Woodstove Mama's- House temperature?

[Adaline'sMama]

I think we can all agree that the way wood heat makes you feel is just different. I find that I will feel totally comfortable and warm in my house when it is between 65 and 68 degrees, but if I got to a house that is heated propane or electric I feel cold. I think its because I can walk past my warm stove and get warm even when Im a bit chilly. In the fall, we typically keep the house around 68 degrees in the daytime, and between 55-60 degrees at night, but in the winter, its harder for us to get that high because of crappy insulation.

How warm do you try to keep your house? If its anything like mine, one room is sometimes 80 degrees and the other one is 55.

[goldenwillow]

Our new house is super insulated, so nice.  We have lived in many cottages (50+ years old) and just could feel the chill through the walls, doors, you name it.  Kinda feel like we deserved this place being well insulated, paid our dues over the years, sort-of speak .  Our new place is an A-frame and our stove with 1-2 good size logs (have free alder currently) keeps us at about 68-72. 

I feel the same about how it feels... drier heat.  I grew up with a wood stove and it feels nice to have one again!

I have noticed our family having a slight runny nose, but clear... thankfully, since we began burning.  

[Momma2DoubleCuties]

Like you, one room is super hot others not so hot but we typically have the stove at 65-70* depending on how much wood is in it.  It is a different warmth.  It warms to the core which is so lovely.

[FarmerBeth]

Even with a central heating wood furnace, we also have hot and cold spots, ranging from about 55 to 80 like you (I think I'm doing the Celsius/Farenheit conversion right).  We use creative opening and shutting of doors to allow over hot rooms to spread heat to colder rooms or to keep heat in.

[BeckyBird]

We have our stove burning wood right now!  It's 40 degrees outside, and inside, it's over 80. It was never that warm with our electric heat.

Even with the electric heat running on high, the house would never feel very warm. And talk about a huge bill! Wood heat is so much better.

With our wood stove, the house is warm and toasty. A nice, comforting, thermal heat that warms you all the way through. I love it so much, especially on a damp, rainy, cold day, or better yet, a snowy day! Last weekend, it reached freezing temps, and we ran the stove. On Saturday morning, DH cooked scrambled eggs and bacon off the top of the stove, in our newly seasoned cast iron skillet. It was awesome!

If we leave a room closed, it will be cold. We leave the bedroom and bathroom doors open, and the heat reaches there.  I will admit that I don't like to run the stove at night, unless I'm sleeping on the couch. I have a terrible fear of house fires (who doesn't) so I just cannot sleep in my bedroom knowing there is a fire blazing in the stove in the living room.  Because of this, we do leave the electric heat on. Once the fire goes out and the house cools down at night, the electric heat kicks on, and the house is about 60 degrees when we wake up.

Of course, if/when we go off grid, I'll have to suck it up and learn to burn a fire throughout the night!

[Adaline'sMama]

Originally Posted by BeckyBird 

We have our stove burning wood right now!  It's 40 degrees outside, and inside, it's over 80. It was never that warm with our electric heat.

Even with the electric heat running on high, the house would never feel very warm. And talk about a huge bill! Wood heat is so much better.

With our wood stove, the house is warm and toasty. A nice, comforting, thermal heat that warms you all the way through. I love it so much, especially on a damp, rainy, cold day, or better yet, a snowy day! Last weekend, it reached freezing temps, and we ran the stove. On Saturday morning, DH cooked scrambled eggs and bacon off the top of the stove, in our newly seasoned cast iron skillet. It was awesome!

If we leave a room closed, it will be cold. We leave the bedroom and bathroom doors open, and the heat reaches there.  I will admit that I don't like to run the stove at night, unless I'm sleeping on the couch. I have a terrible fear of house fires (who doesn't) so I just cannot sleep in my bedroom knowing there is a fire blazing in the stove in the living room.  Because of this, we do leave the electric heat on. Once the fire goes out and the house cools down at night, the electric heat kicks on, and the house is about 60 degrees when we wake up.

Of course, if/when we go off grid, I'll have to suck it up and learn to burn a fire throughout the night!

Oh, by then you wont think a minute about it. What you will wonder about is when you stock your stove all the way up so you can leave to run errands for a few hours, or all day. I still sigh a breath or relief every time I turn the corner and the house isnt aflame, after three years of running on 100% wood heat.

[BabyFireFly]

This year we are heating the house exclusively with wood....no more $600 electric bills for me in the winter (we do have a well pump that contributes to the cost because we pump enough water for 30 horses on a daily basis). Our home is old, and drafty in some spots, even after re-doing most of the walls and floors, there are still some parts that are just down right cold! When we re-did the house, we made what was the den (with the wood stove) into our bedroom....there is nothing better than falling asleep on a winter's night with the stove crackling away. Depending on who is tending the fire, our bedroom (which is centrally located in the house) can be 90 degrees (my forever frozen husband tending) or a comfortable 70 (conservative, always hot wife)...and the other rooms will stay between 55 and 60 degrees. That was not, however, the case before I started using a fan to move the heat from the main room into the rest of the house. I strung up a simple box style fan between the bedroom and the kitchen (from the ceiling - heat rises) and run it on low at night to move the hot air into the rest of the house. I also close up the rooms at the far ends of the house that are not "living areas"....but keep the bathroom and kid's rooms open. I will be going around this week and sealing up all the floor vents for the central air system that I will not be using, because cold air simply pours through them.

It was around 20 degrees here last night and I slept with a window cracked....but I'm in a tank top all winter if I'm indoors and I always only half as bundled up as anyone else outdoors.

[BeckyBird]

I'm in a tank top right now!! It's 32 degrees outside, but inside it's nice and toasty. Yesterday we didn't feel like burning a fire, and the electric heat was on. It was so drafty, even with the heat running constantly. Electric just cannot compare! Also, we paid $40 for an entire pickup truck load full of logs, and we haven't burned through them yet. We'll probably spend a total of $100 for the entire winter. Compared to the hundreds spent on electric, inefficient heat.

[Mom2SammyJoe]

It finally got cold here today and the house has been comfortable 69-72 F in the living area with the woodstove. We remodeled last year, so we have good windows and insulation and a very efficient stove. We'll get by on around 3 cord of wood this winter.

We have been having a lot of days in the upper 30's, so when we add wood, it gets to about 74 in the main room, and that is too warm! If I am using the oven, too, I've been opening the kitchen window.

These colder days make the wood heat much easier to use.