I haven't touched the furnance yet (NG) and we've been stuck in the 40's 30's 20's for a while now. ITs getting pretty damn cold in here! I'm sticking to my guns and waiting until atleast nov 1 to touch it. I have been using one of those oil filled electric jobbers in the bedroom for just a few hours a day.

Since theres a backorder on pellet stoves, might just have to buy a wood burner and head out looking for some down trees!

what about the rest of you? Don't you think that wood is the future? Nat Gas just went over 14 again!

ahhhhh!

Construction is behind schedule so I still don't have the woodstove. I turned the electric baseboard in the kitchen on about 2 weeks ago. The one in the bedroom had to be turned on one night last week.

Real winter isn't here yet but it's not far off.

started heating a couple of weeks ago (NG), thanks to really miserable rainy weather.

Normally this time of year the house is warmed enough by the sun we don't require heat at night.

I've also installed a new programable thermostat and I kill the heat during the day when we're not home. So far the furnace is running about 10hrs/week.

I have a good fixed contract price so with the new thermostat and fixed price I will probably pay less for heating this year than last year (last year was freak'n cold, -20C to -30C for most on January )

I've turned on a few times over the past two weeks. I have NG with a contract at $8.72 per 1,000 cf till 1/08, so I'm not to concerned with price. I keep the house at 68F when home and 60F when away using my turn back thermostat. My 2,300 sf house cost $1,200 for NG annually including a NG hot water tank. My range and clothing dryer is electric.

I did order a wood buring fireplace insert stove about 5 weeks ago and I waiting to have installed on 11/4.

Yep, turned it on night before last - but only at night, and the thermostat is set a good 7 degrees cooler than it was last year. Sweaters are getting a lot of wear in the house. We're expecting a freeze tonight. Daytime temps are still nice enough here - high 50's. We're supposed to be back up to near 70 by this time next week, though, so it's probably only temporarily on. At least I'm hoping so .
Kathy

Strider, I'm surprised you needed heat on on Vancouver Island in October. Is it that cold or just that Vancouver Island dampness? We never put the heat on after we go to bed even when its minus 25c or so. We just add another blanket and it's toasty warm. I'll put the last stick of wood in the woodstove about 8PM or so and then let things cool off.

I always get my best sleep when the air is cold but the bed is warm. One thing I like living in a high and dry climate is that even in summer the temperatures drops and we need pajamas and a blanket. Back in Quebec we'd sleep naked on top of the sheets just to try and keep cool.

It was 70 here yesterday but it does get down into the 40s at night.

I've fired up the woodstove about 6 times so far this fall. There's a week of storms predicted for later this week so I probably keep the fire going until evening.

Started burning wood in the stove near the kitchen about 2 weeks ago, started burning it in the wood furnace in the basement just today. Getting a bit nippy here, with the wind blowing so much, in Nova Scotia.

we just got our woodburner and we just finished the break-in period about a week ago. It has been fine during the day here, but we have been having fires for over night, because it has been a wee chilly at night

has anyone seen these wood buring stoves?

www.fireorb.net

Almost every night for the past two weeks we have made at least one small fire. Sometimes we have kept it going all day already. Although, the thermostat on the gravity furnace is set to 45 degrees so it has not kicked on

We haven't used any wood yet, but mostly because our stove isn't installed yet either. But we turned the oil burner off earlier this month (after it automatically switched on) and we are occasionally using small electric space heaters on low(750 watts). But Richmond VA doesn't see real winter until at least November. For now, the house stays in the low-mid 60s right now on its own.

Can't wait for the stove though...

We have had the heat on about 3-4 hours every day for the last fortnight. Wife works at home with 2 small kids though.

Putting in a foot of additional attic insulation at the weekend and will start lighting fire in the evening. That should leave just an hour each day of the oil furnace. We need that anyway for drying clothes.

Glad to read that frankthetank is considering a woodstove instead of a pellet stove!!

I have a max/min thermometer in a little weather shelter next to the cabin out here in the northeastern California desert. First frost was Aug. 30 (28 F). Since then we've had 37 mornings below freezing, as low as 18 on Sept. 24th.

Since our water is also heated on the woodstove, we have a fire at least in the mornings, about 350 days per year, if only to heat dish & bath water. Very rarely yet this fall have I built a fire in the evenings, as the highs are still getting into the mid-70s.

Once a month or so we take the trailer to the dump and scrounge odd things for firewood, like old juniper fence posts, construction scraps, etc. This is in addition to the 7 cords of Lodgepole Pine we put in this summer, hoping that it's a 2 winter supply. Normally it seems to take about 4 cords per winter to keep the cabin warm. On a recent dump trip I found an old woodstove, not pretty but functional. It's going to some friends, as the one here in the cabin that I bought at a yard sale for $50 4 years ago, is still the best I've ever used.

I'll continue to collect old woodstoves for disbursment after PO. It seems that locally a trend started 10 or so years ago, whereas about 10% of folks with woodstoves switched to oil heat every year. They're going to be looking for woodstoves soon--maybe some that I am collecting will end up back in their original houses!

These might be cool looking, but likely not very efficient. One needs to be able to control the flow of air, and a secondary combustion chamber (or catalytic) is absolutely needed (unless on is using a masonry mass stove or the like).