Introduction, Happy New Year, and of course advice requested

[Woody Stover]

In your case, I might be inclined to go with a simpler non-cat stove with less maintenance.
I recently switched my SIL from a cat to a non-cat stove, the Pacific Energy Alderlea T5, and it's working well. She governs the output with load size. A new load will peak in output in the first few hours, then slowly declines as the load coals. My cat stove works much the same, peaks early, then glides down. The BKs have a thermostat which evens the output over the burn. The cast iron convective jacket on the T5 steel box buffers the initial output, then releases stored heat later.
Your climate is very mild, and if your house has decent insulation, it will hold heat well, and buffer temp changes in the house over long periods. You can use the desk fan setup I mentioned to keep the stove room comfortable and distribute the heat, depending on the floor plan.
The best thing about getting the T5 for her? Less maintenance for me. Don't get me wrong; I love my little cat stove too, and don't have a lot of maintenance except to replace the cat every four years or so. It's also got a grated ash-handling system, which I discovered when I got the used Dutchwest back around the turn of the century. It's not likely that I'll ever go back to the more primitive methods of removing ash...I'm spoiled.

 

[Tron]

(Sorry, tried to reply yesterday evening but ran into forum errors. Seems to work now, though)

House is built on a solid slab foundation, no basement. And yes, the heating/cooling ducts run through the uninsolated attic, but have good insulation themselves, as the rest of the house, which was built 2007. For US standards, that is. I'm used to newer residential buildings having 10+ inches of insulation on the outside walls, but that's a different story.It did not have programmable thermostats, we retrofitted those.

Today (50's outside) the furnaces ran 7% and 10% of the time, that's about 10-12 cycles each. I have the fan run a bit after the heat turns off to push the remaining hot air out of the ducts.

I agree that the 5 acres of wood will be more than enough for our needs. There already are a lot of dead trees (that are still standing), but I'd rather not use those for firewood as they are usually bug-infested. Maybe the bark beetles you mentioned. I did cut down some of the dead ones for safety reasons, and the wood was already so light and flaky I did not consider it useful for firewood. But I will try to determine the dying ones, of which there are probably more than enough. I don't think anybody ever did forestry there, so it mostly still is a jungle. And even if I cut down healthy trees, it just makes room for younger trees to get a chance for sunlight.

But I truly must object to using nuclear reactor cores for ballistic purposes ;-)

 

[BKVP]

(Sorry, tried to reply yesterday evening but ran into forum errors. Seems to work now, though)

House is built on a solid slab foundation, no basement. And yes, the heating/cooling ducts run through the uninsolated attic, but have good insulation themselves, as the rest of the house, which was built 2007. For US standards, that is. I'm used to newer residential buildings having 10+ inches of insulation on the outside walls, but that's a different story.It did not have programmable thermostats, we retrofitted those.



Today (50's outside) the furnaces ran 7% and 10% of the time, that's about 10-12 cycles each. I have the fan run a bit after the heat turns off to push the remaining hot air out of the ducts.



I agree that the 5 acres of wood will be more than enough for our needs. There already are a lot of dead trees (that are still standing), but I'd rather not use those for firewood as they are usually bug-infested. Maybe the bark beetles you mentioned. I did cut down some of the dead ones for safety reasons, and the wood was already so light and flaky I did not consider it useful for firewood. But I will try to determine the dying ones, of which there are probably more than enough. I don't think anybody ever did forestry there, so it mostly still is a jungle. And even if I cut down healthy trees, it just makes room for younger trees to get a chance for sunlight.



But I truly must object to using nuclear reactor cores for ballistic purposes ;-)

Highbeam started this!!

 

[Woody Stover]

(Sorry, tried to reply yesterday evening but ran into forum errors. Seems to work now, though)
There already are a lot of dead trees (that are still standing), but I'd rather not use those for firewood as they are usually bug-infested. Maybe the bark beetles you mentioned. I did cut down some of the dead ones for safety reasons, and the wood was already so light and flaky I did not consider it useful for firewood. But I will try to determine the dying ones, of which there are probably more than enough.....And even if I cut down healthy trees, it just makes room for younger trees to get a chance for sunlight.

Yeah, I knew something was up when I tried to post and got a warning. Then I saw that the last post was like 45 minutes old..no way.
That light, crumbly wood is pretty far gone. It would burn but not much heat there. You'll be able to tell when you are into some solid wood.
I haven't found the bugs to be a problem. They like moist environments, and mostly go away when the wood is split, stacked and drying. We've got a log home with hardwood floors, etc, and I stack wood next to the logs outside, and load several days' worth of wood into a hoop next to the stove. I might see an occasional ant but that's about it. As far as termites, I don't think they can do anything unless they are connected to their colony. I've got old termite damage here, in the floor joists, but they are long gone now I think.

 

[Highbeam]

Highbeam started this!!

the cores are actually a short drive west of your house so it’s okay. They’re cooling off nicely. The fuel rods on the other hand, that was a different department!

there were some ballistic things located near the reactor cores but they were also removed by a different department by the time I got there. My father had something to do with putting them there in the first place.

 

[Tron]

Ok, when you said "core", to me it usually implies the fuel. The vessel itself is called RPV, or reactor pressure vessel.

About the insulation of the home: it does lose heat over time. I have attached the graph from New Year's Eve, when it got down into the mid-thirties outside. At 21:00 the furnaces shut down for the night and start up again at 4:30. So you can see that the room temperature dropped from 73F to around 65F in that timeframe. And yes, I do have a few temperature sensors around...

(The forum seems to compress images quite drastically, so here's a better version)

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[Woody Stover]

Ok, when you said "core", to me it usually implies the fuel. The vessel itself is called RPV, or reactor pressure vessel.

To me, it implies a rough area of town I used to live very close to during my days up there in Cream City. Rent was cheap, though..

room temperature dropped from 73F to around 65F in that timeframe.

When room temp drops to 65 in here, a Site Area Emergency is issued.

 

[Tron]

As long it's not a General Emergency ;-)

The furnace is programmed to kick back in below 65, but that actually happening is rare. We brought our nice comfy German bed covers, so we are cool with 65 at night.

 

[BKVP]

Ok...so that explains all the 3 eyed sturgeon I've been catching in the Columbia River!

 

[Tron]

Well, for the Columbia River, there actually is a reason for those fish. The military (anywhere in the world and at any previous time) has never cared much about the environment, they usually have other priorities. And, to be fair, nobody really knew back then.

 

[Woody Stover]

We brought our nice comfy German bed covers, so we are cool with 65 at night.

Yep. In this somewhat leaky house with no wall insulation, I keep the mudroom and bedroom doors open only about 6" to keep the main room toasty. When it gets cold out, fleece blankets topped with a down comforter are the order of the evening. And some wool ankle socks if she's not in there with me.

 

[spudman99]

Well, for the Columbia River, there actually is a reason for those fish. The military (anywhere in the world and at any previous time) local government has never cared much about the environment, they usually have other priorities. And, to be fair, nobody really knew back then.

Hehe, Columbia is a beautiful river, but the crazies who live near there are just plain odd....

 

[Tron]

That light, crumbly wood is pretty far gone. It would burn but not much heat there. You'll be able to tell when you are into some solid wood.
I haven't found the bugs to be a problem. They like moist environments, and mostly go away when the wood is split, stacked and drying.

I cut down some dead (but still standing pines) yesterday. Some were really light and crumbly, but most were not that bad. Sure, nothing like the density of oak or beech, but I guess it'll do. I don't need burn times of 30 hrs. anyway. Additionally, I noticed a few large pines with alll brown needles, so I guess those are not doing very well either and might be next on the list...

 

[Rickb]

Keep in mind with some of the BK stoves they get close to 30hour burn times with pine. lol

Mine with ash usually gives me 7 or 8 hours of heat with 4-5 pieces of wood. not close to full.

 

[Tron]

I lower the interior temperatures anyway at night or when we are not home, currently by changing the thermostat temperature. So the stove will only run while we are at home, and for that the occasional reload is totally fine.