Burning up the junk wood in cold weather in my boiler

[peakbagger]

It may seem contrary to wood stove folks who hoard their best wood for cold weather but I find myself self selecting the odd shaped and less desirable wood in very cold weather. Before someone jumps on me I have wood boiler with storage which I normally charge up once a day. I intentionally run it wide open and let it run out of wood between burns. In very cold weather I find I have enough heat demand that I may run the boiler for several hours so I just load it up more frequently and use up the wood that is marginal. Sure it takes a few more runs to the boiler during the day in the basement but it allows me to save the good stuff for my daily burns once the temps return to normal. It also keeps the heat input low enough so that I don't top out my storage.

Anyone else have unusual operation of their boiler and storage during very cold temps?

 

[Bad LP]

I maxed out my temps this morning to the point of the boiler shutting down. A hot shower had it running normal again.

Most of my junk wood goes into the insert but tossing in a hunk or two to prevent starting the boiler from scratch is also what I do.

 

[maple1]

Yes. Sort of.

I like to go to bed with storage charged & the house warm. Sometimes if I get off schedule, I will have to light earlier in the day than I would like. Which means if I burn normally, the house will be warm & storage charged way before bed time - then storage will get drawn down further than I would like by bedtime. So I will try to extend the burn through the day by not putting as much in the box, or letting it almost go right out before reloading, or putting some junkier stuff in. Makes for a bit of efficiency hit I think while doing that, but gets me what I want by the end of the day.

 

[TCaldwell]

I used to toss the crooked or short stuff aside for the fireplace, now I’ll use it on a short reload. Makes me feel like I’m not wasting the good wood, but really it’s all good!

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

It may seem contrary to wood stove folks who hoard their best wood for cold weather but I find myself self selecting the odd shaped and less desirable wood in very cold weather. Before someone jumps on me I have wood boiler with storage which I normally charge up once a day. I intentionally run it wide open and let it run out of wood between burns. In very cold weather I find I have enough heat demand that I may run the boiler for several hours so I just load it up more frequently and use up the wood that is marginal. Sure it takes a few more runs to the boiler during the day in the basement but it allows me to save the good stuff for my daily burns once the temps return to normal. It also keeps the heat input low enough so that I don't top out my storage.

Anyone else have unusual operation of their boiler and storage during very cold temps?

Makes a lot of sense, PB.

Our little insert can't keep up in this leaky old house, so, coaling is an issue. Just spent all morning working the coals down with little crappy peices. Never had a worse pile of coals.

Plus, now that we are here all day, multiple loads works.

 

[Gasifier]

I use shorts, uglies, lower BTU wood like Pine, even bark when I am home and can reload every couple hours. This way I save my better hardwood for overnight burns and longer burns while at work. We had -21 early this morning with a slight breeze that they said gave a real feel of -32. Tonight won’t be as bad with a low of -12 predicted. This Friday and Saturday night is predicted to be -22 to -25 though. This past fall was very mild, and I enjoyed that. But these winter temperatures are quickly making up for the need of less wood earlier. I’m burning through a serious amount of firewood these last few weeks. Better than a serious amount of oil!

 

[Tar12]

I fed my old boiler every stick of wood I dragged home....nothing was wasted!