The Coonara

We have a Coonara wood fired heater in the farm house.  It is our main form of heating the house, and it is just marvelous.  You light the fire, close the glass door, turn the fan on, and watch it blaze and heat up the entire house.

Naturally, the Coonara sits in one room, and we found that this room would heat up to 27 deg. C in the middle of winter, while the rest of the house was pushing 17.  So we installed a heat distribution system.  There is an air intake in the ceiling close to the Coonara, which then distributes the warm air to three different regions in the house.  Each region is controlled by a switch in the wall.  The regions are the bedrooms, the bathroom and laundry, and the master bedroom with walk-in robe and en-suite.  Each region has three outlets.

Before we go to sleep we pack the Coonara as full of wood as we possibly can and turn on the Coonara fan.  We turn off the distribution fans and turn the burn rate on the Coonara down to minimum, so the wood burns nice and slow.  Depending on the wood, and how well it's packed, a full Coonara can burn for up to 6 hours.

As the wood burns down to a handful of ashes, and the Coonara cools, it goes "bing" like a single sound of a gong.  This bing usually wakes me up.  Sometimes at 3am.  Sometimes at 5:30am.  Or anywhere in between.  I jump out of bed, re-stack it with fresh wood and boil the kettle.  If the embers have burned down really low, and the wood is a bit poor, I'll leave the Coonara door slightly ajar to suck in more air and get the fire going again.  I'll grab a glass of hot water and watch the fire re-light, then shut the Coonara door, and head back to bed.  Some nights, it means heading back to sleep.  Other nights, it merely means lying snug in bed for half an hour before needing to get up.  It doesn't matter - there's nothing nicer than getting dressed in front of a chugging Coonara.