True, direct radiant heat in front of a stove can be HOT. It's hot enough to set clothes on fire if one is not mindful. Singed my son's pajamas once when he wasn't paying attention.
Ahhhh...The Warmth & Feel of Wood Heat
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jetsam
Minister of Fire
So we're adding "Valuable Educational Tool" to the list of benefits?
I was just telling my husband this when we had to revert back to our electric heat. Our pellet stoves argur had something stuck in it and shut down. I could not believe the difference in how the heat felt. This is our first time using a pellet stove and it has been a true blessing.
AmbDrvr253
Minister of Fire
Have to agree that 70 is 70. The value in wood comes from constant heat. Not the cycling of the oil/NG burner. And i LOVE free heat......LOL
john11756
Member
Hi all. Getting my wood stove insert was the best money I have ever spent.
And building wood racks for inside and outside is also time and money well spent.
Since installing the stove we have never used the oil boiler to heat the house 3 yrs now.
My last house had forced air and from my experience the re heating was the wort with forced air. Steady wood stove heat is kick ass and yes people also pass out on the couch it's funny. Ps running a napoleon 1402.
And building wood racks for inside and outside is also time and money well spent.
Since installing the stove we have never used the oil boiler to heat the house 3 yrs now.
My last house had forced air and from my experience the re heating was the wort with forced air. Steady wood stove heat is kick ass and yes people also pass out on the couch it's funny. Ps running a napoleon 1402.
IR Radiant heat is amazing. I was on a ski lift at -20F, no wind and bright sun. Took my gloves off for the ride up and the hands were toasty. When my stove flares up I can feel a wave of photons come across the room, warming every thing they hit. Where they go from there, it's hard to say. They could be reflecting off objects and making there way to other places that are not line of sight.
StihlKicking
Feeling the Heat
It was explained to me this way. Heat pumps don't put heat into a house, they take cold out. This makes sense to me since they are basically an air conditioner running in reverse. I agree 70 degrees is 70 degrees no matter how you slice it. But my wood boiler keeps the house a constant toasty temperature while my heat pump will create a draft and freeze you to death while bringing the house up to temperature. By the way both come through the same central ducts. There is a difference. The OWB is much better heat.
Heat is heat. The heat pump is not removing cold from the house it is extracting warmth from the outdoors and transferring it into the house. If I set the thermostat to 72 on the heat pump the house feels very toasty. A good system is properly designed and quite draft free. Problems will occur when a heat pump system is put into an existing, poorly designed ducted heat system. Unfortunately there are a lot of these in homes.
Bigsby
Burning Hunk
heavy hammer
Minister of Fire
I agree I love my woodstove, but if I turn the boiler up to 75 or 80 the house feels great as well. Heat is heat, sit in front of a small electric heater with it on full blast it will roast you out just the same. Wood heat is great because many get it for free. The constant heat a woodstove gives off is something that can't be replicated.
Squisher
Minister of Fire
StihlKicking
Feeling the Heat
I built my house 2 years ago. The heat pump was installed as a back up to my OWB. What a waste of money. I should have put in a propane unit for backup. When I use the electric strips on the unit it is plenty warm, but the heat pump sucks! My home is well insulated and my unit is one of the new carrier puron types, 4 ton and a 2 ton. If I use the heat pump alone I can get the house warm enough that everyone has to wrap up in a blanket for about $350-400 a month. That's down here during these balmy MS winters. I would think a heat pump would be totally useless for some of you fellows up north.
mass_burner
Minister of Fire
I find comments like this interesting. No matter what the heat source, I work towards the same temp, ~68-70 depending on time of day, who's in the house, etc.
huauqui
Burning Hunk
I agree with heat is heat, in the broad sense of the definition. There is a difference in how we get there though. First my backup heat which is propane heats by moving heated air, this heated air temperature runs around 130-140 degrees. My primary heat, a heat pump, heats by moving around heated air as well, this air however (depending on the temperatures outside) can run from the lower 70's - 100 degrees. My wood stove emergency heating system (read always running, always heating primary heat) heats by radiation in the room it is in and then by moving heated air around the house via convection, we almost never have a fan on to move the air around.
So what does that mean, well for us with the wood stove running you do not feel the air moving slowly in its convection loop, except if you are sitting at the base of the stairs in the basement. When my propane backup is running the air coming out the registers is warm and feels good but there are places in the house you feel the cold air rushing to the return registers and it feels cool. However with the propane running we are warm and comfortable and the wife is happy so life is good. When my primary heat-pump is running the air coming out of the registers is cool (below body temp.) and sometimes feels cold (especially at cold temps outside, just before the emergency propane backup comes on.) Due to this fact we need to run the heat pump about 2 degrees warmer then the propane just to feel comfortable. The cool/cold air circulating around the house is very uncomfortable for my wife and she always asks "why is the house so cold?" Therefore heat-pump equals a not happy wife which makes life unnecessarily complicated. When the wood stove is running we don't "feel" the air currents in the house (granted this may be different if we had to have a fan on the stove or somewhere in the house to move air.) This lack of quick moving air in the house makes it feel more even/comfortable for us. Granted this is a very subjective feeling but almost everyone who comes over says "your house is so warm, what temp is it?" When I tell them they almost always say "that is where I have my thermostat set but your house feels warmer." So I wonder if it isn't simply the lack of fast moving air. The thing I am not including in this equation is the wonderful fact that if my wife does get cold, which happens often, she can simply move to a room that is closer to the stove and she is happy again. I also confess that with the wood stove, most days it is warmer in the house then with the furnace but at equal temperatures the above seems to be our experience so take that with a grain of salt.
huauqui
So what does that mean, well for us with the wood stove running you do not feel the air moving slowly in its convection loop, except if you are sitting at the base of the stairs in the basement. When my propane backup is running the air coming out the registers is warm and feels good but there are places in the house you feel the cold air rushing to the return registers and it feels cool. However with the propane running we are warm and comfortable and the wife is happy so life is good. When my primary heat-pump is running the air coming out of the registers is cool (below body temp.) and sometimes feels cold (especially at cold temps outside, just before the emergency propane backup comes on.) Due to this fact we need to run the heat pump about 2 degrees warmer then the propane just to feel comfortable. The cool/cold air circulating around the house is very uncomfortable for my wife and she always asks "why is the house so cold?" Therefore heat-pump equals a not happy wife which makes life unnecessarily complicated. When the wood stove is running we don't "feel" the air currents in the house (granted this may be different if we had to have a fan on the stove or somewhere in the house to move air.) This lack of quick moving air in the house makes it feel more even/comfortable for us. Granted this is a very subjective feeling but almost everyone who comes over says "your house is so warm, what temp is it?" When I tell them they almost always say "that is where I have my thermostat set but your house feels warmer." So I wonder if it isn't simply the lack of fast moving air. The thing I am not including in this equation is the wonderful fact that if my wife does get cold, which happens often, she can simply move to a room that is closer to the stove and she is happy again. I also confess that with the wood stove, most days it is warmer in the house then with the furnace but at equal temperatures the above seems to be our experience so take that with a grain of salt.
huauqui
Squisher
Minister of Fire
In the same regards I find your comment interesting. I would never live in a house that cool. If you're working towards 68-70 I imagine you dip down a bit cooler now and then and wow my wife would be pissed at 68 degrees. Different strokes for different folks. We cruised around 75 last night, perfect for us. To me one of the luxuries of wood heat is to have a warm house. 68 isn't warm to me.
Our house is typically 67F at night and with the stove burning it gets up to about 72F. We like it cooler for sleeping. 75F makes me feel logy.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
I had to work on that super cold day last week. It was slightly below zero with 30 mph wind here, which is uncommon enough that the natives thought they'd been transported to the north pole. 
I came home and the stove room was 63 and the stove was cranked down to a really low burn. I told my wife that I had been hoping for 80F in the stove room, and she said that it was nice to have it cooler.
Happily, with a wood stove, you can have it both ways- I turned it up a little and sat right next to it until my pants hit 230F. Posted a picture in another thread on here. =)
I came home and the stove room was 63 and the stove was cranked down to a really low burn. I told my wife that I had been hoping for 80F in the stove room, and she said that it was nice to have it cooler.
Happily, with a wood stove, you can have it both ways- I turned it up a little and sat right next to it until my pants hit 230F. Posted a picture in another thread on here. =)
Squisher
Minister of Fire
For me the heat gets to much at times and I'll purge our living area by opening the doors and windows. We do prefer it hot though and sometimes right up to 79-80 on the thermostat in our hallway by the bedrooms which is the cooler end of the house. When it's like that it's to much for me but my wife loves it. Often we have a window cracked ever so slightly but now I am trying to moderate it more and not overheat so I have to open doors or windows.
I have gotten all of my wood for 'free' over the last ten years. Much more literally than most because I owned my own tree service business. Literally I ran my house and shop with two old efficient stoves and never had to have a care in the world about firewood. I supply my parents wood as well and always still had plenty of extra. Well those days are over because I sold it last year so it's starting to dawn on me that it's going to be a bit more work or expense to get my wood.
I have gotten all of my wood for 'free' over the last ten years. Much more literally than most because I owned my own tree service business. Literally I ran my house and shop with two old efficient stoves and never had to have a care in the world about firewood. I supply my parents wood as well and always still had plenty of extra. Well those days are over because I sold it last year so it's starting to dawn on me that it's going to be a bit more work or expense to get my wood.
Ash
Burning Hunk
About the same here. We usually have it in the mid to high 70's in the house. By the time it's down to about 73 the wife usually says something or loads the stove herself. Try to keep it a bit cooler in the spring and fall but the warmth feels pretty good in the winter
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Beer Belly
Minister of Fire
I can't explain it, and understand that "heat is heat", but for some reason, the heat from the woodstove feels different to me than what I get from my Baseboards....to me, it's just more comfortable....maybe it's all in my head
Yeah...I can't explain it either, all I know is I'm sitting here right now with my brand new heat pump running and it just sucks compared to wood heat! I'm holding off on burning right now because I'm running low on the kiln dried wood (my cord wood is not fully seasoned yet and after being educated on this site for several months...refuse to burn any wood that's not bone dry). I am a convert, nothing compares to wood heat!I can't explain it, and understand that "heat is heat", but for some reason, the heat from the woodstove feels different to me than what I get from my Baseboards....to me, it's just more comfortable....maybe it's all in my head
Heat pump systems vary a lot depending on the compressor design and HSPF rating. Some get anemic below freezing and others rock down to zero.
What's the thermostat set to?
What's the thermostat set to?
As others have said; different strokes. I like my house to be at about 75. With wood or coal, it's cheap enough for me not to be bothered to do so. Not as much with other heat sources.
I think that others have hit on an important detail as well. The very slow moving air that's heated to 75 with a woodstove feels better than the warm wind created if one were to get the same from a forced air system. I think that electric baseboard heat feels nice, and doesn't create a noticeable breeze. The bill that I'd get from the electric co-op keeps me stoking my fire, however.
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