Contrarian boiler loading

[JP11]

I've got a Vigas 60.. the firebox is about 30 long and 25 or so wide. When I first started cutting... I was lax about length and mostly cut 18 to 20 inch stuff. I've since got into a good routine about getting 23 to 24 inch splits.

My wonder is this.. After I have a bed of coals going... What about loading the box full with the splits perpendicular to the nozzles. Call it parallel with the door. I seem to open the door anyway about 3/4 the way thru the burn and stir up / recover the nozzle... and reload.

I guess I'm just not seeing how everything is supposed to keep falling into the middle better if the stacks are parallel with the nozzle. With my 18" wood.. I seem to have funny piles with wood either touching the back or the front.. Lots of air space. If I turned it the other way, it could be stuffed full as the splits would just have a few inches on each side of them.

Probably doesn't matter a bit.. But I am enjoying burning. I've realized that if I crank the boiler up on the computer to +2... my marginal wood burns much better. Since I'm batch burning, and keeping my stack temps in the low 3s... Mark says i'm in the sweet spot for the boiler.

JP

 

[muncybob]

Wouldn't this techique offer a greater chance of "bridging"?

 

[JP11]

Wouldn't this techique offer a greater chance of "bridging"?

My wood now is burning at different rates.. The back piece may still be solid, when the front is gone.. So I seem to have quite a bit of bridging already. If I loaded this way.. the wood would be a more solid "layer" completely front to back in the boiler. Since I don't have much of a load... by the time I get a nice bed of coals going.. If I stuffed it full I'll hit MAX temp very quickly. I guess winter time will be the time to experiment. Of course.. my wood will be better by then. I'm up to 40 pallet U's Still got a half a cord or so of ash in logs to buck and split.

 

[mikefrommaine]

I tried loading east west and got lots of bridging.

 

[Fred61]

You'll develop fewer "holes" over the nozzle and more even burn with drier wood. Also less "bridging."

 

[JP11]

You'll develop fewer "holes" over the nozzle and more even burn with drier wood. Also less "bridging."

Really? Does dry wood fall apart and coal better? Anxious for my wood to be better. Only time can help. I do have a whole cord in the garage at a time. Pretty dry in there.

 

[Fred61]

When you put a cord of wood in an enclosed space like a garage which is "dry", all of a sudden it's not dry in there, it's humid and there is minimal air flow to take it away. A ton of wood at 50% moisture contains a half ton of water.
The bridging was again proven to me last winter. I had a stack of split wood about 2 feet high in the woodshed that had been cut and split during the previous winter (about 8 months) and I needed some space to stack some three year wood from a less convenient location so I sprayed the edge of the 2 foot stack with international orange paint in order to see where it started and then stacked the three year old wood on top up to about six feet tall. I had used all the dry wood down to the painted line and went on th the next stack of dry wood. A few weeks later I was recovering from surgery so my wife volunteered to bring some wood in for me.
Assuming I was still working on the first stack, she brought in some of the wood from below the painted line. I never saw the paint and proceeded to light the fire. There I was in the coldest part of the winter with a boiler that appeared to stop working It was bridging, difficult to light and all other things all magnified because I wasn't feeling good. I adjusted the air openings, fan speed, secondary air and still had to stir it every 30 minutes in order to keep it burning.
After two days I noticed the paint on one piece and asked the "little woman" where she got the wood. After going back to the dry wood, I had to chase down the air adjustments which were changed in a panic and not recorded at the time of change.

 

[JP11]

Interesting Fred.

I can watch the RH in the garage go up when I add another pallet of wood. I tend to open and close the garage doors based on weather, and if I'm having a burn in the utility room. Even with my tanks foamed... I'm getting a fair amount of heat where I don't need it. Maybe it will be better when the tanks are enclosed. I do have a fan in there too.. and I occasionally will plug it in to move the air around. Don't know if I'm accomplishing anything or not.

For now.. I can stir and monkey with it. I let the wife take the summer off. My burns will last about half way thru my 6 or 7 days away from home at a time. Come winter.. My wood should be better. I'm cutting just ash now... But I think I'm cutting 13/14 wood now. Not sure. I'm around 12 to 13 cords... but about half of what I have done up now is Hemlock.. I think that's gonna go fast.

JP

 

[Fred61]

Hemlock is loaded with moisture. It has little pockets in its structure that hold water. That's why it snaps and pops so much when it is burned. It takes a long time to dry and when it is dry you need to hold it down with a rock to keep the wind from blowing it away. When I had my woodland, I sent the hemlock to the paper mill and took the cash. For me, it was just not worth the effort to process it for firewood. Any cut-offs or short pieces were left on the forest floor to decompose.

 

[JP11]

Reviving this old thread. In practice now.. My firebox has to be about 30 inches deep. So with my 22 to 24 inch wood.. I seem to either try to stack in the center (vigas 60 has two nozzles) and try to cover both with each piece of wood.. and ignore the 4 inches or so front and back of wood.

OR..

I load the wood all the way to the back of fire box.. butted up to the back. That leaves me 8 inches or so in front of the wood, with a good portion of front nozzle uncovered.
When I've done it this second way.. I've loaded in 3 or 4 splits running East/West over that void at the front.

For loading up with a burn going.. It's easy to rake forward a few pieces, and cover the front part of front nozzle..

Don't know.. just messing around with it. Looking forward to cold weather and I can really let 'er rip!

JP