-14°C this morning and the wife won't let me light up. She hasn't let me keep the fire going overnight either this past week despite overnights dipping to -28°C. She claims that the wood burning is affecting her respiration. According to her, the slightest hint of wood smoke smell and her allergies kick in.
It's not smokey in here by any means and I do my best to not let in any smoke. Granted, my chimney could be a bit taller but I'm very careful to open the stove slowly and I always open a window first. I try to maintain a large enough fire so that the flue stays warm enough to draw well. No matter how careful I am, a little bit of smell will get into the room off the end of the poker and the inside surface of the door, which when open, is exposed to the room. If you burn wood, you cannot avoid the smell 100%. I cannot believe that such a tiny amount of smoke smell can affect her allergies.
On the other hand, she will never open a window before she opens the stove and she lets in far more smoke than I do. I think that through the day she probably has an upstairs window open which further exacerbates things by creating a negative pressure situation. I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't run the exhaust fan too to remove the smoke smell while the clothes dryer is going. Since it's warmer through the day, I don't think she keeps a hot enough fire going to service the draft so when she opens the stove, she's probably getting a nasty hit of smoldering creosote stench. I noticed that she manages to dirty up the glass through the day.
I've tried to explain to her the dynamics of how things work WRT stack effect, fans, open windows upstairs etc. but she doesn't get it. It's not for not wanting to understand, it's just that her eyes glaze over when I try to explain it. The other week she asked me why it is that when she opens a window downstairs, she gets an inrush of fresh air but upstairs, no fresh air comes in. I might have to build a model of our house out of plexiglass and demonstrate with a candle and incense.
At least she still lets me burn for a few hours in the evening and claims her breathing has improved as a result. Now she is suggesting though that when my stockpile of wood is gone, there will be no more wood burning, that we will not be buying any more wood. I went through all this a couple years ago when the price of natural gas was at an all time high and she wanted to stop burning wood then. I was planning to order anothe 12 cord next Winter so time will tell. I was also planning to add another 3 feet of SS chimney height this Summer.
The funny thing is that if/when she cranks up the NG furnace, it affects MY breathing. I think we have a pet dander problem and the furnace kicks it up. We have wood and tile floors throughout and only a few area rugs. Anyone know how to hack into a Honeywell programmable thermostat? I want to set an upper limit so that she can't crank so high.
It's not smokey in here by any means and I do my best to not let in any smoke. Granted, my chimney could be a bit taller but I'm very careful to open the stove slowly and I always open a window first. I try to maintain a large enough fire so that the flue stays warm enough to draw well. No matter how careful I am, a little bit of smell will get into the room off the end of the poker and the inside surface of the door, which when open, is exposed to the room. If you burn wood, you cannot avoid the smell 100%. I cannot believe that such a tiny amount of smoke smell can affect her allergies.
On the other hand, she will never open a window before she opens the stove and she lets in far more smoke than I do. I think that through the day she probably has an upstairs window open which further exacerbates things by creating a negative pressure situation. I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't run the exhaust fan too to remove the smoke smell while the clothes dryer is going. Since it's warmer through the day, I don't think she keeps a hot enough fire going to service the draft so when she opens the stove, she's probably getting a nasty hit of smoldering creosote stench. I noticed that she manages to dirty up the glass through the day.
I've tried to explain to her the dynamics of how things work WRT stack effect, fans, open windows upstairs etc. but she doesn't get it. It's not for not wanting to understand, it's just that her eyes glaze over when I try to explain it. The other week she asked me why it is that when she opens a window downstairs, she gets an inrush of fresh air but upstairs, no fresh air comes in. I might have to build a model of our house out of plexiglass and demonstrate with a candle and incense.
At least she still lets me burn for a few hours in the evening and claims her breathing has improved as a result. Now she is suggesting though that when my stockpile of wood is gone, there will be no more wood burning, that we will not be buying any more wood. I went through all this a couple years ago when the price of natural gas was at an all time high and she wanted to stop burning wood then. I was planning to order anothe 12 cord next Winter so time will tell. I was also planning to add another 3 feet of SS chimney height this Summer.
The funny thing is that if/when she cranks up the NG furnace, it affects MY breathing. I think we have a pet dander problem and the furnace kicks it up. We have wood and tile floors throughout and only a few area rugs. Anyone know how to hack into a Honeywell programmable thermostat? I want to set an upper limit so that she can't crank so high.