Burn times, firebox size, stove temps? How often do you reload?

[Niko]

ok so based on discussions from a previous thread i wanted to open this thread so we can discuss the above topics. Im here to learn and i hope hope others are also. Their are tons of factors and so many variables so If you wanna explain every little detail go ahead, if not you can just sum it up.

 

[woodhog73]

I've got a quad 3100 insert. Burning mostly oak 2 plus years seasoned. Some popler about a year seasoned.

I think it's around 2.0 (1.9) cubic foot fire box so a rather small stove.

My burn times depend on outside temps. If it's say from 25 to 40 degrees outside I can usually get 4 hours of flames and a couple hours of coals for a productive and usable heat time frame of 6 to 7 hours. So reload after 6 to 7 hours. No overnight burns for me. When it gets to be close to zero degrees and below zero my burn times decrease. Usually 2 to 3 hours of flames and increased draft and if I'm lucky 4 to 5 hours of usable heat. However I can't keep the house very warm on coals when it's that cold outside so I'm loading every 3 to 4 hours.

Stove temps I have no idea. I don't have a thermometer. However I always run the stove between 3/4 closed and full closed air and minimal lazy flames with a lazy looking secondary burn. So the stove never runs away from me so I'm not burning too hot. I suppose adding a thermometer would allow me to push the stove more as I could see how close I'm getting to max temp and get more heat from it, but then my wood consumption would get even worse, and I wouldn't want that.

 

[Stubblefire]

I am new to this wood heating but so far with all I've read on this site have learned a whole deal to really get the most out of my insert.
I have a enviro 1700 venice and am now getting about 7-8 hrs out of a load of mixed hard and softwood. Now that consists of 4 hrs of flames burning followed by 3-4 hrs of coals and stove radiating decent heat. We are in the - 25 Celsius range up here with a decently tight home. Stove is heating approximately 1500sq ft. Have found that east west gives longest burns but doesn't give off as much heat as a N-S load.

 

[MDWOOD]

2000+ s/f old 180yr farmhouse. could leak alot less

Short version:10 hour reload maybe not alot of heat near end but can always reload on hot coals.

Stove in living room, heats living room, dining room great and kitchen a bit.
it heats second floor, 3 bedrooms, hall and bathroom (bathroom has heated tile floor) and our bedroom third floor attic over 500 sq/ft.
Actually our bedroom has been a tad warm for our liking.

Family room addition has hot water baseboard thermostat set at 60 degree and running

New stove 2+ cu ft box 30 feet class a chimney (yes white knuckles) burning 1 yr old sycamore
we recently replaced a US Stove APSB1000B, Yuge improvement


Monday

8 am fill stove 3/4 full. stove top 700 degree, stove room up to 78-80 degree, go to work.

5:15 pm get home, stove room 66 degree, stove top 150 degree enough coals to start and burn 4 smallish splits.

10 pm fill stove 3/4 on hot coals.

All the time heat rises right up the staircase.

Tuesday
6 am wake up stove room 66 degree stove top 150 degree.
do over.


When its colder i stuff more wood but 3 full fills a day works.
It really takes that long to be able to get it cool enough to add wood.

Cheers ,now i need a beer

Bill

 

[Niko]

I am also very new to wood burning and have learned tons of stuff on this website. I have a blaze king/ kin ultra wood stove, firebox is 4.2 cu ft my house is 3,000 sqaure feet and i burn 24/7 to save on oil costs. Even tho oil has been pretty cheap lately i still burn 24/7 as we keep the bottom part of the house a little warmer so that we get some usable heat upstairs. i assume all of our houses are probably not new construction, so we all have air leaks and could use better insulation. My 1st floor stays roughly around 80 and the upstairs ranges around 72-67. The colder part of the house i leave my thermostat on 67, this part is zoned so im only heating a couple of rooms with it.

I usually get 24 hrs+ of usable heat out of my stove, stove top temps are around 350-500 range, the higher temp is when i have more wood and the lower temp is when the less wood which of coarse makes sense. When I go to reload i see the thermometer reading between 300-350. I also have a mix of hardwoods that i put in, i never really am picky about how tight to load the box or specifically picking what species goes in. I still don't even really know how to distinguish species yet. I know locust some what cause i got a huge delivery of it this year but it is still in log form so ill be splitting and stacking with it lil by lil this year. The other years i got wood it was already split dumbped into my yard so it was a lilttle overwemling trying to figure out what was what.

Hoping we all learn about the different stoves out their so we can all become better at warming our houses. I know in the 3 years i have been doing this by asking questions and learning my loading times have been getting better and better.

Do you guys run your stoves on high or on low? I usually am lets say 40 percent air coming in.

 

[bholler]

I have a regency 3100. And I typically reload about every 8 hours but if it gets really cold I will push the stove a little harder and do it every 6 hours or so. I mainly control the heatoutput with the species of wood in the spring and fall I use cherry maple ect when temps drop some I switch to ash then red oak. Then i go to white oak and when it is really cold I have some hickory and locust to use. By doing that I typically keep the air shut all the way and keep pretty consistent burn times.

My hous id 2300 squ ft 110 year old Victorian with original windows doors and siding so it is far from tight. And I keep the first floor in the mid seventies with wood and the second floor is heated with oil unless the temps outside are pretty high. Even with a bigger stove I would over heat the first floor inorder to get the heat distributed upstairs so I just use oil there. I only go through about a tank a year.

 

[Niko]

I have a regency 3100. And I typically reload about every 8 hours but if it gets really cold I will push the stove a little harder and do it every 6 hours or so. I mainly control the heatoutput with the species of wood in the spring and fall I use cherry maple ect when temps drop some I switch to ash then red oak. Then i go to white oak and when it is really cold I have some hickory and locust to use. By doing that I typically keep the air shut all the way and keep pretty consistent burn times.

My hous id 2300 squ ft 110 year old Victorian with original windows doors and siding so it is far from tight. And I keep the first floor in the mid seventies with wood and the second floor is heated with oil unless the temps outside are pretty high. Even with a bigger stove I would over heat the first floor inorder to get the heat distributed upstairs so I just use oil there. I only go through about a tank a year.

Yea i have (2) 275 galloon tanks and only run threw one a year also. I can't even imagine not having a Woodstove and just paying straight oil.

that's pretty cool that you separate your wood species, this is my first year with log length so im hoping see the bark will help out.

 

[Niko]

id like to try and make a video of my process, kinda like a time lapse to show the burn time and heat, actually like to see what what the stove is doing when i am sleeping.

 

[blacktail]

I only load for max burn time before I go to bed and sometimes before I leave for work if it's real cold. I might be able to get 5-6 hours of heat from a full load but I'm not always here to reload every 5 hours.
I do a lot of partial loads to get me by for a couple hours before the next one. If the stove needs a reload but I'm leaving or going to bed in two hours, then I just throw a few splits in to keep it heating for those two hours.

 

[Niko]

Lets not foget to put our stove top temps.

 

[bholler]

Lets not foget to put our stove top temps.

I typically reload around 250 to 300 on the stove top. It usually cruises between 600 and 700

 

[jetsam]

I reload based on the outside temps and whatever my work schedule is for the day. I start a fire once a year (unless something goes wrong, or I need to sweep ), so everything is timed for lots of hot coals at the end.

60-50 degree weather: Fans off, reload once every 24 hours.

40s, every 12 hours...

30s and 20s, I time reloads around my work schedule. Reload before work, set a 12 hour burn, then a hot burn after work if needed, 8 hour burn for overnight.

When it's really cold (zero and lower) I enlist my wife to reload while I'm at work so we can keep the stove cranking. Maybe 3-6 hour burns by day, 8-10 by night.

If I'm home on days off, I often reload lots of times, and burn odd shaped stuff, whether it's got a big curve in it or I cut it a couple inches too long, or it's a little leftover chunk. Not only is this a good use of all those odds and sods, I enjoy poking at the fire.

I don't ever check temperatures on anything unless I'm bored and playing with my ir thermometer. (I used to, but I came to trust the stove to take care of it for me.)

This is a Blaze King Princess insert heating about 2000SF of moderately well insulated 70s house by itself, in New York. Oil hasn't kicked on once this year!

 

[jetsam]

id like to try and make a video of my process, kinda like a time lapse to show the burn time and heat, actually like to see what what the stove is doing when i am sleeping.

A time lapse infrared camera video with temperatures labeled at various points would be pretty cool.

 

[volunbeer]

I am reloading on a roughly 12 hour cycle for the sake of convenience in the King. I have had a few burns were I did not reload for 16 hours, but even if I still have a pretty full box before bed I am throwing a few splits in before I go to bed. I have only lit a fire (let it burn out) in this thing twice in the month we have been running it. Learning to manage the dial better where the house stays comfortable 70-72 without getting it too hot. When temps get back to normal I am going to try for a 24 hour burn on lower setting - think I can do this even with fir.

I am stuffing it right now and running stove on a higher setting (with fan higher) because we are single digits with serious wind chill. The amount of windows in our house dictates that it is coolest inside when the wind is blowing outside. We have insulated shades installed and they help cut the heat loss, but we like opening the shades during the day to enjoy the view.

 

[jetsam]

I am reloading on a roughly 12 hour cycle for the sake of convenience in the King. I have had a few burns were I did not reload for 16 hours, but even if I still have a pretty full box before bed I am throwing a few splits in before I go to bed. I have only lit a fire (let it burn out) in this thing twice in the month we have been running it. Learning to manage the dial better where the house stays comfortable 70-72 without getting it too hot. When temps get back to normal I am going to try for a 24 hour burn on lower setting - think I can do this even with fir.

I am stuffing it right now and running stove on a higher setting (with fan higher) because we are single digits with serious wind chill. The amount of windows in our house dictates that it is coolest inside when the wind is blowing outside. We have insulated shades installed and they help cut the heat loss, but we like opening the shades during the day to enjoy the view.

If I had that magnificent stove I'd be reloading twice a week in shoulder season.

I can get almost 20 hours out of my PI with pine. The King's lowest burn rate is a little higher than my PI's (15kbtu vs 13k), but the firebox is twice as big, so 35 hours is probably a reasonable pine number. Lots more with oak!

 

[Highbeam]

In the house stove I burn one 2.85 CF load of pretty low btu woods per day to keep the house above 70 degrees 95% of the year. The stove almost always requires kindling to restart but is still 200 degrees or so at the 24 hour mark. That works with my schedule. Can't really read stove top temperatures on a cat stove, the cat is running at something between 500 and 1500 degrees under the center of the stove top but this 24 burn is on the lowest possible clean burning setting.

When it gets really cold like today, teens and blowing, then I reload on 12 hour cycles but it's just a top up since there is still a lot of wood in the firebox. Probably only burning through 1.5-1.75 full loads on average but no kindling.

It's really either or in my climate. Either pretty mild or pretty cold.

Now in the shop stove I run the stove top at 700 with a big blower and convection deck to strip maximum heat. I have to refill that stove every three hours. Raking the coals flat to fit more wood in.

 

[Woody Stover]

Small house here, one main room and a bedroom, 1000 sq.ft. It's an old cabin with no insulation between the logs and the 2 layers of wallboard. I'm still working on chinking all the gaps where wind can get between the logs and wallboard, and sealing interior wallboard penetrations like outlets, base molding, etc...big heat loss there, in high winds. We have attic insulation but I still need to caulk ceiling penetrations. Windows are decent.
In January average winter temps (40/20) and not too windy, I load the Keystone twice a day (1.5 cu.ft. box.) Last few days have been warm, just one load a day. If it's cold, low 20s/single digits at night, it's three loads a day. Stove temps above the cat peak about 550 at the most, the way I run the stove. I can open the air a bit in the coaling stage and maintain 300 stove top for a couple more hours. So to hold 70* in the house, my burn times are anywhere from 8 hrs. to 24 hrs. depending on the weather.

I mainly control the heatoutput with the species of wood in the spring and fall I use cherry maple ect when temps drop some I switch to ash then red oak. Then i go to white oak and when it is really cold I have some hickory and locust to use. By doing that I typically keep the air shut all the way and keep pretty consistent burn times.

cool that you separate your wood species, this is my first year with log length so im hoping see the bark will help out.

I do a lot of partial loads to get me by for a couple hours before the next one. If the stove needs a reload but I'm leaving or going to bed in two hours, then I just throw a few splits in to keep it heating for those two hours.

Good points. I don't necessarily separate all the species, but I will put similar output woods in the same stack, like soft Maple with Black Cherry, hard Maple with Red Oak, White Oak with Pignut Hickory. Black Locust is in its own stack. Might have to do the same with Flowering Dogwood...it is special. Got a few cold days coming so in my wood hoop next to the stove, there is White Oak and BL...and a little Cherry if I need to bridge over between full loads.
Yeah @Niko you can sometimes ID by the bark. Post some bark and split grain pics in the Wood Shed forum and we will try to get you up to speed. Sometimes leaves are needed for IDs, though.

 

[bholler]

Good points. I don't necessarily separate all the species, but I will put similar output woods in the same stack, like soft Maple with Black Cherry, hard Maple with Red Oak, White Oak with Pignut Hickory. Black Locust is in its own stack. Might have to do the same with Flowering Dogwood...it is special. Got a few cold days coming so in my wood hoop next to the stove, there is White Oak and BL...and a little Cherry if I need to bridge over between full loads.

Yes I do the same maple and cherry together ash and red oak mixed white oak and hickory together and locust on its own unless I come across some osage.

 

[Mark N MO]

We've had a Buck 91 as the "main heat supplier" for the last 8 years. Spec sheet says 4.4 cu.ft. I get overnight burn times of 8-10 hours easy. Reload about 8-9 PM, let it lite up the cat, then dial it back on the air. The only temp I monitor is the Cat. When I go to bed at roughly 10:30 ish the temp is ~1000-1200. I'm up at 5:00 AM the Cat temp is down to 600 or so, and the better part of the wood is a very good bed of coals. After raking everything out of the corners and closer to the front I'll put a couple of good splits on. This will maintain the Cat lite-off with a little checking a couple of times throughout the day. When I check on it, I usually rake the coals forward and open up the air a tad. When I get in for the evening, like right about now, I'll carry out the dead ash and keep the coals raked up for a quick relight of a couple of more splits burning pretty high for the couple of hours till the whole process starts again. In really cold weather, the morning routine mirrors the night time one, I reload twice a day, with full loads of the best reserve. I could push the burn time to 12 hours during more temperate weather, but the house heats up too much. The way I've evolved into running it fits pretty good, comfort wise. Of course, every tree burns different, and every winter is a short review of how good the wood is. Mostly red/white oak and hickory. I've got a couple of piles of hedge, but man that stuff is like a fireworks show when the door gets open. The above method maintains a household temp of 72-70 in our 1800 sqft. A little cooler in the full basement. The heat pump might cycle a couple of times during the day when we're not there.

Actual mileage may vary, not valid in Puerto Rico, the usual disclaimers. Hope this helps.

Mark

 

[BuckyBeaver524]

1600 sq. ft., open floor plan with high ceilings, decent insulation, Smoky Mountains area. Schedule permitting I try to do 12 hour burns loading the stove approximately 60 to 65% full with quality hardwoods. Stove cruises between 425 - 500 degrees, reload at about 250 degrees on a bed of coals. Room temp in great room/kitchen/dining room portion of house is around 76 degrees, with bedrooms at about 68 degrees. Run stove at close to lowest setting during the winter. Hardly ever run stove during shoulder season except for a small evening fire on damp days to take the chill out. I find the heat pump is much to convenient to ignore when temps rise above 50 degrees. The stove might be just a tiny bit too big for my home and geographic location; if I give it room to breathe it will melt the house. The viewing glass always remains clear just so long as I am burning well seasoned wood. For the first hour or two after reload I keep the air setting at about 25% to enjoy the fire show. Then I usually turn it all the way down for a full cat burn. The glass remains clear for the full cycle, but the flames disappear. The picture is of a typical load of wood for each 12 hour burn - usually 5 or 6 medium splits. My longest burn ever was a little over 16 hours with the stove loaded to approx. 80% with white oak and hickory.

 

[Woody Stover]

unless I come across some osage.

Haven't burned it yet. My only Bodark score was about 1/3 cord. Two years later, I still haven't split it; I'm afraid I'll burn it and then I'll have none left! I've missed out on a couple big Hedge scores...cried like a baby, I did.

 

[woodhog73]

I start a fire once a year (unless something goes wrong, or I need to sweep )

I'm so jealous

Those cat stoves and their 24 hour burns I've been thinking of a second stove in my basement and I would do a cat stove for sure.

But then again although I have to reload my quad 3100 insert every 6 to 7 hours I'm only burning on weekends when I'm home to feed the stove and run the central during the week. It's natural gas and with the help of my stove part time weekends I'll pay roughly $400 max in natural gas for the entire winter. And it's cold in these parts ( going to be single digits highs and lows of minus 20 all week)

So I'm happy but still jealous of those 24hr burns you cat stove folks get !!

 

[Woody Stover]

We've had a Buck 91 as the "main heat supplier" for the last 8 years. Spec sheet says 4.4 cu.ft.

Hey, another 91 guy! Sadly, my 91 sold with my MIL's house. I measured the usable volume of the box at closer to 3 cu.ft. I was loading it for her on a 12-hr. schedule and it did pretty well, despite being at one end of the house, no wall insulation, high ceilings and a cut-up layout.

 

[OhioBurner©]

On my Ideal Steel (one of Woodstock's hybrid cat stove) I usually burn ash and with modest secondaries for half the burn I get their rated 10-14 burn pretty easy, that's maybe down to 250 or so stovetop with an active and heavy coal bed still.

Throttled back to where I barely get secondaries I bump that out to 15-16 hours which is my normal day at work.

Throttled back to no secondaries and a low cat burn close to a day, but that is tough I find with ash. I have not had any better hardwood to try.

I have been burning some spruce, but it's all cut in random length and chunks and full of knots and twists I can't load the stove very full. It was free and mostly already cut off craigslist so it's no where near ideal. With strong secondaries 5-6 hours, I've never done a cat only spruce burn but a milder secondary burn with a better packed load I get about the same burn time as my old tube stove did with good black locust, 8-12 hr range.

Ecobricks pack more btu's in the stove, I can easily get 24 hr burns with a few ecobricks added and still have a lot of coals left, or a load full of ecobrics I've gone ~48 hrs with a very low cat only burn.

My last stove, the Jotul Rockland, would give me about 8 hrs on ash, and up to about 12 on ecobricks. You can see the problem when I am gone 14+ hours at work. I also a Hearthstone Shelburne, very pretty enameled stove. Burn time was even less than the Rockland by an hour or two.

 

[BKVP]

Great thread. So how are stove top temps being derived? FLIR? IR Gun? Magnetic thermometer?

These can be vastly different in accuracy.

Where are readings taken? By the flue collar? Over the cat (if equipped)? Near fan air exit or near the front? These can be vastly different one stove to the next.

Are the blowers on or off during the taking of temp readings?

If any credible comparisons are to be made (and there will be), set up a plan so those providing data provide a more apples to apples comparison.

Just my .02

BKVP