Low Fire Questions. I have too much heat.

[Murphy2000]

I just had an Enviro Venice 1700 installed by a dealer in a ZC fireplace. What a beauty!

Been heating for three days and I have discovered that the stove heats more home than I have.

I figured out that all I need to do is toss in one piece of wood about every 3 to 4 hours. So here is how it goes.

With a hot bed of coals, I throw in a piece of wood and it burns slowly over the next 3 hours or so. My flames are usually small with the colors yellow and blue and will perform a mesmerizing slow dance as they rise to the top, turn mostly bluish and then go up the stack. The log eventually disappears into the coal bed and I let it burn down until the coals have sort of ashed over and there's not a lot of red glow visible. (there are still plenty of hot coals if I stir them up)
At this time, I throw in another log and the process repeats.

Are there any issues doing it this way? Apparently my home is better insulated than I though it was because this stove can blow me right out of here with the heat it puts out. I have a single oscillating fan in the far corner of the room and it very effectively spreads the heat throughout the home.

Being that this is an insert with a blower fan, I do not have access to stack temperature readings. That said, I always run my blower fan on auto (thermal sensor) and it stays on at all times.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[BrotherBart]

Turn the blower off.

 

[LLigetfa]

Ja, like BB says, turn off the blower. Better to send more heat up the flue. Burning one stick at a time can foul it up. I generally burn two at a time and in the morning like to get a rip roaring fire going.

 

[krex1010]

Like was mentioned, turn the blower off and don't add wood unless you need more heat, if you have plenty of coals and your house is still pretty warm then wait longer to add wood and let the coals burn for a while longer.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I never used to burn less than 3 logs at a time. Now with the Fireview we burn one single log at a time lots of times and it is no problem at all doing so.

Thank God you have a stove that is a bit too large, but wait until the really serious cold hits and see if you still think it is too big. January and February are still to come.

 

[Rockey]

I never used to burn less than 3 logs at a time. Now with the Fireview we burn one single log at a time lots of times and it is no problem at all doing so.

Thank God you have a stove that is a bit too large, but wait until the really serious cold hits and see if you still think it is too big. January and February are still to come.

I do the exact same with my cat insert. 1 log every few hours. It works great and burns clean on keeping the temps up and not building a huge mound of coals. I cant do the same with the Englander. I think the biggest difference is in the cat.

 

[LLigetfa]

I think the biggest difference is in the cat.

Ja, interesting how the cat burners offer their brand of advice to non-cat stove owners. I'm pretty sure the Enviro Venice 1700 has secondary tubes, not a cat.

 

[summit]

sounds fine to me. Use the blower to control heat output, but sounds like you are burning fine with the nice secondary you are describing.

 

[krex1010]

Hey murph,
Where are you located? Climate has a ton to due with how much heat you need

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I think the biggest difference is in the cat.

Ja, interesting how the cat burners offer their brand of advice to non-cat stove owners. I'm pretty sure the Enviro Venice 1700 has secondary tubes, not a cat.

And it is interesting to find that our burning habits are still basically the same with the cat stove vs. all the other non-cat stoves we've operated. There is very little difference in building and maintaining fires in the two types of stoves.

 

[Murphy2000]

Ja, like BB says, turn off the blower. Better to send more heat up the flue. Burning one stick at a time can foul it up. I generally burn two at a time and in the morning like to get a rip roaring fire going.

I hate the idea of wasting good heat by sending it up the flue. Not that your advice isn't valid, I'm just not turned on by the idea of wasting energy.

Fouling it up is why I asked the question. I'm assuming (I hate that word), that the blue flames are an indication of a clean burn rather than a sooty yellow flame. There are many things in this world that are counter intuitive and/or that your eyes can not tell you by visual inspection alone so that's why I'm asking these questions.

Thanks

 

[Murphy2000]

Like was mentioned, turn the blower off and don't add wood unless you need more heat, if you have plenty of coals and your house is still pretty warm then wait longer to add wood and let the coals burn for a while longer.

So far, I think that's the direction I am going to be going.
Not that all the other advice given above isn't valid, but I'd rather deal with a yo-yo effect and let the temperature in the house bounce between 65 and 70 than waste good energy by sending it up the stack.

 

[Murphy2000]

Thank God you have a stove that is a bit too large, but wait until the really serious cold hits and see if you still think it is too big. January and February are still to come.

I was just having that conversation with a friend. I'm in Michigan and we don't usually see single digits until January. We are currently hovering in the upper teens to low 20's at night and upper 20's during the day.

 

[Murphy2000]

I think the biggest difference is in the cat.

Ja, interesting how the cat burners offer their brand of advice to non-cat stove owners. I'm pretty sure the Enviro Venice 1700 has secondary tubes, not a cat.

The enviro venice 1700 has secondary tubes. No cat here.

 

[Murphy2000]

Hey murph,
Where are you located? Climate has a ton to due with how much heat you need

I'm a bit over an hour north of detroit. Temps are around 20 at night, high 20's during the day.

 

[Rockey]

I think the biggest difference is in the cat.

Ja, interesting how the cat burners offer their brand of advice to non-cat stove owners. I'm pretty sure the Enviro Venice 1700 has secondary tubes, not a cat.

The enviro venice 1700 has secondary tubes. No cat here.

Our point exactly.

 

[CTYank]

Ja, like BB says, turn off the blower. Better to send more heat up the flue. Burning one stick at a time can foul it up. I generally burn two at a time and in the morning like to get a rip roaring fire going.

I hate the idea of wasting good heat by sending it up the flue. Not that your advice isn't valid, I'm just not turned on by the idea of wasting energy.

Fouling it up is why I asked the question. I'm assuming (I hate that word), that the blue flames are an indication of a clean burn rather than a sooty yellow flame. There are many things in this world that are counter intuitive and/or that your eyes can not tell you by visual inspection alone so that's why I'm asking these questions.

Thanks

Rather than the color, it's the DARK areas that are the potential problem. Where there's combustible gas/aerosol and no combustion.

Yellow flame only indicates a carbon-rich area, diffusing into surrounding gases. What's critical, IMHO, is keeping firebox temps high enough for complete combustion, at the time volatiles are being distilled. Thus the suggestion(s) of more than one stick.

Check what's coming out of the stack for evidence of incomplete combustion- probably most visible, if any, a minute or two after adding wood. If you can see smoke up there, there's poo being deposited below.

 

[firefighterjake]

When I just need a bit of heat to either take the chill out of the house or to maintain temps I will either burn a small load of wood with lower BTUs to warm up the stove and then allow the heated mass of the stove to keep the place warm for several hours (especially during the shoulder seasons) . . . or I will toss in one or two small splits of lower BTU wood and run it as normal -- just realizing that the secondary will not last long and I will have to reload sooner rather than later . . . and oftentimes I have to give the fire more air than normal.