The Art & Science of Wood Burning

[Northern NH Mike]

Just scrolling through some posts while sipping my coffee and avoiding getting ready for work.

I really enjoy the dual approaches to responses that I often see here. Many citing the science of wood burning through temp reading, moisture meters, engineering and chemistry. While others relaying the art of wood burning that only comes through the intuition that years of experience brings. The combination results in better performance, safer and more reliable heat, and warmer/happier family members. The later being what really counts.

I've benefited from both and appreciate you sharing.

 

[fvhowler]

Experience is the best teacher here. The science part (for me) came from the stove factory r&d. It's up to me to learn how to use the stove and get the most out of it. After 2.5 years with an EPA stove, I'm still learning. Being new to this site, I do enjoy reading comments and learning from others.

 

[JotulOwner]

Experience is the best teacher here. The science part (for me) came from the stove factory r&d. It's up to me to learn how to use the stove and get the most out of it. After 2.5 years with an EPA stove, I'm still learning. Being new to this site, I do enjoy reading comments and learning from others.

You never stop learning from the knowledgeable and experienced people on this site who spend a lot of their valuable time answering questions we less experienced and knowledgeable people have. I personally can't thank them enough for all the helpful information I have gathered from them over the last twelve years. And yes, there is a lot of both science and intuition. I find the intuition part most valuable.

 

[kennyp2339]

When I first started burning in my own house I was the guy who had a consistent smoke plume coming from the chimney on an epa stove, when the wood level got low I'd going to the woods and look for something that was either fallen over or looked dead and cut as needed. I very quickly found out that I was doing it all wrong, following spring I still searched for dead fall in the woods, cut as much as I could find, prob put together about 2.5 cords of wood that was set on homemade racks to dry over the summer, ordered a log truck load and went to work.
I'd say my first scientific approach to wood burning was figuring out how to get sufficient dry wood, which then turned to sourcing free wood and not killing myself while doing. The last few years is now more focused on clean burning, extended burns, noticing how bigger splits react and figuring out optimal draft.
The optimal draft has me perplex, learning about pressures of the outside vs inside and the stoves response (I have a high draft problem and don't want to fully rely on dampers) starting to form a hypothesis about sinking air vs rising air, and how maybe foam sealing my foundation sill plate all the way around will keep colder denser air from coming in and falling into the basement which is then heating causing a rising motion and creating a higher pressure in a normal low spot thus forcing a higher draft on a 15ft chimney on a walk out basement setup.