So many posts relate to getting long burn times, all night for example, and posters wonder why they get only 2-4 hours or so. A little math should answer most of the questions. For the math to provide a realistic answer. a few basic assumptions need to be made, which should mimic close to what good burning is all about. These are: 1) 20% wood moisture content; 2) flue temperature interior 400F (which could be close to exterior at 700-800F); 3) btuh rating of the stove, and assume average 35,000 for this example; 4) stove burn efficiency, assume 65%.
Under these assumptions wood has 6050 btu's per pound, and at 65& efficiency that leaves 3930 btu's available. Assume 4 splits at 6 lbs each, or 24 lbs of wood. 24 lbs of wood at 3930 btu/lb = 94,320 btu's. Divide this by 35,000 btu average output, and that comes to 2:45 burn time.
Substitute your own numbers for your stove and your wood and you can compute what burn time you might expect based on your wood load. And if you also wonder why your stove isn't heating your house as well as you thought, do a heat loss calculation for your house, compare that to your stove output, and the answer should become crystal clear.
Very long burn times can only result from the extremes of a really heavy load of wood or very low btu output. That said, nirvana is just around the corner. Cheers.
Under these assumptions wood has 6050 btu's per pound, and at 65& efficiency that leaves 3930 btu's available. Assume 4 splits at 6 lbs each, or 24 lbs of wood. 24 lbs of wood at 3930 btu/lb = 94,320 btu's. Divide this by 35,000 btu average output, and that comes to 2:45 burn time.
Substitute your own numbers for your stove and your wood and you can compute what burn time you might expect based on your wood load. And if you also wonder why your stove isn't heating your house as well as you thought, do a heat loss calculation for your house, compare that to your stove output, and the answer should become crystal clear.
Very long burn times can only result from the extremes of a really heavy load of wood or very low btu output. That said, nirvana is just around the corner. Cheers.