Overnight Burn

Have you tried experimenting with the size of the splits? Usually large splits work best for long overnight burns, where as smaller splits will burn hot and fast.

-SF

SlyFerret said:

Have you tried experimenting with the size of the splits? Usually large splits work best for long overnight burns, where as smaller splits will burn hot and fast.

-SF

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+1.... Pack with larger splits and finagle a few small, dry sticks in between them, I don't know where you are located(no location given), but hardwood splits usually will coal more and last longer as well

I would not mix. Stack the wood one direction otherwise you get too much air space which will result in hotter fire but shorter burn. Also wood type is the big key to longer burns. You won't get as long of a burn from pine as you will from oak. Or you won't get the same from poplar as you will from beech, etc. Also the size of the splits matters much as to how long it will burn.

Backwoods Savage said:

I would not mix. Stack the wood one direction otherwise you get too much air space which will result in hotter fire but shorter burn.

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I think Dennis is talking about not cross-piling. If the length of your splits are not ideal resulting in large air spaces, then I think it's OK to fill in those gaps by orienting the wood however it fits.

I always separate the ash from the coals, ashes to the back of the stove and coals to the front. I put my biggest split in the back with another big one on top. I put medium spits in front of the biggies and smaller splits at the very front on top of the coals. I fit the pieces in like a jigsaw puzzle for the best fit/least air space. The fire burns gradually from front to back and the large split at the bottom rear is mostly coals in the morning.

I adjust the amount of wood and air to have just enough coals for a fast and easy revival in the morning, the morning temperature being secondary. If it's mild out, the house is as hot as when I went to bed. If it's really cold out, it's not. My stove has a thermostatic bi-metal air regulator so if I mess up on my prediction I may be struggling to resurrect the fire or it gets too hot at night. Yesterday morning I woke up to it being 76 but this morning the furnace kicked on at 71 but I still had lots of coals.

LLigetfa,
I'll have to try raking the coals to the front. When reload in the middle of the night, I usually just spread things out, toss on the splits, let things char up, then back down the control. I'm interested in seeing how things work if I bring the coals up front, and leave the ash in the back.

The coals burn best if you rake them to where the primary air enters your firebox. If you do this your stove will act like a blast furnace and burn them up quick. I did this just today in fact and I was left with a tiny bit of ash when I was done which I just brushed into the grate.

To burn overnight, pack the firebox with as much wood as you dare, seriously. The larger the fuel charge, the longer the burn. You have to put the air on real low though or your stove could run away when you go to sleep = bad. I like to run the air on full for a bit to get the wood on fire and charred before I back it down. Std procedure.

On my overnight burns I like to have a nice bed of coals and 1-2 inches of ash in the firebox . . . I tend to favor the larger splits and rounds . . . always hardwood . . . fill up the firebox 90% or so leaving 1-2 inches at the top of the firebox . . . establish good stack and firebox temps . . . once the secondary combustion is going strong I tend to shut down the air to barely open or all the way "closed" . . . and wake up 7-8 hours later to a decent bed of coals . . . my more patient wife will toss on some smaller splits to get the fire going whereas I tend to throw a few pieces of kindling in the firebox and then load it up for the first fire of the day.

With the temps lately being zero or in the negative figures on most mornings the temp gets down to 62 degrees or so . . . and the other day the boiler kicked on (I have the thermostats set for 60 degrees) . . . things seem better when outside temps are in the 20s or 30s . . . the temp in the house doesn't seem to drop so low in the same time frame . . . probably my mind playing tricks with me.

Night burning depends on your priorities: longer time, or more heat?
Clearly, the slower the burn -- the longer it lasts, but the less heat it generates.
Personally, my priority is to go to bed, get up 7 hours later, and have enough hot amber so just adding a log will start the day.
What I do with my QF7100 is get the fire burning hot and high, throw in about 3-4 big pieces, and then completeyl shut the air (including the main flap valve open/close that is at the bottom/right corner of the QF7100. Without that the wood gets consumed way too soon).

Cheers,
Zevi

I fill my stove and turn down the air supply. The front of the house stays at 64 and the back go's down to 62. The heat sometimes comes on early in the morning in the back. I've tried having a hotter burn early but it didn't work out for me. I also tried getting up at 2 or 3 and doing a reload but that didn't work out either. So tuning it down and I get up by 5, the house is 68 by 5:30. There are plenty of hot coals so its not to much work.

I have the Castine and for an overnight burn, I look at it as a puzzle challenge. I load the puppy as much as I can do and then fill the gaps with smaller splits. I let it roar back to 650, then within 15 minutes, I turn the lever almost entirely to the left, just leaving enough air. Last night, pack it all in by 9:30, had it shut off at 9:50ish, went to bed...woke up 6 to go the gym, threw some kindling on...brushed my teeth, it was roaring, added small splits, told my wife I'm leaving, keep an eye on it, and add the good stuff before she leaves to work. Like most people on here have stated, the WOOD is critical.

Zevi_B said:

Night burning depends on your priorities: longer time, or more heat?
Clearly, the slower the burn -- the longer it lasts, but the less heat it generates.
Personally, my priority is to go to bed, get up 7 hours later, and have enough hot amber so just adding a log will start the day.

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I have to agree with this - the "art" if you will comes in to balancing this though. I find that I keep setting the stove air too low in that I wake up with a very large pile of fuel left in the stove that could have been consumed as more heat during the night. On the other hand I don't want to set the air open so much that the fire burns too hot or that I have to dig around for coals to get it going in the morning. Ideal for me would be to have enough as you say to start up by just stacking splits on the embers, but not so much left that I have to do any coal burn-down. From a practical standpoint this means I should be able to clean out ashes too (if needed) and stovetop would be down to 300. Any more fuel left in the stove is heat that could have gone into the house.

There seem to be so many variables - outside temp (affects draft of course), wood (my pile has so many different kinds in it of various ages I don't get consistent loads), and the starting state of the stove seem to be the main ones that I have to pay attention to when I load up at night. I'm enjoying the challenge of fine-tuning the process even though I doubt I'll ever achieve perfection on a regular basis.

My goal, as a softwood burner (pine & Fir), for overnight burns is to have a ready bed of coals in the stove in the morning so I don't have to start a fire from scratch.
To accomplish this requires fulfilling 3 objectives before going to bed;

(1) pre heating the stove to upper operating temperature with a large bed of burned down wood (coals), at the same time building up some surplus heat in the stove room.

(2) Pull as much of the coals forward as possible, load the stove East/West with the biggest splits at the back. Allow wood to burn with draft wide open until fire is fully established and stove is at maximum operating temp.

(3) Close intake draft all the way.

If steps 1 -3 have been done properly I'll get good secondary burn with the draft closed all the way.
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Things that can prevent a long overnight burn and having nice bed of coals in the morning are;

*If I don't preheat the stove enough and establish a good bed of well burned wood (coals) when I close the draft the secondary burn will fizzle and the fire will smolder.
*If I don't burn the overnight load enough the fresh load of wood will rob heat from the stove and the secondary burn will fizzle and the fire will smolder.
* If I leave the intake draft open too much the fire will burn faster and hotter and burn up before morning.
*Even if I complete steps 1-3, but the wood is not properly dry the secondary burn will fizzle and smolder.
*If I complete steps 1-3, but I load the wood North/South instead of East/West I'll get a good burn, but it will burn faster, and depending on what time I go to bed and get up, I may, or may not, have a good enough bed of coals in the morning to start a fire from.

Zevi_B said:

Night burning depends on your priorities: longer time, or more heat?
Clearly, the slower the burn -- the longer it lasts, but the less heat it generates.
Personally, my priority is to go to bed, get up 7 hours later, and have enough hot amber so just adding a log will start the day.
What I do with my QF7100 is get the fire burning hot and high, throw in about 3-4 big pieces, and then completeyl shut the air (including the main flap valve open/close that is at the bottom/right corner of the QF7100. Without that the wood gets consumed way too soon).

Cheers,
Zevi

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I partially agree with these statements.

In my case turning the air down low for a "slow" burn actually produces very good heat plus a longer burning cycle vs. keeping the air open more and having a shorter cycle with less heat . . . but this is with well seasoned wood . . . and the caveat being that my choice with my size firebox at night is to either a) turn down the air and let it go (which will produce wicked good heat for several hours . . . but eventually it will reach the end of the burning cycle and by morning I will be down to coals to restart the fire, but the meaningful heat . . . that real blast of warming heat . . . will have been lost or b) I can restoke the fire if myself or my wife gets up during the night and go through another full cycle which will keep up the heat in the home.

I look at it a bit differently. Although the point of burning wood is to keep warm, and I go for as much heat as possible as long as possible during the night, the reality is that my house is not all that well insulated, and on a really cold night, it's just not going to hold the heat. So I try to have as much of a coal bed as I can in the morning, and focus on warming the house up as quickly as possible. Then I do relatively small splits criss crossed N-S and E-W. I want lots of air, and a roaring blaze to warm up as fast as it can.

that having been said, most mornings it's mid-60's in the house, and we don't like it much warmer than that, anyway.