I just posted this as a reply to another post but felt the warning in paragraph 2 should get a headline.
1986-2007 History: I have burned cord wood exclusively to heat my 2500 sq ft Northwest Connecticut house since 1986, that's 21 years. I am now legal to drink the fire! Each year I paid for 5 cord per year but averaged 4 cord per year because sellers actually deliver only 2/3 to 3/4 cord and tell you it's a cord. Over the years I bought from many independent back-yard loggers and some pros. They all, repeat all, ripped me off and when they saw where i stacked it and demonstrated it was not a 5 cord they agreed, delivered more or just stopped returning my calls. None of them returned my calls the next year. For the last 5 years they have been delivering wood represented as "seasoned 2 years". This is a crock. They were logs 1 hour before delivering to me. They say ther were seasoned as logs. They were dripping wet. I stood each piece in a perimiter arc around the stove to dry before burning. They each left a wet spot on the floor and hissed all the time they were burning. I had ants, bugs, little flies, beetles, dirt, you name it. I was done with it.
2007-Feb 2008 I switched to Bio Bricks because a ton is a ton, then I found out a skid was only 1900 pounds. I can live with that because all dealers sell by the skid, all is apples to apples. I started with 6 skids to make it thru the winter. They were gone by end of February but did a great job! I had one bad experience but Tom Engel walked me through it over the phone. It is important everyone knows this: READ THIS: My Allnighter Big Mo does a great job of accepting an entire shink-wrapped block of bio bricks. It would probably hold two. I used to rake the coals to both sides of the fire-brick lined chamber and then slide a new block into the center of the stove. It would burn just great but turn the stove way too hot. I throttled the stove by closing down the input air vents. I was able to throttle it such that it would go all day on just 3 blocks! Then one night my house rumbled like an M-80 went off in the basement. I went down to the basement where the stove is and the 8"round pipe was out of the thimble and there was ash all over the floor in front of the stove. I closed the vents on this air-tight stove and the fire went out. The next day I went thru the ash and found nothing. I then called Tom Engel and related the story. He offered the following which makes sence. 1.] Wood burns by emmitting a flamable vapor that does the actual burning. 2.] By loading the stove such that the block could burn on all sides there was a lot of flamable vapor in the stove as it got hot. 3.] by throttling the stove by cutting back the entering oxygen the fire would actually go out as it starved for air. 4.] As entering air would go in, the combustable gas would auto-ignite and kaboom. you got the drift, I'm sure.
Tom advised to throttle the stove by throttling the fuel, not the air. He suggested I put in less bricks to get less heat output. I said I wanted it to get 8 hours between loadings. After some discussion he agreed the following was a good approach: 1.] I rake the coals to one side. 2.] I slide the full block of bricks into the back corner of the stove. 3.] I rake the coals against the side of the block. This makes only one side and the font of the block available to burn at one time. 4.] I leave the input air vents open quite a bit. This provides a great heat for about 7 hours. At the 8 or 10 hour mark there is still enuff coals to slide in the next block and get it lit!
Mar 2008 - Just got a skid of ENVI bricks. Scott from CT-Pellet delivered it this morning. I carried it into the basement tonight and lit the stove. They are currently less expensive than Bio Bricks, and supposed to be 100% hard wood. March should tell me what I will do next year. It will be one of the two.
One observation so far. Bio Bricks in 40# bundles are harder for my wife to move but the shape of the bundle allows for an interlocked stack. This is important for safety as these plastic wrapped bundles are slippery. The slippery ENVI Bundles have a square footpint and the stacks are teetery. Steel toed shoes are advised near the stack. I will write them to suggest a different footprint to the bundle so a stack can be interlocked.
1986-2007 History: I have burned cord wood exclusively to heat my 2500 sq ft Northwest Connecticut house since 1986, that's 21 years. I am now legal to drink the fire! Each year I paid for 5 cord per year but averaged 4 cord per year because sellers actually deliver only 2/3 to 3/4 cord and tell you it's a cord. Over the years I bought from many independent back-yard loggers and some pros. They all, repeat all, ripped me off and when they saw where i stacked it and demonstrated it was not a 5 cord they agreed, delivered more or just stopped returning my calls. None of them returned my calls the next year. For the last 5 years they have been delivering wood represented as "seasoned 2 years". This is a crock. They were logs 1 hour before delivering to me. They say ther were seasoned as logs. They were dripping wet. I stood each piece in a perimiter arc around the stove to dry before burning. They each left a wet spot on the floor and hissed all the time they were burning. I had ants, bugs, little flies, beetles, dirt, you name it. I was done with it.
2007-Feb 2008 I switched to Bio Bricks because a ton is a ton, then I found out a skid was only 1900 pounds. I can live with that because all dealers sell by the skid, all is apples to apples. I started with 6 skids to make it thru the winter. They were gone by end of February but did a great job! I had one bad experience but Tom Engel walked me through it over the phone. It is important everyone knows this: READ THIS: My Allnighter Big Mo does a great job of accepting an entire shink-wrapped block of bio bricks. It would probably hold two. I used to rake the coals to both sides of the fire-brick lined chamber and then slide a new block into the center of the stove. It would burn just great but turn the stove way too hot. I throttled the stove by closing down the input air vents. I was able to throttle it such that it would go all day on just 3 blocks! Then one night my house rumbled like an M-80 went off in the basement. I went down to the basement where the stove is and the 8"round pipe was out of the thimble and there was ash all over the floor in front of the stove. I closed the vents on this air-tight stove and the fire went out. The next day I went thru the ash and found nothing. I then called Tom Engel and related the story. He offered the following which makes sence. 1.] Wood burns by emmitting a flamable vapor that does the actual burning. 2.] By loading the stove such that the block could burn on all sides there was a lot of flamable vapor in the stove as it got hot. 3.] by throttling the stove by cutting back the entering oxygen the fire would actually go out as it starved for air. 4.] As entering air would go in, the combustable gas would auto-ignite and kaboom. you got the drift, I'm sure.
Tom advised to throttle the stove by throttling the fuel, not the air. He suggested I put in less bricks to get less heat output. I said I wanted it to get 8 hours between loadings. After some discussion he agreed the following was a good approach: 1.] I rake the coals to one side. 2.] I slide the full block of bricks into the back corner of the stove. 3.] I rake the coals against the side of the block. This makes only one side and the font of the block available to burn at one time. 4.] I leave the input air vents open quite a bit. This provides a great heat for about 7 hours. At the 8 or 10 hour mark there is still enuff coals to slide in the next block and get it lit!
Mar 2008 - Just got a skid of ENVI bricks. Scott from CT-Pellet delivered it this morning. I carried it into the basement tonight and lit the stove. They are currently less expensive than Bio Bricks, and supposed to be 100% hard wood. March should tell me what I will do next year. It will be one of the two.
One observation so far. Bio Bricks in 40# bundles are harder for my wife to move but the shape of the bundle allows for an interlocked stack. This is important for safety as these plastic wrapped bundles are slippery. The slippery ENVI Bundles have a square footpint and the stacks are teetery. Steel toed shoes are advised near the stack. I will write them to suggest a different footprint to the bundle so a stack can be interlocked.
