Everyone survive the mini-coldsnap?

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Sunday night we made 6* with 25mph sustained winds. Because I like to mess things up sometimes, I got two incredibly dense oak rounds in at 9:30PM, but the second one bridged. I find few things more annoying than the sound of my oil burner. Anyway, about 3 AM it burned down enough to un-bridge. Another massive load Monday morning got us through the teens and continuous winds all day Monday.

Wanting to actually SLEEP Monday night, I carefully planned my 9PM load. It consisted of 2 quarters as a base, A large half, and a long red oak and a cherry laid across the top north/south. At 5:30AM Tuesday, it looked like a 'normal' load still in the box!

White Oak is some awesome fuel!! :cheese:

But it's supposed to be rain and 40* tomorrow, so its off to gather some more Hemlock slab to burn for a few days at least.

 

[Dave T]

It was my first real cold and windy days burning the EKO and I could not be more happy with the performance yes I burned more wood but we all did, this site helped me get dialed in before the cold spell and I had some good wood to get through it with, the house never dropped below stat temp and I did not have to walk through a foot of snow in sub zero winds to load it (due to EKO being in the basement) thumbs up this house stayed warm when I never thought it could in those conditions...Dave

 

[MrEd]

*deleted by author*...I figured it out.

 

[Jim Post]

Yep!

I brought in some of olpotosi's select aged burr oak for the occasion. This is the good stuff. It's hand split from straight grained rounds more than 3 feet in diameter... genuine corinthian leather throughout...oh nevermind.

Yep I survived it...

Pretty soon they're gonna start naming these winter storm systems like the hurricanes....

Another 10" of the white stuff by Christmas and then rain for the weekend....Oh brother. Wisconsin where you get to experience all four of the seasons...sometimes in the same day.

Stay warm!

jp

 

[88rxn/a]

we been in the single digits for a couple of days now. wish i had the EKO already..

 

[Tony H]

Yep!

I brought in some of olpotosi's select aged burr oak for the occasion. This is the good stuff. It's hand split from straight grained rounds more than 3 feet in diameter... genuine corinthian leather throughout...oh nevermind.

Yep I survived it...

Pretty soon they're gonna start naming these winter storm systems like the hurricanes....

Another 10" of the white stuff by Christmas and then rain for the weekend....Oh brother. Wisconsin where you get to experience all four of the seasons...sometimes in the same day.

Stay warm!

jp

I hear you with temp changes 40 one day next day 7 next day - 7
I love that burr oak too , have about a 75' one dead in the backyard that will be nice for next year.

I did notice with the -7 temp plus 40mph winds coming over the top of the garage and down toward the boiler shed I had more bridging and while the boiler would heat up and go to idle in between bridging incidents the HX in the forced air furnace had all it could do to keep up.

 

[Duetech]

My fuel mix and air flow were okay for warmer weather but the frigid and high winds stuff put my settings into a tailspin. I have been trying to construct an external adjustment for primary air control on my EKO40 so I worked on both at the same time. Once I finished getting the control built and installed I was able to tinker with my settings and had things running up quickly. In the meantime the boiler got down to 100*f (in an uninsulated outbuilding) even though the draft was open and I was running it like an old pot belly and the house got down to 61*f. The wife stuck with me though and the oil burner stayed off. I died of hypothermia but got sent back because anybody that would do that to his wife just wasn't right. So with a reminder that if I didn't want to stoke coals the next time I better shape up. Other than that we made it just fine.

P.S. Please don't tell the wife 'cause she might raz me about it

 

[WoodNotOil]

We survived here alright. However, weather like this highlights the flaws in the series hookup. My zones had to run for long periods of time and at the same time causing available temp to drop making the zones run even longer. Nothing is more frustrating than having a Tarm up to temp and only 140* water going out to zones! I can't wait to switch to a P/S piping for next winter. All said though we were warm enough and I didn't burn a drop of oil. Can't beat that

 

[henfruit]

moday am 5 and the wind whipping from the north and i face dead north toward mt washington.got a good 7 8 hours out of 5 big rounds.today -10 not as much wind. had to reload at 4 am woke to find my son had set the thermo to 70, was getting 150 degree water. like a spring day now 22 out.

 

[warm in VT]

Went out after work, loaded the CB and went to bed nice and warm! Woke up this morning to a toasty house and added a couple of pieces to go through the day till I get home tonight to fill er up again. Bring on the cold

 

[logjammed]

E-classic doing its job so far. The cold weather has not affected burn times of about 9 to 11 hours on mixed loads of mostly pine and randomly placed hardwood to keep an ember. I have been re-splitting some of my bigger splits for better packing. All in all so far so good, wood piles looking smaller though. Hope that's cause of the deep snow drifts.

 

[AndrewChurchill]

It got to -15F at my house last night and the PB105 had no problems keeping the house warm. I used about 115 pounds of pellets for heat and hot water in 24 hours.

 

[Tree farmer]

-2 at 6am this morning and boiler still had a quarter load of coals left but threw in 3 splits till I left for work. I don't change my stat as it has been at 70 or 72 and the boiler will go for 11 to 12 hrs loaded with black birch and maple, no 3 or 4 am callings for this guy. Very pleased with the inline hookup so far but I am only pulling 2 zones and domestic hot water. Seem to have all the air settings adjusted A-ok and leaving be. Loading the boiler in my pajamas and bare feet makes me smile on mornings like these.

 

[jebatty]

Where I live 15 of the first 24 days of December have had lows below 0F: -7, -9, -2, -9, -13, -6, -19, -23, -14, -15, -14, -16, -23, -8. As I write this, it is -17F. And January to early February is typically our coldest period. GWB: "Bring 'em on."

I love the big Aspen splits. Nothing better!