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[coolidge]

I myself am trying to get the "3 year plan". I was thinking of going bigger myself, but think if I can get the plan going I would cut down on my yearly usage. I am going to be around 14 full cord, heating 5000 sq ft and DHW. I am actually very impressed with my 250 this year.

[hondaracer2oo4]

75 is really warm. You will notice that for every degree you go up or down from 70 degrees it makes a pretty big difference in wood usage. You are probably burning atleast 25% more wood heating to 75 as opposed to 70. Possibly even 40% more!

[Jwood]

75 is really warm. You will notice that for every degree you go up or down from 70 degrees it makes a pretty big difference in wood usage. You are probably burning atleast 25% more wood heating to 75 as opposed to 70. Possibly even 40% more!

Sorry Honda but you will have to prove that somehow because I started with the house at 72 and now have it set at 76 and my burn times have stayed consistently the same all winter.

[Sluggo]

How warm is your basement?  What did you insulate your floor joists with?  If your basement is as warm as your main level I would get rid of the insulation in the floor joists and let the heat rise.  In Wisconsin we don't insulate the floor joists.  We might staple up the silver bubble wrap stuff to reflect the in joist heat up but I would try it if your basement ceiling isn't finished off.

[Jwood]

Basement is heated to 70 degrees no insulation in the floor joists here in MN either bud. Before my wife wanted it turned up the furnace rarely turned on the basement heat did radiate through the floor which is fine by me because its cheaper to run the pump than the furnace blower

[Jwood]

Sorry sluggo your reply was probably not for me after looking what was posted before.

[gainerspot]

I have a BL-28-40 and love it.  I have 2200 Sq ft A frame house with average insulation.  Also in Tennessee so my temps are about the same.  I haven't insulated the pipes at all because I use it to dump some BTU in the crawl space so I can keep the fire going when its warm.  I load it 3/4 full when it gets around 0 outside and 12 hours later the temp is still around 180 range.  I plan on adding a 40 X 20 greenhouse to be heated next year.  At that point I will insulate the lines.

At first I was 1/2 to 3/4 of a load a day when it got into the 20's at night. My friend with a 20 year old hardy told me to build a wood storage shed around the furnace that blocks the North wind will make a huge differnce in how much wood is used each load.  I also live on top of the hill where wind is always blowing some.  Once the wind blocking shed was up the next morning i had enough wood left in the fire box to last half the day.  Now I can get and easy 12-14 hour burn on a 3/4 load with it at 0 low at night.  the other night we hit -9 and it was just a small coal bed left in the morning on a 12 hour burn but temp was 180.  We keep the house between 74-77  We also only have 2 people showering in our household.

[Coach]

I think it is more important to know the water volume around your fire box - Btu's and all that other junk matters very little.  You have to have the volume of water to keep your heat in the cycle up to your desired level.  Compare water volume before you buy......

[EE Farm Boy]

Just an update.  The other night it got down to 0 degrees here which broke the records in our our part.  I did not how long the water temp would stay up so I set the alarm clock for 4:30 AM.  I loaded as much wood as would fit.  I think turned off all uncessary zones like DHW at night, radiant floor heat in the MB to warm the tiles, and the cut the main home down to 70 degrees.  This kids rooms were left at 75 and our MB room was left at 72.  When I went out at 4:30AM, I had a bed of coals at the top of the fire brick.  I think I probably could have went till 7:00 AM before loading.  I believe that when it gets in the signle digits, I am just going to have to turn down the t-stats and cut off all uncessary loops.  Still would have rather had the BL3444 but this works..

Thanks for the inputs.

[cando attitude]

Farm Boy, I am very similar to you in that I am heating 3000 ft^2 along with an unfinished (bare blockwall) basement and my DHW and largely my 2840 does the job.  On occasion when the temps drop to down around zero or below, I purposely wait until around 9 or 10 pm to fill and then go back out around 6 or 7 in the am but this gets me through the night.  For these rare occasions, the bigger unit would be nice but anything teens or above, I have no problem with a 12 hour burn time......gotta have good wood though.

Cando