Look at you: all toasty and efficient! I’m envious. Will this still suffice when the temps get into the single digits for weeks on end? Or will you have to resort to central heat of some sort?

Yes, it’ll be okay when the temperatures dip into the single digits. I have to load the firebox to capacity and let the fire burn full tilt, but it’ll keep up. When the temps drop below 16 degrees, during the day, the stove has to work a lot harder. That seems to be the magic daytime temperature. (In terms of wood burning, I consider a 26 degree day a welcome heat wave!) The only time it has really struggled to keep up was when we had a few straight days of 0-5 degree days and minus 15-20 degree nights with a lot of wind—which, fortunately, are way outside the norm here. Even then, though, I can maintain the house at about 66-67 degrees (that feels really chilly after getting used to mid-70s temperatures). If I lived farther inland or in upper Maine or Vermont, I’d need the next size larger stove and a couple more cords of wood.

This morning it is still in the upper 30s outside and I let the stove burn out in the night. The house is cozy warm and will hold the heat well until this evening. The heat from the stove is so constant (the stove itself gets to about 850-900 degrees on the top surfaces) that, on these milder mid-thirties to low-forties days, it warms the walls and the furniture and even the floors so that I still get radiant heat for several hours after the fire goes out. The remaining coals buried in the ashes will also give off a little bit of heat and keep the stove surface at around 200 degrees for several hours.

I’ve moved into my Mom’s house, and boy oh boy, does she keep it chilly!!! ... Your little stove looks so inviting and warm.

(Getting caught up on you. )