Getting more heat from your stove - how do YOU do it?

[wrxtance]

I'm sure some of you have already seen my earlier posts - I'm at the start of my first season burning with an EPA (non-cat) stove. I have a good amount of experience burning with an older, inefficient insert that ate wood like crazy but also did throw out some heat.

I've gotten the hang of things and am getting some great heat out of my stove and pretty good burn times. BUT, it hasn't been truly "cold" yet and I am wondering how I will squeeze a bit more heat of of the stove when I really need it.

I read on here about people "running their stove hard" or "when I'm burning for the cold days" and stuff like that indicating you are using a different method (potentially) for burning when you need to.

So, what are your methods?

More air?
More frequent reloads?
More wood?
Magnesium bricks?

 

[oilstinks]

I Know people have beat this to death but it is true with epa stoves. Dry wood. I get a few pallets and mix the planks in also. I get them where i know they have not had chemicals shipped on them just yarn goods. They really help. I have also got some kiln dried scraps fro a furniture company. That being said, dry wood really makes a difference. Sometimes I have to crack the door until it gets going good on days I have draft problems.

 

[shawneyboy]

Dry and better fuel.

I burn softer wood now, pine, silver maple, punk and uglies. Come colder months, this year, it will be split well seasoned White Oak, with a stove stuffed full. Long and hot burns for me. It comes down to fuel IMHO.

Shawn

 

[Martin Strand III]

Start with a clean chimney.
Then burn drier harder wood.
Burn more wood more often,
with more air in and less out;
i.e., tune your burn - careful,
house fires don't count
for home heating.

If that doesn't do it,
replace the stove or
dress warmer inside.

Aye,
Marty

 

[Sisu]

As everyone has said, use seasoned wood. Also, the more wood in the firebox, the more BTUs. However, get to know your stove. You don't want to overfire your stove, just to squeeze out more heat.

 

[Martin Strand III]

As everyone has said, use seasoned wood. Also, the more wood in the firebox, the more BTUs. However, get to know your stove. You don't want to overfire your stove, just to squeeze out more heat.

ABS
(Already Been Said)

but thanks.

Aye,
Marty

 

[pen]

I use pretty much the exact same air setting on the stove whether it is a partial or a full load. The only time I leave it open a bit more is when it's not very cold and the draft isn't pulling very strong. On 3 or 4 pieces of wood the stove top may peak at 550 for a bit then start coming back down. W/ a 1/2-3/4 load it will get up to 600-650. Load it full on hot coals and watch out.

The only other thing I do to get more heat out of the stove is if it's really cold I'll come back to the stove 4 or 5 hours after loading and open the air up fully to help burn the coals down so I have room for another load sooner.

Oh, did anyone mention really well seasoned wood yet???

pen

 

[PapaDave]

Pre-EPA stove here, but similar burn style. I haven't put more than 5 splits in the stove yet, and get the stove to 500-600 and cruise for a while, then adjust air as the wood burns down to get a bit more heat before a reload. Been burning about 95% Spruce so far, trying to hold onto the oak for colder weather.
3 split load in there now and the stove is at about 525, and will stay there for 1.5 hrs. or so. When it starts getting colder, more wood goes in but the air gets adjusted in a similar way. It's all about learning your stove in your setup and conditions maybe using others methods as a rough guide (as you're doing).
Most of the fires this time of year are in the morning only, then nothing during the day. Within the past week or so, we've started having fires in the evening also.
Wait a minute......wait for it...........dry wood.
It's not the end of the world if you don't have it, but makes life so much easier when you do.

 

[joefrompa]

Learn these things - long medium hot output is almost always more than short spikes of hot.

You want to get the stove up to good operating temp ASAP, and then load it full and use the least possible amount of air that will keep it burning healthy (as witnessed by flames, secondaries, or simply the stove top temp doesn't go down quickly).

Avoid opening the stove when it's cruising. Let it start to end the coaling session, then re-load.

What people will do is in the shoulder season, they'll burn it to 400 and let it really cool down or just let it die out and that'll be enough for them. Or they'll use crappy wood and feed it more air, so it doesn't put out as much heat through the stove. In the cold season, they'll aim to get the stove cruising at 600 and then reload when it hits 400-450 (or whatever). Least possible amount of air, best long-burning wood, least number of stove openings.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

And quit fiddling with the stove. Just put good fuel in, get the fire going and then turn down the draft (how far depends upon your own installation) and now all you have to do is enjoy the heat. Let the stove do what it is supposed to do.

 

[begreen]

More wood with the minimum air to sustain secondary combustion. Locust, osage orange, white oak are good high btus woods to burn for the coldest weather.

 

[wrxtance]

Good to hear all this different stuff. The dry wood is a no-brainer (unfortunately, my wood is not perfect at the moment but improving).

The more-frequent reloading makes sense to keep the stove temps higher on average. Question here is how do you deal with coal build-up? Add primary air as you hit coal stage? This sounds like a tricky balancing act I will have to just figure out on my own though...

And to this quote:
"Learn these things - long medium hot output is almost always more than short spikes of hot."
- This is 100% what I have found moving to this new insert. Our old one would rage for a couple hours then die and cool fast. The new stove "seems" like it isn't throwing as much heat but our house has been consistently warmer ALL THE TIME rather than too hot then chilly. This, I like!

 

[James02]

It's frustrating as a probie....All the wood you've got is at best "eeh". All I want is good seasoned clean burning wood THIS YEAR Alas, I know it wont be. Maybe in Jan. some of my stash will be better. Just hope the people around me stick by my side for improved wood next season....After the long hot summer....

 

[BrowningBAR]

I'm sure some of you have already seen my earlier posts - I'm at the start of my first season burning with an EPA (non-cat) stove. I have a good amount of experience burning with an older, inefficient insert that ate wood like crazy but also did throw out some heat.

I've gotten the hang of things and am getting some great heat out of my stove and pretty good burn times. BUT, it hasn't been truly "cold" yet and I am wondering how I will squeeze a bit more heat of of the stove when I really need it.

I read on here about people "running their stove hard" or "when I'm burning for the cold days" and stuff like that indicating you are using a different method (potentially) for burning when you need to.

So, what are your methods?

More air?
More frequent reloads?
More wood?
Magnesium bricks?

Unless it was mentioned in another thread, you never listed what your stove temps are.

 

[pen]

It's time to open the primary air back up (if your goal is to burn the coals down) when doing so won't make a firebox full of flames. Usually, if you were to whack the contents of the stove at this time the parts would break up into large chunks.

pen

 

[wrxtance]

Unless it was mentioned in another thread, you never listed what your stove temps are.

Heh, well that's how I started my life here on hearth.com but, long story short, I am now consistently seeing 500F on the front of my insert with the fan on while cruising. Currently, I have been reloading as low as the 150-200 mark (not too cold out yet). If I am running a 2-log load just to maintain temp, the stove is only typically running at 400 or so. Exactly once have I seen close to 600F and that was a full load with the primary air cracked open just a tiny bit. Due to my wood, I have been unable to hit this temp again.

I'm thinking I will have a great deal more heat output if I reload before the stove cools much past the 300F mark.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Unless it was mentioned in another thread, you never listed what your stove temps are.

Heh, well that's how I started my life here on hearth.com but, long story short, I am now consistently seeing 500F on the front of my insert with the fan on while cruising. Currently, I have been reloading as low as the 150-200 mark (not too cold out yet). If I am running a 2-log load just to maintain temp, the stove is only typically running at 400 or so. Exactly once have I seen close to 600F and that was a full load with the primary air cracked open just a tiny bit. Due to my wood, I have been unable to hit this temp again.

I'm thinking I will have a great deal more heat output if I reload before the stove cools much past the 300F mark.

Correct. A large, hot bed of coals works a lot better with wet wood. Reloading at such a low temp is like cold starting.

 

[firefighterjake]

Nothing to add here . . .

Wood: Load 'er to the gills with well-seasoned, primo BTU wood (of whatever type you have . . . for some folks this may be oak, locust and sugar maple . . . other folks may have white birch . . . but you load with whatever is your "good stuff."

Loading Frequency: Load 'er more frequently to keep the temps up . . . this will mean more coals are produced as you are loading earlier in the burning cycle before the coals have really gone very small . . . to get rid of the coals when necessary, add a single split (I often use softwood), open up the air and in less than 20-30 minutes you should notice fewer coals and more space . . . sometimes it also helps to stir or rake the coals and ash . . . it helps things settle down a bit and in the case of a stove with an ash pan the ash may drop down into the ash pan.

Air Control: More air generally = more heated air going up the chimney and not heating the house. Less air generally = more heat in the woodstove. This said . . . depending on your draft, wood quality, etc. you may not be able to shut the air all the way . . . but oftentimes the goal should be to shut it down as much as possible and still have a clean burn.

 

[daleeper]

As has been said before, dry wood, and better wood. Wood that hasn't been seasoned well enough might burn ok in a pre-epa stove, but really struggle to put out heat in an epa stove. Thinking that you are burning dry wood, but not have dry wood is probably the most common problem in the transition. I also used to burn quite a bit of junk wood in the old earth stove because I had room in the firebox. Now I am cutting and burning better wood, because the firebox is smaller.

Good luck.

 

[logger]

Right now Im not quite filling my stove to the top and Im burning softer woods. With the cold, I fill the firebox as much as possible with hardwoods and load cycles more often. You'll have yours down to a science after experimenting what works best for your situation. Best of luck.

 

[Battenkiller]

You want more heat, you need more wood... even at 100% efficiency. That means you have to increase the burn rate.

For me, I like the fast-burning, lower-BTU woods for the coldest times of the year. I'm here day in, day out, and I get more heat from 3 loads of cherry burned in the same time period as 2 loads of shagbark, for example. High-BTU wood takes a long time to burn, so I get more heat by burning the lesser woods faster. I use more cords that way, no getting around that, but when the mercury plunges I can increase the actual burn rate a lot by using faster burning wood.

 

[woodchip]

I now have a lovely collection of wood from oak, cherry, apple, silver birch, hawthorn, holly, and sycamore.

But if I'm feeling chilly after being outside, nothing puts out quick heat like a pile of old pallets ;-)

 

[BrowningBAR]

Unless it was mentioned in another thread, you never listed what your stove temps are.

Heh, well that's how I started my life here on hearth.com but, long story short, I am now consistently seeing 500F on the front of my insert with the fan on while cruising. Currently, I have been reloading as low as the 150-200 mark (not too cold out yet). If I am running a 2-log load just to maintain temp, the stove is only typically running at 400 or so. Exactly once have I seen close to 600F and that was a full load with the primary air cracked open just a tiny bit. Due to my wood, I have been unable to hit this temp again.

I'm thinking I will have a great deal more heat output if I reload before the stove cools much past the 300F mark.

Also, add more wood. The stove runs better when wood has other friends with them in the firebox.

 

[thewoodlands]

I'm sure some of you have already seen my earlier posts - I'm at the start of my first season burning with an EPA (non-cat) stove. I have a good amount of experience burning with an older, inefficient insert that ate wood like crazy but also did throw out some heat.

I've gotten the hang of things and am getting some great heat out of my stove and pretty good burn times. BUT, it hasn't been truly "cold" yet and I am wondering how I will squeeze a bit more heat of of the stove when I really need it.

I read on here about people "running their stove hard" or "when I'm burning for the cold days" and stuff like that indicating you are using a different method (potentially) for burning when you need to.

So, what are your methods?

More air?
More frequent reloads?
More wood?
Magnesium bricks?

Seasoned wood with a steady heat for us, less to worry about when you are not pushing it.


zap

 

[PNWBurner]

Also consider your split size. Generally smaller splits have more surface area and will burn faster and hotter compared to larger splits.

So it might make sense to resplit some if you're more concerned with getting a lot of heat and aren't going for the longest possible burn.