Feeding a wood stove ...

**ironmaiden** · 10-29-2008, 11:36 AM

My cousin has a cabin and using a wood stove to heat the place when they are there. The problem is sleeping or rather waking up to feed the wood stove every couple hours. Any ideas?

**nvmommyx6** · 10-29-2008, 11:59 AM

We stock ours right before we go to bed with some "hard" wood, like eucalyptus and such, it might be close to out in the morning when we get up, but the house is still warm even if we do have to start another fire......our home is almost 2000 sq.ft. and this is our wood stove (not that big really) and it does one heck of a job!!

**shadowfax** · 10-29-2008, 11:59 AM

Actually if you bank it right you do not have to feed it again until morning.

My parents had one when I was a kid and I remember them feeding it and banking it before bed and then getting it going again first thing in the morning. The coals will continue to give radiant heat through the night.

Wish I could explain the procedure but I was not taught to do it and We stopped using it when I was in my early teens because of a bad chimney.

**nvmommyx6** · 10-29-2008, 12:06 PM

for some reason the pic did not post...trying again!!!

**zakity** · 10-29-2008, 01:00 PM

Yep, you can stock it up right in there and it will last for hours. And, our woodstove will radiate heat for hours after the coals are gone.

When we have huge pieces that can't be split but are too huge to fit with anything else in the woodstove, we throw those in at night. We only usually do that when it is really really really cold outside. Partially because we don't usually have very many of them and partially because we let the furnace kick on at night. When it is really really really cold out, throwing in that big piece helps to keep the natural gas bill down.

**DonnainME** · 10-29-2008, 02:16 PM

I agree - fill it up at night then it will be going most of the night. If someone gets up early to go potty, have them check it.

Our only heat is a wood stove.

**madhen** · 10-29-2008, 02:51 PM

Everyone pretty much said what I do: stuff it full at night, use hard woods (I use oak and manzanita). The huge logs take longer to burn down than the smaller ones. The only other thing I recommend is closing the flue down a bit - NOT ALL THE WAY!!

But if you restrict the air flow, then there isn't as much oxygen, and the fire doesn't burn as "hot" so it burns longer. Typically, if I do it just right ( and I have a teeny wood stove), I can go to bed at 11p and the wood stove will still be warm (and sometimes even still have hot embers) by 5a the next day. Normally, though, if you are dealing with a smaller wood stove, expect to have to re-stock it by 4-5 hours - not really enough time for a good night's sleep, but worth it compared to being cold for hours while it re-heats the house.

**shadowfax** · 10-29-2008, 03:40 PM

Does anyone have a pellet stove? This is what I am considering buying in the near future. Would love to get some ideas on how good these are.

**DonnainME** · 10-29-2008, 05:54 PM

We're looking for a new wood stove AND a pellet stove for next year. We priced the pellet stoves and are seeing about $3300 for that and a new wood stove would be about $1100. We have a 2 story 1800 total sq ft house in Western Maine.

**drusilla** · 10-29-2008, 08:32 PM

Right now, I'm more concerned with keeping the fire going than producing a lot of heat over night. (I hate restarting the fire).
I'm in Michigan, but the weather isn't too bad yet, so i'm getting away with really slow burning mild fires.
I lay my logs over hot coals (no active flames) in a cross pattern so that the log on the bottom slowly burns and turns to red hot coals and when it burns out the next layer collapses and starts the process over again.
I don't think that will keep us warm in the dead of winter (my goal is to not use the radiators at all this year) but that's what plenty of blankets and snuggling with our mates are for!