If you’re a HO whose house is heated with wood — either logs or pellets — here are some tips:
Keeping a home comfortably heated with wood is an art. The sitter will use more wood than you expect so make sure there is more than enough for their stay. Don’t assume they’ll manage the heating the way you do.
Make sure you have enough time with the sitter to show them how to light the stove, when and how to clean out the ash and where to dump it. If it’s a couple, make sure they are both watching you. Ideally, make a video of everything that they can refer to later when they’ve forgotten half of what you showed them.
For log burners, make sure there is plenty of kindling. Again, more than enough for the stay because they’ll use more than you do to get a fire started.
Specify what can and cannot be burned in the log burner.
Bring them to where the firewood is stored and show them exactly where the driest logs are stacked. If necessary, show them how to tell seasoned from green wood.
For pellet stoves, write down the error messages most likely to appear, what they mean and what to do in those cases. If you have programmed it to go on and off at certain times, show the sitter how to change the programming to suit their own schedule. Don’t make them search through the instruction manual.
Sitters: if you have a phone or video conversation with the HO before accepting the sit, ask these questions if the listing says home is heated with wood:
If a listing mentions wood heat and the sit dates are in late spring in a non-southern climate, ask the HO how much they use the wood stove at that period. If they say they hardly use it, or not at all, beware: it may be because by that time they’re at the end of their supply so are being very conservative.
Ask them how many rooms the heat reaches.
Is wood the only fuel? Is there back up, like electric heaters?
will there be enough time during handover to show you how to light the fire/start and maintain the pellet stove?
If you have used a wood stove before, let them know but also tell the HO the context, the type, etc. so they don’t make assumptions about your experience.
If it’s a stay of a month or longer and the HO says there’s enough wood to last until you leave, ask whether you would be expected to order and pay for more wood if you do run out. In the spring it’s not always easy to find dry wood or pellets for sale.
If the HO seems impatient or too casual about answering questions about the wood heating, don’t take the sit!
I could also add a whole essay on the business and subtleties of draw/draught…we had a large open fireplace where we burnt large logs/tree branches/trunk slices…. keeping ash to create a lighting bed is a good idea when there’s no grate. A grate makes the firewood burn a lot faster, so not a good idea. Keeping matches inside a ziplock bag makes them less likely to get damp/hard to strike. Firelighters- pine cones, bark strips, brown leaves collected during dog walks really help. Bringing tomorrow’s logs indoors to warm up /dry out is also a good habit.
This is a really good post. The point about the sitters most likely using more wood than you is almost a guarantee unless they are as equally skilled at making fires. We did a 5 week winter sit in Cappadocia, Turkey a few years back where the stove was the only heating source and it was challenging on a number of fronts. I found it highly uncomfortable, and after that, we no longer consider sits where that is the only available form of heating.
Second bringing in tomorrow’s logs! Don’t underestimate how hard it can be to stay cozy with just a woodburner and how different they are. We did one sit with an awful open fire and damp logs that we struggled to light. Then we had another with two nice woodburners and lots of dry wood which meant it was fairly easy to keep warm. Still a lot of effort though keeping two fires going. It didn’t help that it was a record cold snap which led to a powercut while we were there!
Completely feel your pain @KC1102 having just done a month in Uzumlu for January and having to load & burn the soba (wood burner) all day plus work with a hot water bottle behind my back too just to stay warm. Nice people and pets but a lot of work.
@Cuttlefish Waking up in the morning was the worst part. They had a heated mattress pad so the bed was nice and warm but the room was absolutely freezing and I dreaded getting out of bed! Plus it was one of those houses where each room is completely separate from one another so we never bothered lighting the fire in the kitchen since we weren’t in a lot and it would have been a pain to try and keep more than one fire going . So it was ice cold the whole time we were there except Fridays when the cleaning woman came, and she lit one for us. It was always a nice treat!
Ouch! I remember going to Cappadocia with snow on the ground and staying in those stone houses. It must have been freezing Good on you for grizzing it out @KC1102#ussittersaremadeoftoughstuff
Back in the 1990s I did a year-long ‘sit’ in a house with a wood stove in Western Massachusetts. Actually a sabbatical sit for a faculty member on leave. The house had electric baseboard heat as it was built just after the Seabrook nuclear power plant opened but electricity prices has still gone through the roof and there was a wood stove in the living room. It was cold waking up in the morning but I got through the nights with a pair of pups who slept on the bed.
I also did a sit in a 19th C castle in Somerset and the boiler for hot water was pellet fed. I needed to pour a bag of pellets into the bin every few days over the three week sit in late-Sept/early-Oct so wasn’t too bad.
@KC1102 I hear you!!! We did a one week sit in UK last December during a particularly cold snap- minus temps every day/night that week- and only on arrival did we discover that the main heating was one log burner in the living room and a small plug in electric heater for the bedroom!! There was central heating installed but not in use therefore there was no hot water in the taps! We had to heat hot water for dishes from a kettle on the wood burner stove and the shower was an electric power shower…but the bathroom was so freezing at all times we took very few showers!!
The log supply was low and much was damp- it was a great challenge to keep warm and cosy that week! Never again!
Amazingly- the young lady host (30 something) had lived there blissfully for 4 years!
Fascinating topic. My mother is obsessed with her firewood burning stove and talks about it and firewood in general all the time. She spends a lot of time planning on where and how to purchase the best firewood, organize the delivery and then store it. Any ideas why some HOs just keep their firewood out in the open? We had a village sit in France where firewood was unlimited, but the logs were soaked wet, which made burning them pretty challenging. Also had a miserable sit in Belgium, where there was a fire burning stove but no firewood was provided. Once it started snowing I had to go buy some and load it on a bike. And that’s why we don’t do winter sits in Europe anymore.
@KC1102 Same here! It was already a challenge sitting through a whole UK winter for the first time in 20 years! We are usually tropical babes! Next winter back to the warmth!
If we’d known the heating situation in advance I doubt we’d have applied. It would be a lovely sit in summer though- gorgeous rural location and such quaint cottage!
It’s because a firewood pile stacked well and left in the open protects itself, so you take logs from lower layers and bring them in 24-48 hours prior to using. The fire you have one night warms up the logs for the following night if they’re placed nearby. I used to be obsessed with our log management too it was kind of a hobby I’m equally able to discuss manure heap management and worms for hours…. obviously only horsey folks find this particular topic interesting
The logs in this photo normally started out in the big log stack then they were moved to this staging post to dry out a bit by the front door, the next stage was to take a dozen indoors in a basket to dry 24-48 hours prior to using. So a 3 stage journey.
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for January and having to load & burn the soba (wood burner) all day plus work with a hot water bottle behind my back too just to stay warm. Nice people and pets but a lot of work.
Good on you for grizzing it out 
I’m equally able to discuss manure heap management and worms for hours…. obviously only horsey folks find this particular topic interesting 
stack is a thing of beauty 