What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[30WCF]

5:15 (7hrs since feeding.)
34 outside
67 inside (2 degree overnight loss)
200STT
Had an outline of what used to be a log standing in the ashes. Pulled it forward and put on a half hickory for the rest of the morning. I think our weatherman must have bumped his head.

 

[Dieselhead]

Mornin all, hope everybody stayed warm last night. With the stove fans on 25% My black birch load is about 3/4 gone, should be good until noontime or so, that would be 20 hours in. When I left at 430pm house was at 70, home at 730 this am house at 68, perfecto. 👌🏻 I’ll throw a ugly or 2 on top around then to keep the cat fed until 9pm overnight load. Grabbed a coffee on the way out of work, Cumberland farms is tough to beat!

 

[Gearhead660]

-15*f this morning. 2 burners working hard to keep us warm. Full loads for the insert, and 3-4 split loads for Myra to keep the temp up. Now for a cup of joe.

 

[NickW]

-7 here. Should have had more premium stuff in last night's load instead of the big ash chunks, house is chillier than desired with 66 downstairs in the stove room and 60 upstairs. Full load of hardwood going in.

 

[zmender]

19F here, and high today may get to 31F.

A full load of locust and ash just went in.

 

[Wildflush]

21 outside this morning house stayed warm overnight until this morning house was 64. Got a nice smaller split load of red oak, maple, chunks and biobrick. Wild secondary’s want quick heat with this load.

Load cruised at 600 STT.

 

[bigealta]

Stayed up with my dog all night. She needs to go out every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Reloaded every 3 or so hours.

 

[bigealta]

Switched from pre heating to drying.
Had a rip in the "shower liner tarp" covering the staged and burn ready wood just outside the wood room door.
Should be dry by tomorrow night or Wednesday at worst.

Will kick floor fan on when stove gets nice and hot in a few minutes. Should help.

 

[NickW]

Stayed up with my dog all night. She needs to go out every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Reloaded every 3 or so hours.

Ugh...

 

[NickW]

Switched from pre heating to drying.
Had a rip in the "shower liner tarp" covering the staged and burn ready wood just outside the wood room door.
Should be dry by tomorrow night or Wednesday at worst.

View attachment 322839

Ugh again...

 

[bigealta]

Ugh again...

Wet wood is really not a problem with plenty of drying room around the stove. Only some got wet anyway. All good here.

 

[NickW]

Up to 80 in the basement and 65 upstairs. Getting some help from solar gains. Pushing it harder than usual to get the temps back up. Full load of ash at 8:00 is down to barely firing secondaries already, but stt is still 460. Will start burning coals down by noonish with aspen and pine.

 

[Ashful]

Hard to need more than oak unless your stove is too small. The trick for me is to keep a pile of bark around to burn down coals when I need to push it. Works like a charm.

Our heat load is such that there's no such thing as a stove that's not "too small" for this house. The family that owned this place for most of the last 300 years had at least 6, and possibly 7 wood stoves installed and presumably running here... and then someone added another 2k square feet in the 1990's.

When I'm slamming one load of oak after another, and never wanting the stove to linger in the coaling phase, I find that raking the coals forward and just placing 1 or 2 oak splits in east-west works as well or better than any of the crappy softwoods some on this forum like to suggest. I haven't specifically tried bark, I usually try to burn all loose bark outdoors in the burn pit, but I can't imagine it generates much heat?

It's amazing what people from other parts of the country think is a short vs long drive. 400 miles in the mid west or rural Canada isn't too far. Where I come from I could be in 5 different stats driving that far lol.

True 'dat. I used to spend a few weeks in Europe each year, and one saying I'd hear a lot was, "200 years is a long time in the USA, and 200 miles is a long distance in Europe." All true, the "new castle" in Stuttgart was built in the 1740's, but drive 200 miles east from Bavaria or Saxony, and you go thru from Bavaria or Saxony, and you pass right through Austria or Czechia into Poland, Slovakia, or Hungary.

 

[thewoodlands]

We had a low of 13.4 this morning, the basement started out at 73, the living area was 67 & 68 with the sleeper at 67.

After burning down some coals, the first load was beech with some ash.

 

[NickW]

When I'm slamming one load of oak after another, and never wanting the stove to linger in the coaling phase, I find that raking the coals forward and just placing 1 or 2 oak splits in east-west works as well or better than any of the crappy softwoods some on this forum like to suggest. I haven't specifically tried bark, I usually try to burn all loose bark outdoors in the burn pit, but I can't imagine it generates much heat?

Bark works the same as the crappy softwoods. Quick burst of heat that burns down to ash rather than coals. 5 pieces of bark can make my flue probe alarm go off at 900f and will raise stt 100-200f. Crap wood loads will give me several hours of good usable heat and really help reduce the hardwood coal pile.

It can be a bit of a pain with more frequent loading and probably not for folks who don't have the space to waste on crappy wood and bark, but it is definitely effective. Smaller hardwood splits are also effective, but I don't like to waste good wood splitting it small to burn down coals

 

[Ashful]

You nailed the issue for me, Nick. It may apply to others, as well, in that the primary limiting factors in my operation are hours and storage space. For most of the last 12 years, cutting on two properties with more dead or downed trees than I can possibly ever harvest, I grab only the highest BTU stuff I can manage to haul in the time available. When splitting at home, I store only the best and straightest stuff, as I always run out of shed space before I run out of wood. There's a constant backlog of logs (pun?), more often going punky before I can get them all split and stacked into my available shed space, so there's not much point in wasting any of that space on less than the best available material.

I think others are similarly limited by space, even if at a different scale.

 

[NickW]

12:25, -3 outside and windy. Stove 1/2 full of coals, flue at 440, stt at 270, need more heat. Raked coals level, loaded with aspen and pine, 12:30 flue over 900 & alarm went off (slow shutting air & damper), stt about 480. 12:35 cruising with flue at 838, stt 630 or so.

 

[NickW]

12:45 flue at 780, stt at about 665.

Here in SE WI I have storage for 12-14 cord which is over 3 years worth of burning but no woods to cut in. I have tree services that will drop crap wood sometimes with the occasional hardwood log mixed in. I almost never junk. There is a tree service about half an hour away that has a 2 acre pasture full of wood that anyone can go pick through for free. That's where I get most of my hardwood. Truck & trailer load is 1 to 1 1/4 cord worth of firewood for me, so 2 loads from there and delivered crap wood gets me good for a season.

In the Northwoods I have limited storage space but lots of dead standing pine, aspen, birch and black ash on the property. Once we move it will be nice to walk out the door and go out cutting instead of hauling first.

 

[ctreitzell]

Bark works the same as the crappy softwoods. Quick burst of heat that burns down to ash rather than coals. 5 pieces of bark can make my flue probe alarm go off at 900f and will raise stt 100-200f. Crap wood loads will give me several hours of good usable heat and really help reduce the hardwood coal pile.

It can be a bit of a pain with more frequent loading and probably not for folks who don't have the space to waste on crappy wood and bark, but it is definitely effective. Smaller hardwood splits are also effective, but I don't like to waste good wood splitting it small to burn down coals

You nailed the issue for me, Nick. It may apply to others, as well, in that the primary limiting factors in my operation are hours and storage space. For most of the last 12 years, cutting on two properties with more dead or downed trees than I can possibly ever harvest, I grab only the highest BTU stuff I can manage to haul in the time available. When splitting at home, I store only the best and straightest stuff, as I always run out of shed space before I run out of wood. There's a constant backlog of logs (pun?), more often going punky before I can get them all split and stacked into my available shed space, so there's not much point in wasting any of that space on less than the best available material.

I think others are similarly limited by space, even if at a different scale.

I have so much undesirable hitting the ground on my property in comparison to the nice pieces that I bring down or hire climbers to fall. I gotta purchase to heat...and wood is so much less expensive and effective than electricity. I burn everything that is viable in my view...I won't burn pine or most other conifers.

I also do not yet have the shed space...but I have a lot of black plastic and stones...
I tend to cover the coals in ash so they smolder longer rather than burn them up for heat (not that I knew that about bark before yesterday). Man! Would I love to have a bigger firebox! Later this year, I hope

 

[Wildflush]

Bark works the same as the crappy softwoods. Quick burst of heat that burns down to ash rather than coals. 5 pieces of bark can make my flue probe alarm go off at 900f and will raise stt 100-200f. Crap wood loads will give me several hours of good usable heat and really help reduce the hardwood coal pile.

It can be a bit of a pain with more frequent loading and probably not for folks who don't have the space to waste on crappy wood and bark, but it is definitely effective. Smaller hardwood splits are also effective, but I don't like to waste good wood splitting it small to burn down coals

Yup one long piece of oak bark and I get a spike in STT by 50 degrees when burning down my coals.

 

[Wildflush]

I have so much undesirable hitting the ground on my property in comparison to the nice pieces that I bring down or hire climbers to fall. I gotta purchase to heat...and wood is so much less expensive and effective than electricity. I burn everything that is viable in my view...I won't burn pine or most other conifers.

I also do not yet have the shed space...but I have a lot of black plastic and stones...
I tend to cover the coals in ash so they smolder longer rather than burn them up for heat (not that I knew that about bark before yesterday). Man! Would I love to have a bigger firebox! Later this year, I hope

As long as pine is seasoned to below 20% you can burn it. Pine is $200 a cord delivered in my area. Quick hot fire.

 

[Ashful]

I'll be burning a significant fraction of less-than-oak-BTU wood in the Ashfords for the first time, starting this year. I still have some oak and hickory mixed into each upcoming cord, but now there's a lot of ash coming due. For many years, my firewood was nearly 100% oak, and then this year was almost all hickory. I've burned a little ash over the years, but it was never the majority wood in my stacks.

I wouldn't normally seek out ash, but it's dying by the truckload in my neighbors lawns, so they've been asking me to take them. The tree next door is more convenient than the tree 2 or 8 miles away, and I'm helping neighbors to save money on having them hauled away.

 

[thewoodlands]

It's 17.1 out, I just put in 3 splits of ash, two of beech & one split of ironwood. The basement was 75, the living area 69 & 70 with the sleeper at 66.

 

[ctreitzell]

I have zero ash growing on my property or adjacents that I know of

I used to think oak was the pinnacle. This elm I've been burning this year continues to surprise me. I have a few huge white oaks here. Hazel used to have no respect for, but the farmer told me it's hardwood and he's right, great stuff and grows super fast. Holly, too, burns well and pretty clean. I've had lots of mature apple since I bought this place as the entire orchard was at the end of its life. That apple wood is now almost gone. I need to drop a bunch of smaller oaks behind the "house" later this year, if I'm able. And a couple of big oaks are likely to fall soon along with a couple which will need to be severely pruned.

 

[Caw]

I just figure I have the the bark so I may as well use it. I have plenty of space so that's not an issue. I do the same thing with boxelder when I have it.