2018-19 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 2 (Everything BK)

[lsucet]

Ashful, if you going through a cord every three weeks, your running those ashfords pretty hard. My wood consumption with the ashford and princess is less 2/3 less than that

What happen is the Ashfull OAK burns faster than pine.

 

[darktower007]

Anyone want to take a shot at this?
I load up 3 medium splits NS, then 3 splits on top of that EW, if I can fit a couple tiny rounds or branch ends on top of that I do. But assuming those 6 splits in one load, how many loads would you estimate in a facecord of wood for a Blazeking Ashford or Princess?

I'm aware of the debate over the term facecord, if you don't want to use that term just substitute for 1/3 cord. My wood comes from a variety of sources so it varies in length from <16" to 20".

I'm new to a Blazeking but I know some of you guys have this down to a science and with the stove burning so consistent you probably know exactly what you burn through each year. I'm interested in roughly calculating how many fires I can get out of each cord / facecord so I can decide how many overnight fires I can afford to run for the remainder of this season.

It’s possible to get an idea maybe within +\-20%
So many variables. Your wood source, exact cut length, species burning, moisture of said Rick (average). Splits per load, load time, ambient temp averages shoulder to shoulder wind speeds etc.

An easy way? Load full daily when out load again cruise on temp you like for one week, average them out.

My day job is QC testing and controls so I get carried away with science projects lol.



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[showrguy]

Now...this is a flame shield! (King Flame Shield in front)View attachment 237668

OK Chris, I'll bite...
What's that shield for ??

 

[begreen]

That said, I average 1 cord per 3 weeks, at three loads per day. So, even with all that packing, I’m only getting 2.03 cu.ft. stacked wood per load on a stove rated 2.65 cu.ft. This has been averaged over three full seasons, at roughly 400 loads per season, so I am quite confident in the numbers.

Average of 8 hr burn time during the winter season?

 

[ratsrepus]

Im wondering how much wood per season he would burn if the big old open fire places he has with going? We have it pretty easy I guess, I mean with chain saws, powered log splitters, efficient wood stoves. I just cant imagine how folks back in the days were able to supply themselves with enough wood to heat their homes. Must have been a full time job. Of course no TV, facebook and others things we consume our time with these days, what else did one have to do

 

[tarzan]

Of course no TV, facebook and others things we consume our time with these days, what else did one have to do

Shoe horses, tend garden, feed livestock, mend fences, raise 10 kids (that walk to school/up hill both ways) fetch water, make clothes, etc.

 

[jetsam]

OK Chris, I'll bite...
What's that shield for ??

THEY FINALLY PROTOTOTYPED MY NEW 10CF SUPERKING

I AM SO HAPPY

Also, the presence of sterile petri dishes in the background clearly indicates that they are developing bioengineered giant raccoons to be trained for stove loading.

We truly live in a time of wonders.

 

[jetsam]

Im wondering how much wood per season he would burn if the big old open fire places he has with going? We have it pretty easy I guess, I mean with chain saws, powered log splitters, efficient wood stoves. I just cant imagine how folks back in the days were able to supply themselves with enough wood to heat their homes. Must have been a full time job. Of course no TV, facebook and others things we consume our time with these days, what else did one have to do

Having done it both ways, I'll tell you: I use a lot less wood now, but I spend more time overall. Back in the day, we would drop a tree, limb it, drag it out of the woods with a tractor, split it, and put it in a big uncovered pile. You'd look for dry wood on the bottom on the rare occasion that a fire needed to be started from scratch. Usually fireplaces got started either with banked stove coals or banked coals in the fireplace itself.

When the fire was roaring, whatever was on top was what went on the fire.

So we had way less heat for way more wood, but we spent a quarter of the time processing it and moving it and hauling it and so forth. Today by the time I burn a nice dry 3 year old oak split, I've probably touched the damn thing 10 times.

(And no, I am not 100 years old... let's just say that the rate of technological adoption is not perfectly uniform across the country.)

 

[kennyp2339]

So we had way less heat for way more wood, but we spent a quarter of the time processing it and moving it and hauling it and so forth. Today by the time I burn a nice dry 3 year old oak split, I've probably touched the damn thing 10 times.

You city slickers aint half bad after all.

 

[Ashful]

Ashful, if you going through a cord every three weeks, your running those ashfords pretty hard. My wood consumption with the ashford and princess is less 2/3 less than that

Hah... I used to burn up to a cord per week, in my Jotuls! The BK's are just barely sipping wood, by comparison. It's 128 cu.ft. / 21 days = 6.09 cubic feet per day. One stove gets loaded twice per day, and the other once per day, for a total load of 3x 2.0 cubic feet per day. How much wood are you using?

Average of 8 hr burn time during the winter season?

I bet you're doing the mental math, and figuring 128 cubes / 21 days = 6 cu.ft./day = 3 loads/day... but in my case it's spread across the two stoves, two loads per day in one, and one in the other. I have found the thermostat settings that give me a repeatable 12 and 24 hours from the two stoves and run them on those schedules during the week. I might push an extra evening half-load thru one stove in very cold weather, or skip a day on the other on warmer days, but it's rare I deviate from that 3 weeks per cord average.

Im wondering how much wood per season he would burn if the big old open fire places he has with going? We have it pretty easy I guess, I mean with chain saws, powered log splitters, efficient wood stoves. I just cant imagine how folks back in the days were able to supply themselves with enough wood to heat their homes. Must have been a full time job. Of course no TV, facebook and others things we consume our time with these days, what else did one have to do

Someone posted an article here about six years ago, that was a very well-referenced bit of research on heating in America in the late 18th century. I remember the published "average family usage" number had us all initially yelling that it had to be wrong, it was such a surprisingly large amount, but after some reasoning and discussion (and recognition of the research that went into the article), we all realized it must have been pretty close to right. Maybe begreen remembers, he has a much better memory than me, but it was something like 30 cords per year, per average household.

This house has the two large cooking fireplaces, but I'm not sure how much either was used, as both had thimbles installed above the mantel. There were thimbles for five stoves in the house, and a sixth in the summer kitchen, so they likely ripped thru some wood in their very-very-pre-EPA stoves of the 1770's.

 

[gregbesia]

I remember reading something that G. Washington' home/mansion in Vernon used 1 cord of wood per day

 

[kf6hap]

Anybody use one of these satanic coal getters?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NA9R9KC/?tag=hearthamazon-20

 

[Marshy]

Now...this is a flame shield! (King Flame Shield in front)View attachment 237668

Getting ready to launch a new larger stove?

 

[ratsrepus]

How much wood are you using?

I figure about 3/4 cord a month combined for both stoves, of course Im heating a fraction of what you are. 30%less than with the F500 and douchewest POS

 

[darktower007]

Getting ready to launch a new larger stove?

BK Goliath?


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[ratsrepus]

Getting ready to launch a new larger stove?

yep the King Kong version 12 inch chimney, but you can run it on a 8

 

[Marshy]

Good you got you're setup working Marshy...
But :;;; You have to admit.... You were doing everything against what BK recomends for your situation !! Right ??

Negative. It was installed in full compliance and had the proper draft. Only thing not in compliance was with a recommendation for it to be installed with an insulated flue.

 

[Tegbert]

Hah... I used to burn up to a cord per week, in my Jotuls! The BK's are just barely sipping wood, by comparison. It's 128 cu.ft. / 21 days = 6.09 cubic feet per day. One stove gets loaded twice per day, and the other once per day, for a total load of 3x 2.0 cubic feet per day. How much wood are you using?


I bet you're doing the mental math, and figuring 128 cubes / 21 days = 6 cu.ft./day = 3 loads/day... but in my case it's spread across the two stoves, two loads per day in one, and one in the other. I have found the thermostat settings that give me a repeatable 12 and 24 hours from the two stoves and run them on those schedules during the week. I might push an extra evening half-load thru one stove in very cold weather, or skip a day on the other on warmer days, but it's rare I deviate from that 3 weeks per cord average.


Someone posted an article here about six years ago, that was a very well-referenced bit of research on heating in America in the late 18th century. I remember the published "average family usage" number had us all initially yelling that it had to be wrong, it was such a surprisingly large amount, but after some reasoning and discussion (and recognition of the research that went into the article), we all realized it must have been pretty close to right. Maybe begreen remembers, he has a much better memory than me, but it was something like 30 cords per year, per average household.

This house has the two large cooking fireplaces, but I'm not sure how much either was used, as both had thimbles installed above the mantel. There were thimbles for five stoves in the house, and a sixth in the summer kitchen, so they likely ripped thru some wood in their very-very-pre-EPA stoves of the 1770's.

This article talk about that. 40 cords is a lot of wood.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/chriss...much-firewood-did-colonial-americans-use/amp/


Lopi Rockport
Blaze King Ashford 25

 

[darktower007]

I remember reading something that G. Washington' home/mansion in Vernon used 1 cord of wood per day

Makes sense. They had 21 rooms plus kitchen and parlor. Prob like 23 fireplaces!


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[showrguy]

Negative. It was installed in full compliance and had the proper draft. Only thing not in compliance was with a recommendation for it to be installed with an insulated flue.

I think you forgot some things...
But, either way, it's good to see you're warm now !!
I'm actually messin with those fans a lil bit this year,,,,,,,,,,,,,, a lil bit !!

 

[kf6hap]

Nice read. Puts a few things into perspective. When I first moved here I did wonder if my little 10 acres would be depleted of burnable wood. That was 47 years ago. Actually, a lot of wood is rotting on the forest floor. The BK helps a lot.

https://chrisstevensonauthor.com/2016/01/24/how-much-firewood-did-colonial-americans-use/

 

[begreen]

Actually, a lot of wood is rotting on the forest floor.

That's good and the natural order of things.

 

[jetsam]

One thing that's not mentioned and may not be obvious to the modern reader is that insulation wasn't really a thing. That's okay, because hollow walls were also not a thing until milled timbers got to be available and balloon framing got popular in the 1830s.

Balloon framed houses were often insulated with absolutely nothing for a long time after they became common. When you look inside those walls today you'll find empty air, old newspapers, sawdust.... heard one story about a wall insulated with coal. It's whatever anyone has jammed in there over the years. I had a house with homemade newspaper insulation, and it was 1930s construction, 100 years after hollow walls took over.

Err anyway, glass was available in america from the 1600s, but it was entirely imported at great cost until the 1730s, and even once local glass manufacturing started up, you needed to have some money to have glass windows. Glass, being a luxury for the wealthy, was one of the things specifically taxed by the revenue act of 1767- so you could say it was a contributor to the American revolution.

And no glass in the windows doesn't keep the cordwood usage down in your uninsulated house.

None of the above really applies to wealthy generals who built themselves castles full of servants, as they could afford to build with stone and import all the glass they wanted.

 

[Ashful]

One thing that's not mentioned and may not be obvious to the modern reader is that insulation wasn't really a thing. That's okay, because hollow walls were also not a thing until milled timbers got to be available and balloon framing got popular in the 1830s.

Balloon framed houses were often insulated with absolutely nothing for a long time after they became common. When you look inside those walls today you'll find empty air, old newspapers, sawdust.... heard one story about a wall insulated with coal. It's whatever anyone has jammed in there over the years. I had a house with homemade newspaper insulation, and it was 1930s construction, 100 years after hollow walls took over.

Err anyway, glass was available in america from the 1600s, but it was entirely imported at great cost until the 1730s, and even once local glass manufacturing started up, you needed to have some money to have glass windows. Glass, being a luxury for the wealthy, was one of the things specifically taxed by the revenue act of 1767- so you could say it was a contributor to the American revolution.

And no glass in the windows doesn't keep the cordwood usage down in your uninsulated house.

None of the above really applies to wealthy generals who built themselves castles full of servants, as they could afford to build with stone and import all the glass they wanted.

Great post jetsam, and all totally correct. Also worth noting that you can get a pretty good idea of house age by just looking at the size of the “lights”, or glass panes, in the window. The 8x10 lights in my windows would have been exceedingly expensive and the absolute latest technology in the 1770’s. Henry Mercer has written some great books on this.

A little more on topic, our concept of heating and “comfort” is pretty new. Our working-class forefathers did not heat their homes to 70F, and finding your bedroom wash bowl frozen in the morning was just a normal day. They had a relatively warm kitchen as a side effect of the cooking, and possibly a parlor, but the rest of the house would normally be mostly unheated in the winter.

We have all three “generations” in this house. Solid stone at one end, pre-cement era mud-stacked. Move to the middle of the house, and our “modern kitchen” addition is late-1800’s balloon framing. Keep going beyond that, and there’s another addition of 1990’s modern stick framing. So, we get to enjoy the problems and headaches of maintaining all three types, but I have to say the older it is, the less trouble it has caused us. Eg. I have 25 year old windows that are in far worse shape than most of my 245 year old windows.

 

[darktower007]

So any ideas on loading the BK Ashford 25 for longest burn?
My question is the angular box is very wide at front then narrows. So would loading EW it NS give the best results? Top down or bottom up?

My wood isn’t perfect as it’s about 18-20% mc Red oak.

Splits are average triangles. I really don’t have any BIG splits ready to burn.


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