<Real> Fuel
Having survived the winter (I think) with a tired stove and less than optimal wood, I ventured upstairs today and grabbed the third of a grocery bag worth of creosote I've swept from the chimney over the past two seasons.
Properly, I should have let fly in colder weather (it was in the low 30's here today), but I was in something of a housekeeping mode and couldn't be denied.
I put the whole bag in the stove on a medium hot fire and added a middling oak split.
Not unexpectedly, the stove got QUITE hot for a couple of hours... with a radiation intensity that well exceeded the everyday fire. If you enjoy room temperatures of 75* or more, you should have been here.
If there's a moral to the story, in several of the forms commonly found in the typical chimney or stove pipe, creosote is - once kindled - a not insignificant source of fuel... and definitely one to be reckoned with.
By weight, I would confidently wager that the BTU content of creosote is higher than any species of wood.
But I ain't a betting man.
PB
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Having survived the winter (I think) with a tired stove and less than optimal wood, I ventured upstairs today and grabbed the third of a grocery bag worth of creosote I've swept from the chimney over the past two seasons.
Properly, I should have let fly in colder weather (it was in the low 30's here today), but I was in something of a housekeeping mode and couldn't be denied.
I put the whole bag in the stove on a medium hot fire and added a middling oak split.
Not unexpectedly, the stove got QUITE hot for a couple of hours... with a radiation intensity that well exceeded the everyday fire. If you enjoy room temperatures of 75* or more, you should have been here.
If there's a moral to the story, in several of the forms commonly found in the typical chimney or stove pipe, creosote is - once kindled - a not insignificant source of fuel... and definitely one to be reckoned with.
By weight, I would confidently wager that the BTU content of creosote is higher than any species of wood.
But I ain't a betting man.
PB
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