Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Turn thermostat down?

This year it’s stayed over 0 so far. Fingers crossed the ice dams’ll break up so I can go back to trout fishing soon. Had to quit last week when the gorge froze up mostly. After the 24” of snow predicted that just started tonight might be a few weeks.

We had a few Keystoker stoves here which were nice. After a few too many trips coming home to find them out or nearly out I removed them so my family didn’t die from Carbon Monoxide. Glorious things, throw a 5 gal pail in and take out ash once a day, set thermo, done for the day and they throw heat better than any wood stove I’ve been around. Cringed removing them with 2 heat pumps and the 2 coal stoves the main heat leaving a bath and laundry space ingested if you don’t count the built in wall heaters from the 70’s when it was new. Added two split ductless for the two 1500 sq ft open areas Downstairs and started removing older electric baseboards. Thought electric would climb further if that’s possible. It jumped about $50/mo and no coal to mess with so didn’t notice it. When the electric bill looks like mine it’s a blip on the monthly statement unfortunately. Probably consume a small town worth here.

Coal stoves, at least the auto ones are a good way to go if coals available. $200/ load which lasted almost a season. Problem I had was my wife is 5’9” and 95 lbs. She struggled filling the hopper and emptying the ash or forgot. The only downside is if the hopper goes empty and fire doesn’t die it’ll let Carbon monoxide out through the hopper. I had detectors near them but a few to many close calls. If I was home more I’d have them still. Regret not throwing one in the upper garage though.

I run pretty warm. My thermostat stays put at 62* F year round. Windows are always opened slightly close up against the closed locks unless the temps drop below freezing and the wind picks up. Then I close the window, partially open the locks and open the windows against it giving me an 1/8" or so gap. A 20kt wind will force quite a bit of air through that small of a gap.


My up north house has a woodstove for primary and a Toyo that kicks in when the woodstove is unattended for long periods of time and a boiler with a simple baseboard loop to even things out.