We live in a small place ...

[drewmo]

Maybe 50 sq. meters (150 sq ft.?). Our only heat soure is a Jotul F100. You can't find a smaller stove, yet it keeps us warm. Maybe too warm. My problem is that when it comes time for bed, I've burned on low for so long, I don't have enough coals to sustain a decent burn through the night. How can I keep us at a decent temp through the evening and still maintain a good burn through the late hours? I've somewhat resigned to the fact that mornings will be cold, but the Mrs. insists there's a better way.

 

[Metal]

Actually, 50 sq. meters is ~540 sq. feet.

 

[FireJumper]

50 sq. meters = about 540 sq. feet. (I think) That's a pretty small place you got there. The heating capacity on the low end for that unit is 600 sq. ft. I would personally stoke the unit right before bed and dampen the unit down. But that's me..

 

[BrotherBart]

It sounds like you are trying to keep the stove warm through the night with just coals. The little stove can't do that. You need to time it where you have a small bed of coals in the stove and about one half hour before going to bed put three small splits of wood in the stove (filling most of the stove) and get them burning well. When the stove top temperature is up to around 210 C cut the air back to 25%. If the wood is properly dried the stove should burn for two hours and the coals from the burn will keep the stove hot/warm for another couple of hours. If you have proper insulation in your home the warmth should carry you most of the night. If the house gets to hot during the initial burn you need to open a window a bit to keep from getting too hot to sleep.

I don't remember how you have that stove setup. Is it in a fireplace?

 

[begreen]

I don't think a small woodstove can do this unless it's a pellet burner. You would need some sort of night time feeding mechanism with a fire box that small. Do you have any other source of heat as a backup?

 

[wahoowad]

Maybe you can try the "drink a big glass of water" method?

 

[MrWinkey]

The "Drink a glass of water" way does work.....

It's taken me quite a long time to be able to sleep through the night agian since the pellet burner has gotten here.......I was so bad that I used to hear the stove starting to sputter or couldnt hear the stove sucking air and would wake up to feed it......

Wife still says I'm wierd because I have to get up at least once a night and walk around the house or check on the dog.

 

[drewmo]

Maybe you can try the "drink a big glass of water" method?

I think I might have a better method, one that is due mid- to late-January. From what I understand, the woodstove won't have a chance to die down before baby needs a feeding or changing!

BB, the stove is free-standing outside of the fireplace. Insulation in the house is rather poor. As it occassionally does here, a strong wind from the north actually keeps it next to impossible to heat the place. Tonight is a good example of that. We have a couple of wall-mounted electrical heaters as back up, but I refuse to use them. I'll try loading small splits before bed to see if that helps. I just don't think that the stove can hold enough wood to keep a steady heat through the night.

 

[gpcollen1]

I think you may have to deal with some extra heat and get that fire blazing a while before bed. Then you will have a nice coal bed prior to loading before bedtime. Then get it going again and shut it down. I am not sure how many hours you will get out of that.

Congrats! We had our 3rd child last November and that definitely helped keep me up at night. I get a pretty nice overnight burn so it was not really necessary...