New wood stoves

[NorTracNY]

I built a new house with radiant floor heat which I love. There were thoughts of placing a wood burning stove in our place, but we decided against it. Both my wife and I grew up with wood burning stoves. Both of us experienced the dust in the house from burning all winter. Of course there were the periodic times that our parents didn't feed the stove perfectly and a far amount of smoke would enter the house.

I recognize that things have changed significantly in the last few decades. I'm hearing about very high efficiency stoves. Do these stoves impact the dust/smoke that would enter the house? I'd love to hear from people that have replaced their old stoves with a new one. We have plenty of lower quality trees on our place. I actually have enough black walnut/ash logs for several years of heat. I'm always for reducing my energy cost, but I need a happy wife. I'm also not interested in increasing the amount of dust in the house.

 

[dave1949]

Interesting thought. My guess is the amount of dust produced by a stove is in direct proportion to the number of times the stove door is opened for tending.

A pellet stove would be cleaner than a cord wood stove. A counter-flow masonry stove with an airtight door that is fired once or twice a day is cleaner too but you still get some dust.

An outdoor boiler or better, a high efficiency boiler in a dedicated shed would keep it outside the house. You could supply hydronic radiant heat from the boiler as needed or desired. This would be the cleanest way to use your own wood but it's expensive up front.

ADD: Supposedly the "greenest" method of using a wood boiler is to have an insulated large water storage tank ~600 gallons to store heat. The water in that tank is heated by firing the boiler, then heat is drawn from it over the next 24 hours. The boiler fire is running at or near its max efficiency when in use.

 

[KennyG]

The better stoves all use outside air for combustion instead of indoor air. They are sometimes called "air-tight" although they really aren't. By using outside air you drastically reduce the amount of air (and dust) coming into the house. I don't know that makes much difference. In our area there really isn't much dust in the air during heating season, but it might in some locations.

From my perspective, the only mess is from the wood itself. I've never been able to bring a lot of wood into the house and not end up with some on the floor.

 

[s219]

We run our high-efficiency fireplace unit with the doors open most of the time, and I haven't noticed any dust problems at all. Same goes for when it runs with doors closed and fan on, with only periodic opening to feed logs. It has an outdoor air kit to pull in combustion air.

Can't imagine why a stove would be any different. I certainly don't remember a dust problem problem with a wood stove when I was growing up.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Seems to me, the more efficient the stove is, the finer the ash particles. I curse the salesman that sold me my airtight. It's way too small! You have to fuss with it way more often, which means a big mess. Plus it doesn't take long before the ashes are spilling out and again, a big mess. Our fireplace upstairs, with glass doors and a heatilater (sp?), can take three foot logs and is much easier to deal with. Not nearly as efficient mind you.

I'm seriously considering an outside boiler but wonder if feeding that thing will grow old really quick!

 

[David P]

I've been thinking about a wood stove for our home as well. We have a good supply of hardwoods and I would love to cut our utility bills a bit. Local dealer carries and recommended Blaze King so I checked them out. I tell you what, I was hard-pressed to even find a negative word on them and in the only thread I did find, the VP of the company was assisting to get things sorted out. In the end, the customer fixed his problem (it wasn't the stove) and is now singing their praises.

Blaze King stoves are at the top of the efficiency food chain. I think they have 5 of the 8 top-rated stoves by the EPA. Their claim to fame is their very long burn times. Check them out and see what you think. Hearth.com is a pretty good resource.

 

[farmer2009]

I have some family and friends that have outdoor wood boilers. They all love them. They all have a non epa Hardy boiler. None of them have to fill the stove more than twice a day. Most of the time they say they fill it right before bed and before they go to work. If home during the day and useing extra hot water then they say they'll check it during the day but usually don't need to feed it.

 

[NorTracNY]

Thanks for the responses. I have thought about the outdoor wood boilers. One of my concerns is that I'm not in the US, I'm in NYS. The DEC is pretty aggressive at attacking the people. There are towns around me that are outright banning them. There was an article not long ago in my paper that talked about a person who bought one, and the town shortly afterwards banned them. They gave him 7 years to be done with it!

I guess the dust must primarily be from when you open the door and put in new wood. It you're pushing around the wood that's left, your disturbing the ashes.

 

[Eric Salop]

I guess the dust must primarily be from when you open the door and put in new wood. It you're pushing around the wood that's left, your disturbing the ashes.

Most of our woodstoves in the UK are now installed with an insulated stainless steel flue pipe that goes right up through the roof. This keeps the entire column of air warm and gives a much better draw than an open chimney stack. Can't say we ever get smoke coming back down into the room. I haven't noticed dust come out when feeding a hot fire neither, probably because there is then a good flow of air up the flue to whisk away any fine particles.

Most dust is when it comes time to clean out ashes. Not disturbing them too much seems to be the trick. Carrying out the ash pan with a steady hand is all I do, although I have heard of others that spray the surface of the pan with a plant water mister.

 

[MotorSeven]

Our house seems dusty both winter and summer & we heat 90% with wood, so I don't think ashes have much to do with it. As far as OWB's go, the owners are their own worst enemy because most of them burn green wood which equals smoke. Firewood should always be cut split and stacked for 2 years...anything less and you are making steam which robs you of the BTU's.