We are for the second year in a row trying to heat only with wood. We have a small "insert" type wood stove. That heats most of the house very comfortably.

Are we just aking to much to have it heat the house through the night? We either wake up very cold or with the back up oil burning. Neither one is appealing!

Other than filling the small wood box with wood, are there any other suggestions?

Thanks!

-- julie glover (gloverteam@aol.com), December 22, 2001

Answers

I am sure other will probably answer better but this is what we do. We fill our stove completely full and then shut the dampers way down.Usually DH gets up to use the bathroom so he will throw on a couple of more logs. Works for us.

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), December 22, 2001.

Filling the wood box up with wood before bedtime sounds like a pretty good solution to me.

-- bruce (rural@inebraska.com), December 22, 2001.

I have to agree with filling it full with wood. When we are ready for bed, we open the air intakes on our stove and get the front of the house warm to hot, then we fill it full of wood and turn the air almost all the way down. If that doesn't work I would look into installing insulation in the house, your problem may be that the house just can't hold the heat when it gets to cold out.

-- Bob Fade (fadefarm@aol.com), December 22, 2001.

Hello Julie, I have to get up once a night and refill my woodstove. That is usually good until I get up in the morning. Its a pain but, since I only heat with wood, I have no other choice. You may have to do the same unless you do not mind your oil furnace coming on at night.

Sincerely, Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), December 22, 2001.

We have the electric heater set to come on when the temp drops to 50.

We have a fire in the evening that we burn pretty hot. When we go to bed, the fire is pretty much out.

In the morning it's usually pretty chilly and we build another hot fire. But the electic heat never came on through the night.

This is a double wide trailer. The windows all have storm windows. The walls are thin, but insulated. Metal roof.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), December 22, 2001.

For the first two years in our home, the only heat we had was from an old kitchen range wood heat. The problem is they have small fire boxes, we tried banking the fire, but it would go out in the night if someone didn't get up and refill it. It would get quite chilly in the mornings and when we started the stove we huddled around it until the house warmed up. But, that is what it was like for our ancesters. We now have a Vermont Castings stove that will hold its fire through the night. Personally I like sleeping in a colder house with lots of blankets we managed.

-- Irene Burt (renienorm@aol.com), December 22, 2001.

I always build a small hot fire under my "overnight log". When I was heating with a small stove this log was as large a piece of wood as I could cram in. Now we have an old Warm Morning stove and let me tell you the name doesn't lie. My overnight log is coals still standing in it's original shape when I get up. I have the distinct advantage of three small children so if the fire does go cold I'm up plenty of times each night to check it. :o)

-- gilly (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), December 22, 2001.

Yep- same dillema here. I go to bed at 12 and by 8, the coals are givin up the ghost. The only two solutions I have found are: sleep next to the stove- when that blast of hot air stops hitting you , you wake up faster (wife hates it when I do thisso I only do it on below 20 nights). Or set the alarm for 430 and get up and do it. While Im here- does anyone know how to install a thermostat on a box fan- we circulate the stove room air with one and its silly to be circulating 55 degree air in the mornings, I want it to cut off at 68-70. Or, is there such a thing as a plug type thermostat (like a wall plug timer in my mind)??? that the fan could be plugged into.

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), December 22, 2001.

we use the small ceramic heaters in the back bedrooms.

-- js (schlicker54@aol.com), December 23, 2001.