My house sucks!!

[buckeye]

I'm with you in ohio mike. it is 4 degrees here right now, got down to -2 last night and the wind was a killer. My boiler ran every couple of hours even with the stove cranking. I just look at how much I would be giving columbia gas if I didn't have the Heritage. My downstairs is at 70 right now and the bedrooms up are about 66. The boiler has ran every 3-4 hours today too.

 

[woodjack]

That does suck...

But just take it in stride and fill in the gaps when you get a chance and add insulation where things seem the worst.

I did this on a much smaller scale (on a boat) this fall. I just kept finding where the "cold, drafty spots" were and hunted down the offending gap or area that wasn't well insulated.

For me, it was the 17 billion windows this particular place has. They all had to be insulated from the outside and then heat shrinked from the inside.

Now?

29,000 BTUs has me in a t-shirt and 9 deg F.

Not bad...

Thanks for the inspiration and positivity. I'll just repair one gap at a time. Little by little, step by step.

 

[lexybird]

here in northwestern Pa. it was dead zero here last night with strong 20-30mph whipping wind gusts i could hear against the side of my house ,upstairs temps was a dry 88 the down stairs was about 80 .we dont even sleep with covers anymore i have not used my oil furnace at all only wood heat with my Englander addon furnace ,not bragging but my stove doesnt struggle i nthe least during these cold temps to heat my 2,000 sq ft split level ,we even leave the windows wide open when we go to bed sometimes .if it was me id insulate better, fill the gaps and possibly get a bigger stove with large dry Oak or Hickory splits

 

[Zzyk]

Last night was down a bit below zero with the wind howling through the valley... Heating a 140ish year old 2-story farmhouse with 9 foot ceilings and so many very old windows. Used only the PE Summit last nigt, loaded at midnight, got up at 7, it was 60ish in the stove room, low 50's throughout most of the house, high 40's in the furthest rooms. Fired up both stoves to take the chill out. Can take the cold or the wind but both is very tough.

 

[mike1234]

This thread really helped me out. It was -1 last night howling wind, and about the same the night before also. It took a lot of effort on my part, and getting up 2 times each night to keep the house at 74 or 75. I was beginning to think, maybe this wood furnace thing was not quite the great idea I thought it was. But It's nice to know that at those temps many of us struggle to keep up, and the propane furnace never kicked on!

I am heating a lot of space, 4800 ft, and the furnace is in a way to drafty only partially uninsulated garage, so I have some opportunities for improvement.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences.

 

[SnaykeByte]

Yeah it was mighty cold here the past couple days. I had to load my boiler at least once every 24 hours since it got cold. Takes up a lot of my time!

 

[mike1234]

Lets see getting up every 4 hours when it is 0 out, or having and extra 6 grand in my pocket. Be right back, have to put some wood on the fire, someone do the math. ;-P

 

[Vic99]

Very diverse responses.

I have posted before about going up a stove size or two because when it gets cold the stove can't keep up. I would struggle below 20F. After insulating the floor to R19, bumping the ceiling from R38 to R50 (3" cellulose on top of existing fiberglass batts), replacing a few windows, and tighting up a few drafts, and using ceiling fans in every first floor room, it seems I can now keep up at 20F, but struggle at 15F. My walls are still questionable and my stove seems to draft hard.

Seems that some of you are in my situation or, gasp, worse. Others do very well. By insulating the first floor walls better and getting a larger stove next year I hope to keep up at 10F. Based on learning my stove, adding insulation, and especially from what people say here, that doesn't seem unreasonable, does it?

Probably sticking with Hearthstone and jumping from the homestead (2.0 cubic ft), past the heritage (2.3), and into the mansfield (3.2).

 

[deadon]

That can't be good. With wide open air no wonder your constantly feeding. All the heat is going up the stack.

My stove runs best with more air. If I throttle it down it burns slow but with less heat. about 1/2 open it will start to charcoal the wood and secondary burn. at full throttle I get high temps but short burn times.

Probably been asked and answered a dozen times, but how long after reloading and letting it burn at full bore are you throttling it down? 15-20 minutes?

I only throttle it down when I load up for the night before going to bed or before going to work in the morning and then after about 30 minutes. If I am home I run it full. If I keep it at full bore I have good high temps with tons of heat.

 

[mikeathens]

It was down to 6 last night...I just said screw it and pulled up the covers. Went to bed at 10, got up at 2 to reload, and ran back upstairs. My house was hovering around 62 throughout. I am think maybe I should stop being such an engineer and get rid of all of my thermometers that I've strategically placed throught the house. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[eernest4]

Last night was down a bit below zero with the wind howling through the valley... Heating a 140ish year old 2-story farmhouse with 9 foot ceilings and so many very old windows. Used only the PE Summit last nigt, loaded at midnight, got up at 7, it was 60ish in the stove room, low 50's throughout most of the house, high 40's in the furthest rooms. Fired up both stoves to take the chill out. Can take the cold or the wind but both is very tough.

Well , now I feel better about freezing my butt off because I'm not the only on & missery loves company.

Zzyk, I though you were describing my house , except it only went down to 2 above here & I have 3000 sq uninsulated feet. My stove heats a 900 sq ft basement & then the heat has to come up the stairs to get into the kitchen, which has not made it over 71 * since last week some time & then only just after I stuff the stove.

Problem is the cold is comming in faster than the heat is comming up from the basement.

So I tried both the wood stove & the pellet stove at the same time & that gave me 3 warm rooms instead of 2 warm rooms & didn't do jack for my bed room.

I finally got disgusted and actually turned on the oil burner for the first time this year.

Sure is nice to have all the rooms warm instead of just 2!!

I think I am going to order in a load of oil because Ive had just about enough of freezing my butt off.

 

[eernest4]

This thread really helped me out. It was -1 last night howling wind, and about the same the night before also. It took a lot of effort on my part, and getting up 2 times each night to keep the house at 74 or 75. I was beginning to think, maybe this wood furnace thing was not quite the great idea I thought it was. But It's nice to know that at those temps many of us struggle to keep up, and the propane furnace never kicked on!

I am heating a lot of space, 4800 ft, and the furnace is in a way to drafty only partially uninsulated garage, so I have some opportunities for improvement.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences.

A least you had enough wood heat to do the job & were able to get it from the wood furnace to the rooms where it was needed.

I have a big wood stove in the basement & it gets 90 down there but the heat can't get up the stairs fast enough in the single windy digits to get the kitchen more than 66 to 68 & forget about more than 60 anywheres else in the house.

Not enough heat getting out of the basement despite 3 -20 inch box fans trying to blow the cold air downstairs.

So I got disgusted with freezing & fired up the oil burner for 1 hr & brought the 8 rooms up to temp.

 

[mikeathens]

I don't know about Connecticut, but we're supposed to see mid 30's today, low 30's overnight, and then 50's tomorrow. At least I'll have a chance to bring the "thermal mass" of the house back up to a reasonable temperature before the next round of single digit temps...

 

[Wet1]

Mike, CT should be in the 40's for the next several days, so we are in the same boat. It's one thing to have a cold snap overnight, it's a whole nother ball game when temps hover in the teens and single digits for extended periods!

I woke up this morning to the sound of the gas valve opening on the boiler (nothing wakes me up faster!), I had to run in and get the stove heated up again. I hear it was nice and warm in the house about 3 hours after I left, well at least someone got to enjoy the warmth... but it sure was cold when I woke up!

I'm looking forward to the (relatively) warm weather over the next few days...

 

[Rich L]

I was feeling pretty smug last night with my Mansfield blazing away...temps were dropping, but my house was nice and toasty at 68. I crammed a load of wood in at 11pm and went to bed at midnight, thinking that I could sleep until 6 before having to mess with the stove. It was about 15 out at that time. I woke up at 4am to the sound of the heat pump running.

The thermostat was supposed to be set at 60, but the mother in law had recently been there babysitting and we had it set at 65 for her. I thought maybe we just forgot to set it back. Nope...it was set at 60, and it was 6 outside. The stovetop was still at 300, which should have been plenty hot to keep a normal house warm.

How bad is it that I can't even heat a lousy 1800 SF with a hearthstone mansfield??

I guess that's what you get when you buy a 130 year-old log cabin...don't expect to stay warm.

Yo Mike did you try a pipe damper to extend burn times and increase heat output?And of course plug up some more of those drafty spots and see what happens.

 

[chad3]

My furnace kicked on for a few minutes this morning. It was low 20 to upper teens overnight. Thermostat was set at 62. Just touching that. I can't complain, as you need to think, imagine what you would have if you didn't have the stove. I can't complain. Roaring right now at 550, one more load for overnight, and then the weather is going up to about mid 40s for tomorrow with rain.
Just keep the positive note, you are always saving money no matter how bad the insulation is.
Chad