Uh oh...what's this?!

[Case1030]

@JRHAWK9 if your jelous of this temp... move up to Thompson Manitoba few of my buddies are getting night time temps of -35f tonight and tomorrow.

 

[Case1030]

 

[Case1030]

This is the place for you @JRHAWK9

 

[JRHAWK9]

damn, dat's some cold weather!! I can only imagine how our house would do in those temps. We get frost building up in a few INTERIOR corners as it is when we get temps much below -10°.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Ah well my dad is turning 63 this year and he remembers having to call the gravel quarys in to clean the farm yard... my current woodshed/grain bin was 3/4 burried for a couple years. Only a few members know my age but in that time we have gotten decent snow just not what dad has seen in his time... right now we got maybe 1.5 feet of snow usually we have double this time of year.

considering we have zip, nada, nothing on the ground right now I'd take anything.

 

[brenndatomu]

We supposed to get 3-5" up to 8-12" (depends on who you listen to...and when, they keep changing it!) here this weekend.
And down to -2* F Sunday night! And wind!
Might get to see what the Kuuma can really do...

 

[Mrpelletburner]

We supposed to get 3-5" up to 8-12" (depends on who you listen to...and when, they keep changing it!) here this weekend.
And down to -2* F Sunday night! And wind!
Might get to see what the Kuuma can really do...

Same here a 1 - 2 punch this weekend... You will find me on the slopes enjoying some fresh powder!

 

[JRHAWK9]

We supposed to get 3-5" up to 8-12" (depends on who you listen to...and when, they keep changing it!) here this weekend.
And down to -2* F Sunday night! And wind!
Might get to see what the Kuuma can really do...

Must be nice to get snow down by you. Pretty soon snowmobiler's will be traveling SOUTH to find snow.

Supposed to be getting some snow too, won't be holding my breath though.

We are cooling down some too, but not as much as they originally were predicting earlier. With it warming up some during the day I should be able to get away with continuing to leave the Kuuma on minimum burn the whole time. I'll just increase the loading size a bit and load on a bit more coals to keep supply temps up in between loadings. I did just that last night and this morning. This morning it was 12° by us and was 74° inside when I got up. It's now back up to 75°.

 

[laynes69]

We supposed to get 3-5" up to 8-12" (depends on who you listen to...and when, they keep changing it!) here this weekend.
And down to -2* F Sunday night! And wind!
Might get to see what the Kuuma can really do...

Yep! I always don't think our furnace will keep up....but she always pulls through. We are now under a winter storm warning. The wind with below zero weather will put a beating on us for sure.

 

[JRHAWK9]

You guys will be getting the same storm which is just starting to approach us now. It just started to flurry. The damn cold front from the north is going to be pushing it further south (according to the weather guys), so we will be on the north edge of it.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Snow they say, a dusting to 3 feet here. (i want that job) 0 or below monday. The Kumma stays on low untill it goes below zero for me.

 

[JRHAWK9]

The Kumma stays on low untill it goes below zero for me.

I remember our early conversations the very first year and you mentioning this and me only wishing I could do the same for this house. My how things can change when one puts their (OCD) mind to it. Still may not heat our pig of a house quite as easy as it heats yours, but things have definitely improved big time over that first/second year.

 

[brenndatomu]

So as we all have been preaching to @Mrpelletburner , ya gotta control your chimney draft!
I woke up at 5 AM today, was listening to the wind howl, looked at my Maverick BBQ monitor to see what the furnace temps were like (looked good, and the house was still 72)...couldn't get back to sleep then. So I got up and flipped on some local news to see what's up with this storm. Decided to reload the Kuuma at 6 AM since the thermometer said the house temp dropped to 71...don't wanna fall behind with the wind and the falling temps throughout the day (15* now)
The temps (firebox/flue) were higher than where I would normally reload at, but surprisingly found there to be 1.5 - 2 gallons worth of hot coals left. (less than I expected since I had loaded 50+ lbs of wood 10 just hours earlier, and computer set on low)

I loaded ~58 # of Ash and a few pieces of Honey Locust (about a 3/4 + load, space wise) decided to leave the computer on low, just see how it goes since I will be home to monitor most of the day (hopefully)...gotta learn my new "normal" with this new machine, ya know!
Anyways, about an hour later I am still watching the news and surfing on line when I hear a faint beep...thought it was on the TV, muted TV, still hear it...turned TV off, still there...crap, gotta be the high temp alarm on the Kuuma!
So I run down and check, sure enough, firebox temp reading 1410* F! Flue temp was in the 350* range, not a crazy temp...I had seen a bit over 400* after reloading, before the computer started to ratchet the damper closed...usually never see anything over 350* during that "firebox temp building" period though.
So I had noticed that my draft was running higher than normal when I reloaded, I usually run -0.04", but it was running -0.06 to -0.08" depending on the wind gusts. I decided to clip a weight onto the baro door so it just hangs wide open...that took things back to -0.04ish. Firebox temps started sloooowly falling, high temp alarm screaming the whole time...took about 10 minutes to get under 1395*, where the alarm started to cycle on/off. Once it was under 1380* it only beeped twice more for a second....quiet now.
I just went down and re-checked, an hour later now, firebox temp at 1328*, flue temp at 268*, plenum at 117* with blower running full speed on low, baro still wide open and draft still about -0.04".

I now regret not re-installing the manual damper that I had ahead of the baro when the Tundra was installed...that damper will be going back in as soon as I get the chance to let the fire die out...ya gotta control your draft!

 

[sloeffle]

Normally I need to use a small nail or paper clip on the air flap to keep the secondaries going on the Caddy. Not today with the winds we are having. I'm sure the chimney is pulling harder too with it only being 5F out. The baro was hanging open some when I reloaded this morning.

 

[woodey]

Had the same issue here with the alarm after 2 loadings the other day. Mine wasn't a draft issue I was guilty of loading a little to soon near the end of the burn cycle where normally I can get 1-2 hrs of heat out of the remaining coals. With the subzero temps I wanted to get the Kuuma loaded pushing out more heat than what I was getting from the coals to keep the LP from kicking in. This issue has been resolved for me by simply taking a small spade shovel and removing some of the coals down to the amount I usually load on. Reload and 5 minutes later blowers on and good till the next loading. I know I may be throwing out some available heat at the end of the burn cycle but this high tech solution keeps the LP from kicking in.

 

[Case1030]

Another beautiful morning in paradise. Great feeling you wake up to a clear blue sky and -25.6f...

 

[brenndatomu]

Still getting my "new normal" figured out here.
I went into work to plow snow late yesterday afternoon, figured I had about enough time to get done and be back home before time to reload the Kuuma. Well, plowing took a lot longer than I thought it was gonna, so at 6:30 I ran back home to re-load (don't wanna "fall behind" on heat with these overnight temps) and then grab a bite to eat too.
I wasn't sure how to load...go big and go for a full overnight run, or go smaller and turn up the computer for more heat and still be able to get another smaller load for the overnight. I decide to go for the 2 smaller loads and go to "medium" on the 'puter.
So then it got to be 11pm and I was ready to hit the hay, but the temps on the Kuuma were still high enough I knew it wasn't really ready for more wood (but wouldn't make enough heat over night without more wood)...and loading on that many hot coals might result in the high temp alarm going off like it did yesterday morning.
I decided to load 3 large splits (10# each) in the hopes that maybe they would off gas slower and not make the firebox "go nuclear"...it worked...finally drug my butt outta bed at 8am (off for MLK day) and the house was still 71* inside, HT alarm never went off.
My thermometer said 2* when I got up, the local weather service said it was -4*F here though...no fuel oil burnt, and we are warm.
Score:
Winter storm - 0
Kuuma - 1

 

[JRHAWK9]

We had temps Saturday night down to -8°. House was 73-74 most of the day on Sunday. When I did my smaller pre-night load around 6pm Sunday I decided to crank the Kuuma on high; to see what it could do with the first cold weather of the season and after slowing down the blower even more from last year. These were the temps inside the house and outside at 9:30pm Sunday night. This was after my other half decided to have the basement walkout door open in order to bring in a butt load (50-60) of old single pain windows for her crafting hobby. She had to do it on the coldest night of the year so far. Basement temps dropped 2° just from that.



It was -17° at midnight and was -22° this morning when I got up, otherwise known as @Case1030 's normal winter high temps. Unfortunately, I was a bit too cocky and decided to turn the Kuuma down to about halfway after I loaded for the night. I knew it was going to be warming up the next couple days into the teens so I wasn't too concerned about keeping the house temp up. When I got up this morning the house was laughing at me and flipping me the bird. I think I heard it mumbling something along the lines of, "you need to feed me more BTU's than that if you want me to stay above 70° in these outside temps.....I'm a hungry little beeotch" . The LP furnace had run a total of 28 minutes (figured about 3 cycles) near morning keeping the house 68°. I also noticed my draft was only -0.03" from when I dampened it down some earlier in the day with the key damper due to winds and I forgot to open it back up. There were still a fair amount of coals left, too many to load on, but not enough to provide enough heat to this place, in these temps. I raked them forward and got ready for work. By the time I was ready to leave for work I could re-load for the day.

Speaking of and as far as loading on coals, this is what I like to load on in cold temps. This was taken right before I did my smaller pre-night load I mentioned above. Firebox temps were at about 900° with plenum temps still 117-118°. Still getting nice heat out to the house but not enough to keep the house temp from dropping in cold weather.



This morning I also noticed the temp of the air entering my BD and being mixed with the flue gasses was 6°.

 

[laynes69]

I loaded at 9pm, temps in the single digits and chills well below zero. It was 75 when I loaded for the night. At 4:30 this morning the house was 71 degrees and the temps outside were at 8 below, not too shabby! I don't have our LP turned on for backup even. No doubt though...these temperatures test a homes ability to retain heat.

 

[JRHAWK9]

No doubt though...these temperatures test a homes ability to retain heat.

It's temps like this where the boiler w/storage guys are like, "what's the problem guys?" All of us furnace guys are at the mercy of decreasing BTU output at the time of usually the highest heat demand; at daybreak. Only heat storage/buffer we have is the thermal mass of everything in the house, and that does not do much.

 

[brenndatomu]

I'm cheating tonight...gonna charge up that thermal mass tank...I put just a 50 lb load in the Kuuma at 8pm, left it on low, then put a small load in the Drolet 1400i fireplace stove too...last I looked it was 75* in here...started at 71* 3 hrs ago...and the Kuuma is just now starting to hit its stride...so I expect to see 76-77* (78?) in here tonight before this is over! (that's hot for us...we rarely see anything over 75, and even that's not very common!)
This house is hard to raise the temp in...but then the temp doesn't fall as fast as some other houses do either...not sure what that's all about...I'll take it I guess.

 

[maple1]

It's temps like this where the boiler w/storage guys are like, "what's the problem guys?" All of us furnace guys are at the mercy of decreasing BTU output at the time of usually the highest heat demand; at daybreak. Only heat storage/buffer we have is the thermal mass of everything in the house, and that does not do much.

Humm, what's that you say?

It is very nice, for sure. Sipping on my coffee in my 21°c office, the fire has been out for 10 hours now, it's -15c outside, and I figure I will make another fire sometime later this afternoon. The very most I would need to have a fire actually going with the coldest days we might get, is 12 hours a day, max.

Won't derail any more. (But I didn't start it )

 

[brenndatomu]

I'm cheating tonight...gonna charge up that thermal mass tank...I put just a 50 lb load in the Kuuma at 8pm, left it on low, then put a small load in the Drolet 1400i fireplace stove too...last I looked it was 75* in here...started at 71* 3 hrs ago...and the Kuuma is just now starting to hit its stride...so I expect to see 76-77* (78?) in here tonight before this is over! (that's hot for us...we rarely see anything over 75, and even that's not very common!)
This house is hard to raise the temp in...but then the temp doesn't fall as fast as some other houses do either...not sure what that's all about...I'll take it I guess.

Well, it worked. Was -2* out when I got up at 6...73* in the house. The Kuuma really needed another hour or two to finish eating last nights meal, quite a pile of coals left...the big chunk of honey locust I threw in might have had something to do with that though too.
Supposed to get up to 30* here today (15 now) so I put another 50# load in at 6:30...see what things look like at 4...doubt I will need to load again until 6pm. Our temps are supposed to be a little more mild this week...unlike the weather @JRHAWK9 is in for this week!

 

[JRHAWK9]

Our temps are supposed to be a little more mild this week...unlike the weather @JRHAWK9 is in for this week!

I think this is karma biting me in the arse for complaining since mid December about our abnormally warm winter with no snow.

 

[NoobTube]

How do you guys survive with interior temperatures that high? I mean my wife would love that, but me... i'm usually dying at around 72* and I'm basically wearing nothing... I'm more of a 67-70* guy.