bucketboy said:
i load the stove with 4 or 5 pieces of seasoned hardwood ( oak, maple or ash) and leave the draft wide open and still i can t seem to get enough heat out of the stove. the wood is 2 years old . i m not sure if these stoves were designed to be loaded up or if you have to burn i piece at a time. for the peace of mind for safety of top loading i m freezing us out of the house. who would of thought burning wood was so hard?
Ah ha . . . and now the answer is clear . . . thought this might have possibly been the case.
Common mistake made my newbies.
You would think wide open air with the big flames would equal lots of heat . . . kind of like giving a car more gas equals more speed. However, with a woodstove it's a bit different. Best way to think of a woodstove is perhaps to think of the heat as a stream or river. With the air left wide open what happens is the heat generated by the woodstove is sent up the chimney . . . where it heats up the chickadees and squirrels and displeases Al Gore.
What you want to do is bring the stove up to temp . . . and then slowly start to close the air . . . generally I recommend closing the air a quarter "turn" or "push" at a time . . . and then wait for 5 minutes . . . if the fire continues to burn . . . try shutting it another quarter turn.
Eventually what should happen if your stove is hot enough and if your wood is seasoned enough is that you should start getting a secondary fire . . . this is where the smoke and combustible gases still in that smoke that would normally go up your chimney are re-routed so to speak and reburned . . . with the result being more heat. You'll know a secondary burn when you see it -- it may look like someone has stuffed a propane BBQ grill in your woodstove with blue jets streaming out or it may look like the Northern Lights as the smoke "explodes" into view and then fades away or it may look like Satan has opened up a Portal to Hell in your woodstove and you may very well be convinced you are about to burn down the house.
Flames "on" the wood itself meanwhile are generally low and have a "lazy" look about them . . . perhaps the most exciting aspect of having a secondary burn though is not the visual appeal but the increase of heat. If you're standing on the far side of the room it will take a while for the stove to heat up the room for you to notice since it takes time for stoves to heat up the space . . . but if you're right next to the stove you will most likely notice a pretty intense heat after a few minutes with the secondary burn.
What happens when you start to kick back the air control is that you are now no longer allowing so much of that heated air to go up the chimney . . . instead you are using it to heat up the stove . . . and this is a good thing. Some other signs that you are getting good heat will be the plinking and tinking and pop sounds coming from the woodstove . . . my wife calls this metal heating up the "sound of heat."
A few tips . . .
Good, well seasoned wood is crucial . . . hopefully you have good wood . . . if not you can get by . . . using pallets helps . . . but you still need to keep a close check on your chimney for creosote build up.
Dig out that fan you use in the summer time. Position it facing your woodstove from an adjoining room . . . yes . . . facing the stove . . . what this will do is set up a current of air . . . cooler air at the floor level will be blown toward the stove where it hits the stove and is heated up, the heated air rises and then flows outwards to the area displaced by the cooler air. Again, it is not instaneous . . .. but if you have the stove going for several hours it will help move the heat.
Thermometers . . . very useful tools . . . I could run my stove without them . . . but with them I can run the stove much better since they clue me in as to when I should start shutting down the air.