Outside air intake

[ultrarunner]

I can deal with 5 foot diameter just fine but never have oak up here. That must be a treat. :thumbsup:

Pretty much free for the hauling since the ban on new wood installs... as a kid all Dad would have to do is mention an old oak toppled and Saturday guys with saws and pickups/trailers would show up and cart it all away...

No takers for many years... about 20 years ago I posted at the Hospital free Oak come and get it... not a single taker even then... it really is a different world...

My guest that visit from Austria were drooling over the oak firewood... when I explained that it has little value the consensus is America is truly a rich country when Oak is left to rot or pay to haul it away...

 

[MossRoad]

That's a lot of wood... never had even a third as much in mine... but a cold day here is still in the 40's...

Is it OK to fill any wood stove like that... basically fill as much as easily goes in?

As a side note... grew up in a home with fireplace... all day stoking the fire and the stone would get nice and warm and stay warm over overnight... but boy could that fireplace gobble wood!!! And, it would seem to be the only warm place in the house as the far end where the bedrooms always got colder!

The instructions say to pack it as full as possible with as few pieces as possible for the longest burning fire. If I pack it like that with locust, and throttle it all the way back, I get 10 hour burns. I usually load it up in the morning when I get up, throttle it back 1/2 hour later, and it burns all day. I load it up again around 6pm. Then top it off before I go to bed. That's on the coldest days in winter. On warmer days, I'll go 12 hours between loads.

One year I lit it on October 1st and stopped burning April 1st.... 6 months of continuous burn. I used 4 matches in 6 months.

 

[ultrarunner]

Sounds like just what is done in the Alps with the tile stoves... never goes cold the entire season... one load daily and two when it gets real cold...

It is the only heat I have at the Austrian cabin... the good thing is the large thermal mass makes for even heat over long periods... the bad thing is the large thermal mass means it takes hours before any heat is produced...

Perfect when someone is around... but not so good when you are our all day and then want to "Fire" up the oven...

I guess you could call it outside air as the air comes from the unheated basement where the door to load is... so no wood in house proper...

It would be a dream to have one in Olympia... most have a seating bench but the cabin is small... I have used it when it was 5 below outside and comfortable inside.

 

[goeduck]

One year I lit it on October 1st and stopped burning April 1st.... 6 months of continuous burn. I used 4 matches in 6 months.

Surprised you had room for wood by the end of the year, there must have been quite a buildup of ashes.

 

[MossRoad]

Surprised you had room for wood by the end of the year, there must have been quite a buildup of ashes.

About once a week I use an ash shovel that I drilled a bunch of 1/8" holes in to make it a sifter. I move all the ash and coals to one side, then take a scoop and shake it near the front of the stove. The ash falls through, and the charcoal and hot coals stay in the scoop. I toss those into the back corner, and repeat. When I get a good pile of ash, I scoop it into the ash pan under the woodburner. Takes about 10 minutes to sift all the ash for the week.

Then I move the pile of charcoal and hot coals back to the center of the stove, load it up with wood, open the air control fully, close the door and walk away. Come back in 20 minutes to a blazing fire, throttle down the air and I'm good for another week.

No match needed.

I get about a month's worth of ashes in the ash pan under the stove before I have to empty it.

 

[ultrarunner]

You are very good at improvising solutions...

I am going to look online to find a manual for my stove... it is circa 1995 is my best guess.

Outside air intake was starting to be a big deal here but with no new installs it just faded away...

 

[goeduck]

About once a week I use an ash shovel that I drilled a bunch of 1/8" holes in to make it a sifter. I move all the ash and coals to one side, then take a scoop and shake it near the front of the stove. The ash falls through, and the charcoal and hot coals stay in the scoop. I toss those into the back corner, and repeat. When I get a good pile of ash, I scoop it into the ash pan under the woodburner. Takes about 10 minutes to sift all the ash for the week.

Then I move the pile of charcoal and hot coals back to the center of the stove, load it up with wood, open the air control fully, close the door and walk away. Come back in 20 minutes to a blazing fire, throttle down the air and I'm good for another week.

Clever! :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

Clever! :thumbsup:

What prompted it is that as ash builds up, many people I know will shovel it all into an ash bucket and haul it outside. Unfortunately, I know of several that put the ash bucket near combustibles and started fires. Yikes! Also, I don't want to haul a hot ash bucket across my basement, up the steps, and through the kitchen. The ash pan under our woodburner works great. It has a metal lid and sits right under the stove. There's a dump door inside the stove that I could use if I wanted to, but I find it easier to pull the drawer out and just load it with the scoop. I then close the lid and slip it back under. Then I let it sit for a couple days so no chance of hot embers.

 

[goeduck]

What prompted it is that as ash builds up, many people I know will shovel it all into an ash bucket and haul it outside. Unfortunately, I know of several that put the ash bucket near combustibles and started fires. Yikes! Also, I don't want to haul a hot ash bucket across my basement, up the steps, and through the kitchen. The ash pan under our woodburner works great. It has a metal lid and sits right under the stove. There's a dump door inside the stove that I could use if I wanted to, but I find it easier to pull the drawer out and just load it with the scoop. I then close the lid and slip it back under. Then I let it sit for a couple days so no chance of hot embers.

I once read (maybe on TBN, not sure) of someone who emptied hot ashes into their garbage can just as the garbage truck was rolling down the street. The truck unknowingly picked up the garbage can and emptied it into the back. A short while later the truck was on fire
:shocked:

I take my metal bucket with metal lid immediately outside and set it on concrete. :thumbsup:

 

[CalG]

About once a week I use an ash shovel that I drilled a bunch of 1/8" holes in to make it a sifter. I move all the ash and coals to one side, then take a scoop and shake it near the front of the stove. The ash falls through, and the charcoal and hot coals stay in the scoop. I toss those into the back corner, and repeat. When I get a good pile of ash, I scoop it into the ash pan under the woodburner. Takes about 10 minutes to sift all the ash for the week.

SNIP

.

I use a "kitty litter scoop" for the sifting. It is hard to find one that is all metal. The one I use is aluminum, and I'm looking for a steel version.
1/8th inch holes are too small for my liking. I tried a large straining spoon with 1/8th inch slots about an inch and a half long. That was too slow also.