Hearth.com Wood Stove and Pellet Stove Forums....and much more!

Military Family Stove

2010-02-09T09:54:16-05:00

This is of course my first post. I studied in great detail this wonderful forum….lot’s of information, ideas, and thoughts! I am stationed in Fairbanks Alaska and I deploy quite a bit. I own a 2500 sf home and have been considering putting in a stove for a few years now. My initial thoughts, for ease of use, while I was away was a pellet stove for my wife and of course my older kids could help. After a long process I actually decided to go with a Blazeking Ultra over the pellet stove. I got a good deal in town and the facts for me are that wood by the cord is cheaper than pellets and for us in the Interior; It’s available!

I was hoping to get some feedback from the folks that have been living with wood heat for years now. I need to know some thoughts and if the selection of stove I made will take care of my family while I am away!

Thank You, Michael

What is the carbon footprint of wood heat?

2010-03-18T16:50:58-05:00

Has anyone read anything on the relative carbon footprint of wood heat, especially the newer more efficient stoves?

I would imagine it might be relative to what type of heat it is replacing. Replacing electricity generated at a coil or oil fired plant might be relatively green.

Bill

Hybrid Elm on the Way

2010-03-18T09:09:47-05:00

After dozens of emails back and forth with Steve Slatter, owner of Vermont Elm Stoveworks, and being a former Cat Elm owner, I decided on getting a Cat Elm again. While Steve has offered parts for Cat Elm owners, he has basically gone down the path of secondary combustion via various air tubes in the firebox, and left off making Cats. In our communications I explained my thoughts and needs here at the house, and he offered to make me a Cat if that’s what I wanted, but in the spirit of good ol’ American ingenuity and entrepreneurial enterprise he offered a twist, a Cat with secondary tubes in the box and his steel baffle as well. He asked if he could fire it up and post the results on youtube. I said sure. The results are incredibly impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JdCQCtJyQo

I’ve watched many different videos of stoves in action and have never seen secondary tubes throw off flames like this. They look like gas jets firing off.

I always liked the Catalytic Elm. I consider the Elm a turn of the century looking stove on 21st century steroids. The 36” unit I had in Maine always served me more than well. The round barrel seems the perfect environment for an efficient burn cycle, and throw of heat for a radiant stove. I couldn’t fit a 24” on my heart here, but after asking a bunch of questions settled on the 18” firebox, which has more cubic footage than my current stove, so it should perform well for what we need - fast heat, long clean burn.

For those unfamiliar with Elms, a few links to check them out:

http://www.vermontironstove.com/index.html

http://benchman.smugmug.com/Business/Elm-Wood-Stoves-and-Slatter/8441935_7ZeEF#554797827_5ndCF

http://benchman.smugmug.com/Machines/Elm-stove-and-foundry-patterns/9963269_DF8UZ#680549169_VvNzi

He’s got a bunch of vids on youtube, showing his stoves in action.

I have to applaud Steve Slatter for his devotion, not only to customer service, but to pursuit of stove innovation, improvement and passion for his work. I hope he ends up being one of the major players in the stove manufacturing world. Although he may be just as happy to produce these stoves on the level he does. In either case, my hat’s off to him.

Everything Fisher

2010-02-23T23:21:14-05:00

I notice a lot of threads started with Fisher Stove questions. Maybe some articles I post can be added to the Wiki fisher page as anyone sees fit. I�m not good with capturing web pages to make viewing easier, but I have some documented information, personal experience with my own stove collection, and trivia to share.

I�ll start with one of the questions some have on their mind about the 10 inch flue �Unknown Bear�.

This is actually an XL Series stove. They were available in a XL Fireplace Series as well. Here�s an ad from August 1979 that depicts the Fireplace model. Yes that�s correct it heats up to 3000 square feet ! Notice the Western style logo in the ad.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FokqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dlsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4240,4159075&dq=fisher+goldilocks+stove&hl=en

Here is the best copy I could find of the beginning of the Fireplace inserts in December of �79. Notice this not only gives the dimensions and heating capacity of the new insert, but some other models in the line at the time as well. Wouldn�t it be nice if every stove was listed in that Wiki article, and no one had to ask �What Bear is this� again ? I don�t know how large a Wiki article should become and what information is considered pertinent.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ktIvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LPkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4126,1850967&dq=fisher+stoves+building&hl=en

I�ll be sending Craig a manual soon for the 7 pre 1980 models as well. Hopefully the manual that is there now can be changed to �Newer owners manual for Series III Fireplace Series� since the one I�m sending is actually the �older owners manual for most Fisher Models�. Thanks !
Paul

Shut her down Wahoo!

2010-03-16T15:45:41-05:00

Now that the burning season has come to a premature end for the most part, shut the old coal stove down and cant wait for what will hopefully be a better spring/summer than last year! Even though we had a long cold spell here, I ended up using just about two tons of coal for the whole season keeping 2700 sq feet at no lower than 70 and averaging about 75. All said and done it cost me about $475.00 to heat my home this winter! Yahoo and thanks for global warming/elnino (at least in the NorthEast this year)!

Reasonable Heating Oil Savings?

2010-03-17T14:51:39-05:00

I have been on Wood heat now for 3 weeks. I have a 2600 SF Raised Ranch with a 1200 SF Garage. I keep my garage on 60, and the entry way and my daughters room which is downstairs is on a programmable T-STAT that kicks on prior to her waking up, then off a few hours later and then back on after school and off at night at bedtime. So I am still using oil in the garages 24/7 and what appears to be 75% of the time in daughter room and entry way den.

Not having any heating seasons under my belt I did as best of an analysis as I could and I came up with this:

-5 and above, wood stove handles all SF except the garages.
-6 to about -15, wood stove handles about 2000 SF and oil supplements about 500 SF (den, entry, and daughters room, which is basically basement) still 100% oil for garages.
-16 and colder, wood stove handles about 1500 SF, oil supplements extreme far end of house, and all mentioned above, and oil heats almost 100% of den, entry, and daughters room.

House is an Interior AK house built in 95, sealed as good as humanly possible.

I wonder if this is on par for acceptable wood to oil ratio. I won’t really see a difference until next years heating season when we tackle the -40 plus temps. I have a Blaze King Ultra with fan, I also use my ceiling fan to circulate. I am using about 60/40 Birch/Spuce mix. I am getting about 12-16% moisture on the wood. I am averaging about 14 hour burns with a mid-normal range setting.

I know there are some extreme cold pros out there, and if you have the time I would love your thoughts.

Thanks in Advance, Mike

Retrofit a Block Off Plate?

2010-03-17T23:40:22-05:00

Greetings, this is my first post. Excellent site, and I wish I’d found it before having our insert installed!

Quick background: Quadra-Fire 2700I wood burning insert installed professionally this January. Full stainless flex liner, single story interior chimney.

Seems to have excellent draft, and we really like it a lot so far.

But, after reading around here, I’ve become a bit obsessed with a couple of things.

One is installing a block off plate to squeeze out a bit more efficiency. Question: Can this be done easily as a retrofit? The main issue being maneuvering the flex liner through the hole after temporarily unbolting it, without removing the insert. I haven’t tried unbolting it yet to see, thought I’d ask first.

The second thing is insulation. It doesn’t seem to be necessary for draft in our case, but the safety aspect (and theoretically reduced creosote buildup) is appealing. Obviously this would be a pour-in type of insulation and would require having the block-off plate installed first. This seems like a more ambitous undertaking, as it involves breaking the seal on the top, mixing pour-in insulation, etc.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mitch

Heating the Northeast with Renewable Biomass - April 27-28, 2010

2010-03-18T16:26:55-05:00

Those who are involved with the industry may want to read about this upcoming conference and vendor fair.

http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/Press_Releases/mail/heating_the_northeast/

Materials used to line fireboxes - a test

2009-01-31T21:49:57-05:00

From some discussion in another thread, I thought it might be useful to take a look at the various materials that are used to line woodstove fireboxes. There are basically four that I know of: Cast iron, dense firebrick (the heavy, yellow ones used in most pre-EPA stoves), porous firebrick (the lightweight ones used in some modern stoves), and Vermiculite panels (such as Skamol, used in many European stoves).

What these materials have in common is that they are, more or less, rugged enough to withstand the temperature swings (called thermal shock) and survive having wood jammed into them from time to time (mechanical shock).

What differs greatly is how readily heat passes through them. The measure of this is called Thermal Coefficient, K for short. A high K says the material readily collects and stores heat. A low K says the material is a good insulator, and resists the flow of heat through it.

Here is the thermal coefficient of these materials at 1000�F per inch of thickness:

Cast iron : 150+ (from 55 at 200F�)
Firebrick (heavy, yellow) : 14 (5.5 for a typical 2.5” thick brick)
Firebrick (light, insulating) : 1.1 (0.88 for a typical 1.25” thick brick)
Skamol V-1100 Vermiculite slab : 1.10 (slabs are typically 1” thick)

As you can see, cast iron and the heavy firebricks are poor insulators. It’s no coincidence that they were widely used in pre-EPA stoves, when designers were trying to pull as much heat as they could OUT of the firebox. The lightweight firebrick is the better insulator by far, with the vermiculite a close second. And while all of them lose some of their insulating value as temps increase, cast iron is the worst, increasing by three times. No wonder it warps.

So if you want clean combustion AND high efficiency, you want a stove that uses the light firebricks.

Here’s an excerpt from an article titled “The Straight Facts Concerning Refractories” by a company who designs and builds gas-fired forges:

Ceramic Blanket, Ceramic Fiberboard and Lightweight Insulating Firebrick are classified as Insulation, while Dense Ceramic Firebrick is NOT.

The insulating refractories have Low Thermal Conductivity, which means heat does not readily pass through them. The heat is reflected back into the chamber instead, creating a super efficient firebox.

Dense Ceramic Firebrick on the other hand, has a High Thermal Conductivity, which means heat readily passes through it, instead of “insulating” the chamber, it acts as a heat sink, absorbing heat and radiating it off through the shell. Dense Ceramic Firebrick, by it’s very nature, ROBS a Forge of valuable heat. It’s cheap and a very poor choice as a liner material.

The Brick Wall Backer is Finally Built!

2010-03-18T10:24:12-05:00

The custom designed brick wall backer behind our Avalon stove is finally done!!

-Soupy1957