Revisiting fire brick

[begreen]

And if you change the insulation value of the sides and bottom where those firebrick are you will change those clearances.

Perhaps better to say that it may change those clearances...
How much or if the clearances change would be a matter of stove design. In a metal jacketed stove or one with built-in heat shielding there may be little difference, if any. How much is unknown without proper testing.

 

[FyreBug]

All I am saying is since the test results show the baffle makes no difference in performance/emissions/efficiencies. The MFG can stick whatever they want there. Some MFG have the same firebox under different brands. So for marketing purpose they might use steel, pumice, other bricks, C Cast etc. Each having their own costs and perceived advantages.

I dont know why some dont use blankets. You would have to ask them. Most MFG do not have the funds for their own elaborate labs. They have to pay independent labs to certify their stoves $$$$$. It could be they are not as 'sophisticated' in finding out for themselves all the tricks of labs testing.

The data I saw was proprietary this was over 3 years ago. So I cant share it. As I said, I dont have an axe to grind, since I am not in the industry anymore. Just thought you would find it interesting. You may choose to believe me or not... If it really matters to you, write various MFG's about it. I think they will keep this information close to their vest.

Clearances is another issue and yes side insulation does make a difference. Since the temps reached in a wood stove is nowhere near at par with forging ovens the argument for pumice vs solid bricks is over estimated IMHO. It does make a difference on the side walls. By how much? I dont know...

 

[FyreBug]

BTW if you are interested in what our forging operation looks like...

 

[bholler]

Perhaps better to say that it may change those clearances...
How much or if the clearances change would be a matter of stove design. In a metal jacketed stove or one with built-in heat shielding there may be little difference, if any. How much is unknown without proper testing.

Yes you are correct

 

[bholler]

Clearances is another issue and yes side insulation does make a difference.

But it really isn't a totally different issue changing out the bricks or baffle for that matter probably has very little to no effect of the emissions but it may on I care much more about whether or not the tested clearances are correct or not. And by changing the bricks you could very well be changing those clearances. Which is why from the start I have been saying use the same tye of bricks that your stove was tested with.

 

[Huntindog1]

I added more insulation to my baffle and saw better performance in general, no technical data just experience with my stove.
I also insulated behind the firebricks with 1/4" ceramic insulation . But less heat radiated out of the stove.
So I removed it all. I noticed one newly designed stove thats one of the cleanest burning stoves on the market has a real
low grams of emissions but has a poor rating of getting heat out into the room even tho its super low emissions rating which
one would think is a measurement of efficiency. But efficiency is actually how much of the potential heat in the wood actually got into the
house your trying to heat.

As you turn your stove down to very low levels of input air , question is how low can you go before killing the secondary flames up in the top of the stove.
And thats a function of whats the heat level up in the top of the stove around those secondary burn tubes. As the heat level need to stay at a certain level to maintain a secondary burn. You dont want to close the input air down so low and it kills your secondary flames.

Lastly in my experience is you gain much more from using drier wood than playing around with insulating your firebox or switching to pumice bricks for their more insulating properties.