-8 degrees / ? smoke

[mainemac]

Cold this am
Question on smoke coming out of chimney in extreme cold.
I know with correct combustion little to no smoke coming out of chimney
With wet wood there is whole bunch.

I just put some biobricks in and went out to load the bird feeder noted moderate amount from my chimney ( a bit more from woodstove neighbor)
I know the biobricks are dry!
I notice in moderate temps I have little to no smoke with wood or bricks
With extreme cold I think you cannot rely on this as a guide to clean burning; density of the cold air?
Not sure why it is so
I live near ocean and sea smoke rises up in these temps as well likely same reason


Stay warm friends

Tom

 

[Pagey]

If what you are seeing is white and is dissipating quickly, you're simply seeing steam condensing as it meets the super cold air. If it's blue/grey and leaving a 25ft trail, it is smoke. I'm guessing the former.

 

[jetmech]

Its the dew point man, what you are seeing is probably steam. The atmosphere can hold but little moisture with dewpoints that low....

 

[CowboyAndy]

You will see that in ANY house that is being heated. Think about it, the exaust of any type of furnace is hot, meeting that COLD air. Cars do it too...

 

[SlyFerret]

Yup. My stove was burnin' nice and hot, with plenty of secondary this morning when I left. I know it was burning clean, but I too had that white steam coming out of my chimney. I'm not worried about it though. Nothing you can do really, since we need the humidity inside to keep from getting dried out.

-SF

 

[Yamaha_gurl]

Good thing! I just had the same thing, I 'm sitting here on the comp and I look out the window and can see "smoke", and I usually never see it. So I check and see quite a bit coming out, so then run back in the house and click on this thread :D -17 C here!

 

[Jags]

With a temp of -33F this morning, I noticed the longest vapor trail I have ever seen from my stack this morning. Its pretty normal during bitter cold weather.

 

[Corey]

hydrocarbons + oxygen --> carbon dioxide + water

HC + O2 --> CO2 + H2O

Of course, this is just one of many reactions, but even if the wood is totally dry, you're making water when you burn. This is 'technically' invisible steam as it goes up the flue and condenses into water vapor when it hits the cold air.

 

[skinnykid]

got down to -15 last night. I noticed alot of white smoke coming out also, I just figured it was getting super cold real fast and went to bed.

 

[jadm]

Just have to comment on how much I love learning all of these tidbits about wood burning.

My children roll their eyes when I tell them new things I have learned.

My husband is learning to be tolerant. He just doesn't want to know as much as I do.

Everything I have learned comes in handy when something out of the ordinary shows up. I know where to find a solution or I already have one due to my browsing.

Thanks for all who add their knowledge and experience here. :coolsmile:

 

[jpl1nh]

hydrocarbons + oxygen --> carbon dioxide + water

HC + O2 --> CO2 + H2O

Of course, this is just one of many reactions, but even if the wood is totally dry, you're making water when you burn. This is 'technically' invisible steam as it goes up the flue and condenses into water vapor when it hits the cold air.

Well said, or a simpler version is water plus CO2 plus sunlight makes plants and burning plants breaks them back down to heat, CO2 and water again. Another monor factor (unless you have an OAK) is that you are exhausting warm air from inside your house through your stove up your chimney and it is holding much more water vapor than the frigid outside air so to is adding to the condensation you are seeing.

 

[Cearbhaill]

I know this morning I could see the shadow of my chimney on my next door neighbors house, which isn't remarkable at all. What was remarkable was that I could also see the shadow of smoke coming out of the chimney. It did alarm me, as I hardly ever see anything. I went out and looked and sure enough it was just steam. I just happened to see it as the sun caught things just right and it looked like a freight train!