Heavy Rain Burning Characteristics

[soupy1957]

Aside from the obvious.........wet wood.......

Assuming you are building a fire with dry, seasoned wood, in a fully functional stove, with a clean system, what characteristics should the novice fire burning joe/jane, be aware of, with regard to how the fire reacts to heavy rain days? How is the draft (admittedly different depending on the location and setup), affected by the heavy rain, and how should a fire be built in such conditions? Damper settings?

Does YOUR fire behave differently in heavy rain situations?

There have been discussions in here about how sometimes air can be "heavy" and can hold the smoke down, but what about heavy RAIN days?

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions, observations?

-Soupy1957

 

[nate379]

Yes, when it's like that not a good pull in chimney.

I don't know what it is in english, but in french we would say that the "Temps son bas". (English is my 2nd language) I think high humidity or maybe like the sky is low/clouds are low.

 

[fjord]

Low barometric pressure will "lower" the draft.
Flue draft/draw can be measured with a manometer ( another cool tool for you toolies )that can be borrowed from your friendly HVAC guy.
Shoulder season temperatures ~ 50's F with slow/low fires will drop your draft.
Solutions are easy: get the flue hot, use insulated flues, keep even small fires burning high, get the load to coal before kowering the primarty air.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I've always noticed more of a problem before the heavy rains or snow hits. A slow moving system with the barometric pressure lowering and little air movement many times brings difficult drafting conditions. During the storm though we usually have little problem with draft. If so, we just open the draft a tad bit more and all is well.

After heavy rain or snow the barometric pressure usually rises fast. This means high wind conditions. If the temperature has not dropped much then backpuffing can be a problem for a while. However, if the temperature drops rapidly (usually happens) then you are cranking up the heat anyway so it normally does not cause a problem.

 

[KingNFM]

Let me ask this then. Since I'm a novice at this (first year), we had some decent rain yesterday and last night we had a major storm. Between these times (just after the medium rain and just before the first storm) I noticed that I'd get smoke "puffs" coming from my stove pipe where it turns to go to the chimney. I noticed that this mostly happened when I had the flue completely closed off and the dampers shut as I had a good heat going in the stove. Could that have been caused by the rain and weather outside holding the smoke down and eventually letting it puff through the pipe where the connections are?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Most definitely it could have KingNFM. I believe your outdoor temperature was not that low which compounds the situation.

 

[fjord]

Wind eddies can do downdrafts....happens to all of us from time to time.
Get rid of your flue dampers if your stove is EPA rated or a good burner with air controls. Dampers slow draft even open.
Is your flue exit tall enough, away from trees or ridge ? Check the flue specs on this site---good information.

 

[KingNFM]

Thanks for the replies to mine. My wife was nervous last night while we watched a movie because every few minutes a large puff of smoke would come out of the pipe. She got nervous thinking there was something really wrong, and admittedly I did get a bit nervous myself. I opened up the flue and the problem didn't really happen again.

fjord I have a Federal Airtight (Consolidated Dutchwest) FA264CCL. I don't think I can get rid of the flue dampers on that. Also, the chimney is pretty high up, there is a tree near it but it's thin and doesn't go over the top of it.

Edit: Also I guess I should add to the fact that I need a cap on my chimney top since it's missing, which probably didn't help this problem at all...lol

 

[SteveKG]

Any time it is cold enough for burning wood here, all precip' coming from the sky is frozen. Guess I can't help here when it comes to rain effects.

Only weather hassles I've had with burning wood, other than serious wind gusts and swirls, is during a few times when it was well below zero outside, and had been a couple days. I open the fireplace damper in preparation for lighting off a fire and am suddenly in a blast of sub-zero air dropping down the chimney. I have to wait five minutes or so before lighting. It can be dramatic. I haven't had the problem in either of my stove chimneys except once or twice, only when one of the stoves was cold all night. Nothing I can do except wait for the chimney to empty itself of the cold air.

 

[begreen]

We get heavy rain, light rain, frozen rain, light white fluffy rain. The stove burns the same regardless as long as I give it good dry fuel. I do sometimes notice atmospheric pressure variances that often these accompany the damp weather. When we get a very strong low pressure system over us and there is no wind, smoke goes down instead of up. That's when you really want to have a clean burning fire and stove. (And wish your neighbors did too :coolmad:.)

 

[North of 60]

We have a dry rain most of the time so that means its cold out and good draft. When the rain is wet, most of the time that means its warm out so no fire is required to pay any attention to it.

 

[madrone]

We get heavy rain, light rain, frozen rain, light white fluffy rain. The stove burns the same regardless as long as I give it good dry fuel. I do sometimes notice atmospheric pressure variances and often these accompany the damp weather. When we get a very strong low pressure system over us and there is no wind, smoke goes down instead of up. That's when you really want to have a clean burning fire and stove. (And wish your neighbors did too :coolmad:.)

I find it takes a little more to get the draft going in these kind of conditions, but that's probably because they're usually also associated with higher temps outside. It's why I don't burn much in the Fall. I try to wait for late November when it's consistently under 50 °F . I'm glad I don't live next to the guy down the hill who starts burning his wet, green wood in late September, and blankets the neighborhood with steamy clouds of smoke. Tarcicles on the chimney cap.

 

[thewoodlands]

Aside from the obvious.........wet wood.......

Assuming you are building a fire with dry, seasoned wood, in a fully functional stove, with a clean system, what characteristics should the novice fire burning joe/jane, be aware of, with regard to how the fire reacts to heavy rain days? How is the draft (admittedly different depending on the location and setup), affected by the heavy rain, and how should a fire be built in such conditions? Damper settings?

Does YOUR fire behave differently in heavy rain situations?

There have been discussions in here about how sometimes air can be "heavy" and can hold the smoke down, but what about heavy RAIN days?

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions, observations?

-Soupy1957

Observation, when I made it home yesterday the wife had it 75 upstairs and I'm not sure what the temp was in the basement (location of the Liberty) so the draft seemed real good.

Dry wood with a two days of rain with some winds coming in tonight (WINDS... WEST 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH.)


zap

 

[firefighterjake]

As long as the stove has been going a storm doesn't seem to affect the performance of the stove . . . but if I'm lighting up for the first time an approaching storm can make for a sluggish start.

 

[Stump_Branch]

I agree with Firefighterjake,

We had a storm here last night, barometic pressure was in the lower 20's and i had to start a fire...started out alright with the top down method...but until I had some coals I would have to baby it. Of course as soon as a few coals were present, about 30 min or so, I didnt have to do anything besides feed it. I packed it north south last night for the first time (loved it) and cranked the dampner down all the way with full secondaries going. about twice before closing it for the night, I would opened the dampener a smidge but that was probably me just fussing with it. (only had three fires in it so far) pleanty of coals this morning and was able to get a nice fire before I left for work.

 

[Slow1]

Last year I added 3' to the top of my chimney due to occasional issues with a weak/negative draft on startup. Since that time I have not had any problems - no matter the weather. Granted, I don't light up when it is all that warm (50's?) outside as I just don't need the heat in most cases. I can't say as I've noticed any issues once the stove is burning and the flue is hot.

 

[Patapsco Mike]

We had a SERIOUS toad-strangler last night, and for the first time in over a year my BK Princess let some smoke out when I opened the door. Hard rain and crazy winds definitely have a huge effect on draft.

 

[EJL923]

i actually love this type of weather, unfortunately they are far and few between. My system drafts too well, so i actually get some decent burns in this type of weather

 

[Slow1]

i actually love this type of weather, unfortunately they are far and few between. My system drafts too well, so i actually get some decent burns in this type of weather

Sounds like a pipe damper is in order there - have you considered it?

 

[EJL923]

i have an insert...yes it has crossed my mind

 

[agartner]

I find lower baro pressure affects my burn, but I expect it - basement install, exterior chimney, and I'm not fully lined. Some things I do on these days to compensate is to pre-heat my flue on a cold start, run my air a little more open than normal, and crack a window a tad to eliminate any stack-effect the house can have. In really extreme cases I can run partially bypassed in the Kent but I try to avoid that as it makes things wicked inefficient.