Humidity in Marriage

To pre-heat or not to pre-heat

Why Starting with Hot Water Is the Right Call. A Friendly Note for my schweety.

People have said I am too serious. Certainly these substack posts are a little heavy. So in the spirit of marital bliss and to lighten things up a bit…..

The laws of physics are not open to negotiation, even in a happy marriage.

In an off grid home, heated completely by wood, lack of humidity is an issue. So we keep a pot of water on the woodstove to add that humidity. The debate between Linn and I is whether that pot should start with cold tap water or hot water from the efficient on-demand propane water heater. Linn’s position is that the woodstove is already hot, so using it to warm cold water is basically free. No reason to burn propane.

Here’s the problem. There is no such thing as “extra” heat from a woodstove.

Every log we put in that stove contains a fixed amount of energy. Those BTUs are supposed to heat the house. When we put a pot of cold water on the stove, a big chunk of those BTUs gets pulled away to heat the water from about 50 degrees up to boiling, and then to turn it into steam. That energy is no longer heating the room.

The result is simple. With cold water on the stove, the house ends up a little cooler. To stay comfortable, we burn more wood. The wood may not cost cash, but it costs time, cutting, splitting, stacking, hauling, and tending the fire. None of that is actually free.

Now look at what happens if we start with hot water.

We use a small amount of propane to bring the water up to around 120 degrees. Now the woodstove has much less work to do. It only needs to finish heating the water and evaporating it. That means fewer BTUs get siphoned off from heating the living room, and more of the fire’s energy goes where we actually want it.

We get the same humidity, but the house stays warmer on the same amount of wood. The propane cost is tiny compared to the extra wood and effort we would otherwise burn through.

There are also some practical bonuses. Hot water starts steaming faster once it’s on the stove, and filling the pot with hot tap water is easy enough to do while you’re already in the kitchen.

So here’s the bottom line. Starting with hot water is more efficient, keeps the house warmer, and saves me from cutting an extra log later.

Science wins this round. I win this round (again). But in the spirit of marital harmony, I’ll happily carry the pot to the stove.