Post-Burn Reflections

Time marches on. We did not have much of a winter, but from Thanksgiving eve through yesterday, my Hitzer has provided reliable, steady heat through 4 months. One match carried through. Strange to shake the fire, but not add coal until it finally went cold last evening. Major cleanout and rust prevention activities today. Probably swap out that crazed glass and replace some gaskets to be ready for next winter.

I realized that I tended the stove about 240 times (2x/day X 4 months). Probably $2000 saved by burning coal rather than oil. That's $8.33 savings/ 5 minutes of tending, not counting the other benefits of blue ladies and orange glow. Pretty good deal!

Different--colder--feel in the house this morning. Outside temps to reach 73 later today.

Beeman wrote:Different--colder--feel in the house this morning.

It's like saying goodbye to an old friend.

I too have been considering the shut-down this week. But I have to work this weekend and I usually do my clean out on the weekend as I don't have time during the week. I may hold out until the end of the month since I'm working every weekend until April now. As it stands, the stove is idled down to 180* during the day and 250* at night.

We haven't got to post burn yet doing about 15 - 20 pounds per day tend once in the evening. House is around 72 at night run the blower for a little while and then shut off.

I thought about shutting down, but I don't feel like re-starting the stove if we get a cold snap. It is still March, after all. Got the dutchwest idling with a stove temp around 190F, stack temp about 95F. The firebox looks like it's got as much coal in it now, as it did this morning about 10AM when I loaded it up.

Had to open the window-stats today to moderate the temps in here. Still 77 in the house as of 11:45PM.