Curious-what's a "burn"?

[Socratic Monologue]

There's a lot of talk here about getting a long burn: "my stove will get a 8 hour burn/overnight burn/'til Doomsday burn". I get the general gist of this, of course, but I'd like a terminological clarification. Is a "burn" just the existence of a coal bed at the end of the burn period? Is it the holding of a certain firebox temp for the duration of the burn? Is it the production of usable heat for the duration of the burn, and thus dependent somewhat on the size of the space it is heating? Or is it some profound and magical zen-like state that a first-time woodburner like me could never hope to understand without many years of meditation at the foot of a wood stove chanting homage to the gods of warmth?

Our wood furnace seems to be burning fine; I'm not posing this as a concern with any practical importance. Just curious.

 

[logger]

I think when most people refer to "burn time" they are talking about the point where they still have enough coals for a reload (I usually expect a stovetop temp around 200 or a little less). It probably varies a bit from one person to the next, but theres no way one could keep a fire going with one load for hours on end and keep it at the same temp.

 

[jkolb01]

Was wondering the same thing. I'm a first year user of a Fireplace Xtrordinar 33 Elite and have noticed that even with well dried pignut hickory, I'm still down to large coals within 4 or so hours. Regarding an overnight burn the manual states "In the morning the stove should still be hot, with embers in the coal bad. Stir the coals and load small pieces of wood to re-ignite the fire, if desired." This has been true for my stove so I guess the actual flame time is ok?

At first I was thinking I had some excess air getting in, but I guess not. Not sure how one would ever figure that out...

 

[SolarAndWood]

Magical zen-like state. One must first achieve dry wood and appropriate system setup for one's needs. Once your wood supply is established and you understand the operation of your burning system, the goal is to find burn cycles that:

1. produce enough heat through the entire cycle
2. last long enough that someone is around to reload
3. leave enough fuel at reload that it is not a chore
4. don't leave so much fuel at reload that the coals fill up the firebox and you have no room for wood

With my setup and our schedules, we do 24 hr burns when the weather is moderate and 12 hr burns when it is colder. This is with a very large firebox and a catalytic stove. When it becomes extreme, we will likely go to 8 hr burns. I adjust the species of wood in the firebox for the length and rate of burn I think we are going to need. This is easy to do as I scrounge and have every species of wood in the area in my woodpile. If you only have one species, you may have to adjust the size of your loads.

If you are using wood in tandem with another source of heat, I would imagine that this is much less critical and you can achieve this state by setting a thermostat and keeping a good supply of kindling around.

 

[BrowningBAR]

There's a lot of talk here about getting a long burn: "my stove will get a 8 hour burn/overnight burn/'til Doomsday burn". I get the general gist of this, of course, but I'd like a terminological clarification. Is a "burn" just the existence of a coal bed at the end of the burn period? Is it the holding of a certain firebox temp for the duration of the burn? Is it the production of usable heat for the duration of the burn, and thus dependent somewhat on the size of the space it is heating? Or is it some profound and magical zen-like state that a first-time woodburner like me could never hope to understand without many years of meditation at the foot of a wood stove chanting homage to the gods of warmth?

Our wood furnace seems to be burning fine; I'm not posing this as a concern with any practical importance. Just curious.

For me a 'burn time' is anything over 250°. So far, I have been able to achieve overnight burns in both stoves. And it surprises the hell out me that I was able to get the Intrepid to to give me a 7+ hour burn time.

 

[logger]

With my setup and our schedules, we do 24 hr burns when the weather is moderate and 12 hr burns when it is colder.

You get 24 hour burns!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I guess I screwed up and should've gotten a Blaze King. Jeez. Any other burners get this? I get 10-11 hours at the most and that leaves me just enough coals to reload.

 

[SolarAndWood]

With my setup and our schedules, we do 24 hr burns when the weather is moderate and 12 hr burns when it is colder.

You get 24 hour burns!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Keep in mind that I only get 42 firebox loads out of a cord (yes, full cord) of wood. So, right now with the 12 hr burn cycles that is a cord every 3 wks.