Beginner here, how to burn efficiency?

[JordyBuck]

I just bought and installed a Pioneer Dutchess wood cook stove as our primary heat source in Michigan. The stove has a 7 inch outlet, stepped up to 8. Triple wall pipe from the ceiling up. The home is 1460 square feet, one level. I have roughly 10 cord of split wood, mostly red oak, with some cherry and aspen. It's stored outside but stacked well. Split it 2 years ago. I can bring in about 1/3 cord at a time to dry and warm up. I understand to burn dry wood and that hot fires are more efficient if run hot.
How does one operate a modern stove of efficiency compared to old ones? How is the efficiency of this stove compared to other cook stoves with good heating capacity?
What tricks are there to regulate the burn for a cleaner and more efficient operation?
Thanks a bunch.

 

[begreen]

The design is not all that different from older stoves. It's firebox is basic, without secondary combustion, dedicated to wood only burning. The best thing is to make sure the fuel is dry and follow the manual's directions. Warm up the stove top before engaging the bypass. Keep the passages clean around the oven with monthly checkups for soot and creosote buildup.
Some general videos here, mostly for the Pioneer Princess, but some also cover the Dutchess.

Pioneer Princess Wood Burning Cookstove UL-C

The Pioneer Princess wood cook stove is hand made by the Amish and available through Obadiah's. ULC Certified

www.discountstoves.net

 

[JordyBuck]

The design is not all that different from older stoves. It's firebox is basic, without secondary combustion, dedicated to wood only burning. The best thing is to make sure the fuel is dry and follow the manual's directions. Warm up the stove top before engaging the bypass. Keep the passages clean around the oven with monthly checkups for soot and creosote buildup.
Some general videos here, mostly for the Pioneer Princess, but some also cover the Dutchess.

Pioneer Princess Wood Burning Cookstove UL-C

The Pioneer Princess wood cook stove is hand made by the Amish and available through Obadiah's. ULC Certified

www.discountstoves.net

Can you explain "secondary burn" ? I keep seeing it mentioned but never clearly defined. I looked at two Amish shops, both owners considered it to be an efficient stove, although I couldn't find a listed efficiency rating in the pamphlet. We were considering the HECO 420 because I thought it may be built for a better burn, but my wife liked the Pioneer Dutchess. In my talking with the Amish, they aren't very concerned about high efficiency. Although I asked a lot of questions, I got replies like "most wood stoves today are about the same" and "wood is cheap". I don't have a forest so we have to buy wood at $200 or more a cord for decent hardwood. My limited woodstove experience is with an old Black Bart from the 1960s. This one runs leaps and bounds better than that ole' beast.
This stove says it will run on anthracite coal, and has downdraft efficiency. I don't know what downdraft efficiency means, but it looks like it burns the volatiles quite well and only smokes just after lighting or stoking.
The HECO 420 cook stove has an efficiency rating of 83.3% and BTU output rating of 72,000. Several knowledgeable people told me that although the Pioneer Princess and the newer Dutchess are not EPA certified tested (cookstoves being exempt from mandatory testing), they are built to run about the same. I don't know. A lot of guys estimate it to be about 75 percent efficiency.

 

[begreen]

Secondary combustion stoves keep the fire resident in the firebox longer with the use of a baffle and tubes that inject air right under the baffle in order to burn remaining unburnt volatile gases. This makes for a hotter, cleaner fire. Many cook stoves have no baffle or secondary combustion. This is in part because they want the flue gases to be hot enough to travel around the oven before exiting. They want the gases to remain hot enough to heat the oven while not depositing creosote.

Secondary combustion cook stoves work, some very well. It takes thoughtful, tested design to be able to burn hot while using less wood and creating lower emissions. Here's a nice video by Drolet that illustrates secondary combustion.

Article I Double combustion of EPA appliances

Understand how the double combustion of the new high efficiency EPA appliances works, and why these wood stoves are clean and efficient.

www.drolet.ca