New Hampshire Underground

Regional Discussion => Northern NH => Topic started by: KBCraig on January 02, 2013, 08:09 PM NHFT

Title: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: KBCraig on January 02, 2013, 08:09 PM NHFT
It's a bit cool tonight. It was -10F just before 9 p.m. local, headed for -24.

It's colder at my house in Lancaster than at the top of Mt. Washington.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Jim Johnson on January 02, 2013, 09:14 PM NHFT
That makes Keene down right balmy.  It's supposed to go to zero by 7am and then go back up to 19 later in the day.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Tom Sawyer on January 02, 2013, 10:13 PM NHFT
-4 up here on the mountain.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: KBCraig on January 02, 2013, 10:41 PM NHFT
Poor Pat K... I see it's going to get way down in the 60s tonight in Flowduh.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Jim Johnson on January 03, 2013, 12:55 AM NHFT
Bastard!   :black_kitty:
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: KBCraig on January 03, 2013, 03:54 AM NHFT
Cool.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Tom Sawyer on January 03, 2013, 07:16 AM NHFT
It's -10 right now
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Kat Kanning on January 03, 2013, 01:57 PM NHFT
43 in Kansas.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Pat K on January 07, 2013, 01:38 PM NHFT
It's 80 but very breezy here, I will endeavor to persevere.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Jim Johnson on January 07, 2013, 02:29 PM NHFT
Quote from: Pat K on January 07, 2013, 01:38 PM NHFT
It's 80 but very breezy here, I will endeavor to persevere.
Quote from: Jim Johnson on January 03, 2013, 12:55 AM NHFT
Bastard!   :black_kitty:
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Pat K on January 15, 2013, 03:00 PM NHFT
Once again 80 and breezy, oh the suffrage.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Jim Johnson on January 15, 2013, 03:40 PM NHFT
bitch
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Pat K on January 15, 2013, 04:25 PM NHFT
 ;D
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: KBCraig on January 15, 2013, 04:48 PM NHFT
Since they've been having a January thaw up north this last week, it's been as cold, sometimes colder, in Texas.

Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Fluff and Stuff on January 16, 2013, 05:30 PM NHFT
You think it is cold in the North Country? You ain't seen nothin' yet! It was really cold somewhere else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6t-EjrtD3U
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Pat K on January 17, 2013, 05:16 PM NHFT
Hey its going to get down into the 40's here tonight!

Folks will be breaking out the parka's.


I know Jim will be praying for me.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Jim Johnson on January 17, 2013, 08:13 PM NHFT
May Howard rain down his incontinence upon you.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Pat K on January 21, 2013, 11:09 AM NHFT
I can always count on Jim.  ;D
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: KBCraig on January 21, 2013, 09:51 PM NHFT
Our back 40.

Snow on the upper part is only 6-8 inches, because it's been windy without much snow. The lower part is a good 18" deep, so it looks deceptively flat when it's really not.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Kat Kanning on January 22, 2013, 03:54 AM NHFT
snowy
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Pat K on January 22, 2013, 02:24 PM NHFT
Yikes!
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Tom Sawyer on January 23, 2013, 09:07 PM NHFT
Looks like Lancaster is expected to hit -24 tonight...
We are at -5 right now.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Kat Kanning on January 24, 2013, 02:04 AM NHFT
Brrrrrr.....snowing and about 10 in Ohio.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: KBCraig on January 24, 2013, 03:15 AM NHFT
Quote from: Tom Sawyer on January 23, 2013, 09:07 PM NHFT
Looks like Lancaster is expected to hit -24 tonight...
We are at -5 right now.

I woke up at 3:30 and stoked the fire. It's -23 right now per the weather service, will probably drop a couple more degrees. Thermometer on the front porch said -28, but I'm not sure how accurate it is; it only goes to -30.

Our fireplace is a huge thermal mass, and I've been pouring the BTUs to it all week. If the fire went out, I think we could huddle around the bricks for a couple of days.  :)
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Kat Kanning on January 24, 2013, 03:42 AM NHFT
That's cold!  I'm huddled around the one vent where heat blows into the sleeper.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Tom Sawyer on January 24, 2013, 04:53 AM NHFT
It's a balmy -10 here on the mountain.  ;D
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Kat Kanning on January 24, 2013, 04:46 PM NHFT
Stay warm, but don't let Becky catch her rear on fire!
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Free libertarian on January 24, 2013, 05:48 PM NHFT
Quote from: Kat Kanning on January 24, 2013, 04:46 PM NHFT
Stay warm, but don't let Becky catch her rear on fire!


...or at least keep a fire extinguisher handy... :P
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Pat K on January 24, 2013, 06:24 PM NHFT
7:22 pm 60deg.

But I head back to the frozen north tomorrow.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Russell Kanning on January 25, 2013, 07:35 AM NHFT
chilly?
that is called wicked cold
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Raineyrocks on January 26, 2013, 10:44 AM NHFT
Yup, it's been really cold!  I'm not looking foward to the next electric bill or propane fill up. ::)

Rick's been gone for a couple of weeks too so I've had to use my pillow for extra heat. :P  We keep it at 64 degrees downstairs and 50 degrees upstairs but the heat has been pouring out of the radiators, (sp?), for days now, downstairs anyway.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Pat K on January 26, 2013, 04:03 PM NHFT
Lumberton,NC. 56 deg.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Jim Johnson on January 26, 2013, 06:50 PM NHFT
Saaaaalute!
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: KBCraig on January 26, 2013, 08:30 PM NHFT
Hundred gallons of heating oil yesterday, at $3.69/gallon.  :o

I guess that's not too bad for a drafty old house. Since the initial fill in October, we've had fill-ups of 76, 100, and 100 gallons. While I'm here burning wood, the furnace has hardly kicked on at all, even on those -20 nights.

I'm going to look at options for next winter. If I leave the fireplace as is instead of switching to an insert, I'm going to add some convection tubes to really pump out the hot air.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Silent_Bob on January 26, 2013, 08:41 PM NHFT
Fireplaces are grossly inefficient, if your goal is heating. :)

Probably a lot better off bricking up the fireplace and porting a woodstove pipe into the existing chimney.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: MaineShark on January 26, 2013, 08:41 PM NHFT
Quote from: KBCraig on January 26, 2013, 08:30 PM NHFTI'm going to look at options for next winter. If I leave the fireplace as is instead of switching to an insert, I'm going to add some convection tubes to really pump out the hot air.

There are a lot of options with that place.  Let me know if you want to chat, at some point.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: MaineShark on January 26, 2013, 08:43 PM NHFT
Quote from: Silent_Bob on January 26, 2013, 08:41 PM NHFTProbably a lot better off bricking up the fireplace and porting a woodstove pipe into the existing chimney.

That's what he was talking about, when he said, "insert."  A fireplace insert is a woodstove that's designed to fit fully or partly inside a fireplace, and connect to the existing chimney.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: KBCraig on January 26, 2013, 11:29 PM NHFT
I know how inefficient fireplaces are. My glass doors and the firebox convection vents almost make it work like an insert already. With the doors closed I can control the draft, and get a lot of heat out of the vents, plus residual radiant heat from the thermal mass.

With a bit of trickeration, I think I could make the current glass doors work like a true insert, without the flue cleaning difficulties. And I know I can get a lot more hot air out of it. I might even add a thermostatic intake damper.

The first thing the house needs is better weatherizing and insulation. That will be our big project after I sell the Texas house and move up here full time.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: Kat Kanning on January 27, 2013, 04:59 AM NHFT
It was warm and foggy in Texarkana when I went thru, in case you were wondering.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: MaineShark on January 27, 2013, 07:20 AM NHFT
Quote from: KBCraig on January 26, 2013, 11:29 PM NHFTI know how inefficient fireplaces are. My glass doors and the firebox convection vents almost make it work like an insert already. With the doors closed I can control the draft, and get a lot of heat out of the vents, plus residual radiant heat from the thermal mass.

Indeed.  The efficiency can depend dramatically upon the design.  Some older fireplaces can actually be reasonably-efficient, and some newer woodstoves may actually not.

For another example, there was a third-party test done on outdoor wood boilers, which one would imagine are engineered for some level of efficiency.  They found that the actual efficiency varied from about 80%, down to 15%.  The median was around 60%.  There are fireplaces which are that efficient...

Quote from: KBCraig on January 26, 2013, 11:29 PM NHFTWith a bit of trickeration, I think I could make the current glass doors work like a true insert, without the flue cleaning difficulties. And I know I can get a lot more hot air out of it. I might even add a thermostatic intake damper.

Depends upon the insert, whether there's any flue cleaning difficulty.  Some use a pretty straight shot with a flex liner, meaning the ash dumps straight into the firebox.  Some may have a "cleaning mode" lever, which opens a flap to create that straight shot, even if it's not present during normal operation.

Quote from: KBCraig on January 26, 2013, 11:29 PM NHFTThe first thing the house needs is better weatherizing and insulation. That will be our big project after I sell the Texas house and move up here full time.

Yup.  Insulation, weather stripping, and the like, is the best bang for the buck.  A quality energy audit is often the best first step... it's not just a matter of identifying where work is needed, but classifying them by how much impact each one has, and how much it will cost to fix.  For example, I know someone who found that a quarter of the air leakage into his house was due to one particular door, which he had not actually suspected was a significant problem.  He had originally planned on re-insulating some walls where he knew the insulation was lacking, which would have cost thousands of dollars.  Instead, he was able to attain the same impact on his overall energy use, with a few dollars spent on weatherstripping.  An audit probably costs $400-500, but it usually saves far more than that, by allowing you to prioritize which projects you tackle first, to get the most bang for your buck.
Title: Re: Chilly night in the Great North Woods....
Post by: KBCraig on January 28, 2013, 12:56 AM NHFT
Quote from: Kat Kanning on January 27, 2013, 04:59 AM NHFT
It was warm and foggy in Texarkana when I went thru, in case you were wondering.

Still is.

When I got up this morning in Lancaster and went out to fill the truck for the drive down to Manchester, it was -4. When I landed in Dallas this evening at 8, it was 73.

Blech.  :P