Best tips and techniques for burning in shoulder season

[dac122]

For my locale, and many others I would guess, its seems winter just never started. Shall we call this the winter of shoulder season?

Anyway, trying to regulate my BIS to keep it from overheating the house, but still easy to light, or keep burning during a mild day seems to be the Holy Grail.

Therefore, I thought it would be nice to discuss the best tips and techniques for burning in shoulder season.

So what are yours?

 

[firefighterjake]

1. Don't fill the firebox to the gills.

2. Use punks, chunks, uglies and junk wood (punky wood, smaller pieces of wood, wood that is curved, forked, etc. that takes up more room and wood that is lower BTU -- think pine, poplar, etc. -- that some folks consider junk.)

3. Most important . . . avoid the temptation to keep the fire going by reloading . . . allow the woodstove to come up to temp, get hot and then let that big ol' rock or hunk of metal radiate heat out for hours and allow the home's insulation to do its job and retain that heat . . . if you need a fire later on you can always relight vs. having to open every window and feel like you're in a sauna or in Africa because the house is way, way too hot.

 

[BrowningBAR]

For my locale, and many others I would guess, its seems winter just never started. Shall we call this the winter of shoulder season?

I was in your locale three weekends ago. It was 17 degrees at 3pm, windy as hell, with consistent snow and fog. Visibility was two car lengths. That's winter in my book!

 

[Wood Duck]

I have been burning at night, reloading in the morning, then letting the stove cool off during the day. With a day like today (sunny and 53 degrees) I am going to let it burn out and I'll need to relight with a match tonight. If it was a little cooler I'd try to build up a big bed of coals in the morning then one or two splits at a time would help burn down the coals thru the day. I don't really have a technique for building up coals except that if I reload in the morning then reload again before the coals from the first morning reload are burned down I will end up with more than my usual bed of coals.

I have a small stove but even this small stove takes a very long time to completely cool down. If I reload at 7 am it will be all coals by 10, maybe 11. Those coals will still be warm at 4 or 5 when I reload for an evening fire. They might not be hot enough for a quick restart, but they are giving off some heat and keeping the room warm.

 

[madison]

Invest in some super cedars. Stock up on kindling. Resist 24/7 burn addiction's

 

[daleeper]

Owning a Blaze King stove to start with. Using super cedars to start fires daily instead of running 24/7 without the need for kindling. Save the lower btu wood for burning during the shoulder season. Try to ignore the sound of the furnace coming on early morning.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Right. Super Cedars make things much, much easier. We also use soft maple for kindling wood so starting fires is very easy. But the real key to the so-called shoulder season is to build small fires. No need to stuff the stove if not much heat is needed. We have the wood stove for our only heat and have no problem heating no matter the temperature outside.

 

[Hogwildz]

I burn the junk during the day. won't get as many BTU's out, but still enough coals to load and go at night.

 

[NH_Wood]

I've learned that having a large supply of dry kindling (as Dennis said, soft maple is great for getting a fast, hot fire) and small splits makes the shoulder season fires a lot easier to manage and more efficient. When the draft become sluggish on warmer days, it is a good idea to have a small, hot kindling fire to charge the flue, and then keep a small hot fire with smaller splits. I also agree with letting the stove get hot (although less hot than a normal cold temp burn), and then let the fire die - allowing the stove to radiant its heat into the house. The next fire is started when the house cools. Less chance of overheating the house this way, and a more efficient use of wood. Cheers!

 

[PapaDave]

Last couple days with the daytime temps in the 30's, I'll start a small 3 split fire from overnight coals. Let that warm the house, then let it radiate heat for a few hours and not need a fire until early evening.
Today was still 32, but pretty windy, so I had to do a small fire about 1:00 pm, and it's been cool enough in the house for the last hour to have another fire. Guess I'll go do that, since the temp is due to drop to 14 tonight.

 

[ohlongarm]

Get a BK,burned from 7:30 pm last night on 3/4 load of white oak registering around 14% to 7:00pm today, granted the stovetop was 225* on reload but my house never dropped below 73*. My setting was a measly 1.5 but just a few minutes ago, I had enough hot coals for this thing to fire up.Tonight low of 20 despite a high of 53* today. I'm good for at least the next 15 to 20 hours,my opinion is the fantastic control the King gives you,but dry wood is a big plus. I for one will never go back to fiddle ffing around with a stove trying to maintain even heat and wasting my time. SET IT FFING FORGET IT! Starting to like this stove almost a one year anniversary.PS I am a little disappointed that I'll have to wait for another winter to give it a real test of low teen temps and zero,and see if it passes,if not I'll pass him on.

 

[dac122]

Try to ignore the sound of the furnace coming on early morning.

Ha, ha, that really made me laugh. Perhaps I am just a tiny paranoid about burning just a wee-bit-o-propane.

 

[FrankMA]

I get my first burn of the day going with leftover coals if possible and some small splits or kindling. Once it gets going I load a few good size splits (not to the gills) and let it get going nice and hot to get the chill out of the air. Once the house is up to the 68* - 70* range, I try to keep the fire going just enough to maintain that temp range and have a good coal bed when it cools down at night so it's easy to get going again. It is definitely a challenge this "winter" as we have not had many sub freezing days/nights here in my neck of New England. To call it a mild winter would be an absolute understatement!