Quick question: Stovetop temp versus "heat output"

[Creek-Chub]

Question: Is my stovetop temp a reasonable indicator of the amount of heat the stove is putting out?

Background:

I get home today and the house is a bit chilly, down to about 65. My wife was gone most of the day, and when she did load the stove she did it with some willow that was covered in snow. Pop, sizzle, little bit of heat, reload. So... I'm looking to run the Englander 30 as hard as possible for a few hours to bring up the temp of the house (12 degrees outside). My real question is this:

I'm aware of the fact that leaving the damper wide open on an EPA stove doesn't give you the greatest amount of heat possible for that particular stove. Given that right now I'm not concerned with how long my loads burn, but merely extracting the greatest amount of heat possible in the shortest amount of time possible, can I use the stovetop temp as a guesstimate of heat output? Generally I get her up to 600 or so to a nicely charred load, back of the heat in stages, and cruise down to 300 over the course of 5-7 hours, depending on the wood. To a point, will more air give me "more heat", or simply send that heat up the flue? For example, if I used the air control to maintain a steady stovetop temp of 600 or so, when my normal air setting would see that stovetop temp creep down to and past 500, am I sending heat up the chimney, or putting it into the room?

I hear a few guys (BrotherBart, I think you're in this group) that talk about the sweet spot on this stove as having the air control spring right at or behind the ash lip, which is basically 1/2 closed, and not the "shut-er down" point most EPA stove guys mention. What say ye?

 

[Jags]

Stove top temp has a direct correlation to the amount of heat it is producing. It is also not a linear increase, it is exponential, meaning that at 400F you are creating way more heat than just twice 200F. I don't have the formula for it , your gonna have to ask some smart guy for that.

So if I am getting your question "If you crank your stove top temp up higher than normal, are you getting more heat??" The answer is yes. To answer your question about heat going up the stack.....if your stack temp increases when you open your damper...then yes, you are also sending more up the stack.

Hope this makes sense (or for that matter, that I got your question correctly ;-P )

 

[Creek-Chub]

Nope, that was pretty much the question. Common sense, I'm sure (top is hotter, so more heat is coming into the room), but I sort of had to ask. I don't have a thermometer on the stack, so I'm just concerning myself with the stovetop. 750 here I come!

 

[BrotherBart]

I have no basis for it, but what the hell I just do pretty much everything because that is the way I want to do it, but I feel there are diminishing returns over a stove top/body temp over 600-650. From just observing the burn in my 30 I seem to get the most heat from a wood load at six hundred or so and that is where I run it. I don't try to make up time by flogging the thing. If we have let the joint get too cold then we enjoy beverages and conversation close to the stove. At least until the place starts warming up or one of us runs out of the day's adventures to recount.

I have busted one built like a tank steel stove, I ain't planning on wrecking this one just to save a half hour. Of course the other verse to the tune is that we don't live in the coldest part of the country, we have a pretty well insulated house and we have around half again more stove in that 30 than we really need. Cause I just love big-ass steel wood stoves. :coolgrin:

 

[RonB]

Nope, that was pretty much the question. Common sense, I'm sure (top is hotter, so more heat is coming into the room), but I sort of had to ask. I don't have a thermometer on the stack, so I'm just concerning myself with the stovetop. 750 here I come!

Get a temp gauge for the stack as well. Then you can determine if your stack temp is in the correct range to prevent creosote build up. You will also begin to see the correlation between stove top and stack temp.