End of Burn Cycle- Door Open or Closed?

[nodtmf]

Oh hi,

The quick question: When the burn cycle just a bed of hot coals, what is the theory of opening the door vs leaving it closed for getting the most heat from the coal bed?

I noticed that when I open the door (fully) the radiant heat from the coal bed really strong. I have a ceiling fan in the room and I turn it on to medium to move the air.

My stove is a PE Summit...EPA non-cat stove and is an insert with a fan. Instructions say the stove is intended to operate with door closed. So I wonder if I really benefit from this door being open or if the radiant heat is an illusion of more heat. Naturally the coals burn down faster with the door open. I am also thinking about the heat is coming from the radiant direction as opposed to the coals heating the stove and the blower running 9door closed). Maybe this is like a short term heat burst vs a longer lower heat output?

I assume my question applies to any stove of this type(?}

thanks,
Glen

 

[SolarAndWood]

Opening the door heats up the coals. I do it before I reload on top of them. However, I keep the door closed until then to keep the heat in the house. If you need more heat during the end of the cycle, throw a split or two of pine on top of the coals.

 

[shawneyboy]

Opening the door will increase the radiant heat but........ there is always a but.... the heated air you suck out and up the chimney makes opening the door a negative effect on heating the home. You suck out and up more BTUs than you get from opening the door. If you want to heat up the coals, while maximizing the heat retention, open the air control all the way, you get the flue ready for the next reload while still retaining a positive BTU output.

Shawn

 

[hemlock]

Opening the door will increase the radiant heat but........ there is always a but.... the heated air you suck out and up the chimney makes opening the door a negative effect on heating the home. You suck out and up more BTUs than you get from opening the door. If you want to heat up the coals, while maximizing the heat retention, open the air control all the way, you get the flue ready for the next reload while still retaining a positive BTU output.

Shawn

What he said. I notice a signifigant drop in flue temp if I horse around to long re-loading the stove, due to the air being sucked up the stack.

 

[firefighterjake]

Opening the door will increase the radiant heat but........ there is always a but.... the heated air you suck out and up the chimney makes opening the door a negative effect on heating the home. You suck out and up more BTUs than you get from opening the door. If you want to heat up the coals, while maximizing the heat retention, open the air control all the way, you get the flue ready for the next reload while still retaining a positive BTU output.

Shawn

+1 . . . couldn't have said it any better . . . but I will add that if you have an excess amount of coals and want to burn them down this is also a great time to stick a single split or maybe even two if you want to go crazy on top of the coal bed . . . open up the air control and just let it burn . . .

 

[nodtmf]

Thanks all,

The door shall remain closed!

I am having a very successful burn season, first one with the new stove. Basically heating the house with only this stove, and once and a while a electric room heater (radiant

 

[dafattkidd]

I know this is a contrary opinion to what most have said here, and I know that I'm a rookie compared to most on here, but I have always had great results with opening the door with a huge bed of coals. It always heats the room up way more than leaving the door closed and burns the colas down. I know the science says that it should do otherwise and warm air from the room goes up the chimney, but all i can say is when i had a smaller stove (1.7 cf) I used to get a lot of coal build up. I would open the door, turn the fan on, and room temps would jump real quick. I'd leave it open for a short time (sometimes as long as 30 min) and let the coals burn down. Then throw some splits on and begin a new burn cycle. I know some of you disapprove of this, but it worked really well for me. I can't say what it does in everyone else's house, but this worked for me.--One thing: we were always in the room with the stove when the door was open. Always.

Fortunately I have a much larger stove now, and almost never have this problem any more. So, good luck with. And glad to hear you've had a good heating season.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Another vote for leaving the door closed. No reason to send that heat up the chimney.

We open the draft full just before the wood gets down to the coaling stage. This helps to burn the coals down while keeping the stove temperature up to a reasonable level.

 

[begreen]

Usually closed here. This may be because we burn mostly softwood so coal build up is less of a problem for us. Even when burning hardwood I've been putting a small split or two of softwood on top of the coal bed and opening the air up to burn it down. This technique has worked pretty well for us this winter.