Started as stove talk now thread about marriage, etc...

[Ashful]

Womp Womp. I worked Sat-Wed so the next few days it's full throttle burning. Just threw in 4 splits of box elder for a quick burst of heat and to burn down coals. It's so cold out I've barely been able to budge the thermostat. It's stuck at 65. Pretty normal for 15 or below cloudy days though. Ill have it up to 67-68 in a few hours.

Keeping 80F in my office right now, with low- to mid-70's throughout the rest of the house, but I am going through an obscene amount of wood. I just filled the wagon with another half cord of hickory, and I think it was only 10 days ago that I hauled the prior half cord up to the house. I should keep better track, all I know is this wagon load will be the end of our 4th cord. They're "fat" cords, in that I stuff more than 1 cord into each "1 cord" bay of the shed, but it's close enough for rough count.

We are at 2499 HDD's so far this season, with 5000 HDD typical. So we're on target for an 8 cord year, if I stay at the same pace, maybe 9 cords if I really accurately account for the way I stuff the sheds. I rarely follow through to the end though, as spring yard work usually pushes me toward letting the boiler do more work, in those last weeks of the season.

Of course, if we remember how warm it's been most of this year, and that it only got really cold this week, I guess I could be in for more than the expected usage if this cold keeps up.

 

[Caw]

Yeah that makes sense. My stove is fantastic down to about 15 degrees but below that it's undersized and needs help around 4-6 am. Something like Matt's 2.4 cu ft box would be perfect for me but at the time none of those mid sized models would fit in my fireplace. It's very shallow. Knowing what I know now I could have done some work to the hearth to incorporate a bigger model but hindsight is 20/20. It really doesn't get below 15 for any extended period of time here than often so it's not a big deal. I'm happy with what we have and when the time comes to upgrade I'll go bigger if I can.

Just went to the store and also spent 10 minutes out on the pond testing the ice. I'm still here so it seems safe! Going to take the kids skating after work. Stove eating more boxelder right now. Hot and fast, get rid of it.

 

[bigealta]

Yeah i was looking around at the scattered stacks and am sure i'm not ready for year 3. Year 2 probably good depending on how this year winds up. I have a huge red oak at the rental house that's to big and to close to the house for me to cut down. Almost dead standing. Probably 4ft Diameter. Not sure how i'll get some / most of it over to my house a few miles away. But it has quite a few cords of prime firewood in it. Some of the branches are as big as normal size trees.

 

[Caw]

You've explained to your wife it doubles as the best kids stuff dryer in the world, right? My wife LOVES that. She complains in the summer how long it takes laundry to dry lol. She has a pop up rack to dry stuff we moved in front of the stove. Skates, boots, gloves. You name it. Dry in an hour or two!

 

[MRD1985]

You've explained to your wife it doubles as the best kids stuff dryer in the world, right? My wife LOVES that. She complains in the summer how long it takes laundry to dry lol. She has a pop up rack to dry stuff we moved in front of the stove. Skates, boots, gloves. You name it. Dry in an hour or two!

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I’m sure she understands it, but I haven’t come out to point it out specifically. Honestly, I don’t think that would be a point of interest lol. We came in from the last snowstorm and all the clothes stayed out in the breezeway…

 

[Caw]

You haven't lived until you've put on a boot warmed on front of the stove overnight. Glorious.

I don't mention breezeways to my wife. We are planning a garage/breezeway addition that she wants yesterday but we're waiting for rates to improve. 😬

 

[MRD1985]

You haven't lived until you've put on a boot warmed on front of the stove overnight. Glorious.

I don't mention breezeways to my wife. We are planning a garage/breezeway addition that she wants yesterday but we're waiting for rates to improve. 😬

Ours is nothing special, and could very much need updating/redone. I put my boots in front of of it but not going to force anyone’s hand 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[MRD1985]

🤦🏻‍♂️

 

[Caw]

I feel your pain. I don't even like when it comes on for an hour nevermind the entire day. Though I've come to accept it. I value that 2 hours of sleep more than a few kWh now on cold days.

I'm in good shape here tonight. Up to 69 and just stringing along the coal bed one split at time until the night load. I use all the rooms but the living room (stove room) for thermostat calculations.

 

[MRD1985]

I feel your pain. I don't even like when it comes on for an hour nevermind the entire day. Though I've come to accept it. I value that 2 hours of sleep more than a few kWh now on cold days.

I'm in good shape here tonight. Up to 69 and just stringing along the coal bed one split at time until the night load. I use all the rooms but the living room (stove room) for thermostat calculations.

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What I would do is load the stove one more time before I go to bed around 10-11. That should give
Me enough heat for most of the night. If I feel ambitious I’d get up again around 5 to load it again if it’s really low ambient temps like this week. If not, I’d just put the heat pump on standby for each room at 65 degrees until I get up to load it and get it going and then pull the breaker right out for the boiler.

The only change would be we would all have to sleep with the doors open in each of our rooms, which would be an adjustment, but doable. IF we used it for “heating”.

 

[Caw]

I went and checked the week's data and my aux heat came on twice this week all in the last 2 days when it was 15 or so out. Made it to about 6 am and it was on for a combined total of 15 min so the stove did better than I thought!

 

[MRD1985]

I still can’t comprehend how there are no f*cks given about energy savings here from my other half. We could go from a 250 gas bill to 30 with little effort.

The sad part is she would not even care to look at this chart, let alone what it truly means.

I feel like Peter griffin on an episode of “you know what really grinds my gears” on family guy.

 

[Caw]

What I would do is load the stove one more time before I go to bed around 10-11. That should give
Me enough heat for most of the night. If I feel ambitious I’d get up again around 5 to load it again if it’s really low ambient temps like this week. If not, I’d just put the heat pump on standby for each room at 65 degrees until I get up to load it and get it going and then pull the breaker right out for the boiler.

The only change would be we would all have to sleep with the doors open in each of our rooms, which would be an adjustment, but doable. IF we used it for “heating”.

Yeah that's pretty much exactly what we do. I keep the thermostat at 63. Overnight load around 11 and I get up around 7. If the heat comes on that final good hour or two so be it. I'll occasionally do the 5 am reload if I'm already up to pee or can't sleep but for the most part Id rather sleep. It also throws off the morning reload timing before work. That's only a big deal on the 2 days a week we both go in though.

Very true about the doors being open though. Our bedroom door is at the top of the stairs so if I leave our door fully open it'll be the 2nd warmest room in the house and roast us out of bed. I've gotten good at leaving it open just the right amount to get a touch of warmth but keep the room cool. We both prefer to sleep in a cooler room. The kids are further down the hall so their doors stay open. The bathroom doors stay open too, nobody wants a freezing cold dump lol.

 

[Caw]

I still can’t comprehend how there are no f*cks given about energy savings here from my other half. We could go from a 250 gas bill to 30 with little effort.

The sad part is she would not even care to look at this chart, let alone what it truly means.

I feel like Peter griffin on an episode of “you know what really grinds my gears” on family guy.

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Oh man good pull lol. I haven't thought of that skit in ages. I'm going to use this at work.

You're totally right though. The data is very clear, you have the appliance, you have the fuel, and the know how. Ok sure the health concerns are kind of legit but there's only one way to find out. If it makes stuff worse you stop using it so much. If it doesn't you save tons of money, house is warmer, and you get to enjoy the hobby. Everybody wins.

Can't have you winning though. Not even if she wins at the same time. Nope. Saving money? F no. Not if it means you win at all.

Lame.

 

[MRD1985]

Oh man good pull lol. I haven't thought of that skit in ages. I'm going to use this at work.

You're totally right though. The data is very clear, you have the appliance, you have the fuel, and the know how. Ok sure the health concerns are kind of legit but there's only one way to find out. If it makes stuff worse you stop using it so much. If it doesn't you save tons of money, house is warmer, and you get to enjoy the hobby. Everybody wins.

Can't have you winning though. Not even if she wins at the same time. Nope. Saving money? F no. Not if it means you win at all.

Lame.

Still have no asthma related issues to this date. I get the concern is legitimate, but there have been no issues of any coughing, sneezing , etc. at all. I’ve been running a humidifier in each of kids bedrooms, and air purifiers in their rooms. But even when they’re playing in the stove room with it on, no issues of any asthma or allergy symptoms

There is a lot of truth, unfortunately, in your post.

 

[Caw]

So how much wood do you have left for this year? IIRC you had what about 2 cords ish that was burnable? That I almost stole. Lol.

 

[MRD1985]

I’ve used probably 15% of what I have. Still have tons of oak, cherry, birch, white oak and some Norway maple

 

[Caw]

I still find it funny she doesn't want you using it but didn't like that you almost gave it away. She secretly wants it to be used

 

[Caw]

I've never tried birch. I have a small black birch stand in the woods in front of my house. If one ever goes down I'll have to harvest and give it a try.

 

[MRD1985]

I still find it funny she doesn't want you using it but didn't like that you almost gave it away. She secretly wants it to be used

She wants it to be on her terms is the answer!

 

[Caw]

Yes. We/you just need to figure out how to make heating the house with it her idea.

 

[MRD1985]

I've never tried birch. I have a small black birch stand in the woods in front of my house. If one ever goes down I'll have to harvest and give it a try.

Black birch is very nice stuff. Smells like root beer if you peel the bark when green and makes for GREAT walking sticks. Quite a bit of BTUs too.

I only white birch. The bark gives off some heavy black smoke. I have yet to burn it in the stove though. It’s only seen oak and cherry so far

 

[MRD1985]

Yes. We/you just need to figure out how to make heating the house with it her idea.

I too have been scratching my head how to get around it. The answer is yet to be found for me 😑

 

[MRD1985]

Yes. We/you just need to figure out how to make heating the house with it her idea.

It also doesn’t help that saving money in this case means nothing to her.

I should also note that this is a bit hypocritical because she is always complaining we need to pay our bills off and stay out of debt. 🧐

The catch 22 is that if I try to bring this up, it’s an immediate no go. The topic is like a stick of dynamite with the fuse burning in conversation

 

[Caw]

My wife used to always ask me about the bills. Did you pay X, Y, Z and how much do we owe her and there. So one day I asked if she wanted to handle the bills....I haven't touched a bill in 10 years other than my own credit card. She's very organized and like doing it. Stuff is always on time, she puts money in savings, I'm a happy camper.

I'm curious how it'll go over time. This is really going to have to be the super long play for you. Maybe one day some expense will come up and you'll be looking for ways to save $ and eureka. Wood heat.