-35 celcius, power out & jotul f500 question

[hardcore]

I have only been burning my Jotul F500 for 4 days now. It goes through wood like crazy, but I'm thinking that is to be expected since I'm burning spruce and in a colder climate. (Not even close to the Blaze king my buddy has, but I bought my jotul for looks, not burn times) Not too big of a concern since it kept the my whole 2000sq/ft house nice and toasty today for a 12 hour power outage.

My question is at lower temps, -20 celcius I get no smoke from the chimney when it is burning on the secondaries. Now when it is below -30 I get a lot more smoke coming from the chimney. Does temperature affect the amount of smoke coming from the chimney? Or am I getting less efficient because my draft is increasing?

Thanks in advance!

P.S. Here is a snippet from our local weather....

Warnings
La Ronge - Prince Albert Nat. Park - Narrow Hills Prov. Park
3:30 PM CST Friday 11 December 2009
Wind chill warning for
La Ronge - Prince Albert Nat. Park - Narrow Hills Prov. Park issued

Extreme wind chills tonight.

This is a warning that extreme wind chill conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.

A pool of bitterly cold Arctic air has settled over Northern Saskatchewan with temperatures near minus 40. Tonight a brisk northwesterly flow will develop over the area producing extreme wind chill values in the minus fifties. The extreme wind chill values will continue on Saturday.

At these extreme wind chill values frostbite on exposed skin may occur in less than 5 minutes.

 

[begreen]

I'll bet that is water vapor (white steam that dissipates quickly) and not smoke. It has been so cold here lately that we are seeing vapors coming off the sound because the water is much warmer than the air. Quite beautiful actually. But our temps are nothing like what you are having to deal with. I would expect to be going through a lot of wood.

 

[bogydave]

Is it dark or gray colored smoke or white water vapor?
My stove don't smoke much when the catalytic is active but I see the white moisture coming out when it gets around 5 °F .
I kick it up on high for about 1 hour every day or so, open the cat/bypass, just to heat up the chimny & push any moisture out of it.
I think it helps push some of the corrosive gasses & liquids out & helps keep it cleaner.
don't know this for a fact, but I don't have much (if any) build up after about 3 weeks of burning.

 

['bert]

might just be steam, how dry is your wood? As long as it's 22% or less I would not worry.

We have a forecast of -35C tonight and high of -30C tomorrow then a bit of low at -42C for tomorrow night (sat dec 12). So it will be interesting to see how the BIS does.

You sask folks can have this weather...

 

[hardcore]

might just be steam, how dry is your wood? As long as it's 22% or less I would not worry.

We have a forecast of -35C tonight and high of -30C tomorrow then a bit of low at -42C for tomorrow night (sat dec 12). So it will be interesting to see how the BIS does.

You sask folks can have this weather...

I don't know how dry my wood is. I guess I need a tester. Ya that is some cold weather for you guys as well!

 

[littlesmokey]

Just for curiosity sake, how much wood do you have indoors (days worth) and if you stick a split in direct from outside, what happens? I can only imagine it could be exciting, or really really boring.

 

[grommal]

Likely just steam. If you're seeing good secondary combustion, and if you're hearing the low rumble from the secondaries, there's no way you're getting lots of unburned gases escaping.

 

[firefighterjake]

Another vote for steam.