Fire burning out WAY too fast

[burningbright]

I have a home with a small (28" wide and 15" deep) wood burning fireplace. One thing I've struggled with when using it is that my fires burn relatively fast and I end up eating through a lot of wood to keep them going, But that struggle amplified today when I tried using pecan wood.

I got pecan because it's supposed to be long burning, but I had the opposite experience: I started the fire at 11:30 with three logs, fed it with three logs again at 12:00 because I noticed that those three logs had almost burned down completely, fed it again with two more logs at 12:30, then gave up. By 1:15 all the logs had burned to ash, and by 1:45 even the embers were almost extinguished.

I have NO idea what's going on. The wood itself seems fine-- it ignited quickly and burns with little smoke-- so I have to assume that my issue lies with the fireplace itself.

I've attached a photo of the culprit. Any ideas on what, if anything, I can do to get fires that last longer?

 

[begreen]

Dry fuel, lots of air, this is a setup for quick burning. There's nothing really wrong here, it's a nice formula for a visual fire but not for heating.

 

[burningbright]

Dry fuel, lots of air, this is a setup for quick burning. There's nothing really wrong here, it's a nice formula for a visual fire but not for heating.

Dang. Is there anything I can add to the fireplace that will allow me to reduce the air/increase heat without getting a new fireplace entirely?

(I have tried adjusting the damper after the fire gets going, but it doesn't make much difference.)

 

[begreen]

If glass doors are available, that will make a little difference. Some ZC fireplaces will permit an insert to be installed. In other cases, sometimes a rear-vented, freestanding stove can be connected to a stainless liner up the existing chimney. This requires the lintel height to be higher than the flue outlet of the stove.

 

[all night moe]

Like begreen said, a stove, or an insert, will be the most efficient. A cheaper alternative are tubes with a blower that will slide into your existing fireplace. That will help blow the heat out, but not in overall burn rates. For that, you definitely need a stove of either variety.

 

[burningbright]

Thank you everyone. It sounds like getting my fireplace to burn more efficiently will be an expensive fix, so I'll have to treat it as decorative rather than functional. I'll just wait until I go visit family on the East Coast to enjoy a fire in a real fireplace.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I remember using our masonry fireplace. It did go through wood quickly and I found myself “tending” the fire more more frequently than I had imagined. It is what it is. They are pretty cool to look at and the ambience of it, but the fires don’t last too long without adding wood.

 

[Prichan]

I have a home with a small (28" wide and 15" deep) wood burning fireplace. One thing I've struggled with when using it is that my fires burn relatively fast and I end up eating through a lot of wood to keep them going, But that struggle amplified today when I tried using pecan wood.

I got pecan because it's supposed to be long burning, but I had the opposite experience: I started the fire at 11:30 with three logs, fed it with three logs again at 12:00 because I noticed that those three logs had almost burned down completely, fed it again with two more logs at 12:30, then gave up. By 1:15 all the logs had burned to ash, and by 1:45 even the embers were almost extinguished.

I have NO idea what's going on. The wood itself seems fine-- it ignited quickly and burns with little smoke-- so I have to assume that my issue lies with the fireplace itself.

I've attached a photo of the culprit. Any ideas on what, if anything, I can do to get fires that last longer?

View attachment 323267 View attachment 323268

Look on the bright side, your chimney got wicked good draft.

 

[webby3650]

Thank you everyone. It sounds like getting my fireplace to burn more efficiently will be an expensive fix, so I'll have to treat it as decorative rather than functional. I'll just wait until I go visit family on the East Coast to enjoy a fire in a real fireplace.

You have a real fireplace. That’s just how it is with an open fireplace. If you’ve got room, keep the fireplace and install a stove in another area.
Also, glass doors won’t help, they can’t be closed if there’s a fire going. Doors with ceramic glass can be closed, but they will be over $2K and not approved for a zero clearance fireplace like yours.

 

[Todd]

Get a different fireplace grate with short legs or try without a grate. An elevated fire will burn much quicker but it will also burn cleaner.

 

[burningbright]

Get a different fireplace grate with short legs or try without a grate. An elevated fire will burn much quicker but it will also burn cleaner.

I can't do a grate shorter than my current one because this fireplace has a log lighter bar installed. I hadn't thought of going without one entirely, though; is that safe to do with a log lighter?

 

[mikey]

Get a grate wall of fire, burns slower with more heat a fireback more, it also protects the back wall. A grate wall of fire with a fireback is not cheap but will last a long time. I live in a house built in around 1765 with three fireplace and one has small Jotul 602 in it and two are open I would not have it any other way.

 

[mikey]

I forgot to say that it helps to pay attention to the instructions on how to use it.

 

[BillBurns]

Probably just really dry wood and low BTUs.

 

[stoveliker]

Probably just really dry wood and low BTUs.

no, pecan wood has quite high BTU: 28 million BTU per cord. Better than red oak.

The point is, as noted above, that a fireplace creates a gigantic air flow up the chimney. That speeds up the burn speed and pushes most BTUs up the chimney out of the home. (And when there is no fire, the closed damper still leaks, leading to a loss of BTUs - and, integrated over a year an open fireplace generally results in needing more BTUs to keep the home warm.)

That's all fine; the goal of a fireplace is not to heat, but it's to provide an ambiance that is otherwise impossible to obtain. Crackling fire combined with radiative heat when it's burning.

So, it's nice, comfy, great to have a fireplace, but it's not a heater and it comes at a cost (of using a lot of wood, and using more conventional heating due to the net negative effect when accumulated over the year). Whether that's worth it or not depends on the value one puts on the ambiance and the cost of additional heating.