OAK and ash

mystove said:

It is looking like the outside air is having a huge impact on my ash. It has gone from a hard, compact cake to a mountain of fluff. Also the outside air is really cutting the heat on my stove, eesh it was feeling like barely a space heater and since temps are finally warming up I can feel some real heat.

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And your stove is?

Put the stove make and model in your signature please.

mystove said:

done pdvc

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You might want to lower your LBA a bit to get back a bit of that heat now that you likely need less air flow to completely burn the pellets you are feeding it for a diet.

Thank you.

I haven't noticed much difference between air temps out of stove on a 9 degree day versus a 32 degree day like today.

How many SQ FT are you heating and how is your insulation and home's exterior envelope? Is your home drafty?

There is just no way an OAK should have that much effect on the temperature produced by the stove. Now, if you don't have a good connection to the stove and just have a duct full of cold air dumping in to your home NEAR the stove, that's a different story. I would check that. The air sealing of the home is the other thing to check. An OAK should be essentially just a duct that brings combustion air to the burn chamber, and the effect of outside temps on that should be negligible.

Wilbur Feral said:

There is just no way an OAK should have that much effect on the temperature produced by the stove. Now, if you don't have a good connection to the stove and just have a duct full of cold air dumping in to your home NEAR the stove, that's a different story. I would check that. The air sealing of the home is the other thing to check. An OAK should be essentially just a duct that brings combustion air to the burn chamber, and the effect of outside temps on that should be negligible.

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I do see a diffence with outside air temps with my OAK on my on stove thermometer ,You would think there would be, Trying to heat 30 deg air vs. 10 deg air dumped into your burn pot, I would think that would be a factor.
Denny

mystove said:

Mine is roasting me out tonight and when it has been colder out I could barely keep it 65 in here during the day. I just scooped a little ash out of the pan and I can barely stand the heat. When it was colder out the air wasn't hot, just very warm.

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Did you turn the stove up for the cold conditions and down for the warmer conditions ?

And incidentally, in either case wear a glove to scrape the pot.

I don't know if your stove has any of this automation available today and if not that means you have to set the stove to vary output for the given conditions. It also assumes that your stove is adequate to heat your sq ft./space.

mystove said:

I'll have to get a thermometer and get some readings. The outside temps really make a difference in what is coming out of my stove as far as heat goes. There are a few experiments I would like to do.

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I just disconnected my oak at the stove, I'll post if I have any changes with stove heat with/without oak

Dgopetactical said:

I do see a diffence with outside air temps with my OAK on my on stove thermometer ,You would think there would be, Trying to heat 30 deg air vs. 10 deg air dumped into your burn pot, I would think that would be a factor.
Denny

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Flame temp works with air density/quantity ( denser air provides more oxygen) more than air temp. 20 deg isn't squat to the combustion cycle. That cold air is instantly super heated as it gets consumed in the 1000-2000 deg F fire.

Dgopetactical said:

I just disconnected my oak at the stove, I'll post if I have any changes with stove heat with/without oak

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Soon as I disconnected the oak all the cold air is sucking into my fire room on floor level, I knew it would happen but holy cow from my knees down it feels like a window is open.

Dgopetactical said:

Soon as I disconnected the oak all the cold air is sucking into my fire room on floor level, I knew it would happen but holy cow from my knees down it feels like a window is open.

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Stuff a sock in it

Dgopetactical said:

Soon as I disconnected the oak all the cold air is sucking into my fire room on floor level, I knew it would happen but holy cow from my knees down it feels like a window is open.

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I always kind of liked that term holy cow ! I knew a girl who used to use that all the time, holy cow this, holy cow that, pleasant memories. But on topic, most of us who have converted to OAK from burning with no OAK have noticed the opposite effect. I.E hook it back up !

If your flame is cooler with it hooked up then look for the reason beyond the stove sucking cold outside air. I assure you it is not that in and of itself. There could be causes like restricted air flow etc but cold air isn't it just because the air is cold. Not happening.

I don't measure heat from my stove by the convection air, I have a Rutland burn indicator on the side of the fire box and use that to determin heat from different pellets etc. I will hook the oak back up, I'm just testing a theory I got reading a post this morning and it got the half flat wheel in my head turning. From what I'm seeing my fire box temp IS different slightly with/without the oak, I just don't like how it changed the airflow in my house. Kind of a catch 22.

Dgopetactical said:

I don't measure heat from my stove by the convection air, I have a Rutland burn indicator on the side of the fire box and use that to determin heat from different pellets etc. I will hook the oak back up, I'm just testing a theory I got reading a post this morning and it got the half flat wheel in my head turning. From what I'm seeing my fire box temp IS different slightly with/without the oak, I just don't like how it changed the airflow in my house. Kind of a catch 22.

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Is this stove auto feed control or manual ? With OAK you may get a little denser air in the cold weather and so need to up the fuel rate a little for a given temp setting..

I have a Harman P68 with oak , feed 4.5 , stove temp 5 , distribution blower max .
If the temp exterior is colder the stove burn more pellets to keep the same temp on ESP , the difference is great.
It is normal that the stove provides more heat but not because the air is condense.
In my case it's what I've noticed