I'm just trying to get a grip on next years wood requirements. No doubt I've burned a lot of wood this year, however, I can't be right. Currently with my EKO 40, I'm loading it 3 times per day - sometimes 4. I have no storage, and my wood was marginal this year, okay, very marginal. When I got real good, dry wood, it burned real hot, and sometimes would idle at 190. So if I'm figuring on burning from October 1 through March 31, loading 3 times per day I figured that I'm going to need 21 cords - am I wrong?? I do plan on working on storage this year and insulating all of my pipes, as my EKO is in an outdoor shed that is currently un-insulated. Thoughts please....
Am I figuring right, 21 cords per season?
- Thread starter markpee
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What is your current fuel type and use? We can estimate wood use based on that. I will say that 21 cord is quite a bit unless you're heating a very large building...
figure out the heat load of your house (using calculators that others have referenced here on Hearth)- and then look at the average year's heating degree day season total for your location- then look at the BTU's per cord for the types of wood that you are burning. then
21 cords in a gasifier sounds "out of control" unless you have a house that is both unusually vast and unusually un-insulated
21 cords in a gasifier sounds "out of control" unless you have a house that is both unusually vast and unusually un-insulated
Wow I hope not for your sake. I used to burn 100 gal of heating oil in cold months heating 2500 sq ft in the artic. Now I burn 1/2 cord a month + 20 gal of heating oil. This does not compute with the btu chart but I also keep the house warmer with wood heat.
Markpee,
I use my boiler all year long and don't use that much wood. It sound like you need to shut down the spa, only heat the garage when you need to do some work in it, close the upstairs windows close off the damper to the fire place when you're not using it and close the dog door. LOL
What does your flame look like? What color is the ash in your secondary chamber? My EKO40 is getting 4-6hr burns with soft/low density woods and 8-12hr burns with various hard/high density woods with 8.5 hours being my shortest run in the recent -0 cold snap. I do get shorter burn times with 16" compared to 19-20" lengths but my unit idles frequently. I have the old controller so I can't slow my blower or get the temps that you can and my unit is in an unheated building so I am struggling with a lot of issues and I still get better burn times. How wide are your secondaries/primaries and blower set to? With my unit, though I am getting a blue flame, I can cool the water temps with too much secondary air as too much secondary air will just send cool air into your heat exchanger tubes in spite of a hot looking burn. My blower is only open about 1/2". My primaries are set to 6mm and my secondaries are set at 2 turns open. I used to burn a lot more wood than I am now and I had a huge orange flame and thought I was doing good. My annual wood consumption has not exceeded 8 (4' x 4' x 8') cords.
I use my boiler all year long and don't use that much wood. It sound like you need to shut down the spa, only heat the garage when you need to do some work in it, close the upstairs windows close off the damper to the fire place when you're not using it and close the dog door. LOL
What does your flame look like? What color is the ash in your secondary chamber? My EKO40 is getting 4-6hr burns with soft/low density woods and 8-12hr burns with various hard/high density woods with 8.5 hours being my shortest run in the recent -0 cold snap. I do get shorter burn times with 16" compared to 19-20" lengths but my unit idles frequently. I have the old controller so I can't slow my blower or get the temps that you can and my unit is in an unheated building so I am struggling with a lot of issues and I still get better burn times. How wide are your secondaries/primaries and blower set to? With my unit, though I am getting a blue flame, I can cool the water temps with too much secondary air as too much secondary air will just send cool air into your heat exchanger tubes in spite of a hot looking burn. My blower is only open about 1/2". My primaries are set to 6mm and my secondaries are set at 2 turns open. I used to burn a lot more wood than I am now and I had a huge orange flame and thought I was doing good. My annual wood consumption has not exceeded 8 (4' x 4' x 8') cords.
I think if you did the math "3 or 4" EKO 40 fireboxes per day has to be MUCH less than 21 real cords. Face cords, maybe. But man, that's a lot of wood if you're talking real cords???
Cave2k said:
The key ingredient is "marginal wood". My settings are about perfect for the moist wood I'm burning - I have a blue to orange flame. Bottom line is I was not prepared this year. Next year, now that's a different story. Once I get the good wood in storage, I'll perfect my settings. I'm also in an unheated building, and have a lot of heat loss in my basement, as there is about 30' between where my pex enters from underground and hooks to the oil furnace. I will be adding storage, so I'll clean all of that up this year. Oh, and my house is 2300 square feet. I keep my insulated garage at 40 degrees, and my wife uses her 75 gallon jacuzzi at least once per day! Seriously.
Species of wood does make a difference. I had been burning hard maple and yellow birch since the start of the heating season and then all of a sudden I'm going through tons of wood. After a few days of that, I concluded that I had gotten into a section of my woodpile where I had stacked some red maple from a tree that I had cut from the corner of my lawn. After putting it aside for use when the weather warms up, I'm back to burning the hard stuff and getting longer burns. There was no difference in the temps. of the boiler, just took more wood to achive them. I could not believe the difference!
CowboyAndy said:
If it were face cords than were talking about 7 full cords. That's why I posted this, I'm trying to get someone to help me figure out if I'm filling the unit 3-4 times per day how many cords do I need - Some good points have been raised here, such as: I won't burn that much when we get to 30-40 degrees and above - it's much less. But in the cold we have now, I'm loading 3-4 times per day. Also, my wife was home with our newborn from October until today, so there will be no one loading during the day.
To be safe, I'll probably stack 10 cords for next year - I'll start chopping in the spring, this way I'l have good quality wood for the season.
Markpee,
You do seem have a larger heat load than I do. My house is old though and the only insulation they used when it was built was warmer clothes. The moisture in my wood is probably not that far from yours and from experience I would say the orange you are seeing could be cut by 50% with adjustments that might bring your fire temperature up by 10-20% or a little more. Predominately I am burning bl. walnut for hard wood and I save my hard maple and red oak for the real cold stuff. We are at -8 right now and am using the walnut. The walnut is rated at 20 million btu per "full" cord and the oak at 24 million. At around 25*f I see 10 hour burns with the walnut. Down load (select/copy/paste to "word") the chart at this link ((broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)) and sort the wood you are burning in this cold weather and see if that helps. I still think you blower is set too high though but from where I sit that's easy to say as I am not there and it just might be only the type of wood you are burning versus your heat load. My boiler would not get the burn times it does with a constant call for heat. For second thoughts try putting some of those closed cell foam tubes on your lines in the basement to the furnace. Those tubes are all I used for insulating my lines under ground inside of a 4" corrugated plastic pipe and virtually have no temperature drop in 48' from boiler to house.
You do seem have a larger heat load than I do. My house is old though and the only insulation they used when it was built was warmer clothes. The moisture in my wood is probably not that far from yours and from experience I would say the orange you are seeing could be cut by 50% with adjustments that might bring your fire temperature up by 10-20% or a little more. Predominately I am burning bl. walnut for hard wood and I save my hard maple and red oak for the real cold stuff. We are at -8 right now and am using the walnut. The walnut is rated at 20 million btu per "full" cord and the oak at 24 million. At around 25*f I see 10 hour burns with the walnut. Down load (select/copy/paste to "word") the chart at this link ((broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)) and sort the wood you are burning in this cold weather and see if that helps. I still think you blower is set too high though but from where I sit that's easy to say as I am not there and it just might be only the type of wood you are burning versus your heat load. My boiler would not get the burn times it does with a constant call for heat. For second thoughts try putting some of those closed cell foam tubes on your lines in the basement to the furnace. Those tubes are all I used for insulating my lines under ground inside of a 4" corrugated plastic pipe and virtually have no temperature drop in 48' from boiler to house.
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