How hot should I burn
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Depends. Do you care how warm the space is?
Do you have a stove thermometer? Keep it in the safe range, preferably in the middle of that safe range. Place the thermometer just above and to the right of the door on the front of the stove. Look at your stove. Is it glaring red? If it is it is too hot. So long as your stove is not overheating, burn it as hot as you want to achieve the desired temperature.
I didn't open my ash pan vents enough last evening to maintain the warm house. I woke up to 59 at the thermometer shown. What did I do? I serviced the stove and closed down the room. I have an elderly MIL in wheel chair and I wanted to first heat a space where she will be spending the day. I opened the ash pan vents all the way and let the fire get hot. As it was approaching the temperature range I wanted the stove at I closed the vents to half open. As the room warmed up I began opening doors to let the heat infiltrate the rest of the house.
IMHO there are more ways to tell if a stove is burning too hot. Smell, feel, intuition? I know without even going into the kitchen and looking at a meal if what is cooking is done just by smell. Once you have over heated your stove you will know the signs without needing a thermometer to tell you.
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Yes, experience. Experience you get from attention to detail. I would like to say common sense, but the older I get, it doesn't appear to be all that common.ColdHouse wrote: ↑Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 9:46 amIMHO there are more ways to tell if a stove is burning too hot. Smell, feel, intuition? I know without even going into the kitchen and looking at a meal if what is cooking is done just by smell. Once you have over heated your stove you will know the signs without needing a thermometer to tell you.
I would surmise it is because you didn't get ahead of the ball. In my situation yesterday evening the temperature at that thermometer was 69 and I went to bed with the ash pan vents only open 1/3. I woke up to 59*. Obviously I should have adjusted the stove to burn warmer because of the extreme cold temperature. I am a novice but think the thing about coal is slow and steady. So Don't expect fast change. If you create the environment for fast change that can be detrimental because once that fire gets roaring it will not just instantly simmer down. Slow and steady.
With all that said, I would think that if the temperatures tomorrow will be in low 40's no later than early hours of tomorrow morning, you would want to close down those ash pan vents or you will waste fuel and have a very warm house.
Who am I to tell you how warm to keep your home. You must like it warm. Kudo's to you. I would wonder though do you have an AC? Do you keep your house 83 in summer? I find it pretty crazy that people heat their homes to 80 in winter and cool them to 68 in summer. But hey if it is your dime, do as you please.
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I have about 2000sqft to heat and the room that the stove is in, is 83 everywhere else is about 68. We have radiant heat throughout the house but we haven’t used it since we got the coal stove last year. It wasn’t really that efficient
The house I live in has electric heat in each room. I am not sure if you would call it in the floors or the ceilings but each room has an electric thermostat. Obviously that is expensive. The previous owner installed an oil boiler and put hydro air in the house. There is an air handler in an attic crawl space that facilitates the first and second floor and another air handler in the finished basement. The oil boiler would also send me to the poor house if I let it run at current oil prices. Thus the reason I burn coal. I do however use the air handler to move my warm air and distribute it throughout the house.
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Imagine that…people needing some context to the original OP’s question.