So CT is about to get popped with a dang good snow storm which could turn to ice storm. My question is if we get worst case scenario and it turns to ice, how much heat can i still get into the house with the wood stove going full tilt without a blower. i live in a ranch so the bedrooms might be tougher to get warm air into.
Woodstove effeciency without blower on
- Thread starter rygar
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
TheAardvark
Burning Hunk
I find using the blower puts alot more heat into the house. I would suggest buying an Ecofan to put on top of the stove. Its not as good as the blower, but it needs no electricity to run.
Not sure how big your ranch is....mine is 1500 and currently nest is showing 70! Anyway, yes a room or two might not be as warm as the room with the stove in it, but you arent going to die of frostbite or hypothermia 
Montanalocal
Minister of Fire
What I have done sometimes to get heat into my attached garage so my veggies will not freeze, is to stand in the doorway and twirl a large towel or shirt to pump hot air into the cold room. You want to spin in the direction of bringing hot air into the cold room on the overhand stroke, and bringing the cold air back into the hot room on the downward stroke, so you are going with the natural convection.
MissMac
Minister of Fire
in my place, plumbing is all in the unfinished basement that sits on bedrock. it stays around 10*C down there, and i have never had any issues. i suppose it depends where your pipes are - outside walls are ones to keep an eye on
Ben Stark
Member
I seldom use the blower on my Osburn, I don’t think it makes a huge difference but each house is different. Forecast of 18-24 inches of snow with wind chills of 35 degrees below zero for my place Saturday into Sunday. I’ve had the power go out before, in snowtorms and pipes have not froze. I do run the stove hotter and get the house good and warm if we are expecting high winds and power outage. Usually the power returns in a few hours.
Make sure no air leaks (drafts) near your pipes because that will freeze them quick. You can also leave the water running slowly if you’re on city water. That will help prevent freezing.
We had air temps of 27 below zero last year and we sat in our t shirts in the family room with the wood fire roaring, it is incredible peace of mind for us.
As a final thought, most blowers do not use a lot of electric. Could you purchase a power inverter for your vehicle and run an extension cord to power the blower a few hours? My Jeep has a 110 outlet and I’ve used that and an extension to run a box fan in the summer when the power has gone out. It worked fine. Just make sure you run the engine to charge the battery.
Make sure no air leaks (drafts) near your pipes because that will freeze them quick. You can also leave the water running slowly if you’re on city water. That will help prevent freezing.
We had air temps of 27 below zero last year and we sat in our t shirts in the family room with the wood fire roaring, it is incredible peace of mind for us.
As a final thought, most blowers do not use a lot of electric. Could you purchase a power inverter for your vehicle and run an extension cord to power the blower a few hours? My Jeep has a 110 outlet and I’ve used that and an extension to run a box fan in the summer when the power has gone out. It worked fine. Just make sure you run the engine to charge the battery.
I think wood stoves have a natural draft of air the comes up from the bottom and flows up. I live in a cold area and the first year that I had a wood stove I didn’t run any fan on it and it heated a large home just fine. The bedrooms were cooler than the great room was but I like to sleep in a cool room covered up with heavy blankets anyways. If your worried that the power will fail you’ll be fine. Just make sure you have ample dry wood ready a worst case scenario.
I lost power for a week. My family room was as warm as ever but the bedrooms were always low 60s, okay to sleep in but no where in the house was below 60. I have a large generator now but was going to buy a small one that would at least keep the blower running. I'm getting the same storm so going to gas up and check genny tomorrow.
I bought a little 2000/2200 peak watt inverter generator a few years ago and I made a cedar base for it and I keep it on the side of the house with a cover made for it on it ready to go. It will power my whole house except for the 240V well pump. And I keep 5 gallons of non ethanol gas for it on hand. Even if I just ran it 4-5 hours a day I could get by that way for a long time. The thing doesn’t use a lot of fuel to run it. All of our power lines up here are above ground and the power goes out fairly often. Not like it did in the old days though. It was always out then.
hickoryhoarder
Minister of Fire
My ranch house is 1550 square feet and long (about 60 feet). I've never had to heat it during a long power outage. From what I know of our stove when we use it, we could easily keep the living room at 74 and the far corner rooms at 65, with no blower (I often don't use the blower). Or 78 and 70. The temperature of the far rooms would depend on how high we were willing to have it in the living room.
This 1959 house is very efficient, due to tightening and insulation I did. It used $450 of gas in a colder than average winter before we had the stove. It generally costs $425 per heating season, whether we use all gas or $50 of wood and $375 of gas. The heat (without blower) seems to travel through the rooms because it doesn't have an easy conduction escape through the ceiling. (Not only is the attic insulated, but I have heat reflecting paint on the ceilings.)
This 1959 house is very efficient, due to tightening and insulation I did. It used $450 of gas in a colder than average winter before we had the stove. It generally costs $425 per heating season, whether we use all gas or $50 of wood and $375 of gas. The heat (without blower) seems to travel through the rooms because it doesn't have an easy conduction escape through the ceiling. (Not only is the attic insulated, but I have heat reflecting paint on the ceilings.)
blacktail
Minister of Fire
Something to definitely consider. The plumbing for my kitchen sink comes up from the basement along the outside house wall. I did have those pipes freeze during a extended stretch of -10F and colder. I opened the cabinet doors under the sink after that if in doubt. Never happened again. Closing off bedrooms completely may be a issue depending on your pipes and insulation! Not likely but......
![[Hearth.com] Woodstove effeciency without blower on](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/238/238779-5046e543f256503dacfb4ee8e66f92df.jpg?hash=2xG9iWK1oG "[Hearth.com] Woodstove effeciency without blower on")
Yes. The things I have don’t take a lot of power to run them. The TV, 35-65 watts. LED lights, not much. A gas range. The fridge.... just 135 watts. A chest freezer in the basement too. The biggest thing would be to start and run the furnace fan but I never have had to... it will run it but I don’t know if it will start it. It’ll run my efficient window AC but you can’t have the microwave running when it starts, it overloads the generator then. Even my pole light out in the yard. It’s LED light only takes 55 watts. Like I said the well pump won’t run on it. I run the generator for a few hours every 5 weeks or so and I can’t hear it and I can’t really tell that I’m on a generator except that the lights dim some when the refrigerator starts up. The generator idles down when the load goes down too. This is what it is. I paid $350 for it new on eBay shipped. I made the extended run 5 gallon tank for it too in case it’s ever needed.
Edit: My generator won’t run my well pump but I put a way over sized well tank in so I should have reserve water for the house if the power goes out.
Last edited:
If your real worried that a certain pipe might freeze you can let the faucet drip and that should help keep it from freezing. Moving water doesn’t freeze as easily as non moving water.
blacktail
Minister of Fire
Hmmmm. I might have to experiment with my 2000w Champion next time I run it. I've alternated between running the fridge and the chest freezer during outages.
So no water? I have a well too and bought an 8500 watt genny, runs everything I need but one of the things my wife needs is a hot shower.
Woodsplitter67
Minister of Fire
I have a sub pannel and a transfer switch installed, and i have 2 generators one on a pad that 8500 running watts and one that is 5000 running watts that i keep in the shed. I have a number of the most used circuits on the subpanel. Kitchen, livingroom, sump, well, hotwater, ect. If the power goes out, i can pick which one i wat to run.. if im going to be running alot, it the big one, if just a couple of things its the smaller one. I keep 20 gal of gas on hand. It dosent hurt to be prepared. We louse power here every so often and were the last on the line which means were always last to get service back.. in 2014 we were 8 days in a row with no power. The sub panel makes it so much easier
Beer Belly
Minister of Fire
The temps we experienced and duration had us burning Oil to keep the Baseboard plumbing warm.....we have the garage below our Master, and the plumbing runs between the levels, otherwise, for us the stove with Blower is the only way to go to heat the entire house
Similar threads
