11-hour burn in a Heritage

With poplar.

Loaded up my stove at seven this morning, -20F. It was -15-ish when I came home and checked the stove at 6:20 this evening. Temp in the stove room was 65F, upstairs was 63, stovetop was about 175 on the mag thermometer. An elegant sufficiency of coals left. Just so I could say I did, I did a hot ash scoop, rearranged the coals, and easily restarted the fire from splits, no kindling required.

That's a stove.

johnstra said:

Nice going! How many sq ft you heating with your Heritage? Bet the 'good old dog' loves that stove.

Click to expand...

Thanks--I'll pass the props along to the stove. Amazing what they've got in them when we learn how to tickle the dragon's chin, yes?
2000sf.
Good old dog hangs out where her people are--it's kinda sweet. But yep, I think the wood heat is a comfort to her old bones.

The old schoolhouse I grew up in was heated by a coal-fired burner that was so big I would get in there and walk around in it after my father shoveled out the ashes and `clinkers'--which he did each spring. He loaded coal into it with a big scoop shovel, and it took him quite awhile to fill it. I think that thing burned for days on a load.

I figured it would be the BK people who would come in to this thread and tell me how wimpy a performance this is, but they've shown remarkable restraint. Thank you.

Okay, here I was proud of my little parlor stove for keeping my house thawed and warm in a -40 cold snap, and now I'm taking my baseball glove and leavin', head hung down . . .

Thanks for the posts, everyone. I appreciate feedback of all flavors. Interesting comments regarding wood.

Eileen, one of the teenthings headed off to college last fall, and the dog, breaks my heart to say so, I fear is circling the drain. Is this what you meant?

S'okay, Franks, we're square. pwnd, hmm? That works.

wkpoor said:

Its nice those coals stay there for a later relight but I just don't consider that burn time or heat time. Unless I had a house tight enough to heat with a match no way is there enough BTUs coming off a 175 degree stove to keep up with the heat loss in 20 degree weather.

Click to expand...

So this really confused me. Help me to understand what you're saying, because I'm not getting it. Does burn-time mean that still have active flames?

I still was getting heat off of that stove--it was a healthy bed of coals that was still radiating heat, not just enough for a relight. And the stovetop was too hot to comfortably rest my hand on it, so clearly still losing heat into the house, since there was a 100+ degree difference. I know that it wasn't keeping up with the heat loss, as my hearthroom temp had dropped from 70 to 65, but to me that's an acceptable loss for not being around to feed the fire all day. The day was overcast, and I don't have a secondary heat source. And that was -20, not 20. What am I missing?

Highbeam said:

The important thing is that you used poplar which is essentially cottonwood or willow, a low btu "crap" wood that most folks turn their nose up to. I have been an advocate of these crappier woods because in a modern stove they work well. I believe they work so well because of their tendency to ash over and limit the air supply reaching the coals.

My longest burns have been from big blocks of this crap wood. Longer than higher btu, heavier, more traditional wood species.

11 hours is pretty great. I've had some flukes that have gone longer but required kindling to restart. I would rather toss a few slivers of kindling on the smaller coals instead of risking a snuff and having to remove partially burnt stinky splits to build a new fire.

Click to expand...

Highbeam, you're right, the sensible thing to do would have been to throw on some skinny splits and get it blazing up fast. I just wanted to do it to be able to say I did it.

This is very interesting about the aspen and cottonwood. Not only do I get long burn times, I get enough heat to keep this house warm at the coldest time of the year. I've never gotten results like this from this kind of wood before, but this stuff has been seasoning for years. The highest btu wood we have around here is birch, so I can't compare it with much.

I spoke to one man who said that this was all he used to heat his house--his trick was to cut it to 4' lengths, and stack them like lincoln logs, then cut to length when he was ready to split, and split the freshly-cut ends. Said that it split up really easy that way.

Thanks for *sorta* clearing that up. Longer burn time (which I will interpret as Period of Meaningful Heat) is what I'm looking at as well; thus, an 11-1/2 hour burn time. (I'm sure it could have gone twelve, but fire tending is just what I do first when I get home.)

When I first started using this stove, I was trying to follow manufacturer's recommendations, and not getting these kinds of times. This means that even in Ridiculously Cold weather, I can heat my house with the stove alone if I need to, and be away from the house, too. I'm planning on replacing my boiler here, but it's good, very good, to know that I've got a reliable alternative to running the boiler in the event of power failure, price run-up, shortages, etc.

I'm planning on buying a logging-truckload of birch this spring or summer, and mixing that with the standing dead poplar I have around here. I figure that will give me a 3-4 year supply of wood, especially if I burn oil once in awhile. It will be interesting to see what that does to burn times, because it's been my experience that birch will burn much longer than the aspen or cottenwood--but that's in other stoves.