Am I making a huge mistake with fans?

[oska]

So I have another question:

1. I talked to a smart friend of mine and he told me that the best way to transfer heat from the stove to my house would be to blow a bunch of fans on the stove constantly throughout the day.

2. He also told me to connect a tube to the outside of the house and then place it in front of the port that acts for air intake - he told me NOT to attach it, but just put something next to it so it's held in place. So what I do is I had a friend of mine construct a dryer tube that people use for laundry to the outside of my house, had a hole drilled , and then put it onto the front of my stove. My friend confirmed that air was being pulled from outside!

3. So I listened to him and bought 2 fans that are powerful and started pointing them at my stove on either side. Ever since I've been doing this, my house gets SUPER hot and I don't see any problems with my stove.

Why haven't I read about anyone else doing this?

Am I making a huge mistake, or am I just increasing the efficiency of my stove dramatically by dumping more and more heat into the house?

Please help with my insecurities!

 

[gleblanc1783]

Sounds like a decent enough idea. I know that it's always best practice to blow the 'cold' air towards the heat source, not the other way around. And the dryer vent is acting like a poor man's outside air kit that can hook directly up to your stove.

 

[spirilis]

Sounds good. Many of us have stoves with blowers on the back that push cold air around the stove or through convective channels in the back & sides, for those that don't it may be beneficial to have fans blowing at the stove. I have one of those Ecofans on my stovetop which helps too.

 

[spirilis]

The main thing to keep a watch on is (when burning wood) the flue temperature, trying to make sure it's not too cold that creosote can condense inside the chimney. Also I have noticed fans blowing late in the burn cycle may prevent the wood from burning all the way down to ash, leaving charcoal behind. That was true more for my old cast iron woodstove than my new steel stove which has firebrick inside the firebox.

 

[oska]

I don't have any fans inside the fire or contributing to the fire - these fans are equivalent to a ceiling fan - but a "poor man's" ceiling fan. Just two fans propped up along side the stove pushing air around the room.

I'm not too worried about creasole because I think I can just burn a very hot coal fire to burn it all down, right? I notice that after a hot coal fire the wiindow gets very clean all of a sudden.

I just had the chimney swept before this year, but I do burn a lot of pine and wet wood - though it seems to burn very well and put off a bunch of heat regardless of how wet or terribly seasoned the wood is.

I'm not very wealthy and very poor right now, so I have had friends bring me truckloads of wood from their yards and stuff like that rather than order a bunch of expensive hardwood. I routinely burn half rotted wood and such - a good firend of mine helped me split a bunch of "bad wood" that dried and has given me GREAT heat.

Most of the time I use this wood to start a fire for a coal fire, and that's the end of wood for a while - but I've been experimenting with different techniques lately - trying new things as a newbie but staying safe

 

[spirilis]

The main problem with burning creosote inside the chimney is it damages the chimney, eventually exposing you to the risk of a house fire (gaps in chimney liner let heat reach wood studs or timbers in the house framing, etc).

Soot and creosote inside the stove burns OK, the problem just starts when that fire reaches above the chimney connector...

I recommend getting cozy with anthracite in that stove.

 

[oska]

The main problem with burning creosote inside the chimney is it damages the chimney, eventually exposing you to the risk of a house fire (gaps in chimney liner let heat reach wood studs or timbers in the house framing, etc).

Soot and creosote inside the stove burns OK, the problem just starts when that fire reaches above the chimney connector...

I recommend getting cozy with anthracite in that stove.

Yeah, you're probably right :/ I wish there was fool proof way to both fuels, I enjoy watching the anthracite and wood burn together...it makes my life so exciting and makes me look forward to waking up in the morning.

Is that sad?

Do you think I can burn bitanimous (soft) coal in this stove without a problem? It puts out a bunch of smoke, so does it build up creasole as well?

 

[spirilis]

Yeah, you're probably right :/ I wish there was fool proof way to both fuels, I enjoy watching the anthracite and wood burn together...it makes my life so exciting and makes me look forward to waking up in the morning.

Is that sad?

Do you think I can burn bitanimous (soft) coal in this stove without a problem? It puts out a bunch of smoke, so does it build up creasole as well?

I'll defer to the nepacrossroads folks for that question.

 

[Mr. Jones]

Can you feel cold air coming through the poor mans OAK? Some people say it works, others say it don't without it being directly connected and sealed.