Wood vs. Oil

This post was originally published on golifelog.com.

I let the wood burner do its thing yesterday again, attending to it like a needy child, regularly feeding it new wood, monitoring the heat, and still almost managed to blow it up again. The last four wood splitters just kept it running a bit longer than I wanted, but hey, that’s an ongoing process, and I still learn how to treat it right and save oil.

I also learned another thing when looking at the two 1000-liter warm water puffers again. There is a temperature sensor in them with a tile. As I was seeing the oil burner not coming to life yesterday again, I took a close look. And it turns out, this small sensor also blocks the oil from running. It was dialed to 50°C, and as soon as I turned it up to 70°C, seeing a small mark on that setting, I could hear the oil burner coming to life in the other room.

So I learned, if the puffer temperature is still warm enough to heat the house (which 50°C isn’t in the current temperatures), it won’t let the oil start. Makes sense, but only if you know it. I turned it to 60°C today, as that makes use of the hot water in the puffers a bit longer, keeping the house warm without the oil burning away.

But it is still quite the learning curve. I’m still not sure if I should heat it up once in the morning and once in the evening or keep it running “colder” throughout the day. Time will tell, I guess.