Uh oh...what's this?!

[JRHAWK9]

I guess this is what happens to the OAK when outside temps drop to -21°F.

This is connected to my BD and that air is being mixed with my flue gasses.

 

[brenndatomu]

when outside temps drop to -21°F

Bet it ain't takin much of that to knock the draft down!

 

[JRHAWK9]

Bet it ain't takin much of that to knock the draft down!

probably not!

Holding it's own after it was -16° last night and a high of 0° today. Woke up to 72° in the house and was able to pull it up to 74°. Zero LP used so far.
Temps are still dropping outside though too.



House Thermostat:



Hard at work giving all it has to heat this place. Little over halfway through this load before the night load:

 

[brenndatomu]

View attachment 239175

What time is liftoff?

 

[JRHAWK9]

What time is liftoff?
View attachment 239177

As soon as someone attaches a large canopy over the house and ties it down to the house. Ala the first hot air balloon house!

 

[woodey]

What time is liftoff?
View attachment 239177

Exactly what I was thinking

 

[JRHAWK9]

Just loaded for the night. Lost a degree while letting the coals get to a reasonable state before re-loading. House -should- stay right around here, we'll see though.

2° removed from a 100° T which I thought I would never be able to obtain with this house on wood only, especially on back to back double digit below zero nights. May stay up to see if I can catch it and capture it, as it doesn't get this cold too often here. Outside of the past week, I don't remember the last time we had these kind of temps.

 

[JRHAWK9]

well, this sucks.

Soon as I did the night load of mostly BL the house started to lose temp. At 6:45am, with outside temps -27°, the LP furnace kicked in. I really thought I had things rollin', and I did, until that BL load took me down.

I have done a total of 4 BL loads now and all four have resulted in lower than normal plenum temps. The first two were those which I stuffed the firebox full when leaving and setting the Kuuma on low and had those 20 hour burn times. Thought it was weird I was getting such low plenum temps throughout the whole burn. Then the night before last the same thing. It wasn't as cold as last night outside (-16° ) but the house started out at 76° and fell to 72° by morning. The oak loads during the day was able to bring the house temp back up. Then last night I had it maintaining 72°/73° with it being -26° outside and as soon as I loaded the BL for the night load the house temp started to trend down, 0.1° at a time, until it hit 68° and the LP thermostat called for heat.....6 3/4 hours after the night load. I have a digital temp gauge which display's house temps in 0.1° increments, very handy for being able to monitor temp trends.

Plenum temps on oak, when things are rollin and when I was able to maintain house temp, have been right around the 122°-124° area throughout the burn. Plenum temps with black locust (the last two over night loads) have only been 120-122° throughout the burn. Seeing the blower is speed controlled, this also means less volume of air as well.

I also found numerous threads online about other seeing similar results when not mixing it with other hardwoods.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/burning-locust.102705/

Have any of you had similar results burning just BL?

 

[brenndatomu]

I've never burnt much black locust...but I know that even with honey locust, I like to just mix it in...not more than 50%. Seems like the bigger chunks take a while to really catch good...but once they do, hoo boy!
But yes, I have seen loads that didn't seem to make the BTUs that were expected

 

[sloeffle]

Have any of you had similar results burning just BL?

I've been burning been ash for so long due to EAB I didn't realize there were other woods out there to burn. Below is a pic of some ash tree carnage due to some recent high winds.

I actually have some honey locust and osage orange ( power line clearing ) in the hopper for next year. The state forester came in and recommended I thin the locust out of our woods in order to help the more valuable trees grow better.

 

[brenndatomu]

well, this sucks.

Soon as I did the night load of mostly BL the house started to lose temp. At 6:45am, with outside temps -27°, the LP furnace kicked in. I really thought I had things rollin', and I did, until that BL load took me down.

I have done a total of 4 BL loads now and all four have resulted in lower than normal plenum temps. The first two were those which I stuffed the firebox full when leaving and setting the Kuuma on low and had those 20 hour burn times. Thought it was weird I was getting such low plenum temps throughout the whole burn. Then the night before last the same thing. It wasn't as cold as last night outside (-16° ) but the house started out at 76° and fell to 72° by morning. The oak loads during the day was able to bring the house temp back up. Then last night I had it maintaining 72°/73° with it being -26° outside and as soon as I loaded the BL for the night load the house temp started to trend down, 0.1° at a time, until it hit 68° and the LP thermostat called for heat.....6 3/4 hours after the night load. I have a digital temp gauge which display's house temps in 0.1° increments, very handy for being able to monitor temp trends.

Plenum temps on oak, when things are rollin and when I was able to maintain house temp, have been right around the 122°-124° area throughout the burn. Plenum temps with black locust (the last two over night loads) have only been 120-122° throughout the burn. Seeing the blower is speed controlled, this also means less volume of air as well.

I also found numerous threads online about other seeing similar results when not mixing it with other hardwoods.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/burning-locust.102705/

Have any of you had similar results burning just BL?

Well that does suck!
I wanted to see the SpaceHawk 100 pull off 100* T!
Do it, do it, do it!

 

[DoubleB]

well, this sucks.

last night I had it maintaining 72°/73° with it being -26° outside and as soon as I loaded the BL for the night load the house temp started to trend down, 0.1° at a time, until it hit 68° and the LP thermostat called for heat.....6 3/4 hours after the night load.

I'm chuckling because I relate how painful it is for LP to kick in after all this effort to avoid it. That said, given the stats you're showing above, I'm sure you're pretty satisfied overall, you have a great rig that you've made even better into a spaceship system.

Think of what our grandfathers would think if they saw we some what's on this forum to keep our families comfortable.

Good job JR!

 

[JRHAWK9]

Well that does suck!
I wanted to see the SpaceHawk 100 pull off 100* T!
Do it, do it, do it!

lol...I'm sure Case1030 has achieved it plenty of times up there in the north country.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Think of what our grandfathers would think if they saw we some what's on this forum to keep our families comfortable.

very true.....

 

[brenndatomu]

Think of what our grandfathers would think if they saw we some what's on this forum to keep our families comfortable.

Yes, think of all the old timers...the wood heat purists...old cast iron free standing stove, no window, just throw any old wood in it and it makes smoke, and heat...those guys would be doing a serious "facepalm" right now!

 

[DoubleB]

I wanted to see the SpaceHawk 100

If "SpaceHawk 100" isn't an official term yet, I think it is now. @JRHAWK9 what say you? (It might be too late for you to vote though.)

 

[JRHAWK9]

those guys would be doing a serious "facepalm" right now!

I'm betting there are plenty on this site doing that right now.

If "SpaceHawk 100" isn't an official term yet, I think it is now. @JRHAWK9 what say you? (It might be too late for you to vote though.)

I kinda like it. Lots better than the word "anal" which is a term usually thrown around by others trying to quantify my actions at times. Wait, that just sounded really bad.

 

[brenndatomu]

Well, miss Kuuma decided on a breakfast of a 50 lb mix of Ash, with a little Honey locust thrown in too.
I missed my guess just a bit on last nights load, was 71* when I got up at 7am...one more split thrown in would have kept things at 72* I'd bet.
2 hours after loading this AM she was cruising along on pilot, but my plenum temps were only 111*, which generally is not enough to drive the house temp up, unless it is warm out. (20* now)
Went down and turned the computer from low to medium/low...damper opened to 1 (smallest opening) and 1.5 minutes later the firebox temp went from 1170*F, to 1225*F, the damper closed (back to pilot burn) and the firebox temps slowly went up to 1315* F (and still climbing a bit when I left) amazing the difference a couple minutes of primary air makes!

Here is my remote temp monitor. Top is internal flue temp, lower is internal plenum temp...this was 10 minutes ago, the flue temp has dwindled to 235* now. Plenum temps will likely hit 117* here after a while...115-117* seems to do fine to raise the house temp.

It will be interesting to see how things go mid week when we get the -10 low and 0 high they are talking about!

 

[JRHAWK9]

It will be interesting to see how things go mid week when we get the -10 low and 0 high they are talking about!

Just crank it up and let 'er eat....you'll be fine.

Heading outside now to do some things, now that it's warmed up to -2°. Actually feels sorta "nice"....at least it doesn't hurt to breathe thru your nose anyway.

The last four days...... -3°, -21°, -28°, -16°

Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be brutal for us. -50° wind chills and temps pushing -30° once again BOTH nights. High on Wednesday -13°.

 

[maple1]

Were in a January thaw here. Well, its below freezing this weekend but barely and nice and sunny. We had 2 weather events this past week that saw one day temp spikes to +10c and about 4" of rain all told.

 

[JRHAWK9]

yikes........January's going out with a bang!

 

[laynes69]

Yeah we have -40 wind chills coming here. I turned on the LP furnace, for I don't feel like pushing the woodfurnace hard. I may not need it, however I wanted to make sure the LP furnace is okay. Gonna be a test for sure!

 

[brenndatomu]

yikes........January's going out with a bang!
View attachment 239488

​

Wow! Seems like you guys are always 20* colder than us here!
They are saying -10* temp, -30* wind chill, maybe -40* with higher gusts.
Gonna run the Kuuma on high, try for 8 hr loads...but if it isn't going well I will not push the issue, just back off and fire the Drolet 1400i up too...rather run the both on "cruise control" than run either one super hard.

 

[JRHAWK9]

​

Gonna run the Kuuma on high, try for 8 hr loads...but if it isn't going well I will not push the issue, just back off and fire the Drolet 1400i up too...rather run the both on "cruise control" than run either one super hard.

yeah, I really wish I had an insert where our conventional fireplace is. We haven't had a fire in that since installing the Kuuma. It just sits there looking pretty. To put one in would require a bunch of masonry work and thus $$$$.

You should try to stagger the loadings, so when one is needing a re-load the other is mid-burn in order to avoid a drop in supplied BTU's to the house.

 

[brenndatomu]

You should try to stagger the loadings, so when one is needing a re-load the other is mid-burn in order to avoid a drop in supplied BTU's to the house.

I would, if my schedule allowed...