We've been running the wood stove more or less continuously for the past couple of weeks. Before that, we ran it in the mornings, until the sun hit the windows on the south side of the house. Even in August we sometimes had to light a fire to take the chill off...

The point at which it is officially Winter is when it gets so cold overnight that we have to run the central heating to warm the house up in the morning. That happened for the first time three days ago, when we awoke to see patches of frost on the meadow.

I hate forced-air heat, so we only turn it on when we need a quick warm-up. The little Jotul does a fine job of keeping the place warm, and firewood is practically free here.