Stove Nut said:
I have a question about improving the burn time of my Quadrafire Millenium3100. Would installing a damper in the stove pipe help in some way? The stove operates well, but when you really need the heat you are reloading every 3-4 hours. After looking at some posts from this site it got me to thinking that maybe a damper might help. I was thinking of getting a stove with a larger fire box hoping that more wood might do the trick. I think my box may be 2 cubic ft. and takes a 16-18 inch log as compared to what I think is a larger box on an Englander from Home Depot or a U.S. Stove co. model 2000 or 2500 that would take a larger log. What do you guys think? Thanks John
Just getting a bigger stove to find out if that solves your problem without first trying to define that problem better sounds to me like a lottery approach. You might get lucky, of course. However, chances are you'll just lose your money...
A systematic approach could start with an attempted energy budget for your home. How big is the space you want to heat and what is your temperature comfort zone? What are typical outside temperatures in your area for each week or month of the year? This allows you to estimate your seasonal heating needs in terms of "degree days". Finally, how big are your heat losses (i.e. how well is your home insulated)? etc. etc.
Since reliable heat loss numbers are hard to obtain without the help of a professional, some of us might prefer a "trial and error" approach. However, rather than having a succession of different stoves installed, it would be a lot easier to borrow a handful of portable electrical heaters (preferably with built-in fans) from family/friends/neighbors in order to find out how much heat energy you actually will need to generate in order to achieve the desired result.
Most of these portable electric heaters put out 1300-1500 Watt (when running all-out; i.e. when using both elements and turning the thermostat to its maximum position). In order to verify electric energy usage it is best to have a suitable electric power meter (e.g. a "kill a watt") or take hourly electric meter box readings. If it takes 4 of these heaters (running full-bore) to make your living area comfortable, you are probably using about 5.2 kilowatt, equivalent to 16,000 BTUs per hour. A 2 cubic feet wood stove with a fill efficiency of 80%, a thermal efficiency of 50% and burning hardwood splits with an energy content of 180,000 BTU per cubic ft (stacked), should be able to take over the work of these 4 electric heaters for up to 10 hours or so.
Without knowing your home and the local temperature environment, it is impossible to say up front whether ~5 kW of electric power can perhaps do the job or not. However, if the answer is affirmative, and a 2 cubic ft wood stove (80% filled with well-seasoned hardwood splits) can only do so for 3-4 hours, instead of 10, then you probably have indeed too much heat loss up the chimney, thereby preventing your stove from reaching a decent efficiency level of, let's say, 50%. In that case, I would make sure you do have a properly installed convection fan kit for your Quadrafire Millennium 3100. This should help reduce unnecessary chimney losses (by allowing you to reduce the primary air flow setting while delivering the same amount of heat to the room).
If on the other hand, it takes 8 or more 1300-1500 W electric heaters to achieve a comfortable temperature in your living area and you are convinced that there are no fairly easy ways to reduce heat losses from the home, you could indeed conclude that a bigger stove (i.e. 4 cubic ft) will be needed to keep things comfortable while achieving 8-10 hr burns.
Henk
