house temps overnight...

[firefighterjake]

Temp in the living room where the stove is . . . mid-70s typically.
Temp in the adjacent room . . . low 70s typically.

Stove temp around 9:30 p.m. 500-600 degrees F typically.

Up at 4:30 a.m. to find temp in the living room in the low to mid 60s typically.
Temp in adjacent room . . . low 60s.

Pretty much normal for outside temps being 20-60 degree F . . . when we drop down into the teens or single digits or negative numbers I see a big change in how well the house holds the heat.

1970s two-story Cape. 1,800 square feet or so. Moderately insulated . . . have added some over the years . . . have changed out some windows. Could be better perhaps.[/quote]

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Just curious as to what everyone is able to maintain for temps in their homes overnight. Please post stove temp when calling it a night...what time you retire and then wake up, and also outside temps. I had an energy audit today and the company had an infrared heat camera and amazed me at the hkrrible insulation the house has...

I have my thermostats ( 1 upstairs zone and one downstairs zone ) set to 65... I load the stove chuck full EW slowly closing down the air at about 500...Ieave the air open about an 1/8 when I go to bed...usually about midnight ( load stove an hour before )... house is usually 68 on the oposite side of the house only because fans moving the air. ..upstairs about 70...wake up about 6:30 to the oil burner working upstairs and down... outside temps in the teens or twentys.... stove top reading about 150-200 with decent coals.... im hoping to get a little more heat staying in my home after some insulation upgrades....just curious what everyone else was seeing..

We don't mind it a bit cooler for sleeping but we still seem to maintain a good temperature all night. To give an example, another forum member, etiger, gifted us some black locust because we've never burned that before and I wanted to try some. He knew that so gave us some. Thanks Ed.

We keep our house warmer than most and usually in winter months we are 80 or above. The last 3 nights I have put locust in plus one night some red oak. It did not take the stove long to hit 700 degrees which is the maximum recommended for our stove. Three nights in a row we have hit 700 with one night getting to 702. By the time we hit the sack, the stove temperature was still between 650-700. Each of these 3 times we have gone around 12 hours before adding wood. The house each morning has been right around 80 degrees when we got up. Sweet!

I will add that we put in a lot of insulation plus new doors and windows. This has helped greatly.

Our normal overnight wood is white ash unless the temperature goes below 15 and that is when we usually burn a combination of ash and oak. This year the wood (ash) we are burning was cut in 2009-2010 and split in the spring (March) of 2010. The oak we are burning was a dead tree that was cut in early April, 2011. Some of that oak is just a tad punky but still good wood.

 

[etiger2007]

We don't mind it a bit cooler for sleeping but we still seem to maintain a good temperature all night. To give an example, another forum member, etiger, gifted us some black locust because we've never burned that before and I wanted to try some. He knew that so gave us some. Thanks Ed.

We keep our house warmer than most and usually in winter months we are 80 or above. The last 3 nights I have put locust in plus one night some red oak. It did not take the stove long to hit 700 degrees which is the maximum recommended for our stove. Three nights in a row we have hit 700 with one night getting to 702. By the time we hit the sack, the stove temperature was still between 650-700. Each of these 3 times we have gone around 12 hours before adding wood. The house each morning has been right around 80 degrees when we got up. Sweet!

I will add that we put in a lot of insulation plus new doors and windows. This has helped greatly.

Our normal overnight wood is white ash unless the temperature goes below 15 and that is when we usually burn a combination of ash and oak. This year the wood (ash) we are burning was cut in 2009-2010 and split in the spring (March) of 2010. The oak we are burning was a dead tree that was cut in early April, 2011. Some of that oak is just a tad punky but still good wood.

I was wondering how you liked it, and as always you are more than welcome. I will think of you when I get more.

 

[tsquini]

Add 3 splits. Go to bed around 11 with the house around 78. Wake up around 6:30 stove temp below 200 with the house around 68. Coals still good enough to start the fire up again.

 

[fbelec]

stove is to big for the house so there is lots of small hot fires but have it under control. usually finale load at 11:30 after the news with house around 70 and wake to it at 7:00 to about the same temp 70. stove top is run at 575 to 625 and at 7 am is down to 200 to 300. outside at 20's. last night it got down to 3 outside. last load at 11:30 loaded to the gills with rock maple and a few pine. stove top running at 550 to 650 but with secondary going and woke up a 7:00 to a 400 degree stove top and a 78 degree house temp. to warm for my liking

 

[lopiliberty]

When I went to bed last night after I caught a potential runaway stove, it was cruising at 670, with the blower on low. Woke up at 2:30 and went ahead and turned the fan off so that my burn would be extended, went back to bed got up at 7:15 to a 300 degree stove top and a 80 degree living room and 14 outside. I loaded it full this morning and let it go until 3:00 this afternoon and have just been burning small loads until bed. For some odd reason my house temp never rose above 82 and that has never happened since this monster was installed.

 

[blwncrewchief]

Ran my first load of locust tuesday night. House is 1,500sqft ranch, average insulation R13/R44. 3.1cuft secondary stove.

6:00 pm - loaded stove pretty full, not packed. 71* in house, stove 250*, 19*F outside
7:00 pm - made final air adjustment, stove 550*
9:00 pm - stove peak temp 600*
11:00 pm - head to bed, stove 550*, house 74*
6:00 am- awake, stove 300*, house 69*, outside temp 11*

That is about the warmest outside I will run a full load of locust like that. If it was colder about another 10* I would need to shorten that up by about 2-3 hours. I only ran that load to play since I haven't burned any locust since last February, and I was home all day so I ran two small loads of silver maple and cherry during the morning/afternoon leaving the stove ready to reload at an odd time. Too early for an overnight burn on softer wood for that cold, and too late to burn a small load and reload by 9 or 10.

Last night was more normal

9:00 pm - load stove, same pretty full not packed, stove 250*, house 72*, 22* outside. load 1-6" split sugar maple, 2- 4 to 5" elm, 2- 4 to 5" walnut.
10:00 pm - final adjustment, stove 550*, house 73*, head to bed
6:00 am - awake, stove 250*, house 70*, outside 18*

 

[VT F55]

Typically, with night time lows between 0*F and 15*F, load stove full at 8 pm (cruising 1/2 hour later) stove room temp peaks ~80*F (usually lower) bedrooms ~70*F - stove top ~500*F. Wake up at 6 am with stove top at ~200*F, stove room 66*F to 72*F, bedrooms > 62*F...reload (sometimes burn down coals for 1/2 hour) and cruising by 7-7:30 am.
Last night (night time low -16*F) had to push the stove a little harder. Loaded 10 pm, cruising at 10:30 pm with stove top ~600*F, stove room at 78*F and bedrooms ~70*F. Woke up at 6 am with stove top ~250*F, stove room at 70*F and bedrooms >62*F.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Last night, stove loaded pretty full about 10pm, aired all the way down at 10:30. Stove top cruising at 520. Thermostat in the foyer said 71. Came down at 1am, secondaries still putting on a great show. Dogs woke me up at 7:45am. Plenty of coals in the stove, thermostat says 68. Stove top at 200F.

Raked coals to the front/center, air full open, walked dogs, came in and loaded 4 medium splits, fed dogs, ate a bowl of fruit loops, stove top back at 275 and climbing. Will start airing down in a few minutes. Overnight low was 22F.

 

[EvilRoySlade]

How many of you maintaining good house temps overnight have OAKs hooked up?

This is my first winter with the insert. I'm trying to learn heat balance in the house and how the stove burns with my limited supply of dry wood, 80% of which is red maple.

By the way you guys are responsible for my recent addiction. I'm in the city on natural gas and chose wood for heat.

 

[Ashful]

Good question. By reducing draw on the house, I suspect an OAK can help keep house temps up a few degrees on a night with no wind. On a windy night, the pressure differential from one side of the house to the other I'd going to drive draft thru the house, lessening or eliminating the advantage of the OAK, with regard to keeping house temps up.