How long between fires

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woodsmaster

Minister of Fire
Jan 25, 2010
2,885
N.W. Ohio
This weather is messing my schedule up. I was building a fire every morning but with the warmer weather I can go around a day and a half. Kind of liked the morning ritual. Maybe I should valve off 500 gallon. Then I probably wouldn't be able to make it a day.
Oh well. Only burnt a half load today to bring storage up after 30 houres without a fire. Low of 22 F tonight and then warmer for a week or so. Glad I have the storage though. How long you all going between fires now.
 
Of course, building less frequent fires is the price you pay for having storage :)

Perhaps one day we also will enjoy that but for now we are loading the boiler twice/day and letting the cycle timer keep the coals hot. These are very small loads and the timer keeps the boiler ready to dispense dhw for the morning showers. If the sun is out and outdoor temps near 50 we can usually just shut the boiler down until the evening.
 
Weather definitely monkey wrenching my schedule as well..2 nights ago low 38, 4 nights ago low 16

Firing in the morning, then next day fire in the early evening...unless the wife needs laundry water(2 kids and lots of barn mud), then cycle back to mornings.
So, 24hrs or 34-36 hrs. "edit: when it dropped to 16, I supplemented with a half burn before bed and skipped the next morning fire"..yup monkeywrenched

Loads are mostly half-3Q(4-4.5 cb.ft) in the firebox(7.5 cb.ft).

About 3.75 - 4 cords total thus far since Oct 1st

Scott
 
I am getting roughly 16 hours between fires. I am still in the teething stages with my system I think It will get better with more insulation and automation. I need to have certain pumps shut off when there
is no call for heat.

Huff
 
As it warms up I don't try to get storage to max temps. I'm happy to see 175. I will continue to build fires on a daily basis even if I'm only charging lower tank. ( have stacked 500's ). I will continue on this schedule until summer when I only have a demand for DHW and then go to every 3 or 4 day.
Rob
 
I am still getting used to my system. I have been using the Froling 40/50 for about 6 weeks now. I have 1500 gallons of unpressurized storgage. With the mild temperature I have gone as long as 72hr between burns. When it was getting down into the teens at night I was burning every 24-36 hrs. My wife has a hair salon in our house and uses a fair amount of hot water. That tends to take some heat from the tank on days she works but honestly, it is not as bad as I had anticipated. I have only been getting the tank up to 170-175.
 
RobC said:
As it warms up I don't try to get storage to max temps. I'm happy to see 175. I will continue to build fires on a daily basis even if I'm only charging lower tank. ( have stacked 500's ). I will continue on this schedule until summer when I only have a demand for DHW and then go to every 3 or 4 day.
Rob

That is what I do. I select a tank temp that willl last 24 hours depending on forecast. I then use my wood calculator to determine the amount of wood to target temp, burn, done.

gg
 
I have been able to get away with fires every other day all winter long,as the weather gets warmer I will be able to skip more days until Summer gets into full swing when I will fire only once a week to keep my DHW .By the way, my boiler system is all I have for a heat source and DHW use so I am not supplementing it with other forms of energy to get these results.
 
goosegunner said:
RobC said:
As it warms up I don't try to get storage to max temps. I'm happy to see 175. I will continue to build fires on a daily basis even if I'm only charging lower tank. ( have stacked 500's ). I will continue on this schedule until summer when I only have a demand for DHW and then go to every 3 or 4 day.
Rob

That is what I do. I select a tank temp that willl last 24 hours depending on forecast. I then use my wood calculator to determine the amount of wood to target temp, burn, done.

gg

I've been thinking of doing an appropriate burn each day like you. I have an old meat scale that would probably work if I weighed
in 2 or 3 batches. I don't have a smart Phone. Is there an easy formula for figuring this. I am getting low on kindling so It's
kind of nice to stretch the fires out. I think it would be most efficient to due as you do though.
 
I'm firing every 48 hours right now. Got a little cooler last night (mid 20's) so my Thursday heat is hurting a little this morning. Once my coffee is ready I'll be heading downstairs to start my fire for the weekend. I won't need a fire again until Monday after work.
 
woodsmaster said:
goosegunner said:
RobC said:
As it warms up I don't try to get storage to max temps. I'm happy to see 175. I will continue to build fires on a daily basis even if I'm only charging lower tank. ( have stacked 500's ). I will continue on this schedule until summer when I only have a demand for DHW and then go to every 3 or 4 day.
Rob

That is what I do. I select a tank temp that willl last 24 hours depending on forecast. I then use my wood calculator to determine the amount of wood to target temp, burn, done.

gg

I've been thinking of doing an appropriate burn each day like you. I have an old meat scale that would probably work if I weighed
in 2 or 3 batches. I don't have a smart Phone. Is there an easy formula for figuring this. I am getting low on kindling so It's
kind of nice to stretch the fires out. I think it would be most efficient to due as you do though.

Do you have Excel on your computer or some type of spreadsheet program? If so I can send you a sheet.

Otherwise

Total gallons X 8.33 X Degree rise = total btus

Total btus / 5000= lbs of wood

You have to estimate your heat load by current temps, (btus/hour X hours of expected burn) = load btus

Load btus/ 5000= lbs for load

The two together should get you very close to your target temp.

The spreadsheet also calculates lbs to bring boiler to pump on. It does it all by just entering 3 to 5 numbers.

gg
 
With the small amount of storage that I have, and the heat demand from my large house and dhw, I need to keep wood in my boiler and let it cycle on and off at these temperatures. Once it warms up a little more and the temperatures are constantly above 40 °F, I will be able to go to two short firings a day and turn the boiler off. Then as it warms up I will be able to go to one firing a day for very little heat demand and dhw. Then, throughout the summer, I plan on burning once a day or every other day to keep storage up to temp to heat dhw. Whatever it takes.
 
I've been making a fire in my effecta lambda boiler approx. once every 36-48 hours now that its in the low 40's during the day.

When its in the teens/single digits than once per day in the norm.

Brian
 
How long is a burning, or a firing. One full load? Or Keep loading till the storage comes up to the desired temperature?
 
In my effecta boiler, one firing is approx. 95-100 lbs of 15-20% MC wood (the 35 kw lambda holds 4.8 cu. ft of wood).

Brian
 
chuck172 said:
How long is a burning, or a firing. One full load? Or Keep loading till the storage comes up to the desired temperature?

It takes me about 5 hours to burn a full load with the fan on 100% no idling. Don't remember the size of the fire box but it
is a good amount of wood.
 
"In my effecta boiler, one firing is approx. 95-100 lbs of 15-20% MC wood "

Brian,
I'm going to call you on this one. How many times do you have to reload your boiler to burn that amount of wood? My guess is 3 times over the course of 4-6 hours...95-100 lbs. of wood is not going to fit in your little firebox at one time, that is a load for a boiler the size of a Garn. It would be nice if you'd stop trying to make your EFFECTA BOILER out to be a miracle machine that defies the laws of thermo-dynamics.
 
My Econoburn 200 has a firebox that is 8.1 cubic feet. I have yet to get 100lb of wood to fit in one loading. Maybe if I had exact 21" pieces that were all straight. I could fit them in, but the wood I burn is not usually like that. I also don't fit them in like puzzle pieces either.

gg
 
WoodChoppa said:
"In my effecta boiler, one firing is approx. 95-100 lbs of 15-20% MC wood "

Brian,
I'm going to call you on this one. How many times do you have to reload your boiler to burn that amount of wood? My guess is 3 times over the course of 4-6 hours...95-100 lbs. of wood is not going to fit in your little firebox at one time, that is a load for a boiler the size of a Garn. It would be nice if you'd stop trying to make your EFFECTA BOILER out to be a miracle machine that defies the laws of thermo-dynamics.

Purple heart would only fill it half full.
 
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