I've read a lot of posts new and old about people having trouble with coals taking up space they want/need for more wood.
I'm new to all this...I don't understand why you would want to "burn down", or "remove" hot coals to make room for more fresh wood.
We burn wood to make heat to keep our homes comfortable.
Hot coals produce heat, and thus keep us warm.
Does fresh wood produce so much more heat that one would want to waste the heat being offered by the coals?
Yesterday as an example, I burned all day, from 5:45am until 8:30pm (my stove is in my shop).
I maintained a room temperature of around 74 degrees most of the day.
At 6:40pm I put a couple rounds on the fire closed off the air as far as it would go and went in the house.
At 8:30pm I went back out.
The stove had a ton of glowing red coals (shop temp was now 86 degrees) I added 1 large round (left the air on the lowest setting) then went in and did not come back out until 6:45am this morning.
At 6:45 this morning, the stove temp was a mere 85 degrees but the shop was reasonably warm at 61 degrees (outside temp was 6 degrees).
The stove had a few hot coals, enough I was able to lay up some kindling and splits, and have the hot coals ignite them (no matches) in less than 5 minutes.
My glass was clean too (boasting a little here
).
If the stove was in my house and I'd have added another round later in the evening, I think I could have maintained an easy 70+ degrees all night.
Am I missing some critical part of burning, and not getting the long burn times I want because I'm leaving a lot of coals?
Rob
I'm new to all this...I don't understand why you would want to "burn down", or "remove" hot coals to make room for more fresh wood.
We burn wood to make heat to keep our homes comfortable.
Hot coals produce heat, and thus keep us warm.
Does fresh wood produce so much more heat that one would want to waste the heat being offered by the coals?
Yesterday as an example, I burned all day, from 5:45am until 8:30pm (my stove is in my shop).
I maintained a room temperature of around 74 degrees most of the day.
At 6:40pm I put a couple rounds on the fire closed off the air as far as it would go and went in the house.
At 8:30pm I went back out.
The stove had a ton of glowing red coals (shop temp was now 86 degrees) I added 1 large round (left the air on the lowest setting) then went in and did not come back out until 6:45am this morning.
At 6:45 this morning, the stove temp was a mere 85 degrees but the shop was reasonably warm at 61 degrees (outside temp was 6 degrees).
The stove had a few hot coals, enough I was able to lay up some kindling and splits, and have the hot coals ignite them (no matches) in less than 5 minutes.
My glass was clean too (boasting a little here
).
If the stove was in my house and I'd have added another round later in the evening, I think I could have maintained an easy 70+ degrees all night.
Am I missing some critical part of burning, and not getting the long burn times I want because I'm leaving a lot of coals?
Rob