So im going into my second season of buring. Last year was awesome with not completely seasoned wood that i had, but this year, the wood it set to go. I have a Century Heating non-high efficient stove. Its basically just a fire box with a baffle. Which is fine for me because I dont burn through the night because of the location of the stove is on a finsihed porch that is seperated from the house by our main door that has the dead bolt in it. So when I burn in the evenings i want it quick and hot to get the room up to temp fast so i can start circulating it into the house. My house is not very big and one of those entry way fans that you mount in the top corner of the door frame has proved to work very well. I also replaced 6 out of the 8 windows in my house and added insulation in the attic. We run the stove in the evenings and it keeps the porch and adjacent kitchen and living room toasty while raising the rest of the house to 66-68* which is nice. I also have a oil furnace that works during the night and during the day. But as of right now with the new windows and insulation, temps in the house have not gone below 60* when left during the night and then through the day, and we have had alot of nights in the 30's over the past couple weeks. So i havent even turned the furnace on. Im going to see how far i can go into the season before i have to.
Now last year was my first year burning. If went fine and we were plenty warm. But i knew that i wasnt burning correctly and i could be doing better. Well i learned quite a bit over that first year. I learned that supercedars are awesome for constant starting of fires almost everyday, alot better than some newspaper and twigs like i started out with. I didnt have any temp guages last year, now i have one on the flue and the stove top. I moved the flue damper out the collar of the stove where it was restricted from closing more than 70% to right above the collar in the stove pipe, so now i can close it down pretty good. I also cleaned the chimney once a month just because. And ive just really learned about how the stove runs in general.
So with my guages and a couple of those tiny changes in my setup, i found a good start up procedure for my stove thart works really well. I start a fire using a chunk of a supercedar. i leave the door cracked a hair to aid in the starting and until i see flue temps start to rise. I then put a few more peices in and shut the door, leaving the flue wide open. I let that burn until i see the flue temps are in the burn range on my guage (i forget the temps) and my stove top is 500-600*, then i put a few more peices in shut the flue damper just about the whole way closed, the fire actually really calms down and looks really nice and controlled, and the flue temps and stove temps just cruise for quite a while, even when the wood looks like its barely burning towards the end. Then once it all drops, i load it back up again. And its runs nice like that. Now i know last year i was burning way to hot because of the lack of being able to shut the flue damper almost all the way, i could just tell cause it smelled really hot. Now my burn times are only about 1.5-2 hrs max on a load, but to me a load in the stove is about 2-3 peices of slab wood, so to burn till the house gets really nice and toasty no matter what the temp is outside only takes me maybe 3 loads a evening at the max and no more than 8 peices of slab wood total. And at $15 a truck load, we are talking cents to heat my house warmer than oil. Which is awesome!
Now if i would make my porch more secure i might think about replacing the stove with a high efficient one and leave the door from the porch to the house open all the time and load her up at night and in the morning and never use oil again! But im scared about leaving it go for 9+ hrs during the day when no one is there. Buit that is in the future, right now im cruising just fine!
Thanks for listening.
Now last year was my first year burning. If went fine and we were plenty warm. But i knew that i wasnt burning correctly and i could be doing better. Well i learned quite a bit over that first year. I learned that supercedars are awesome for constant starting of fires almost everyday, alot better than some newspaper and twigs like i started out with. I didnt have any temp guages last year, now i have one on the flue and the stove top. I moved the flue damper out the collar of the stove where it was restricted from closing more than 70% to right above the collar in the stove pipe, so now i can close it down pretty good. I also cleaned the chimney once a month just because. And ive just really learned about how the stove runs in general.
So with my guages and a couple of those tiny changes in my setup, i found a good start up procedure for my stove thart works really well. I start a fire using a chunk of a supercedar. i leave the door cracked a hair to aid in the starting and until i see flue temps start to rise. I then put a few more peices in and shut the door, leaving the flue wide open. I let that burn until i see the flue temps are in the burn range on my guage (i forget the temps) and my stove top is 500-600*, then i put a few more peices in shut the flue damper just about the whole way closed, the fire actually really calms down and looks really nice and controlled, and the flue temps and stove temps just cruise for quite a while, even when the wood looks like its barely burning towards the end. Then once it all drops, i load it back up again. And its runs nice like that. Now i know last year i was burning way to hot because of the lack of being able to shut the flue damper almost all the way, i could just tell cause it smelled really hot. Now my burn times are only about 1.5-2 hrs max on a load, but to me a load in the stove is about 2-3 peices of slab wood, so to burn till the house gets really nice and toasty no matter what the temp is outside only takes me maybe 3 loads a evening at the max and no more than 8 peices of slab wood total. And at $15 a truck load, we are talking cents to heat my house warmer than oil. Which is awesome!
Now if i would make my porch more secure i might think about replacing the stove with a high efficient one and leave the door from the porch to the house open all the time and load her up at night and in the morning and never use oil again! But im scared about leaving it go for 9+ hrs during the day when no one is there. Buit that is in the future, right now im cruising just fine!
Thanks for listening.
