tommu56
Elite Member
the 3rd one was stinking the place up this morning guess it wasn't lit the last few days
tom
new heat source advice
- Thread starter samtmc
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the 3rd one was stinking the place up this morning guess it wasn't lit the last few days
tom
dmccarty
Super Star Member
The wood I am burning has been split 6-8 months it would have been drying for almost a year but the car accident kept me from getting the wood done for three months. We use 16-18 inch pieces at the longest and that should dry out in 6 months or so. More time is better but you do what you gotta do.
Our fireplace does not smoke with this wood. Only when we start up the fire either from a dead fire or if we let the coals burn down too much does it ever smoke. We don't have a fancy catalytic stove either. The best thing I ever did for burning wood was get a thermometer for the stove. Takes the guess work out of what the fire is doing.
There are 6-7 out door burners on my way to work. 5 of them are within one square mile of each other, actually I bet it is less than that area, maybe a 1/2 mile. Some of them have some pretty tall chimneys but it does not seem to matter smoke wise. Sometimes the smoke gets up and out but it seems like most of the time it lays on the ground like a fog.
We live on top of a hill. Not a big dramatic hill but something like 40-80 feet taller than the neighbors 1,000-1,500 feet away who are in a slight depression. I think if we had a smoky outdoor burner it would smoke them out.
Now if we had that new stove that I just saw installed the neighbors would not see a whiff of smoke.
Later,
Dan
Our fireplace does not smoke with this wood. Only when we start up the fire either from a dead fire or if we let the coals burn down too much does it ever smoke. We don't have a fancy catalytic stove either. The best thing I ever did for burning wood was get a thermometer for the stove. Takes the guess work out of what the fire is doing.
There are 6-7 out door burners on my way to work. 5 of them are within one square mile of each other, actually I bet it is less than that area, maybe a 1/2 mile. Some of them have some pretty tall chimneys but it does not seem to matter smoke wise. Sometimes the smoke gets up and out but it seems like most of the time it lays on the ground like a fog.
We live on top of a hill. Not a big dramatic hill but something like 40-80 feet taller than the neighbors 1,000-1,500 feet away who are in a slight depression. I think if we had a smoky outdoor burner it would smoke them out.
Now if we had that new stove that I just saw installed the neighbors would not see a whiff of smoke.
Later,
Dan
I have a woodmaster outdoor boiler which is one of the low tech ones, just a damper and blower. I don't think it is very smokey. I burn less than 1 yr seasoned wood. When the stove first fires up after being idle, it does smoke for about 1 minute. Then once the wood catches the exhaust is almost clear with just a tinge of smoke. There are only a few days a year where the smoke seems to hang around and be a nuisance, most days it doesn't bother us at all.
SpringHollow
Elite Member
A blower makes a BIG difference. A secondary combustion chamber also makes a huge difference. A good gasification stove could be run in the city without anyone knowing. But they require the wood to be split more, etc.
Ken
Ken
Well the "fire chief" is installed and running well, We are going thru a spell of cold weather (like negative 18 Deg.) it heated the house without even grunting. We ended up putting it in our basement and remodeling the furnace room to a more user friendly layout. this thing throws alot of heat. I am still trying and hoping to figure out how to get a longer burn time out of it, and am struggling and I am hoping i am only going thru this much wood because of the extreme cold. so far we have went thru about 8 wheel borrows loads in 6 full days of burning, and the longest burn time I got was 7-8 hrs on a full load of wood.
I am struggling with keeping the flu temp up to 300-400 Deg. the chief is still throwing alot of heat at the lower flu temps but at this low of flu temps I am surely building a fair amout of cresote in the stack. If I open the damper on the forced draft it cooks my house to about 80 Deg. my first thought is that the furnce is to big (150k BTU) I am cutting in a garage feed off of the duct work and am hoping that it is anough to cut the heat out of my house for a more even and efficiant run time and higher flue temps.
any suggestions? My wood has been dried for about 11 + months and is split and under shelter.
I am struggling with keeping the flu temp up to 300-400 Deg. the chief is still throwing alot of heat at the lower flu temps but at this low of flu temps I am surely building a fair amout of cresote in the stack. If I open the damper on the forced draft it cooks my house to about 80 Deg. my first thought is that the furnce is to big (150k BTU) I am cutting in a garage feed off of the duct work and am hoping that it is anough to cut the heat out of my house for a more even and efficiant run time and higher flue temps.
any suggestions? My wood has been dried for about 11 + months and is split and under shelter.
WayneB
Elite Member
I have enjoyed reading the thread! In our house we have a Vermont Casting woodstove and it basically heats the entire place (1800 sqft). We are putting wood into the stove a few times during the day and then do a final load around 11 PM and it will hold until around 6AM. (Still a full hot bed of in the morning) Everyday I have to take out some ashes and then partially load the stove.
I read earlier that you have a bunch of wood, think you said 18 cord (I am hoping that is face cords) and you are cutting and splitting more. Wow good for you. We go through about 6 full cords a year here and most of it has been cut and split for a minimum of two years. Right now I am working on 2012 wood.
With our Vermont Castings we tend to run the stove really hot for about 15 to 20 minutes in the morning, up to around 500 degrees on the surface of the stove and then we cut it back and try to maintain the temperature at around 320 - 400 degrees. All this depends upon the outside temperature and works best between zero and 25 degrees. Warmer than 25 and it would be way to warm in the house, below zero well we are pushing the stove to keep warm.
Your using 8 wheelbarrow loads of wood in six days, I would think that is not excessive. We go through about a barrow a day here in the woodstove. We are lucky as there is normally someone home here during the day to feed the stove so we do not have to over-load the stove and can maintain heat level without over heating.
We burn mostly oak, maple, walnut and some birch so the oak and maple hard wood takes longer to dry so I plan on a minimum of 16 months before using. Wondering if you have the wood on your own property or if you are buying your wood? I cut some off from our property and also have a friend that I purchase grapple loads from. With my wood I get warmed three or four times, once when we cut it, again when we split it, then there is the stacking and carrying it in warm up period and it we are lucky it will heat the house so we stay warm..
My intital statement of 18 cord was a bit of hopefule/wishful thinking, after it was all stacked under shelter for the winter it ended up being about 13 full cord (not face cord) I am hopeing that i am going thru this much wood only because it has been so cold.I have cut most of it on my land. about a third was from word of mouth .(so and so need a tree cut or has trees down after a storm, so on and so on)
Last night it got down to about -13 below Zero and the fire chief heated the house and garage just fine but I was only getting about 4 hrs of burn time then it was a pile of coals. My last wood furnace was about 20+ yrs old and only 54 k btu's and was getting 4 hrs of burn time. the chief is new and 150 k and has gotten anywhere from 8 hrs to 4 hrs of burn time. I am hoping that I will be able to "dile it in" but it is hard to tell with this really cold weather. I was hoping to get an average of 8 hr burn time and use less wood than my old furnace, but I have only done so once.
Last night it got down to about -13 below Zero and the fire chief heated the house and garage just fine but I was only getting about 4 hrs of burn time then it was a pile of coals. My last wood furnace was about 20+ yrs old and only 54 k btu's and was getting 4 hrs of burn time. the chief is new and 150 k and has gotten anywhere from 8 hrs to 4 hrs of burn time. I am hoping that I will be able to "dile it in" but it is hard to tell with this really cold weather. I was hoping to get an average of 8 hr burn time and use less wood than my old furnace, but I have only done so once.
WayneB
Elite Member
Well, 13 full cords is still a bunch of wood! I would think it is pretty difficult to figure out burn times when the temperatures are below -10 degrees. It might be good to do a check of the balance of the duct and return feeds.
Could be an adjustment of the airflow to the room (s) and return air to the plenum might level out the heat flow? Might be interesting to measure the temperature at the registers and then the temperature of the return air to the furnace. It always seems that the ductwork is inadequate in many retrofit projects. If you know anyone that does HAVC work he might be able to come by and check the layout of your system and advise you on how to adjust the individual ducts / registers or add return air for balancing. If you have already done the balance work you are ahead of the game.
We had forced hot air here years ago and I added two duct lines to rooms the longest distance from the furnace and all of a sudden the furnace was running longer and there was less heat in the entire house. Called in a plumber buddy and he immediately told me to add a return duct and the system worked better. Since then we rebuilt the place and I put in forced hot water system with many zones.
We have burned wood for the past thirty some years and it is always a challenge to figure out how to get more heat out of the wood we cut. Burn times are always difficult to judge so you are not alone in trying to improve that problem / challenge. If you come up with the magical 8-hour burn be sure to document how you do it, so you can market your plan.
Oh, and besure to enjoy what you are getting now from your labor of cutting and splitting wood and think of the poor guy that is heating with oil or electrical and the size of their heating bill monthly.
Could be an adjustment of the airflow to the room (s) and return air to the plenum might level out the heat flow? Might be interesting to measure the temperature at the registers and then the temperature of the return air to the furnace. It always seems that the ductwork is inadequate in many retrofit projects. If you know anyone that does HAVC work he might be able to come by and check the layout of your system and advise you on how to adjust the individual ducts / registers or add return air for balancing. If you have already done the balance work you are ahead of the game.
We had forced hot air here years ago and I added two duct lines to rooms the longest distance from the furnace and all of a sudden the furnace was running longer and there was less heat in the entire house. Called in a plumber buddy and he immediately told me to add a return duct and the system worked better. Since then we rebuilt the place and I put in forced hot water system with many zones.
We have burned wood for the past thirty some years and it is always a challenge to figure out how to get more heat out of the wood we cut. Burn times are always difficult to judge so you are not alone in trying to improve that problem / challenge. If you come up with the magical 8-hour burn be sure to document how you do it, so you can market your plan.
Oh, and besure to enjoy what you are getting now from your labor of cutting and splitting wood and think of the poor guy that is heating with oil or electrical and the size of their heating bill monthly.
