So we put almost $10K of insulation into this old house (attic last year, like 24" of blown in stuff, then this year, walls to R18 and crawl floors and rim joists to R14). We've pulled off baseboards to spray foam behind them, caulked like mad, plugged air leaks as we find them, etc.
The house is just barely 2000 SF, a Cape, with the wood stove on one end (exterior masonry chimney from 1970s) and the pellet stove is in the 1758 "keeping room" central masonry chimney.
This seems to have helped, in weather above 30 degrees or so. I can get 68-70 degrees and sometimes use only one stove.
Down to about 20 degrees, we can keep the downstairs around 65-68 IF we run both stoves hard.
Below 20 degrees, I struggle to keep 65 downstairs.
In the single digits like the past couple of days, I have had to turn on the oil to give the house a boost to 65 or so; then I can more or less keep that temp for a few hours, again running both stoves full bore.
FireView temps are up to 650, and I'm generally reloading every 4-6 hours in the daytime. Burning a lot of wood but not getting a lot of heat into the room, unless you're right by the stove.
I don't know what else to do. I'm out of money and don't want to use up my oil. But I also feel like these 2 stoves should be putting more heat into the rooms...
Thanks for listening to me whine!
The house is just barely 2000 SF, a Cape, with the wood stove on one end (exterior masonry chimney from 1970s) and the pellet stove is in the 1758 "keeping room" central masonry chimney.
This seems to have helped, in weather above 30 degrees or so. I can get 68-70 degrees and sometimes use only one stove.
Down to about 20 degrees, we can keep the downstairs around 65-68 IF we run both stoves hard.
Below 20 degrees, I struggle to keep 65 downstairs.
In the single digits like the past couple of days, I have had to turn on the oil to give the house a boost to 65 or so; then I can more or less keep that temp for a few hours, again running both stoves full bore.
FireView temps are up to 650, and I'm generally reloading every 4-6 hours in the daytime. Burning a lot of wood but not getting a lot of heat into the room, unless you're right by the stove.
I don't know what else to do. I'm out of money and don't want to use up my oil. But I also feel like these 2 stoves should be putting more heat into the rooms...
Thanks for listening to me whine!