we still have our fire going, the thermostat on our LP back up set at 68. Hey the way I look at it if it's cold enough to fire up the LP then it's cold enough to keep the stove burning cause we burn wood to save $'s.

It's not a raging fire...just throw a log on every couple of hours or so. It doesn't take much to raise the temp from 50 to 70...of coarse 50 isn't cold either. I've been in and out all morning doing yard work and it's a nice feeling to strip off my Carhearts off and take a break in my gym shorts and just be comfortably warm.

So our philosophy is if it's cold enough to burn LP then it's time to burn wood...and that goes for cold July mornings too.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Need some help on how often to keep firing up the stove:

Checked the embers still warm; stove still pumping out air out of blower on low setting and stove warm but hot to touch

Question:
How long do you let fire burn down:

Previously would have stoked and stoked the fire with more and more wood (running low here) but maybe I should be letting
it burn nice and low?

Ready for Spring!

Tom

Tom, you ask how long do you let the fire burn down. That really depends upon how much heat you want or need. Many times during the cold winter we do not let the fire burn down as much as we do now, simply because we need the increased heat. However, now that it has finally warmed up a bit, we usually let the coals burn right down to almost nothing. For example, we are now enjoying our first 60 degree outdoor temperature. Naturally the fire goes out. The night before last I stocked the stove at 9:00 pm and never opened the door of the stove until 9:00 pm the next night. Same thing happened yesterday. This morning the stove temperature is down to 250 degrees and I expect there will be a few coals left for tonight's fire.

Just make sure you burn good seasoned wood and go by how the house feels. If it is cool, throw some wood in the stove.

 

[mainemac]

Thanks all

Sounds like I am in the middle of winter mindset and simply need to realize that mid 40s are a whole lot different than teens and 20s , thus OK to get the coals going then add one or two at a time rather than stoking all day long with full stove.

Tom