High winds/Low temps?

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bmwbj

Member
Hearth Supporter
Oct 11, 2007
165
Ringoes NJ
What the heck, I've been burning my wood stove for over a month now, at nights and full weekends. Last night the sustained winds were over 40mph, and I for the life of me could not get the stove to burn as normally hot as I usually do. I also notice that my stack temps were 100 to 200* hotter than normal. Is it possible that the heavier winds outside caused a draft issue inside? I had to run the stove with my primary air turned all the way up, and still only had about 300* grittle temps, where my stack temps were at about 500* steadily. I finally got frustrated and turned of the cat. and ran the stove with the door open for a while to let it burn better.
Than I ran the stove with the cat off all together so as not to smolder the wood too much. I'm still using the same maple and technics as I have been doing all along, the only difference was that 40mph wind outside.
Is this a normal condition for heavy winds, or is there something I need to do to overlook this issue.
 
We are in the Piney's and had the stove on most of the day. Yeah it blew like stink here too. We had one back-puff probably due to negative pressure and it was howling out. Your problem may be caused by your roof line or even your neighbors roof line causing up/down drafts and although it wasn't that cold, the sustained winds will cool off a flue very quickly unless it is insulated.
 
Wind that strong can certainly do funny things - as already posted cooling the stack, effects from a neighbors house, then you've also got the interface with what ever chimney cap you have (could help or hurt) - the air "tightness" of your house on the windward side vs leeward side (ie if you have a flat wall facing the wind and a leaky door on the opposite side, your house may tend to have a slight negative pressure, likewise a leaky opening on the windward side could pressurize the house)

With the cooler stove temps and higher stack temps it sounds like it was definitely acting like a damper at the top of your flue.
 
really? i'm in the berlin area of jersey and had the high winds but had no problem getting the stove temps up.. i have the air open a little less then half and it seemed to be fine...





on a side note i see your in Ringoes NJ. i have a friend that lives in that town.. right on the golf course... he has an awesome 69 charger. green,tan top with a sun roof. ever see it around?
 
abj, Yes off topic, I have seen that car around town. Sweet ride.
Back to the subject, My house is about 200 feet from any neighbor, and the chimney is about 6 ft over the peek, but I do have surrounding 100 ft. tall pines within 50 feet of the house, I never thought about the wind acting as a damper ---- that is more than likely the answer here.
 
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