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A

Antarius

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,828
15
Do you guys have the newer wood stoves with the blowers on top? My parents switched from an older style wood stove to a new design and the thing went from "barely keeping the house warm" to "omg you can't even stay in the same room as that fucker"

It's funny though, because they still used an ancient ancient 50 year old fuel oil stove when they weren't running the wood stove, and that thing would still cost 400 a month just turning on a couple hours a day keeping the house at a balmy 60.
 
Alex

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,666
7,482
These energy bills sound absurd. Mine barely cracks $40. All year round.

My apartment in college back in Cincinnati was awful though. I remember some RIDICULOUS bills trying to heat up that mansion. And it didn't do shit. It got so cold in the kitchen that our dishsoap would congeal and look like Colgate toothpaste. We would turn the oven on and leave the door open if we were hanging out in that room so we didn't have to bundle up.
 
Rime

Rime

<Donor>
2,638
1,612
Antarius_sl said:
Do you guys have the newer wood stoves with the blowers on top? My parents switched from an older style wood stove to a new design and the thing went from "barely keeping the house warm" to "omg you can't even stay in the same room as that fucker"
Click to expand...
I actually removed the blower for that reason. (Modular design)

The stove is in my living room, makes for a good place to relax when it is biting cold out, but I like my bedroom a bit cooler than the rest of the house.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
46,648
214,750
Both of my stoves have a catalytic converter, and I've insulated the house well enough that the difference between the hot rooms and "cold" rooms is only about 3 or 4 degrees. Amazing how much less wood we use with the converters in there.
 
iannis

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
17,656
SNOWMAGEDDON.

A converter on a wood stove does pretty much that, I think. The important thing is that it recirculates particulates so that the smoke is more dense and will burn more eaily. More heat, less exhaust, better fuel consumption.

Basically you're burning airborne ash.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
46,648
214,750
Deathwing_sl said:
Explain please. I thought catalytic converters just removed particulates from the exhaust.
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There's a really well written explanation here:

Catalytic or Non-Catalytic? - Custom Fireplaces & More

A catalytic stove uses a catalyst (catalytic converter or catalytic combustor) to reduce the temperature that smoke catches fire at. The catalyst looks like a chunk of honeycomb from a bee's nest, placed in the path of the smoke. Ordinarily, it takes a temperature of approximately 1100 degrees for smoke to catch fire. The catalyst lowers that temperature to approximately 500 - 550 degrees, allowing the smoke to safely catch fire while still inside the stove.

The catalyst then quickly gets hotter and hotter, until 15- 20 minutes after reaching 550 degrees, the temperature in the catalyst will typically be reading around 1400 to 1700 degrees, depending amount of wood in the stove, how dry it is, and the size of the catalyst. Soon, so much heat is being given off by the catalyst that you don't need a big flame to keep warm. You can then choke down the air to produce a smoldering fire, even to the point of putting the flames out, and the extra smoke produced serves as fuel for the catalyst. This greatly reduces the amount of wood needed to produce the desired heat, reduces the amount of creosote buildup in the chimney, and greatly increases the "burn time" for that load of wood.
 
iannis

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
17,656
And I gotta drive in this shit. The roads are fine. It's the chickenheaded retards driving on them that are the problem.

FIVE MILES AN HOUR IS LESS SAFE THAN FIFTEEN.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
14,671
2,529
We just bought a new wood stove with a blower for my Mom's house to replace her 30 year old earth stove. I'm really hoping it uses wood more efficiently. We decided not to go with the catalyst because we have heard that they can be finicky and you can burn them out if you burn certain kinds of wood.

As far as windows go, I don't think it's really the best bang for your buck when it comes to saving energy unless your attic and walls are already super insulated. It is nice to not feel cold standing next to the window though and old windows look like hell.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,275
15,107
Mist_sl said:
Worst winter ever. Snow was supposed to be gone by 11am. It's still snowing now.
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Yeah when I left work in Hopkinton there wasn't much snow, but as I was driving home towards SE MA I noticed it was snowing more heavily. Down by my house it was like snowmageddon again, we must've got another 6 inches or more. It was light fluffy shit, so it was easy to move at least, but I was still pissed. Took out my rage shovelling and felt good.

My wife keeps wanting to take a nightly walk with the dog in this shit. Even the dog doesn't want to do it, it steps outside and lifts it's paws up. I have to bundle up like alfie's brother in Christmas Story and look like a retard. Too cold for walks lady, when it dips to the single digits it is too cold.
 
Mist

Mist

REEEEeyore
<Gold Donor>
31,202
23,396
There's so much snow that every parking lot has these huge piles around the outside of it blocking the view of oncoming traffic in each direction when trying to exit a lot.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
46,648
214,750
Looks like it might be a snow day for the kids again tomorrow, but they are already talking about canceling Friday, too, due to the extreme cold. That will make 6 snow days already. That's kinda shitty, because as much as I like being home with them, they have to make those up in June.
 
McCheese

McCheese

SW: Sean, CW: Crone, GW: Wizardhawk
6,918
4,315
I never minded having to make up snow days in school as a kid. They don't do anything of value in the extra few days that get tacked on at the end of the year, so it's basically just chilling at school, playing games in class, and killing time.

The only bad part was my school didn't have a/c back then, so it could get hot as fuck if we ended up going into mid-June. But otherwise it was a really worthwhile tradeoff to lose those prime studying/homework days in winter for bullshit days in summer.
 
Big Phoenix

Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
<Gold Donor>
46,392
98,613
Alex_sl said:
These energy bills sound absurd. Mine barely cracks $40. All year round.

My apartment in college back in Cincinnati was awful though. I remember some RIDICULOUS bills trying to heat up that mansion. And it didn't do shit. It got so cold in the kitchen that our dishsoap would congeal and look like Colgate toothpaste. We would turn the oven on and leave the door open if we were hanging out in that room so we didn't have to bundle up.
Click to expand...
Bro SF has the perfect climate. Pretty much one of the few places on this planet which does not require you to have ac or heat.
 
Oldbased

Oldbased

> Than U
28,428
67,400
So this Mr Buddy propane heater is the shit. Our house is 66 degrees right now with the electric ones running. That is about 15 degrees over without it.
I bought a CO detector and it hasn't gone off, but I haven't been cracking the windows either. Assuming since we got such bad drafts and windows anyways it isn't poisoning us despite the warnings all over it.
It does burn through a 1lb bottle every 3 hours though.
It is -5 right now and still dropping outside and with wind chill pushing -15+.
We had strays we had been feeding for months and I managed to trap one and get him into the garage area but the other one we actually liked has been MIA since Sunday when this system all started. Assuming he is not going to survive this.
 
Famm

Famm

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
11,041
794
Those things are a major fire hazard too aren't they? I'm sure they can be fine if you take proper precautions and all.
 
Brikker

Brikker

Trump's Staff
6,296
4,833
It's currently -25F with -35F wind chill. Not much snow this winter, though.

Some of you guys pay a lot for heating! I'm on natural gas central air; keep my apartment at 72F on average when I'm home. I turn it off when I sleep/am gone for more than an hour. My bill has been going up each month but February was $117. Summer is about $50 or $60 but I never use A/C.
 
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