What is your heating quotient?

[Lowdown3]

12 degrees here this morning- yyeewwwweee!

Ran all three wood stoves last night till we went to bed. Wind was howling like mad.

Thermostat outside our bed room door read 71 when we went in to the bed around 10pm last night. It read 60 this morning. Normally this time of year the difference between the two numbers is only 4-6 degrees overnight.

Didn't check the other side of the house but the results are usually similar. We keep doors to unused rooms closed off other than south facing rooms when it's sunny.

I'd say our insulation is "good" not necessarily great. Walls are poured block with insulation board inside and out. Ceilings are R30 which is the thickest you can find in this area. Windows are mid range windows, nothing crazy.

When the temperature is at least 60 for a while during the day and mostly sunny, that part of the house can raise from 60 to 64 in the morning to 70-72 in the later afternoon fairly easily. Then usually just a small fire is necessary if it's going to be in the 40's or below. Or if it's been a couple days of overcast where we don't get as much passive solar.

There is lots of things you can do to improve the heating quotient for your house and it's important to start noticing how quickly your house heats up with and without additional heat.

One thing I would like to add in the future, if for nothing else than just to try it, is one of the SolarSheet type air heating devices. In the long term if these worked well, they would help us avoid the smoke and smell from wood fires some of the time.

Thoughts?

[Tackleberry]

Ummmm...... I wore shorts to work today. And we haven't had the heat turned on in over 3 weeks.

[Rmplstlskn]

I think even the Marauders shut down when it is this cold...

Rmpl

[rockriver]

I live in "the south" we worry more about staying cool in the summer .. than warm in the winter!
we don't have a wood stove. all heat comes from electricity except for a fireplace but it is not real efficient.

but it has been in the teens 2 nights in a row...

I need to push wood stove up the priority list.

edited to add:

maybe a little test... I just cut off heater. we'll see what the fireplace can do.
hmm. heat goes up stairs doesn't it. not good prospects!

[tech]

Also from the Deep South, but been making use of the wood stove the last few days. Didn't have to even bother with the electric, propane or kerosene back up units. :rolleyes:

On a good day, just open the insulated drapes and let ol' Sol do his work.

[Rmplstlskn]

I am just waiting for the earth crust shift that sends VA into the warm equator and the south into the southern polar regions... LOL!

[610Alpha]

Am I the only one that has heard of a Rocket Mass Heater?

Reportedly they use 1/4-1/10th the wood. Inside the combustion chamber it burns so hot that almost all of the gases are consumed, what comes out the chimney is a little bit of water vapor and CO/CO2. The exhaust heats up the "mass" and you extract almost all of the heat from the fire an retain it in the mass.

If you want to learn more about this I would suggest watching more videos by Paul Wheaton and look up Ernie & Erica Wisner.

http://richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp

I also think that on his forum site there is video of he fire burning side ways due to the draw.

Warning: Paul will use language in some of his videos and podcasts. Not always and I don't think in this video.

[Rmplstlskn]

Woke up to our oil-fired heat not working... Must have went out not long ago as it only dropped in house to 66 degrees and it was 0 degrees outside according to cheap thermometer by window. Suspected a gelled fuel line outside under fuel storage tank. Got wood stove going and went to diagnose and de-thaw. Yep, it was a gelled valve under tank. Some heat gun on it and it is now flowing. First time my boiler installation has had these low temps since I installed it two seasons ago. Only had one gelled line outside before. Now boiler is once again purring happily, kicking out hot btu water to the finned radiators and the wood stove is crankin' too... Looks like no work for me today though. May have to go get hay bales to keep around oil tank to keep warmth in it for coming low temps tonight... Had no need for kerosene heaters thankfully.

So REDUNDANCY pays off again... Especially when it comes to heat. Yeah, it was cold out at 6:45am, but having multiple sources of heat feels good when one kicks over to the other during an unexpected failure. Electric loss would have made it a lot $uckier, but still had plans in place for that too.

So many up here in VA only have a heat pump, especially newer homes. They may not know that electric heat coils are spinning their power meter right now, as heat pump can't work in these low temps. They wonder why their electric bill is so high??? And they are one failure away from a freezing home. No redundancy.

Pray for no PAW to begin in winter.... LOL!

Rmpl

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Woke up to our oil-fired heat not working... Must have went out not long ago as it only dropped in house to 66 degrees and it was 0 degrees outside according to cheap thermometer by window. Suspected a gelled fuel line outside under fuel storage tank. Got wood stove going and went to diagnose and de-thaw. Yep, it was a gelled valve under tank. Some heat gun on it and it is now flowing. First time my boiler installation has had these low temps since I installed it two seasons ago. Only had one gelled line outside before. Now boiler is once again purring happily, kicking out hot btu water to the finned radiators and the wood stove is crankin' too... Looks like no work for me today though. May have to go get hay bales to keep around oil tank to keep warmth in it for coming low temps tonight... Had no need for kerosene heaters thankfully.

So REDUNDANCY pays off again... Especially when it comes to heat. Yeah, it was cold out at 6:45am, but having multiple sources of heat feels good when one kicks over to the other during an unexpected failure. Electric loss would have made it a lot $uckier, but still had plans in place for that too.

So many up here in VA only have a heat pump, especially newer homes. They may not know that electric heat coils are spinning their power meter right now, as heat pump can't work in these low temps. They wonder why their electric bill is so high??? And they are one failure away from a freezing home. No redundancy.

Pray for no PAW to begin in winter.... LOL!

Rmpl

Redundancy is key. Only got to 29 here in the south, which is low even for us. My heat pump was running and running, so I got up and flipped it off. Got to 59 in the house at 0500 when I left. Yeah...I do have poor insulation in the walls as its a pre-1900 home and the cost to get it in the balloon construction would be costly. We have blankets which keeps us warm enough. Have a fireplace, i know its not a wood stove, if needed. Even have a small propane heater that would warm us in case the ice age gets upon us. lol

In my TN vacation home I have fireplace, propane and electric as well...plus plenty of blankets.

[rockriver]

good thread.
i've run fireplace straight for about 4 days...
it's been good practice...
remembering old practices from when I was a kid.
I don't have to keep fireplace roaring...
for the first couple of days I used only seasoned/dried wood.
started adding some freshly cut pear from heavy pruning..

pear didn't heat up like the dried oak, but it burnt for much longer..
helped keep the fire going as the oak burnt away.
shopping for insert or stove...
I hate to put another hole through the roof.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

good thread.
i've run fireplace straight for about 4 days...
it's been good practice...
remembering old practices from when I was a kid.
I don't have to keep fireplace roaring...
for the first couple of days I used only seasoned/dried wood.
started adding some freshly cut pear from heavy pruning..

pear didn't heat up like the dried oak, but it burnt for much longer..
helped keep the fire going as the oak burnt away.
shopping for insert or stove...
I hate to put another hole through the roof.

rr,
growing up in the south and not being much of a fireplace user, help me understand why the pear burnt longer but not as hot? Is it the density of the wood? The "sap"? The moisture? I hope to retire, someday, to my place in TN so I need to learn. I've always tried to use seasoned oak when I use my fireplace.

[rockriver]

patriot,
my seasoned wood, being dry, as you said, is the normal and correct wood to burn.
it lights easily and new wood added to the fire catches up pretty fast...
also, less chance of creosote/oils build up in the chimney.
the pear logs felt kind of heavy.. so density may be a factor....
after all the trimming/pruning I'd been doing, I just had to try the pear!
I wanted some benefit to the work today. lol. I didn't want to wait 2 years!

I think you brought up the main factor. the moisture.. the sap.. in the wood made it harder to start.
it "popped" a lot... sign of wood that's not dry. when I mentioned I'd burnt some fresh cut pear to a couple of old timers, both of them responded, "yeah, popped a lot didn't it!"

but being slow to burn, it helped "maintain" the fire.. from one log addition to the next...

alright, I've done my southern boy best answer to the question... looking for some assistance to the question. whether it be someone in south Alabama, hills of Tennessee, or a blessed yankee from way up north!

btw, if you don't have some fruit trees planted, go ahead and plant ya some! and may I suggest some pears... they seem to be mighty hardy trees. get 'em growing while you are waiting to retire! (or bugout!)

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

thanks rr...
good idea on the fruit trees. I'll look into planting some now as I've got a few years before retiring from my current employment.