Extracting heat from the coals

[Jotul_Rockland]

Guys,

I have very limited wood for this year. I'm using it to heat the house up from the evening ( 6 PM) till early morning ( 6 AM) - roughly the time that I stay home.

Every evening, I put 5-6 splits to burn a hot fire till 9 PM ( 3 hours of burn time) during which a lot of coal will be generated. My wood is a mix of seasoned ( 1/3) and semi seasoned ( 2/3). I find that close the damper down all the way and keeping the fan on low will deliver heat to the room from 9 PM till 5 AM.

I go to work and come back and do this all over again.

Is this a sound and safe logic? Please advice. I have Jotul Rockland 550 insert.

 

[begreen]

Seems like you have a good working solution for your stove, house and lifestyle. Until the stove is burning all seasoned wood, have the flue checked monthly for creosote accumulation. Do that until familiar with the amount of build up over time. If the flue is dirty, clean it. If not, try a longer interval of two months.

 

[agartner]

Guys,

I have very limited wood for this year. I'm using it to heat the house up from the evening ( 6 PM) till early morning ( 6 AM) - roughly the time that I stay home.

Every evening, I put 5-6 splits to burn a hot fire till 9 PM ( 3 hours of burn time) during which a lot of coal will be generated. My wood is a mix of seasoned ( 1/3) and semi seasoned ( 2/3). I find that close the damper down all the way and keeping the fan on low will deliver heat to the room from 9 PM till 5 AM.

I go to work and come back and do this all over again.

Is this a sound and safe logic? Please advice. I have Jotul Rockland 550 insert.

I'm not sure how it is for a full insert, as my stove simply sits on my fireplace hearth, but I burn a hot fire - getting about the same burn time as yourself, but instead of choking down the air at the end of the burn, I go wide open at the coal stage. What I'm trying to do is get all that masonry mass of my fireplace nice and toasty. I go to bed with a room temperature somewhere in the 77-80 degree range, and wake up to a temp anywhere from 65-72. I have a few coals left in the stove but for the most part the entire fuel load is "spent" and I refire in the AM with a firestarter. What I like about this method is that I'm not "choking" my stove, which keeps the creosote buildup to a minimum. I think your method is safe and logic, given that you inspect for creosote build up on a regular basis.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I agree about giving the stove full draft when down to the coaling stage or slightly before it reaches this stage. It is the best way to burn those coals down and extract all the heat you can get from them.

 

[Corey]

IMHO, 'full air' in the coal stage is just putting a lot of your warmed room air right up the flue and pulling in cold outside air to replace it. If you have the option, I'd turn the secondaries completely off (there is nothing coming off the coals to burn up there anyway) - and ope the primaries only enough to get the heat you need.

When the wood is burning, you need to give it enough air to keep the secondaries fired or you are wasting energy in the form of smoke. But cutting air to coals just cuts the heat output, not the overall efficiency.

 

[Battenkiller]

Seems like you have a good working solution for your stove, house and lifestyle. Until the stove is burning all seasoned wood, have the flue checked monthly for creosote accumulation. Do that until familiar with the amount of build up over time. If the flue is dirty, clean it. If not, try a longer interval of two months.

That's the way everybody did it in the old days, and I think this comment is spot on. Do what works for you as long as it's safe and doesn't kill your stove. Lifestyle considerations must be accounted for or you won't get the full benefit of wood burning. Yes, you will build up more gunk, but that's easy enough to take care of as long as you know it's happening and how much. You will be able to further tweak things once you get into choice fuel.

 

[jadm]

I have the 550 as well. The wood I burn is mixed hardwoods that have been seasoned for over a year.

I build a fire in the morning - around 9:00 that heats the area we are in the most from the low 60's into the mid 70's. I load about 3-5 splits depending on the size and shut air down all the way once it hits 500+ degrees. It will cruise in the 600's and gradually cool down until coaling stage.

I used to open the air to burn the coals down more efficiently but lately I have been leaving the air shut and the coals continue to burn down throughout the day still producing enough heat to keep the temps. in the mid 70* range. (We get afternoon sun that helps out a lot.).

It is my understanding that once wood hits the coaling stage there isn't anything left in it to create the creosote build up...(I get my chimney swept 2x a season but last season my sweep told me I would be fine with 1 sweeping based on what he has gotten out while sweeping. I trust him. He is a long time fireman and has swept our chimney for 5-6 years now...)

At 6:30 I start up another fire with what coals are left over to heat things up for the evening and do pretty much what I do with my morning fires. Coals are pretty much burnt up by morning.

If temps. are colder I will open the air up a bit and start my 2nd fire earlier in the afternoon - like maybe 4:00.

By keeping the air shut down all the way the coals take longer to burn and are still producing a low consistent heat that does keep things warm. I would rather have that warmth in our house than going up the chimney.

Sounds like what you are doing is working for you. Like BG said - just check your flue and see how it is doing too.

Oh. I will also let the temp. get up into the upper 600-700* range before I shut the air down every few days to burn out anything that might have accumulated in the flue.