What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

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It's 45.5 tonight with the temps up here 70 to 72 and the basement temp 73. I had a fire after supper so I'll let the coals burn down, we'll go without an overnight fire tonight.
 
Up in the Northwoods for a couple of days with my brother. Have the Stratford II cranking along. Going down to 32 tonight with a high of 37 tomorrow.
 
We had an outside temp of 52.2 this morning, NOAA has us with a low of 24 tomorrow morning. Once we came back from voting the temperature was dropping so a shoulder season fire is going.

We've had some heavy rains today so the trails are soaked. I helped the wife do a few things in the house and the rest of the day will be a recliner day except for one more small job inside the house.
 
Was unseasonably warm yesterday. Let fire burn out, no fire last night or today. Will clean out insert and fire it up tonight.
 
No fire today with high of 66, and living room stayed 68F since this morning. This evening still found plenty of embers in bed of ashes from last night's reload. (obviously not producing any usable heat).

Around an hour ago re-lit the stove since we are going down to low 30s tonight with 4 ash uglies, 1 black locust ugly, and some bricks. Gotta get as much BTUs into the house as possible before the sharp drop in temp late tonight.

I'll do a partial reload around 11pm with locust and oak.
 
Winter weather advisory going into effect shortly for some mixed precipitation here in the Northwoods. When did it become necessary to issue an advisory for every little winter "event"...? Heading back home tomorrow.

Burning down a load of aspen and pine for the overnight hardwood load.
 
I'm burning down a load of Bigtooth Quaking Aspen, the basement is 79 and the temps up here are 70.

Since we're dropping down to around 25 according to NOAA, the overnight load will be some ash. The outside temp tonight is 29.6.
 
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Temp outside is dropping steadily but indoors is staying a sweaty 72F. Took a few walks outside to my wood rack to cool down so I don't have to open windows.

Reloaded with 3 locust uglies and 2 pieces of ash shorts. Flames caught very quickly since I didn't have enough time to burn down the coals. Throttle is already down to 70% after 10min. Next 30min I'll close the throttle down and head to bed.

Stay warm tonight everyone!
 
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Temp outside is 35 so stove running again. Some oak and maple splits and some chunks of oak cut offs.
 
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Damn, I didn't even bother with a fire yesterday or overnight. It was 75F indoors at midnight, and dropped to 72F by morning, in most of the house. My office is still holding 76F now, and we loaded a stove since Monday night.

I think our outside was in the upper 50's with full sun yesterday, which caused our indoor to overshoot a bit with the previous-evening's load still warming the stove. Decided not to even bother loading stoves when I saw overnight low was only 39F. Looks like it was the right decision.
 
34F this morning and living room held 68F.

A partial load of ash and locust uglies just went in. It's like playing tetris with all these odd shaped pieces.
 
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Damn, I didn't even bother with a fire yesterday or overnight. It was 75F indoors at midnight, and dropped to 72F by morning, in most of the house. My office is still holding 76F now, and we loaded a stove since Monday night.

I think our outside was in the upper 50's with full sun yesterday, which caused our indoor to overshoot a bit with the previous-evening's load still warming the stove. Decided not to even bother loading stoves when I saw overnight low was only 39F. Looks like it was the right decision.
That's real good insulation. How do you insulate your sliding doors?
 
That's real good insulation. How do you insulate your sliding doors?
lol... insulation?!? The part of the house I'm discussing here has no insulation, but the walls are mud-stacked stone, 20" - 22" thick. Rough math has the mass of the walls at almost exactly 1 million pounds, before considering floors, interior walls, etc. So it's just thermal mass keeping us warm.

Our doors are actually so leaky I can see sunlight pouring in around the edges of the one adjacent to my office, right now. A light dusting of snow actually blows in around them in certain conditions, but they were installed in 1734 and 1775. Our windows were all installed in 1775, but have storm windows over them, so they're not too bad.

We have a 1990's framed addition on the house, which has three large glass French door sets and a fourth divided glass door with big side lights. That does not hold temperature any better than any other modern house, although it's all 2x6 with blown-in cellulose and good quality windows and doors, for the time. Heating that space is much different than the main house.
 
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The outside temp was 26.4 this morning, the basement was still 73 and the temps up here 68 & 69. The stove received a load of bigtooth quaking aspen this morning while having coffee.
 
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Last night with no fire, just solar gain the house was 73. Woke up to 67. Low 30s out last night. Highs only in the low 40s today with it being partly cloudy I sent 6 pieces of shagbark hickory into the stove to keep the house at 70 today. I’ll reevaluate tonight, and see if I do a overnight load or let it burn out, as tomorrow should be nearing 60 and rainy.
 
Man my house gets hot. Had two loads this AM with outside temps of 35. Downstairs was 77 at noon upstairs 72. Let it go out until dusk when we drop into the 30’s again. House staying at 74 now. Thank God I did not get something larger than the little Vista. For a small stove this thing cranks out heat! Sticking with chunks and cutoffs now until we see the 20’s.
 
Last night with no fire, just solar gain the house was 73. Woke up to 67. Low 30s out last night. Highs only in the low 40s today with it being partly cloudy I sent 6 pieces of shagbark hickory into the stove to keep the house at 70 today. I’ll reevaluate tonight, and see if I do a overnight load or let it burn out, as tomorrow should be nearing 60 and rainy.
I did a light reload on a lot of hot coals with 3 more pieces of SB hickory. That will coal til about tomorrow night. House will be good through fri am at this rate. More cool weather next week, weekend is looking nice.
 
Heading down to 20s tonight and swing back up to 60 tomorrow, and back to low of 20s this weekend... this weather is making a fool of wood burner like me.

I reloaded with oak, ash, and locust twists and uglies. A full firebox, but really about ~half load given all the stacking inefficiencies. I have about a week or so of uglies, shorts, and twists left.... can't wait till I can load up the stove with straight splits.
 
House is still warm from the shoulder season fire at 3, but we're going down to mid 30's overnight; so partial load of 3 ash and 2 pine for the overnight load.
 
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I did a light reload on a lot of hot coals with 3 more pieces of SB hickory. That will coal til about tomorrow night. House will be good through fri am at this rate. More cool weather next week, weekend is looking nice.
curious, when you do such extended burn with BK, do you still see flames at all?
 
curious, when you do such extended burn with BK, do you still see flames at all?
No active flame past initial heat up. Once it’s up to temp and dialed back it just smolders inside the stove, the cat eats the smoke and usually the stack just has a heat signature coming from it.

When it gets into the teens I set it higher so there’s lazy, dancing flames. Typically that will reduce the burn times to half of black box mode.