The debate ensues - a few at a time, or load it full?

[Creek-Chub]

SO - first year with the Englander 30. Big fire box, heat from hell, blah blah blah. It's -17 outside and I'm attempting to heat 2500 sf of not-so-very-tight and semi-decently insulated living space. 2-story, stove is in the great room, near an open stairway. The stove is installed in an existing masonry fireplace, with a direct connect liner and block-off plate: actually, a big sheet of steel even with the lintel, with a hole cut through to allow the liner to pass.

My wife is home all day (for the most part) and I'm at work. She swears up and down that adding two or three splits at a time keeps the firebox in that 500ish degree range. Last night comes, and she ends up "sleeping" on the couch, because she has to add wood every hour or two (-20 last night) in order to keep the house at 60 degrees or better without running the LP furnace.

I am of the opinion, based on limited experience, that we would be better off cleaning out the ash (and some coals to be honest) and packing the stove full. We're obviously asking for more than the stove should reasonably be able to provide. I understand this. As a result, I'm needing to clean out coals in order to load it full as often as is necessary to heat the space required. Probably not the most efficient use of wood, but it's cheaper than running the gas hog and I'm loaded to the gills with well seasoned slab wood and a couple of cords of nice oak.

So - what say ye gentlemen? A few splits at a time, and often, or load it to the gills and let 'er burn - even if I have to remove coals to do so?

 

[jadm]

I will start by saying I don't have a lot of experience with this but I can tell you what I have discovered.

My insert is new to me and a lot bigger than our old one. I began building fires like I did with the smaller one - 3 splits and some kindling. I got really hot temps. 600*+ and was hesitant to fill it up anymore.

Loads were hot for awhile but then temp. would begin to drop after about an hour.

Just learned how to really load firebox with a lot of wood and get longer burn times. I have discovered that with a full load the high temps. stay high for a much longer time span. Like several hours and the temps. lower at a slower rate. My house temps. stay pretty even throughout the burn.

Overall I have come to believe that full loads conserve wood as well as heat better and only need to be tended to every 6 hours for me.

I choose how I want to burn depending on my day's schedule.

So, I think you just do what makes you comfortable - what works in your house.

 

[cmonSTART]

The biggest reason I don't add wood to a burning fire is my stove will really coal up if I do that.

 

[BrotherBart]

Personally I put six splits in the 30 E/W oriented behind the coals stacked just to the top of the brick retainers to allow combustion space up top and one smaller square split on top of the coal bed . Let'er rip up to 400 degrees stove top temp, gradually closing the primary air to around 3/4 closed and it settles in around 500 - 550. If you let it set a little more open for a while it will move up to 600+ and usually I can shut the primary all the way down and get a 600+ burn for the early hours of the burn. With the single digit temps we are having right now I run the blower anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 to control the first floor temp which determines the second floor temp. The 500 burn is with flames and secondary picking up the strays. The 600+ burn is the natural gas flame looking light show up top. For me getting the couple hours of six hundred just robs me of the steady 500 or so longer later in the burn.

With two year old 18% red and white oak it is down to 300 stove top around nine or ten hours later but if you rake the coals forward and open the air it will drift back up around 400 for a while. The last couple of days I have just been scooping out the coals and ash at the front of the firebox at 300 and re-loading and away we go again.

So it pretty much depends on if you like to sleep on the couch or in bed for the same outcome. Well, that and if you do two at a time you end up with big coals stacked up to the top of the firebox. With a full load ya have a lot less coals to deal with. They heated your house.

 

[begreen]

In really cold weather, I load the stove to the gills, burn it a bit hotter than normal, when it gets to the coal stage, move them to the front center of the stove, burn them down with a lot of air for 15-30 min., then load it up full again. The goal when it's cold outside is heat.

Now when it's a balmy 25-35 outside, then once the house is warmed up, a few splits at a time will suffice.

 

[ansehnlich1]

I load 'er up at night, and I load 'er up in the morning.

Last couple nights I put 3 splits in around 2 or 3 a.m. That keeps the living room at 72+ in the morning.

On days I'm home I burn 1 or 2 splits at a time all day long.

I'll shovel coals and ash out anytime I have to just to have room to pack it if necessary.

I don't think it got much above 12 degrees here today, and breezy. I can't load during the day, so I packed it this morning, came home 9 hours later and the house was at 64 degrees.

 

[Creek-Chub]

Thanks fellas. We're only supposed to have another day or so of this crazy cold, so I guess if she wants to spend the night on the couch I'll live. Information gained, and passed on. We'll see where it goes from here...

 

[stoveguy2esw]

technically its more efficient to load up and burn through and repeat , adding splits during the second stage of the fire wastes energy charring the new wood.

fires burn in a woodstove in 3 stages for the most part:
1. char stage, when the wood is cooked of moisture and heated to the point of starting to outgas, or release the carbon compounds which are the "actual" fuel for the fire.

2. main stage, this is when the wood has finished charring , dried out completely and is fully outgassing which is allowing the fuel to be consumed at a rate regulated by the amount of heat and turbulence present which is controlled by the draft controls of the appliance.

3. coaling stage, outgassing has diminished , the wood has been mostly consumed but for smaller "coals" usually denser wood or wood that was not as exposed to turbulence during the main stage of the fire. at this point heating output is proportionally lower and the energy left over from the main stage is best put to use in starting the char stage of the next load of wood.

 

[Creek-Chub]

3. coaling stage, outgassing has diminished , the wood has been mostly consumed but for smaller "coals" usually denser wood or wood that was not as exposed to turbulence during the main stage of the fire. at this point heating output is proportionally lower and the energy left over from the main stage is best put to use in starting the char stage of the next load of wood.

This is my only beef with the stove, and is probably stemming more from ignorance than anything else. I find, especially when pushing the stove to the limit, that wood in the rear of the stove, away from the air inlet, is not burning well. It coals up quickly, to the point of having large chunks of "coal" in the rear of the stove that didn't burn. When not pushing the stove as hard, these coals end up burning down on their own eventually, but when I need maximum heat it is a slight problem. I try to move these to the front of the stove when possible, but it doesn't always work out. Is there an easy solution, or is this just the nature of the beast?

To be clear - I feel that I have way more than gotten my money's worth from the stove and am extremely happy with the performance we have seen - just curious as to whether or not there is an easy fix to my problem. More than likely, I'm just asking too much from it with these temps and need to make do, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Thanks...

 

[stoveguy2esw]

3. coaling stage, outgassing has diminished , the wood has been mostly consumed but for smaller "coals" usually denser wood or wood that was not as exposed to turbulence during the main stage of the fire. at this point heating output is proportionally lower and the energy left over from the main stage is best put to use in starting the char stage of the next load of wood.

This is my only beef with the stove, and is probably stemming more from ignorance than anything else. I find, especially when pushing the stove to the limit, that wood in the rear of the stove, away from the air inlet, is not burning well. It coals up quickly, to the point of having large chunks of "coal" in the rear of the stove that didn't burn. When not pushing the stove as hard, these coals end up burning down on their own eventually, but when I need maximum heat it is a slight problem. I try to move these to the front of the stove when possible, but it doesn't always work out. Is there an easy solution, or is this just the nature of the beast?

To be clear - I feel that I have way more than gotten my money's worth from the stove and am extremely happy with the performance we have seen - just curious as to whether or not there is an easy fix to my problem. More than likely, I'm just asking too much from it with these temps and need to make do, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Thanks...

which way are you loading east west or north south? also are you getting the wood all the way against the bricks on the sides or is there a litle room for primary air to get back there around the outer edge of the load? if there is a bit of room left around the edges sometimes it helps fast fires get more turbulence in the back of the box.