Starting a Fire in 5 Minutes or Less

[dpsfireman]

This week I "discovered" a different way to start a fire in my Biomass 25 and it takes about 5 minutes start to finish! With the storage I have, in the winter I fire the boiler once a day for 3 or 4 hours to burn a load of wood, so every day I start from scratch.

What I just started doing was to shut down the blower before the bed of coals are gone so the next day I have a couple of inches of charcoal in the bottom of the loading chamber.

So when I start a fire what I do is rake the coals around to level them off. Then I throw a crumpled up newspaper on top of the bed of charcoal (no kindling wood!), light it and turn the blower on with the bypass DISENGAGED and the loading door opened a bit so the flames are sucked down through the coals lighting them. Once the charcoal is burning, which takes about a minute I put wood on top of the burning bed of charcoal, preferably with a flat side down directly over the nozzle and then fill the loading chamber with as much wood as I need for the day, shut the door and walk away.

Today I was done in less than 5 minutes with gassification starting almost immediately. I have even done this with only a few pieces of charcoal by laying a couple strips of bark and a piece of corrugated cardboard on top if the charcoal and a piece of newspaper on top.

Has anybody else ever tried this?

 

[skfire]

Sans the manual blower shut off, sounds similar to my sequence withe Froling.
Just now, I loaded a 3/4 load(about 5.25cb ft) over the black coal bed(from yesterday evening's fire) and over a couple of small pieces of cardboard, added 3 pages of newspaper and lit, waited for flue gas to rise form 45C to 150C(took 2 minutes), closed doors and walked away. Less than 4 minutes total.

Seems like you are on to a good lighting sequence.

Scott

 

[ewdudley]

You bet, that's the one true wood boiler re-start technique.

Refinements may include: having a flue temperature monitor that shuts the fan off while coals are left; positive shut-off of the combustion air inlet port; and using literally a few seconds of propane torch to ignite the coals.

I like having a layer of flat splits laying tight on top of the leveled-off coals as well. I can't say why it should work better that way, but it seems to.

--ewd

 

[flyingcow]

FWI- I throw 6 to 8 splits of cedar kindlin' in. Crumple up newspaper, throw on top and light it. Grab the wheelbarrow and load it full of wood. Which is just outside the door. By this time, which is all of what 2 or 3 minutes, closer to 2? The kindlin' is crackling. Throw wood on top of fire, shut door and walk away. This is with a cold boiler. Got it easy, yes. But I have very good and dry white cedar.

 

[Como]

That is pretty much what I do with my wood stove.

 

[woodsmaster]

I do it like that sometimes. It takes me about 5 min to fill the boiler with wood. I dont have an automatic sensor on the flu so I use a timer for now. Even without the charcoal (If I set the timer to long) I can usually be gassing in 5 min from time of lighting.
If I set the timer to short it don't really matter on my system if the pump shuts off when the fire is low becouse my
storage is set up like a side arm to the boiler so it wont overheat.

 

[eriesigtau]

Don't you guys worry about leaving hot coals in the boiler without circulation or do you leave you circ pump on?

 

[8nrider]

I am controling my loading unit w a aquastat (closed switch set at 160). I am thinking a flue temp monitor would be better. what do you use for a flue temp monitor elliot? I have no problem getting the fire ripping in 5 min w small splits and of coarse a torch. I have been burning once aday, very warm winter here in nh. don't mean to change the subject, but i have not seen many flue temp monitors.thanks

 

[woodsmaster]

Don't you guys worry about leaving hot coals in the boiler without circulation or do you leave you circ pump on?

My boiler thermosiphens to storage without a pump well enough unless it's going full tilt with a large load. I think they are shutting the fan down ,but not the pump.

 

[jebatty]

We're all on the same page. The Tarm has an adjustable shutdown thermostat that I have set to shutdown before all coals have burned to ash. This combined with a weighed wood burn always results in full burn beginning to end, no idling, and coals left over for the next burn. Couldn't be easier.

 

[jebatty]

what do you use for a flue temp monitor elliot?

Not elliot but this might help. I use a K-type PID digital panel meter, flue probe, but I use it for high temp shutdown of the draft fan, as the Tarm has a low temp shutdown control. The PID currently is set at 500F to shut down the draft fan, 10F differential, which does not occur during a normal burn.

 

[ewdudley]

... I am thinking a flue temp monitor would be better. what do you use for a flue temp monitor

Like Jim, I use a PID controller, there are many to choose from, search ebay for 'PID controller' and look for one with 'alarm' relay contacts and the right voltage for powering the controller itself. Here's an example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-Digital-...044?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3370d0669c

They've been around $35 for the past couple years. Many come with a K-type thermocouple, which is what you need generally.

I use the alarm circuit to shut the draft fan off if the flue temperature gets below something less than 300 degF, many of us use a wind-up timer to keep the draft fan on until the flue temperature is high enough not to trip low temp cut-off. GarthB uses an adjustable snap-disc, which seems to me would work at least as well, and would be simpler. I don't know how Garth does it, but I'd want to route 24VAC control voltage over to the stack and back to control a relay, not 120VAC:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/80962/

If you want to take it to the next level, you can use the PID controller's 12VDC SSR PID driver output to modulate draft to control flue temperature to a setpoint, and to shut draft inlet off tight at the end of burn:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/69395/P45/

--ewd

 

[chuck172]

Jim, How do you use the PID controller? Why isn't the tarm fan shutdown control sufficient?

 

[skfire]

Don't you guys worry about leaving hot coals in the boiler without circulation or do you leave you circ pump on?

Froling controller monitors boiler temp vs tank top/bottom temps and activates loading unit, on or off accordingly.
I have seen it do it even hours after the burn, loading tanks at 150f or as low as 140f as they deplete to house load.
May help in preventing condensation within the vessel as well, I am venturing a guess since I am only a novice on this.

Scott

 

[jebatty]

Jim, How do you use the PID controller? Why isn't the tarm fan shutdown control sufficient?

I use the PID controller both to monitor the stack and to shut down the draft fan, 10F differential, if currently the stack temp reaches 500F, as that does not occur during a normal burn, normal for me being between 380-440F. The Tarm controller shuts down the draft fan at end of burn when the sensor in the smoke box reads 100C, my setting, and I have it wired so that it also shuts down the Tarm circulator at the same time.

 

[chuck172]

So the PID controller is being used as a "high limit" fan control. Is that because you burn softwood and generally have higher stack temps?

 

[jebatty]

I would guess that's right. I've never burned more than an occasional piece of birch, a little ash, and a little of non-oak misc other woods, but almost only aspen and pine, very dry. I should separate out a load or two of oak and burn that separately, the result would be interesting, and maybe I would see stack temps in a much lower range.

 

[flyingcow]

The Innova has a stack temp probe. When the flue cools off the fan shuts down. The circulator shuts off when the boiler cools off.