Heating with wood only, protecting pipes

[SailinAway]

Originally Posted by TheProfessor

Note:

A relative closed the door on a bedroom upstairs to save from heating that vacant room.

Came home one cold winter day and water was running down the wall on first floor from that upstairs room. And the hardwood floors in both upstairs and downstairs rooms were buckled.

Very, very, expensive repairs required.

You have been warned.

Oy, ye doomsayers. Some years ago I hired a young man to remove the ceiling and the insulation in one attic bedroom after a roof leak. Seeing the wonderful open space, I decided to put a vaulted ceiling in that room. It took me 6 months to find a carpenter to do that. I went through the whole winter with that open ceiling and no insulation above. I kept the door closed to avoid cooling the rest of the house. No frozen pipes all winter.

In normal times with oil heat, I set the thermostat to about 62 during the day and 50 at night. I've NEVER heated the upstairs bedrooms unless I had company. I do keep the radiator in the bathroom open. Never a frozen pipe in three decades. The house is well insulated. Whether the wood stove can duplicate those results remains to be seen. It appears we are now in an invincible summer,* so the test is delayed.

*Albert Camus, "Au milieu de l'hiver, j'apprenais enfin qu'il y avait en moi un été invincible."

Of course, sometimes it gets too hot in the house and I'm forced to do this:

[TheProfessor]

Originally Posted by SailinAway

Oy, ye doomsayers.

Do be sure to check you homeowners insurance.

Check to see if any words are in policy about negligence of the homeowner.

Good homeowners policies cover everything wilst others may not.

Does policy state "fair market value" or "replacement cost" ?

[John Mercier]

So your upstairs is on a separate zone?
If not, whenever the thermostat read below 62 during the day or 50 during the night, it would call for heat and circulate it through those upstair bedrooms.

The wood stove will not do that.
It will radiate to keep the room that it is in warm, and have to use convection to carry it to those bedrooms... and since not directly into the pipes like the boiler, the pipe temperature may be lower than the room ambient air.

[Susie Cougar]

Originally Posted by SailinAway

Oy, ye doomsayers. Some years ago I hired a young man to remove the ceiling and the insulation in one attic bedroom after a roof leak. Seeing the wonderful open space, I decided to put a vaulted ceiling in that room. It took me 6 months to find a carpenter to do that. I went through the whole winter with that open ceiling and no insulation above. I kept the door closed to avoid cooling the rest of the house. No frozen pipes all winter.

In normal times with oil heat, I set the thermostat to about 62 during the day and 50 at night. I've NEVER heated the upstairs bedrooms unless I had company. I do keep the radiator in the bathroom open. Never a frozen pipe in three decades. The house is well insulated. Whether the wood stove can duplicate those results remains to be seen. It appears we are now in an invincible summer,* so the test is delayed.

*Albert Camus, "Au milieu de l'hiver, j'apprenais enfin qu'il y avait en moi un été invincible."

Of course, sometimes it gets too hot in the house and I'm forced to do this:

Attachment 17878

Comme disait Camus, “La vie est la somme de tous vos choix.”

[SailinAway]

Originally Posted by Susie Cougar

Comme disait Camus, “La vie est la somme de tous vos choix.”

Je ne suis point d'accord avec cela. Nos choix comptent pour beaucoup, il est vrai. Mais il y a au moins 10 ou 15 autres influences qui déterminent notre chemin à travers la vie. Camus lui-même était le produit de plusieurs influences historiques et culturelles remarkables: né en Algérie pendant la colonisation française, il habitait Paris lors de l'invasion allemande, etc. Tout ne dépendait pas de ses choix personnels mais aussi de ces grands événements qu'il n'a pas du tout choisis.