First Test of My New Winter Heating Plan

 

The first test of our smaller wood stove plan is in full swing now. Thursday night the temps started dropping and by today it never made it out of the high 20's. Our first top water freeze of the year and almost at least a month earlier than normal. I hope that trend changes before January.

As was easily predicted wood use for temps of this level have been way down but not as far as I expected mostly because I am starting off with some very old, dry and light weight wood out of my reserve. Not that I have much of a reserve left but most of what I do have left is stuff that would barely cause a brief flare in my outside furnace. Even with this much smaller stove I am forced to open the vents up just to get the box temperature into the very low 300 degree range. And it is eating small logs fast. Of course with these old dry Elm and Boxelder/Maple chunks I am not worried about creosote build up so lower temps are not dangerous but it takes a box temp of about 250+ to begin to heat the space I am reducing us to especially with wind speeds over about 8 mile an hour.

This morning was especially challenging even though I easily had us hovering around 75 last night, mornings always bring winds around here and without fail we were looking at a solid 15mph one out of the Northwest by dawn.  I slept in a bit just so the Wife could get a taste of it too :) She was bold enough to attempt her own burn by adding some wood to the remains of my coals but this was a great opportunity to once again prove to her that when it comes to the manly arts.... She's knows nothing John Snow.

By the time the oaf and I stumbled downstairs the inside temp had dropped to 59 and she was in a panic. My plan worked out perfectly. 

I should have went out early and split more wood but I used the day to get to know this new/old hot box once again. It has been almost 30 years since I used her at all and I have forgotten most of her quirks but a lot of it is coming back to me. Knowing a bit more this time around than before I sacrificed the burn grate and added an extra firebrick bottom with a low makeshift thick metal part on top. The old grate would fill up fast and basically be useless as a grate before and that hasn't changed so I figured overall the firebrick would in the end provide more protection to the stove and allow me a bit more clearance for the much smaller logs I am using now. 

So far I have been impressed with the little heat activated fan I bought. The one I got attached to the flu-pipe and it starts up pretty fast and at a lower temp than I expected. Also does a pretty good job at circulating the air. I plan on picking up another one for the box itself too.

I am still making a list of things I need yet. For one I have not found a suitable kettle for the old girl. I used to have a cast iron kettle that held damned near two full gallons of water but for some reason cast iron kettles seem to have made the Democrat item ban list at some point so I am not sure what to do. The wife of course claims I don't need one but I am too old now to even think of explaining things like thermal mass and such to her.  Also I forgot just how delicate and dexterous you needed to be to load a smaller stove like this. Unless I want to sacrifice my metal working gloves for good a purchase is in order there too. Again the wife doesn't understand why and frankly I still am not gonna bother to explain it to her. She might find out on her own though.

Suppose to get down into the teens tomorrow or Monday so I need to take this opportunity to check the basement drafty areas to be sure all my Winter protection from there is in good working order. My remote temp gauge is working so I can check all sections from my computer desk as temps drop to detect any failures before they become an issue but I think with this new plan I may add in a heat lamp and tape here or there too. 

It's sad that so many of my wood cutting areas are now storage buildings and subdivisions. Wood is becoming a scarce resource around here now so I need to start being more economical than I have been. Usually the fact that I had a big truck and log splitter would bring me in a lot of wood just from people wanting someone to get huge logs out of their yards but looks like those days or dropping off too. Time to adapt or die I guess.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!