2022-2023 BK everything thread

[Highbeam]

When I set my Sirocco 20.2 thermostat to 3 o'clock it keeps the house a nice 72ish degrees until the load is about 3/4 burned. At the end of the load I have to start turning the thermostat up to maintain the same heat output. By the time it's burned down to a few coals and ready for a reload the thermostat has been set on high for a hour or two. Shouldn't the thermostat keep the heat output the same until all the fuel is gone? It's less of a problem when burning Spruce as the coaling stage is shorter than with Birch. With Birch the thermostat has to be turned up several times in order to keep the house warm while burning down the coals enough to do a full reload.

I get what you’re asking and have noticed that even with the thermostat trying to avoid it, the stove temp goes down near the end of the load unless you turn it up. Isn’t that what the thermostat is supposed to do? Well, it’s not perfect. Works the other way too where it gets a little warm at the beginning of the load. The bulk of the burn is nicely regulated.

I use this behavior to my advantage by letting the house cool a bit to absorb the extra output from the next fresh load.

 

[BKVP]

Hybrid loads continue....

 

[Nealm66]

I’d think the North Pole might play a part in things as well. My house will hold the heat even though the stove isn’t pumping out the same heat output towards the end and we don’t have the extreme colds here that often or at all depending on your perspective. The princess will sometimes make me wish I’d have loaded smaller more often than wishing it had a longer high output but it’s a newer well insulated house as well

 

[Highbeam]

I’d think the North Pole might play a part in things as well. My house will hold the heat even though the stove isn’t pumping out the same heat output towards the end and we don’t have the extreme colds here that often or at all depending on your perspective. The princess will sometimes make me wish I’d have loaded smaller more often than wishing it had a longer high output but it’s a newer well insulated house as well

I blew it yesterday (superbowl sunday). It was below freezing in the morning so I loaded up and the temperatures climbed up into the 50s and by bedtime it was 81 in the house. That higher than normal temperature plus all of the junk food and I almost had to open a window!

 

[moresnow]

I blew it yesterday (superbowl sunday). It was below freezing in the morning so I loaded up and the temperatures climbed up into the 50s and by bedtime it was 81 in the house. That higher than normal temperature plus all of the junk food and I almost had to open a window!

I would have been comatose and missed the game entirely

 

[Nealm66]

I’m sure I would’ve done the same but stayed the weekend up at the kids in Bothell. They have a brand new expensive heat pump system but they keep their house at 64! I never took my coat off and wished I’d have worn my black wool. They both make crazy money so it’s definitely just the way they like it but wow. Mixed rain and snow today = perfect princess weather!!

 

[NHWS]

I missed the game entirely. I was busy selecting, loading, and unloading granite and porcelain for a hearth pad and surround, and removing the cracked face brick and concrete pavers in the old pad.

 

[Nealm66]

It was actually a pretty good game. I couldn’t tell who was going to win. Will be good to see when you’re finished.

 

[NHWS]

Actually, I'm not a sports fan, so I wouldn't have watched anyway

The pad will be granite over hardiboard over plywood. The surround will be porcelain / hardiboard / plywood. I've got about a month to finish it. It shouldn't be a tight schedule, but supply delays are hurting. The Princess specs don't require a surround, but the wall is already built to accommodate one.

Splitter being delivered today. I've got 3 to 4 split cords in stock, but there's around 12 to 14 more yet to be split, and more down wood to be collected and processed.

Looking forward to having it done, turning down the gas furnace and upping the temperature in the house a bit.

 

[BKVP]

I’m sure I would’ve done the same but stayed the weekend up at the kids in Bothell. They have a brand new expensive heat pump system but they keep their house at 64! I never took my coat off and wished I’d have worn my black wool. They both make crazy money so it’s definitely just the way they like it but wow. Mixed rain and snow today = perfect princess weather!!

Children are a reflection of their parents...sometimes it's a good reflection, other times the mirror needs a wipe down!

 

[Nealm66]

I have trouble with the city life in general if I’m being honest. Just get bored with everything it has to offer. I have found that being penned up for a couple days charges my batteries though. In a bit of a pickle with the princess at the moment. I loaded what should have been a quick burn this am, scraps and such, shooting for 2 loads before the overnight load. Well, she didn’t cooperate at all. Rookie mistake

 

[NHWS]

Children are a reflection of their parents...sometimes it's a good reflection, other times the mirror needs a wipe down!

Children are a reflection of their parents. Sometimes the mirror is perfect polished glass, sometimes it's in a funhouse.

 

[NHWS]

I have trouble with the city life in general if I’m being honest. Just get bored with everything it has to offer. I have found that being penned up for a couple days charges my batteries though. In a bit of a pickle with the princess at the moment. I loaded what should have been a quick burn this am, scraps and such, shooting for 2 loads before the overnight load. Well, she didn’t cooperate at all. Rookie mistake

It might've been a quicker burn here NE of Seattle today. Freezing hailstorms most of the day.

 

[Nealm66]

Ya, I didn’t actually look at the weather or I would have just stuffed it full of fir. Was going to be home all day and felt like a good day to burn scraps. It really shouldn’t have lasted as long as it did and I don’t like to reload when it’s in the active zone but I think I recovered with a second small load of scraps and will stuff it full about 9. Supposed to get a little snow tonight

 

[Jedi]

Hybrid loads continue....View attachment 309620

How do you avoid smoke spillage when reloading and/or when it starts catching while having the door open?

 

[BKVP]

How do you avoid smoke spillage when reloading and/or when it starts catching while having the door open?

10 minutes before loading, I crank it up, open bypass, leave front door closed. Stack wood on right side of stove. Crack door, wait 10 seconds, slowly open door and add wood. I can load everything in 20 seconds or less.

Remember, I've done this at work thousands of times.

If I added 2' to my stack, I'd probably not be so deliberate. With the pitch of my roof, adding more, the guys with the balloons might think it's a missle silo.

 

[BKVP]

Jedi you may need to add stack, or fresh air kit. Make certain all fans are off and down draft fans are off. Bathroom, kitchen, ceiling, stove, furnace or HRV.

 

[TheElementalCashew]

We've been back to running smaller loads with 12 hour burns during the night and letting the house cool down a bit during the day. When temps are above 40* during the day, the house tends to retain a lot of the heat from the night, even though we are running low.

 

[Ashful]

We've been back to running smaller loads with 12 hour burns during the night and letting the house cool down a bit during the day. When temps are above 40* during the day, the house tends to retain a lot of the heat from the night, even though we are running low.

lol... if the daily low is below 50F, we have a stove going, even if the high for the day is 65F. This past week, most days have been hitting low-50F's, and I'm still running one full load plus two short loads every day, between the two stoves. Stone houses...

Of course, when overnight lows drop to 0F, and average daily indoor/outdoor delta climbs from 20F to 60F, my total usage doesn't change nearly as much as others.

 

[shgRUSS]

When I set my Sirocco 20.2 thermostat to 3 o'clock it keeps the house a nice 72ish degrees until the load is about 3/4 burned. At the end of the load I have to start turning the thermostat up to maintain the same heat output. By the time it's burned down to a few coals and ready for a reload the thermostat has been set on high for a hour or two. Shouldn't the thermostat keep the heat output the same until all the fuel is gone? It's less of a problem when burning Spruce as the coaling stage is shorter than with Birch. With Birch the thermostat has to be turned up several times in order to keep the house warm while burning down the coals enough to do a full reload.

What others have said is good, but you have some what answered your own question. I have found coaling tricks the stove thermostat from radiant heat. Do you have fans, turn them on instead of touching the dial, it will wick the heat away from the stove / thermostat. If you don’t have factory fans just any house fan will work blowing air on the stove.

 

[TheElementalCashew]

lol... if the daily low is below 50F, we have a stove going, even if the high for the day is 65F. This past week, most days have been hitting low-50F's, and I'm still running one full load plus two short loads every day, between the two stoves. Stone houses...

Of course, when overnight lows drop to 0F, and average daily indoor/outdoor delta climbs from 20F to 60F, my total usage doesn't change nearly as much as others.

Yeah, we have a fairly normal house built in the late 80s. The windows leave something to be desired when it gets very cold, but it is otherwise well insulated and we get a decent amount of sunshine during the winter to help out.

 

[PropTwister]

I get what you’re asking and have noticed that even with the thermostat trying to avoid it, the stove temp goes down near the end of the load unless you turn it up. Isn’t that what the thermostat is supposed to do? Well, it’s not perfect. Works the other way too where it gets a little warm at the beginning of the load. The bulk of the burn is nicely regulated.

I use this behavior to my advantage by letting the house cool a bit to absorb the extra output from the next fresh load.

I have noticed the same behavior. I try and time it so first thing in the morning is reload time which is when I want to warm the house back up and take advantage of the stove getting a little warm at the beginning of the load. It was 21 degrees last night and won't even make 32 today. With the house high ceilings, I'm finding I get about 14-15 hours on a full load and about 11-12 hours on a 3/4 load. That's with the thermostat at 4 to 4.5 and then wide open for the last hour or two of the burn. I turned the propane furnace off a week ago and other than a slightly to cool bedroom, it's working out great.

 

[PropTwister]

I think that getting your chimney draft dialed in is a very big part of this. I have two stoves, one being on less than 15 feet of pipe, and the other on something closer to 30 feet. The one on the tall pipe has so much draft that it was routinely plugging combustors with fly ash stirred up when running on high, so I installed a pipe damper and a magnehelic for monitoring and tuning the draft. This is the stove I routinely run WOT, as it's in a part of the house with very high heat demand. With the pipe damper and magnehelic, I can be sure it's always running right on the sweet spot of 0.05"WC.

The other stove, despite being on a chimney that's probably even below min spec, runs much more furiously after just the recommended 20 minutes at WOT. In fact, I only run it 15 minutes WOT, since it spikes the cat temp beyond what I feel is necessary to get the load baked out and ready for a 24 hour burn. It's possible this stove has a leak somewhere that I've never detected, but I think it's much more likely that I just have more than the ideal 0.05" WC. Because the pipe is so short, and because I'll never have any need to run that stove that hard (it's in a modern addition < 1800 sq.ft.), I have never spent the time or energy to investigate why it rages so much harder than the other stove after just 20 minutes.

So, if your stove is running scary hot at WOT, I think the first thing I'd want to do is get a manometer on the pipe during an extended high burn, and see just how hard it's sucking. I'm a big fan of the Dwyer magnehelic, and you can pick them up pretty cheap on ebay, as every HVAC contractor in this country owns and carries a few. Just make sure you're getting one with (or close to) 0.25"WC full scale, so you can read .01" WC increments and not destroy the thing when your chimney starts pulling 0.20"WC.

Thanks for the info. I really need to get one so I can see what it's doing when it's 5 degrees out vs 45 degrees.

 

[Nealm66]

I think turning the propane tank off completely is the way to go. My heat pump makes it harder to keep from overheating during the day when it warms up. I should just turn it down really low but it’s nice for picking up the slack if I’m late for a reload so I just suffer for my laziness lol

 

[kennyp2339]

Went through my wood stacks today, if this weather holds out, I'll be lucky to burn through 2 1/2 full cords by the end of the season.. crazy.