Is your stove “always going?”

[onlybrowning]

I’ve had my Hearthstone Mansfield for 2 years now and this is my first real full season with it. I’m at just about 5 cords right now and it’s my primary heat in a 2600 sq.ft. poorly insulated farm house. I’ve only needed to restart a fire in the stove about 3 times since late October as it was warm enough to let it burn completely out. It’s been “running” nonstop since. I have oil fired hot water baseboard heat and keep the thermostat at 68. Most days it doesn’t come on at all but when it gets down below single digits it’ll come on once or twice in the early morning hours before I reload the stove . My long winded question is: do you let your fire burn out completely and let your backup do work or do you keep it rolling for the whole season? I can’t believe the money savings from “free” wood so far in a heating season.


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[SOS Ridgerider]

Mine goes as much as I can keep it going. Sometimes it’ll go out, but not for very long. I save a decent amount on oil, since my backup almost never kicks on.

 

[Ronaldo]

My Pacific Energy Super 27 is going non stop during heating season. I heat around 2000sq ft and the only time I use propane is a little in the spring and fall. I use the gas furnace occasionally then mostly to keep it in working order if I would need to use it more.

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[Spike60]

I'm like Sondre in that my stove, (Quadra-Fire 3100), will go out if I'm away from the house long enough. Especially if I don't come straight home from the store. I expect that and go through a lot of kindling every season. Real cold days I often shoot home for lunch and put a few pieces in. Otherwise the thermostat is set for 62 so recovery is pretty quick, and the oil burner will not have been running for very long before I get home.

 

[Wood Chopper]

Morning Rob, Bob, Sondre, and Ronaldo. Quadra-Fire 7100 here and on days like we had yesterday when it was in the '50s when I woke up it was 70 in the house so I didn't stoke the fire back up. The thermostat is set for 63 during the day, by the time I got home, it was just about there. Got the fire going again. Long story short when it's cold I try not to let it ever go out. When we have a warm couple days it just gets too hot in the house. Then there are the days where it is mild (40's) and I'll let the furnace run during the day knowing it's not going to use too much propane. I can go on a filled 500 gallon (not a true 500 gallons) propane tank for about 14 months. Cooktop and water heater and furnace are on propane.

Next year for the warmer days I want to keep a separate pile of poplar, dry pine, and silver maple.

By the looks of the long-range forecast, we seem to be heading toward the end. Cold for this weekend though

 

[Wood Doctor]

Ronaldo may have been hit with the same Alberta Clipper that we got yesterday and today. It's a bearcat with single-digit wind chills and sleet/snow/ice -- you know, the usual. Only thing good about it is the tremendous draft from the north wind that my stove loves.

I recall that April 15, 1987 we got a foot of wet snow that strangled the city and made all the tax forms late because the post office closed down. Yes, we do get some lousy winter weather in April.

 

[Ronaldo]

Chilly here today, but only rain expected here. Northern parts of Iowa are under a winter weather advisory. April can still have some teeth......

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[Wood Doctor]

Chilly here today, but only rain expected here. Northern parts of Iowa are under a winter weather advisory. April can still have some teeth......

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Warming trend is coming in rapidly to melt all this icy stuff. Regardless, my wood stove is cranked up rather well. A lady called and placed a firewood order to feed an insert she just bought and had installed

Inserts are nice, but they accept short logs only, so I have to pick and choose from my collection. This is the first tome I can recall getting an order in April for inside burning. Heck, we are looking at mid-70 F temperatures middlle of next week.

 

[Spike60]

Still plenty of fires yet to go, mostly in the evenings, but well past the "always going" mode for me. Some of the smaller variables come into play now. Temp in the mid to upper 40's during the day is one thing if it's a sunny day, and something else if it's damp and rainy. Today is the damp and rainy version, so I'll be lighting up when I get home. I also tend to skip the morning reload more and more as we move into April.

 

[birdmeter]

both of them today.

 

[Ronaldo]

Still plenty of fires yet to go, mostly in the evenings, but well past the "always going" mode for me. Some of the smaller variables come into play now. Temp in the mid to upper 40's during the day is one thing if it's a sunny day, and something else if it's damp and rainy. Today is the damp and rainy version, so I'll be lighting up when I get home. I also tend to skip the morning reload more and more as we move into April.

I've been getting a fire going every evening, then loading for an overnight burn. If I dont stir or disturb the coals and ashes in the morning then I usually have just enough embers to get it started again.

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[Big1066ih]

Think I started this season's first fire in September, it's rarely been out since. Put an addition on our house late summer into fall which involved taking down chimney for the baseboard boiler and lack of funds and time means wood is our only heat... I'm over it lol

 

[Homemade]

Still burning just a small fire to take the chill out

 

[Wood Doctor]

Running one this morning. Strong north wind makes a good chimney draft. The stove loves that.

 

[460 magnum]

both of them today. View attachment 233828

Looks so good

 

[Carhartt]

Still enough fire to make hot water. Second shower in the morning is not hot. Soon time to flip the Elec water heater switch.

 

[Carhartt]

Birdmeter,
I have an old Columbian cookstove in the kitchen also. Don't use it much anymore but whatever she cooked it was delicious. I cant explain why, same cast iron.

 

[Wood Doctor]

The other day when I got hungry, I decided to BBQ a couple of steaks. The wood stove and my shop-made grill co-operated:
Baked potatoes first and steaks second:

 

[FergusonTO35]

Here in the Bluegrass, any day is liable to require both heat and A/C so no point in keeping either one going all the time.

 

[Wilhelm]

Our living room cast iron fireplace didn't get lit for about two months now.

The kitchen stove gets fired up almost every day still, to cook dinner, provide hot water, and to make sitting on the kitchen bench a little more cosy.

My seasoned beech and ash firewood is burning like crazy, talk about runaway fire.
I am choking them down with anything I have freshly cut (mostly wood from spring orchard maintenance and some conifer).