Wood stove heat

flushcut said:
60 is a bit cold for the Wimmens in my house. And being a pyro at heart I couldn’t help myself.
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I want the fire burning, and almost need a bit of supplemental heat. My house is very much in the shade, in a cooler spot than cool Olympia proper, 10 minutes west of downtown, toward the ocean.
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Central heat has presumably come on after I've gone to bed during the cold snap, but so far, so good. Since I've had this week off, I could feed the stove during the cold spell. This might be the month I'm '80% more efficient than my efficient neighbors'. Hitting 80% has been elusive. I think I've topped out at 78% since they started telling me a few years ago.
 
Oh, I don't care what they think. I just want them to look bad :^D By increasing my relative efficiency, it makes theirs decrease in comparison. No solar panels, no triple pane glass, but I'm still better than them :^P
 
Wood burner is doing its job here. Of course the cold snap gave it a work out but today hit 50+ so now I’ve got it burning slow with some windows open
 
current events , have a friend giving me a Vigilant in excellent shape ... have to move it today , stairs involved. Will swap out the upstairs Vigilant for the one in better shape , owning three Vigilant's now , weird ...photo'd and listed the current one on social media as is for $150 , I figure if no sale keep it for parts. in the pic it clearly shows my improvised handles for griddle and door (two different size Vice Grips) , said "decent shape does not include vice grips" no takers yet.
 
Haha on me , was going to swap stoves as the upgrade Vigilant just needed the thermostat dampener swapped over because it was missing .... seems the tiny retention screw is sheared off almost flush , could get it probably with a Torch , a Drill , Easyouts , strong light , and glasses .... so f uck it for now , replacement griddle frees up one set of vice grips anyways
 
My wood burning furnace is back up and running after I replaced the chimney this weekend. Picked a good time to do it actually. This warm weather was nice since I heat primarily with wood. This stainless double wall drafts a lot better than the old clay lined masonary chimney did. I’ve gotta relearn some things now. Burns much hotter with less air it seems
 
treebilly said:
My wood burning furnace is back up and running after I replaced the chimney this weekend. Picked a good time to do it actually. This warm weather was nice since I heat primarily with wood. This stainless double wall drafts a lot better than the old clay lined masonary chimney did. I’ve gotta relearn some things now. Burns much hotter with less air it seems
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Yes, pipes are great. We got a 8" dia flex liner installed, and the draft is very strong. If the stove gets hot enough it sort of goes into thermal runaway where the draft gets so strong that it can draw too much air through every little crack and leaky gasket with the air vents shut.
 
That’s what worries me. I might be replacing both door gaskets soon enough.
I also need to get a new stove pipe thermometer. One with the probe to tell me the actual flue gas temp. I stuck my old one on the new pipe and it still gets up to almost 200*F on the outside. I checked all the collars where it passes through structure and they were cool to the touch. That one inch air gap does it’s job.
 
I just burn fires differently now, and have rarely had it get too hot. Also, there's a couple cracks in the stove from age that leak air, but I tend to run the stove in a way that minimizes the possibility of overheating with how I load it, or let it cool before a big overnight load when I won't be around to check on it. My biggest concern is losing power, because this stove is designed to be used with the blower, and it could get very hot if the blower isn't running. I think the fire hazard is still a minimum, it's more about damage to the stove: warping or burning the steel. I put a battery backup on it during the really cold days (normally powers the water pump under the house) and it was needed one morning when they cut our power. Luckily I was there to see it happen, so I could turn the blower to low to get a longer run time on the battery, but I had a spare battery: just take out the old one, and clamp on the car jump starting pack.

I have a magnetic stove pipe thermometer sitting on top of the stove, and know what temps to watch for.

I replaced the door gasket not too long ago. I can't remember if I used the right size, but the one that looked right was way too thick to get the door shut. The next size smaller, which may be the right one or 1 size too small, still made the door almost not shut. Now, after just one season, it has either warped the frame to fit, and/or crushed the new gasket enough that it seems like a loose fit again.
 
Been burning white pine the last couple days. It hasn't been that cold, and I have a pile I need to get rid of before it becomes useless for anything. It's under the pine tree, so somewhat protected from rain, and gets a lot of sun when we have sun. Not too much of that the last few weeks though. It'll help my porch wood last longer.
 
Did my chimney today, about the same amount as last year.
Steve Mack said:
In the old house I had an insert like Kyle, I did it every year for a while and never got much out so only did it every 3 or 4 years.

Did this one just before winter this year and got about a dustpan full after 4 winters. So with burning only good hard wood and the secondary burner it makes a big difference.
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