Any advantage to NOT using the blower?

[jjh3d]

I'm new to burning this year. I bought a Lopi Declaration insert. My question is whether there is any advantage to NOT running the blower at times (for example, overnight).

The following is my understanding of the functioning of the blower and thermometer. I would appreciate any corrections or confirmations. Thanks in advance:

As I understand it, the blower draws air in at the bottom, circulates it around the stove and blows it out as hot air at the top. It seems to me that this should not affect the actual burning inside the stove at all. The blower simply gets the heat out into the room instead of having it sit around the stove inside the chimney. There is a thermometer on the top left of the stove. This thermometer is outside the stove, therefore I'm assuming that it's only telling me the temperature of the air sitting on top of the stove, not the burn temperature inside. The thermometer temperature goes down slowly when I run the blower because I'm blowing the hot air out. It goes up slowly when I turn the blower off. However, the blower should not affect the burn time or inside stove temperature at all -- it's a completely separate thing. Correct?

Thanks again.

 

[LLigetfa]

If the stove is dialed back for a long slow burn, the blower could remove too much heat and take the stove out of the sweet spot. With the stove out of the sweet spot, there is incomplete combustion resulting in less heat for a given amount of wood. There is anecdotal evidence of just that. If the blower is variable speed running it slower might be the ticket.

 

[colebrookman]

If the stove is dialed back for a long slow burn, the blower could remove too much heat and take the stove out of the sweet spot. With the stove out of the sweet spot, there is incomplete combustion resulting in less heat for a given amount of wood. There is anecdotal evidence of just that. If the blower is variable speed running it slower might be the ticket.

Great point from LLigetfa. For us the joy of burning wood was the quiet. The blower would heat up the rooms faster but the price was a constant noise. Peace and quiet rules after the kids move out. Be safe.
Ed

 

[savageactor7]

If it's above freezing our stove alone will heat the house so we only run the blower when it's really cold out. If you're burning WOT for heat output don't worry about the stove top temp dropping but what LLigetfa says about a dialed back extended burn makes sense to me.

I agree with you that as long as you see good flames then yeah that's a good burn imo ...I take it you want a complete clean combustion fire and avoid any creosote producing smoldering fires?

If yes then go ahead and use the blower if you want to...or don't. As long as you have good flames it'll stay hotter in the box than stove top. I guess you could kind of compare the blower to a car radiator.

 

[cycloxer]

For heat output, no. For noise, yes.

If the stove goes too much below 400°F you really have to turn off the blower.

 

[jjh3d]

Thanks for all of the replies. Very helpful.