What's your schedule?

[Badfish740]

I'm still stove-less (though accumulating LOTS of free wood as the winter wears on) but once the spring comes and the sales hit I'll be making my purchase. I'm looking at an Englander add on (28-3500) furnace and hoping to only use my oil furnace as a backup for when we're away from the house for more than half a day or so. My question is about how to "fit" wood heating into our lives. As it stands right now this is our schedule:

5:30 AM - We both wake up
6:30 AM - Both of us leave the house
3:00 PM - Wifey arrives home (except Tuesdays and Thursdays-she arrives home around 6:00 PM)
7:00 PM - I arrive home
10:00 PM - We hit the sack

What I was thinking is that our heating "schedule" would look something like this:

(Assuming the stove had been burning all night)
5:30 AM - Pack firebox full
3:00 PM - Wifey packs firebox full
7:00 PM - I come home, check fire, add a split or two
10:00 PM - Add as much wood as firebox will take-hit the hay

As I said before, I'm scrounging, but I'm getting mostly oak, maple, and ash with some random pine thrown in here and there. That being said, as long as it's well seasoned and not bone dry is it realistic to assume that most of the time at 5:30 AM and 3:00 PM that the stove will still have a good enough coal bed to ignite a fresh load of wood? Of course the fire will definitely be out by the time she gets home on Tuesdays and Thursdays (over 12 hours since last loading), which means she'll have to learn to start a fire...should be doable. Anybody care to share their schedule?

 

[Cearbhaill]

I don't know how my personal schedule is pertinent, but I play with the fire about every 4-5 hours throughout the day and every 6-7 overnight.

There is going to be a learning curve initially where the both of you learn how to load and manage the cycle of a fire- you don't just stuff it full and walk away. It's called "building" a fire for a reason- steps in adding wood, choosing the right sizes, and managing the air flow, etc.
There are a million threads around as well as some very good articles about "stoking overnight" and "overnight burn times" that are a world of knowledge. Just hit the search page and get reading. Or start at the top of the first page and read everything even halfway useful- that's how I did it.

 

[Badfish740]

I don't know how my personal schedule is pertinent, but I play with the fire about every 4-5 hours throughout the day and every 6-7 overnight.

There is going to be a learning curve initially where the both of you learn how to load and manage the cycle of a fire- you don't just stuff it full and walk away. It's called "building" a fire for a reason- steps in adding wood, choosing the right sizes, and managing the air flow, etc.
There are a million threads around as well as some very good articles about "stoking overnight" and "overnight burn times" that are a world of knowledge. Just hit the search page and get reading. Or start at the top of the first page and read everything even halfway useful- that's how I did it.

I get that I'm just curious if given our schedules is it realistic to think that we'll be able to burn the stove 24 hours once consistently cold weather hits. That's why I was trying to find out if anybody had a schedule like ours-I'm not digging into anyone's personal details. I have a long commute and I work 9 hour days which I'm sure isn't the case of everyone here.

 

[dkf5]

I get up at about 6:30 add to the fire to get it going again maybe 3 pieces and at 7:30 before we leave I fill it up for the day. We make sure it is running good then leave for work. We get home about 5:00pm and depending on the weather we have some coals to work with and sometimes we have to start a new fire. It doesn't take much to do or get heat from our stove. Then we just feed to maintain while we are at home and then when we go to bed at approx. 11:00pm the stove gets loaded up and we make sure things are running good then off to bed and do it all over again!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Badfish, some of this depends upon the size and layout of your house for sure, but I'm sure you already know that.

As far as that particular stove doing the job for you I won't comment. However, I will say that your schedule does not appear to be that bad for heating with wood. Not bad at all. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to heat with wood 24/7.

Also, congratulations to you in your wisdom of getting wood on hand now instead of after you install the stove.

I'd watch for sales beginning late January.

 

[savageactor7]

Badfish good luck on getting your wife to load up that add on. It's one thing to maintain that grueling schedule with a free standing parlor stove that you can service naked out of the shower...and enjoy the fire. And quite another to service a remote heating plant...that might even be in a cold basement full of spiders.

Yeah I know I'm projecting but with both your hours...you guys need some quality time sitting in front of a fire. Forget that 'add on', get a parlor stove, burn what little wood you have when you can enjoy it with the lady and let fossil fuel keep the house at 60 when nobodies there.

 

[elmoleaf]

I supplement with wood only. A big enough stove to hold fire overnight would cook us out of the house.
I start the stove around 6:30pm when I get home from work, and it's cooking along at 10pm when I pack the firebox for the night. When I'm up at 6am, the stove is stone cold and stays that way until I get home again. On weekends, it gets lit sometime late morning to noon time and is reloaded for the last time about 11pm. Again, stone cold by moring.
Even with burning these relatively few hours of the day, I still save enough oil to make it worthwhile.

 

[Korasdad]

This is our first season with a Jotul c550. Our schedule during the week works something like this.
Up about 4ish am to load the fire and P ;-)
Pack it full before we leave at 7 am.
Wife gets home about 5 and gets it started again. She tends to remove the ash and start cold.
I play with it in between then and about 11 when all of us are back in bed for the night.
Disclosure: I run the air wide open most of the time. Our house is largish with an open floor plan. Can't heat the whole thing no matter how hot it runs.

Later, KorasDad

 

[Dix]

which means she’ll have to learn to start a fire...should be doable

I'm sure she's more than capable.

 

[stockdoct]

I would suggest you have TONS of kindling available. My Lopi Freedom advertises a 12 hour burn, but I seem to be adding wood every 2-3 hours!

If your wife comes home at 3 pm, I suspect you'll have not coals but only a few embers. And you can restart those embers with a hunk of newspaper and a little kindling. But for the next 100 days, you'll need LOTS of kindling.

Good luck, I think what you're doing is exemplary and very do-able.

 

[SlyFerret]

6:00, smack the snooze.... 6:09, smack the snooze... 6:18, smack the snooze... 6:27, drag my carcass out of bed, stumble downstairs and light the stove. Sometimes I have enough coals, sometimes I have to use one of those cedar firestarters.

7:30, make sure the stove is cruising nicely and air is set, leave for work.

~6:00 Return home and light the stove (usually cold by this point). I don't pack it full at this point.

10:00 reload the stove for the overnight, wait for it to get up to speed, and keep an eye on the air.

10:30 is usually bedtime.

-SF