Please, please! If you burn wood, keep some of this, or any other brand close to your stove. Can save your life and your home.
Starting a Stove Fire
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Please, please! If you burn wood, keep some of this, or any other brand close to your stove. Can save your life and your home.
kco
Veteran Member
I follow what Piloon, PMSMechanic and others have mentioned about regularly burning a hot fire. We have a 40 year old RSF wood furnace that does 99% of our heating. It is tied into the same hot air duct work and uses the fan from the 25kw electric furnace, which is used a few days in the "shoulder" seasons. Here is a photo of the setup:
This is a video showing the draft in the chimney after adding wood:
20200109 Wood Furnace startup - YouTube
The centre of the masonry chimney(that has a stainless steel liner) is 18" from the vertical stack out of the furnace. The chimney length is about 30'. I left the furnace door open a bit to show the flames in the chimney. The draft on the wood furnace is thermostatically controlled and opens the air inlet on the front of the furnace. If there is a power outage the inlet will close. There are two sensors in the plenum above the furnace door. One turns on the electric furnace fan when it is warmed up and will shut off the fan if the plenum cools. If the plenum gets too hot the other sensor interrupts power to the air intake device, thus closing off air to the fire. But the air intake never completely shuts off all the air.
It took a couple of years to figure out how to run the system. The furnace has a large fire box. For one of the first fires we turned up the thermostat, filled it with wood and let it go. The house warmed up and the air intake closed. But the furnace was full of hot coals so the temperature kept soaring in the house. It was -27C outside and we had every window and door open for a while. We've since learned how much wood to put in at one time according to how cold it is outside.
We also plan the nightly fires so the house is fairly cool in the morning. That way, we can put in a lot of wood for an initial hot fire to help clean the chimney. I try to use faster burning pine, spruce or poplar as opposed to slower burning but higher thermal content wood such as birch and fir. I also use the smaller split pieces for the first fire most mornings.
We normally had our chimney swept and inspected each year. A couple of the sweepers said we can easily go two years without sweeping the chimney because there is virtually no built-up creosote. At least here, people seem to be getting out of the chimney sweep business. I have been unable to get one for the last two years and bought my own equipment this year. I'll use that in the spring.
My neighbour is a mason and works with a fellow who had a sweep business. His liability insurance was $4,500 per year. It's hard to make much of a living with those up-front costs.
Most of the people in our area use wood for their main heat. Houses have masonry chimneys but, when a house changes hands the insurance companies insist that a steel liner be run in the chimney. We were lucky in that the previous owner had to do that. It cost quite a bit because the installer(our chimney sweep) had to break out the clay tiles to make room for the liner.
The dangerous creosote is the shiny black stuff. The dull grey creosote is not so bad.
I believe the other key to avoiding creosote problems and for easily starting fires for that matter, is well-seasoned wood. I burn wood that has been stored under a roof for three years.
The last chimney sweep I had(and who has quit the business) used the Sooteater system and cleaned the chimney from the bottom up. He took the elbow off between the furnace and chimney and put his Shopvac hose in the chimney elbow and slowly ran the Sooteater up and back. There was no mess at all.
I've digressed from "Starting a Stove Fire" so this will get back on topic. Another tool I use for restarting a fire that has good coals is the small DeWalt shop blower shown in the photo of my furnace. It works great.
This is a video showing the draft in the chimney after adding wood:
20200109 Wood Furnace startup - YouTube
The centre of the masonry chimney(that has a stainless steel liner) is 18" from the vertical stack out of the furnace. The chimney length is about 30'. I left the furnace door open a bit to show the flames in the chimney. The draft on the wood furnace is thermostatically controlled and opens the air inlet on the front of the furnace. If there is a power outage the inlet will close. There are two sensors in the plenum above the furnace door. One turns on the electric furnace fan when it is warmed up and will shut off the fan if the plenum cools. If the plenum gets too hot the other sensor interrupts power to the air intake device, thus closing off air to the fire. But the air intake never completely shuts off all the air.
It took a couple of years to figure out how to run the system. The furnace has a large fire box. For one of the first fires we turned up the thermostat, filled it with wood and let it go. The house warmed up and the air intake closed. But the furnace was full of hot coals so the temperature kept soaring in the house. It was -27C outside and we had every window and door open for a while. We've since learned how much wood to put in at one time according to how cold it is outside.
We also plan the nightly fires so the house is fairly cool in the morning. That way, we can put in a lot of wood for an initial hot fire to help clean the chimney. I try to use faster burning pine, spruce or poplar as opposed to slower burning but higher thermal content wood such as birch and fir. I also use the smaller split pieces for the first fire most mornings.
We normally had our chimney swept and inspected each year. A couple of the sweepers said we can easily go two years without sweeping the chimney because there is virtually no built-up creosote. At least here, people seem to be getting out of the chimney sweep business. I have been unable to get one for the last two years and bought my own equipment this year. I'll use that in the spring.
My neighbour is a mason and works with a fellow who had a sweep business. His liability insurance was $4,500 per year. It's hard to make much of a living with those up-front costs.
Most of the people in our area use wood for their main heat. Houses have masonry chimneys but, when a house changes hands the insurance companies insist that a steel liner be run in the chimney. We were lucky in that the previous owner had to do that. It cost quite a bit because the installer(our chimney sweep) had to break out the clay tiles to make room for the liner.
The dangerous creosote is the shiny black stuff. The dull grey creosote is not so bad.
I believe the other key to avoiding creosote problems and for easily starting fires for that matter, is well-seasoned wood. I burn wood that has been stored under a roof for three years.
The last chimney sweep I had(and who has quit the business) used the Sooteater system and cleaned the chimney from the bottom up. He took the elbow off between the furnace and chimney and put his Shopvac hose in the chimney elbow and slowly ran the Sooteater up and back. There was no mess at all.
I've digressed from "Starting a Stove Fire" so this will get back on topic. Another tool I use for restarting a fire that has good coals is the small DeWalt shop blower shown in the photo of my furnace. It works great.
^^^^^^
I didn't get my wood in on time, but wasn't too concerned because it had been cut for a year or more. Wrong answer... I cut up a big yellow birch that had been drying tree length for rwo years and it's not completely dry.
Luckily I also have some 3 year old wood which burns a little too quickly, so am able to mix the two together.
I'm finally getting on top of it though, most of next year's wood is already cut.
As I mentioned before a regular all purpose fire extinguisher will also do the job. I have since been told that a cup of water will achieve the same, but I only have had one chimney fire and don't plan to have another just to test the theory.
I didn't get my wood in on time, but wasn't too concerned because it had been cut for a year or more. Wrong answer... I cut up a big yellow birch that had been drying tree length for rwo years and it's not completely dry.
Luckily I also have some 3 year old wood which burns a little too quickly, so am able to mix the two together.
I'm finally getting on top of it though, most of next year's wood is already cut.
As I mentioned before a regular all purpose fire extinguisher will also do the job. I have since been told that a cup of water will achieve the same, but I only have had one chimney fire and don't plan to have another just to test the theory.
OP
Industrial Toys
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I have a lot of CO2 and chemical extinuishers around. Oh, old water ones too. One bought a lot of around 200 at auction!
Let the house stove fire go out and am now paying the price of trying to get it going again. Temperatures have warmed up and there is FOG, which are the conditions for the worst draft.
I HATE little stoves! Never should have listened to the sales person to buy that small a stove!
Let the house stove fire go out and am now paying the price of trying to get it going again. Temperatures have warmed up and there is FOG, which are the conditions for the worst draft.
I HATE little stoves! Never should have listened to the sales person to buy that small a stove!
goeduck
Super Member
Exactly. I always consider the drying time from when it was split. Not from when it was cut. Bark keeps the moisture in. Most species need 2 years from when it was split.
Diggin It
Super Star Member
Got one going this morning fer sher. Touched it off, waited a few to make sure it took, then went to other things for a few minutes. Came back to check and it was a'roarin' blast furnace type, up into the flue pipe. Had to choke it off with the vents and dampers. Pipe is clean I know since I just cleared it a week or two back. Wasn't worried about that part of it. Just seems that most of the small stuff got pushed to the back and the stiff north wind was creating extra draft I guess.
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If you burn Water Maple, have you noticed an odd odor? Cut a dead trunk off a year or two back and split it. Even just the chunks give off a sour smell like some describe Willow does.
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If you burn Water Maple, have you noticed an odd odor? Cut a dead trunk off a year or two back and split it. Even just the chunks give off a sour smell like some describe Willow does.
CobyRupert
Super Member
Exactly!
I've never experimented with this theory, but heard some old timers say:
Drop a tree with leaves on it, and let it lie on the ground with the branches and leaves on, the leaves will suck water out of it. ??? :confused3:
Similarly, if you cut a live tree in winter, will the wood be drier than if you cut it in summer?
5030
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I use jelled hand sanitizer myself. Couple of squirts and it's off ti the races.:laughing:
OP
Industrial Toys
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I don't understand.
I wonder what kind of industry I could go to that has dressed hard wood scrap cheap or for the taking, for use as kindling.
I wonder what kind of industry I could go to that has dressed hard wood scrap cheap or for the taking, for use as kindling.
4570Man
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