11 degrees and breezy. Full load of half ash half aspen now. Should put me at a spot to do another pine & aspen load (or maybe just some bark) this evening to prepare for the overnight. Getting some nice solar gains. Stove room is 74, living room upstairs is 70, bedroom is 64. Ripping through a lot of wood today (mostly junk), but I think the missus is getting frustrated with how chilly the house has been in the evening & overnight. Trying to get things warmed up a little more. Wind chill advisory again tonight.
What Is In Your Stove Right Now?
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I use a stick and lumber crayon. Have sticks at 16, 20, 24, & 32. The 20 is for the maximum split on my local splitter rental. The 24 is for dead limb wood (my furnace is just shy of 48 deep), The 32 goes with me when I collect wood. I cut these down to 16 at home.
This season, I had cut all down to 16. I'll most likely continue this trend. Oh, I like the crayons better. Chalk snaps to easily.
Edit: my 32 has a center mark for 16. It is my traveling stick and lives behind the seat.
Caw
Minister of Fire
Thanks. I try to maximize the volume of wood I can get in there since it's a smaller stove. I hate seeing wasted space in there!
To be fair my saw makes it really easy. It's an 18" husky but it's exactly 17" from the bumper spikes to the top of the bar and my stove takes up to 17.5" logs. So all I have to do is put the bumper against the log and score a mark or just see a landmark where the tip of the bar is and cut. Easy perfect length log every time! Even if I'm off by 1/2" either way it'll still fit.
Past couple of days were cold... high in mid-20s and low in the lower teens. Also it's breezy so windchill is frequently in the single digits.
Pushed the stove fairly hard, running around 75% throttle most of time and about 3.5 loads of locust per day. Even so, the mornings are very cold in living room (57-59) and I need a short burst of oil baseboard heating to bring it back up to mid-60s, where the stove will maintain throughout the day.
This could be somewhat avoided if I set my alarm for around 4, 5 AM and burn another load of wood - but I'd rather not turn into Mr. Scourge and just burn some oil.
Pushed the stove fairly hard, running around 75% throttle most of time and about 3.5 loads of locust per day. Even so, the mornings are very cold in living room (57-59) and I need a short burst of oil baseboard heating to bring it back up to mid-60s, where the stove will maintain throughout the day.
This could be somewhat avoided if I set my alarm for around 4, 5 AM and burn another load of wood - but I'd rather not turn into Mr. Scourge and just burn some oil.
Caw
Minister of Fire
I'm in the same situation here and feel the same way. I'm not going to be tired and cranky all day just to save a couple bucks. The heat pump kicked in at 6 am ish the last few days where it's been 10-15 degrees at night. I keep the thermostat at 63 overnight. Then I reload around 7:30 and the stove will maintain the rest of the day between 65-67. I can't get it much hotter than 67-68 in here when it's 15 or below outside unless I sat here and fed it kindling all day.
Caw
Minister of Fire
Cruising along at 700 STT with a full load of red maple and one big ash logs in back for coals. Red maple is my go to wood during these cold snaps. It burns hot and fast and doesn't leave a ton of coals. Makes a big mess with ashes but that's fine. When it's this cold I try and burn 90% red maple during the day and switch to oak/ash overnight.
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I just started the second fire of the day ( I'm late for these temps) we have four beech splits with three ironwood going in the wood stove. The basement is 77 heading up, the living area is cooler, 67 & 68 with the sleeper at 66.
After supper, I'll get the pellet stove going. We reached a high outside temp of 6.6 today, the wind made it feel worse.
After supper, I'll get the pellet stove going. We reached a high outside temp of 6.6 today, the wind made it feel worse.
Caw
Minister of Fire
Id like to report that after cruising for over an hour at 700 STT I finally picked up 1 degree in the house. That's right a single degree and I'm proud of it. 😎
It's cold and windy out there.
It's cold and windy out there.
Cold indeed and added chills. Been feeding furnace 3 or three splits an hour trying to maintain temps.
One good note about these wind chills. They have been exposing drafts that I didn't know existed, or forgot about.
They sure do, we usually have minus double digit temps in this area for a week or two in January and February can bring those same temps but so far nothing like that.
stoveliker
Minister of Fire
And 4 hours later ready for another load and the Packers game doesn't even start for 2 more hours. Guess another load of half ash and half pine/aspen is called for. Coals were just a little more than I'd like for an overnight load, so I should be good until a quick load at halftime or some bark after the game... Temp is still 11 degrees, downstairs is 78, but with the sun going down the living room is back down to 70 (got up to 72) a the bedroom is up to 66. Have been really cranking the heat out running stt up to 660 & flue up to 835. Stt is able to get higher with the longer burning ash in there, cruising is mid to high 700's in the flue and low to mid 600's stt. Doesn't take long to get there and stay there either with this many coals and reloading way sooner than I usually do.
I hear that! Been feeding the furnace every couple hours, 3-4 splits.
Been out all day. Got home to a 71 inside temp despite teens outside and STT at 200 from my 1:30 fire. Very happy about that. Just reloaded on the coals I had. 6 splits mix of small medium and large. STT 450 and climbing
Teens and 20s for the past few days. Burning mainly oak and it is keeping the living area 75 degress.
250-300 depending on house temperature and coal pile. I've noticed that 3 pieces on a big pile of coals can be very effective. On a small coal bed or cold start it's a minimum of 5 pieces. It's been awhile since we've had a really cold snap this long with this much wind, and I've been gone a lot the last 2 winters working on the cabin.
Same here 250-300. It’s 15 out here but thankfully no wind.
I finally started up the pellet stove at 7 tonight and then loaded up the Liberty with eight splits of ash, the basement hit 81 before I left, the living area is 68 and this is just a guess but the sleeper should be around 67.
I see NOAA has a forecast low of minus one for our area.
I see NOAA has a forecast low of minus one for our area.
Nice! 8 splits of Ash will heat things up!
The last time I did that with the pellet stove in the other corner, the basement temp hit 86, that's when I left. I had a ton of coals too so I'll be burning those down until later tonight.
At least you guys have a game to watch! Long time before my Pats are back in it. Probably watched the best 20 years of football in my lifetime.
Caw
Minister of Fire
And by probably you mean definitely. Womp Womp. I'm with you.
