Am I doing this right

[agonyzhou]

Just got my wood insert a couple of days. What I am doing is a cycle like this:

I load the stove with about 20 pounds of wood;
wood catches in a few minutes, and I have nice looking flame for about 1.5 hours
Then I have nice looking coal bed, I wait maybe 1 hour, the coal bed will dull somewhat, and I go back to reload

Does that mean I have a burn time of 2.5 hours? And my hourly wood consumption is about 8 pounds?

My wood insert's only user control is blower speed. That does not affect burning much. What I am doing with it is like:

at reload, turn off the blower.
after 20 minutes or so, flame looking good, I turn it on to the lowest setting.
every 15 mins ~ 30 mins I try to feel the air temperature by hand. If I think it is uncomfortably hot like >150F, I increase blower speed a notch. If it is lukewarm like 110F I dial down a notch.
If I come back to the lowest notch and the temperature of the air exhaust is still dropping, that mean I need to reload again.

I wish there is something that can do this automatically. Like a thermalstat controlled variable speed blower?

I don't have a stove top or flue thermalstat. I do have an IR gun; if I point it to the middle of the glass, during brightest burn the reading is over 700F. hottest metal part on the front surface is around 400F.

 

[fire_man]

Are you saying you are reloading after 2.5 hours?
Burn time is calculated many ways.

Some say its time you have useful heat - usually the time it takes to burn down to a shallow and hot coal bed - ready to reload.
Some say its time to be able to reload without using a match which is longer than above.

You should not reload based on air outlet temperature, it should be based on a burned down coal bed.

 

[agonyzhou]

I am using your first definition, useful heat. If it is not giving me useful heat from the blower, I should reload, right? That is also shallow but hot coal bed covered by ash in my case.
Yes, I reload every 2.5 hours, more or less depends how much I load. Once I feel like weight the wood before reload, and it was ~20 pounds

 

[fire_man]

How deep is the coal base when you are reloading?

I never heard of a stove that burns down to a shallow (1-2" or so) coal base in only 2.5 hours unless there was a leak and it was burning too fast.

 

[Grizzerbear]

What is your insert

 

[agonyzhou]

I guess my coal bed at reload time is about 1-2'' inch.
maybe my wood is in smaller pieces than usual. Also my wood is not very dry; maybe 20~25%.
I don't think there is a leak; I've done the dollar bill test and it looks good. flame looks good either.
I do have some dryer wood; and I can see the difference in how soon it can catch and the amount of heat it give.
On a load of drier wood, with my human based variable speed blower control, I can go up to the highest setting for maybe 30mins. For wetter wood, no such luck. However, burn time is roughly the same.

How much do you reload each time? my insert has a 2.3 cubit foot firebox and I can pack 30 pound in there if I take my time. I settle to 20 pounds to be conservative.

 

[Grizzerbear]

With a 2.3 cf firebox u should be getting longer burns. You said wood is MAYBE 20-25. Have you tested a fresh split with a moisture meter at room temp. Do you hear sizzling when wood is burning. How tall is chimney?

 

[agonyzhou]

With a 2.3 cf firebox u should be getting longer burns. You said wood is MAYBE 20-25. Have you tested a fresh split with a moisture meter at room temp. Do you hear sizzling when wood is burning. How tall is chimney?

Yes, I did test on fresh split in room temp. It varies, also I don't exactly know the species of the wood I have; And I lost the piece of paper that relate wood name to the one of seven settings of my moisture meter. Some of the wetter wood does sizzle a bit and I try to avoid them as much as possible.

My chimney is 30 foot tall. Overdraft maybe? I am actually ok with shorter burn time so long as the heat is not wasted.

 

[fire_man]

Usually Poor wood would cause a deep coal base which takes a long time to burn down. You are saying you burn down in 2.5 hours which is crazy quick.

I have a 2.8 cubic foot box and it takes 12+ hours to get down to a 2" coal base. That 30" chimney might just be the culprit - draft is too strong.

 

[Grizzerbear]

That 30" chimney might just be the culprit - draft is too strong.

Thats what i was thinkin. What insert do you have agonyzhou.

 

[Grizzerbear]

You said no other controls other than blower is why i ask

 

[agonyzhou]

Thats what i was thinkin. What insert do you have agonyzhou.

I have VC montpelier II. there is no user air control.

Am I sending heat up the chimney? The back side of the chimney is in my unheated garage which has a ambient temp of ~45F. (warmer than outside by less than 10) If I point my IR gun at the bricks right behind my chimney, at ground level it is ~50F, it gets progressively hotter going up to about 7 foot, highest point about 100F, then slowly go down. Beyond the garage ceiling there were a second floor bathroom. nothing unusually warm on the wall, due the the insulation of dry wall and such. Last 10 foot of the chimney is exposed however I dare not to climp it. I think there is some small amount of heat into the garage but that is not entirely a bad thing.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

Thats what i was thinkin. What insert do you have agonyzhou.

Check his signature.

 

[Grizzerbear]

Sorry i cant find signatures....im on phone on tapatalk

 

[agonyzhou]

Can I ask you guys some general questions, with a non-cat stove that is not super tuned to longer burn time:

1, how much do you reload each time, in weight. Using weight should normalize across hardwood and softwood
2, How long do you see flame after the reload.
3, how long do have have coal that is still giving out reasonable heat, like not completely covered by ash.

Thanks in advance.

Oh, FYI, I cut and split my wood smaller than normal; like 12 inch long, 3~4 inch across; mainly to dry faster.

 

[fire_man]

1. Not too many people measure by weight. It really does not normalize since weight varies with how well its seasoned. I'm betting unseasoned pine weighs more than seasoned oak.
2. I see flames for about 3 hours after reload - mostly secondaries.
3. My Hot coals last another 8-10 hours after the flame goes out - still glowing red.

 

[agonyzhou]

I see. In my case there is not much secondary, but at the highest point the flame does fill up the whole firebox. My coal also glow for sometime but after 1 hour or so they are buried under ash so is not giving out a lot of heat. I think I can stretch reload longer but I do need the heat.

Anyway, tonight I am going to use eco bricks which also conveniently come in as 20 pound packages.

 

[Woody Stover]

My wood insert's only user control is blower speed.

You haven't mentioned your stove's most important control, the primary air. How far open is it set after you've burned in and established a fresh load of wood?
Are you doing something like this when you re-load? https://www.hearth.com/talk/posts/2398134/

 

[agonyzhou]

You haven't mentioned your stove's most important control, the primary air. How far open is it set after you've burned in and established a fresh load of wood?

There is no such thing on this baby. It is a curse or a blessing; one less sharp edge to cut myself?

The primary is fixed on this stove. It has a separate air intake controlled by a timer that I am supposed to press during reload. If the coal bed is thick enough I don't even have to do that.

 

[bholler]

There is no such thing on this baby. It is a curse or a blessing; one less sharp edge to cut myself?

The primary is fixed on this stove. It has a separate air intake controlled by a timer that I am supposed to press during reload. If the coal bed is thick enough I don't even have to do that.

So there is no control over the stove at all? Wow

 

[begreen]

My chimney is 30 foot tall. Overdraft maybe? I am actually ok with shorter burn time so long as the heat is not wasted.

There is a good chance of this and that the insert is not a good one for 24/7 heating.

 

[blades]

I could see that kind time with low density types of wood-pine, cotton, bass/ box, particularly if the splits are say in the 3" size or so class. even Ash at 3" cross section split wil burn down pretty quick along with any of the big leaf maples and similar types. Generally the room blower on the insert would not have any effect on the burn rate in the fire box. I am surprised there is not a main combustion air control of some sort on the unit. I am in agreement with others that your flue at 30 ft could be cause an overdraft problem- adding a damper to same might help . Is the orginial flue set up with a block off plate above the insert that allows for the current flue to pass through but blocks any excessive gaps beyond that? if not that needs to be done.
not really apples to apples but i run a a NC 30 free standing stove ( quite a bit large than your insert) I load the stove on the few coals left in it at roughly 4-5am mixed hardwoods mostly Ash right now. 2200 sq foot home well insulated that load will keep house generally above 65 for 12 hours, which is about when i get back. Harking back to the 80's I had one of those pre- built fire places- stuck a cheap insert in it from box store ( no controls on that one that I remember) it would warm the room and some would get out into adjacent areas but it sure pulled a lot of air which of course had to come from outside by infiltration- dang thing would actually cause the furnace to run. I put folding doors on the room entrance and we kept them closed when used the insert ( the room was actually a porch behind the attached garage that had been enclosed prior to our purchase) room would get to high 70's that way but you had to keep your feet off the floor due to rush of cold air being drawn in by the insert and that the fooring was right on the concrete slab.

 

[agonyzhou]

not really apples to apples but i run a a NC 30 free standing stove ( quite a bit large than your insert) I load the stove on the few coals left in it at roughly 4-5am mixed hardwoods mostly Ash right now. 2200 sq foot home well insulated that load will keep house generally above 65 for 12 hours, which is about when i get back.

Let me ask you this way, to keep your 2200 sq foot home warm for 12 hours, how much wood (ash I supposed) did you stuff in your stove this morning? In weight or in cubic foot?

 

[bholler]

Let me ask you this way, to keep your 2200 sq foot home warm for 12 hours, how much wood (ash I supposed) did you stuff in your stove this morning? In weight or in cubic foot?

Allot depends upon outside temps. In upper 30s to low 40s roughly 3 cubic feet will heat my 2200 sqft to lower 70s for 12 hours. But I have had air controls on every stove I have used

 

[Grizzerbear]

Wow
[/QUOT
Kinda what i thought. I looked on vc site to look and couldnt find the specs on the insert. So how does that work does it just run on high full time or what. If so i would think stove would be hotter than gates of hell.