Karen,
As you stated in your first post, & have alluded to in this one also, the house is poorly insulated, not exposed to the sun, & has rock that must be heated up before it becomes neutral as far as drawing heat from the room. So the house being cold & slow to warm has to be expected due to its particular circumstances.
But it goes to 600 quick and yeah house nice and toasty and then I back it down as I just did.
I never implied that you were to run at 600, only to keep the fire up temp between 500-600. And if it went above 600 you were to close both screws
immediately until it got back to 500. I fire up at @ 500. I gave you a zone so that you would not freak out should you go past 500.
The 500-600 range is merely general instruction for a novice in learning the basics of building a good fire that will not have to be relit. Just keep it close to 500 & @ 15 minutes later choke it down to @ 350. If you see that it wants to climb
after it is down to 350 then that
proves that your wood is drying out in the fire & thus the reason why the temp begins to climb. Please be certain that you understand that point.
But that’s too hot (as far as going through a lot of wood), I gotta play with this more.
Correct! If you have followed my post to you & others about keeping a
log you should now have some notes about the
variations between the operation of your heater & mine, i.e. how many turns you have to adjust your screws in order to stay within the run burning zone, the fact your heater takes off from 350, etc, etc.
Wood heating is
not like setting a thermostat & forgetting about the process. You must pay attention & take notes until you have the routine down
pat. Once you are experienced the procedure requires little thought, because you then know
exactly what is required, to look for, & why.
So if any of this makes sense, it takes a lot to get it heated and house warm a lot of wood and attention, then at one point it’s a happy stove and kicks into good heat but then gets hot fast and wants to stay there.
By your statement
“… gets hot fast & wants to stay there.”
are you referring to what you previously stated above about the heat climbing from the 350 run zone? If not, please explain further.
So then trying to back it down to keep house warm and not go through the wood but it loves those hot temps so that takes a bit. It is only at one turn now and down to to 500.
Unless the wood is included in your rent payment do
not run at 500 degrees or you will go thru such like a kid goes thru candy. The Fisher wood heater is a miniature Bethlehem Steel foundry in that it was designed to be a blast furnace. Most heaters sold today are 6” flues, the Fisher has nearly double the burning volume with an 8” flue.
But I have a cold damp house that gets barely any sun. So not like heating a normal new house.
Right you are. That is another reason why there will be variations between two identical heaters in different houses.
I am doing well having hot coals in the morning this way and stove still warm as well as the stone around it which is my goal.
Excellent. You're getting a handle on it.
BUT, I am going to have to work at this and see if I can make this function better. Funny my initial problem of this burning too hot was obviously temperature related as now is colder have a hard time getting it warm and sustained warmth. Without burning at real high temps.
You already know answers & have explained the reason if you will think about it. For the situation you are in your doing great so just rethink your procedure. If you are having to buy the wood that you burn then run at 350, put on a sweater, hang bed sheets as curtains over the windows even if there are curtains/shades already on the windows, blankets over open rooms you don’t use, etc, etc. Not a problem when you think it thru. It is also good experience for you to learn how you want a house built later on. Right?
It does seem to need tending too all day, is this normal?
No! Dry wood stabilizes the burn run process in that once the gas & water vapor are gone at fire up there are no accelerants to cause a spike in the temp once the heater is set to run at 350. About every half hour we open the right screw about a full turn in order to keep it at 350. You are having to do the opposite it is because your wood is wet
, when compared to mine
, consequently it is drying out in the heater. And once that water evaporates then the wood no longer has a handicap & starts getting serious about combustion. Are you getting the picture & thus understand why I burn dry wood?
Takes a lot of wood and a lot of adjusting all day consistently. Like you reallly can’t go anywhere but to the store (a close one!) or your almost back to square 1.
Correct! And learning to drive was
not a couple turns around the block for most of us either. Keep taking notes, look at the bark of the wood to determine what you are burning, the ends if they are cracked, does it sizzle when put on hot coals, etc . Oak has more b.t.u.’s than pine, etc. You cannot expect to load pine & it to last as long as oak. Nor can you load oak & expect not to have to choke down the fire. You
must think about what you are doing & draw correct conclusions about the heating process. Please feel free to pm me anytime, but not in the coming week as I will be out of state & may not have access to a computer. If you need immediate help please contact the people here, they will be more than happy to help you out.
Take care,
Dave
