How hot to get a secondary burn?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

live2burn

New Member
Mar 19, 2008
8
Eastern Mi
Hello all, new to this site and really enjoy it. I have done much research and like the idea of a larger firebox for a longer burn time. I'm looking at buying a new- used "two week old" regency F3100. I have a 1344 sq home with an open floor plan that is pretty tight but I do live out in no mans land "lots of wind", so it does find its way in. My Question is I dont want to over heat, if I damper down will this defeat my secondary burn? THANKS ALL
 
Depends. Once you get up to a certain temp (varies w/stove), the secondary burn gets going good, and then you damp the stove down and she keeps rolling w/secondaries but you slow the primary down. If you damp too far, then yes, you will zap the secondary too. Not the end of the world, but you will send more smoke up the chimney and get your chimney/liner/etc built up with creosote quicker. Also pretty much defeats the purpose of having a cleaner burning stove. You'll find you will be able to adjust/control temps pretty good thru a combination of air control and amount of wood loaded, and still be able to keep secondary burn (ie, cleaner) going.
 
Often, if the baffle preheats enough, the secondary burn will continue with the stove shut down all the way...
 
At 80,000 BTUs It will blast away any Michigan winter!! But thats the manufactures rating see if you can find out the EPA tag rating for this stove it will be lower some times by 1/4 to 1/3 the advertised BTU out put.

How old and tight is your home, And how air tight???

Even when you do close down a hot secondary burn tube stoves primary air the stove can and will some times burn hot or hotter depending on how much fuel is in the stove. The secondary air is set at the factory to keep you from smoking out the neighborhood.
 
Get yourself a thermometer and experiment with different temperatures and damper settings. After a while you'll find that magic tipping point for your setup that gets you approximately the longest secondary burn with minimum temp.
 
Had some friends over last night and they asked if it was a wood stove. The flames looked just like the gas stove in their parents house. Secondary burns are a great sight and some experimenting will do the trick(and do get a good thermometer). After getting a rolling fire I can usually shut my primary totally and get a good burn.
 
We had a birthday party last weekend and someone asked the same question, "is that a gas or wood stove" they seen the secondary burn and thought that it was gas.
 
DriftWood said:
At 80,000 BTUs It will blast away any Michigan winter!! But thats the manufactures rating see if you can find out the EPA tag rating for this stove it will be lower some times by 1/4 to 1/3 the advertised BTU out put.

How old and tight is your home, And how air tight???

Even when you do close down a hot secondary burn tube stoves primary air the stove can and will some times burn hot or hotter depending on how mush fuel is in the stove. The secondary air is set at the factory to keep you from smoking out the neighborhood.

Built in 2000 anderson windows 2x6 walls yada yada yada. I just hate propane companies and have axcess to 55 acres to keep clean, plus its just in my blood, we use to burn wood when I lived at home years ago. I'll check into the EPA rating .

Thanks
 
FIRECAT said:
My Question is I dont want to over heat, if I damper down will this defeat my secondary burn? THANKS ALL

No. Even when you do close down a hot secondary burn tube stoves primary air the stove can and will some times burn hot or hotter depending on how much fuel is in the stove. The secondary air is set at the factory to keep you from smoking out the neighborhood and can not be shut down. Draft is another factor that is stack height ,inside or outside chimney, out side temp all will affect the controle you end up with a modern EPA stove.

Are you in the thumb or further north?
 
I have a stove that is a little over sized for my house. It's working great, but I'm having to learn how to keep from cooking us out. There are a few things that can help beyond just the air control setting.

The type of wood you burn can play a big part in the heat output of the stove. Try experimenting with different types of wood. Some burn hotter and longer than others. Some release their heat very quickly, but won't give you a long burn cycle. The important thing though is the idea of a burn cycle.

One thing is for sure... I can not keep a bright fire burning all the time, or I certainly WILL have the house in the 90's easily, if not higher. I've had to learn how to space out my reloads so that I have enough coals to relight, but don't put too much heat into the house too soon.

You will want to find the right size load of wood that will allow the stove to burn properly. It's important to let the stove get up to temp and do what it was designed to do. Let that burn cycle complete and burn down to coals. The next trick is to figure out how long after that you can wait to reload again.

I had to get over the idea that I would have a nice pretty fire burning constantly. When the visible flames go out, there is still a lot of heat left to be released as the coals burn down.

-SF
 
[quote author="SlyFerret" date="1206813499"]I have a stove that is a little over sized for my house. It's working great, but I'm having to learn how to keep from cooking us out. There are a few things that can help beyond just the air control setting.

The type of wood you burn can play a big part in the heat output of the stove. Try experimenting with different types of wood. Some burn hotter and longer than others. Some release their heat very quickly, but won't give you a long burn cycle. The important thing though is the idea of a burn cycle.

One thing is for sure... I can not keep a bright fire burning all the time, or I certainly WILL have the house in the 90's easily, if not higher. I've had to learn how to space out my reloads so that I have enough coals to relight, but don't put too much heat into the house too soon.

You will want to find the right size load of wood that will allow the stove to burn properly. It's important to let the stove get up to temp and do what it was designed to do. Let that burn cycle complete and burn down to coals. The next trick is to figure out how long after that you can wait to reload again.

I had to get over the idea that I would have a nice pretty fire burning constantly. When the visible flames go out, there is still a lot of heat left to be released as the coals burn down.

This is what I was thinking, just because the fire box has room doesn't mean you have to fill it. May be use some less btu, gopherwood during mild times when you just need to take the chill out. I have read here that people wish they had a bigger fire box, I don't want any regrets.
 
Exactly. You can adjust heat output with type of wood, frequency of reloads, and size of fire/reload.

I opted for a bigger stove because I would prefer to learn to control a bigger stove than be forced to run a smaller stove at near 100% all the time to keep up.

-SF
 
Status
Not open for further replies.