Fan questions and night burning questions

[woodsie8]

Does the fan, make the wood burn up faster; at night should I be turning off the fan or can I keep on auto?
It seems like we are burning the wood up quite fast and reloading really often?
Is the goal to see a ton of flames or really low flames and lots of coals?
At night, what is the best way to load and burn before bed, so that we get some heat during night but still have coals in the morning?
If fan is on high or low, does one burn up the wood faster than the other?
Thanks1

 

[FatttFire]

If this is in your Hampton HI300, then your fan just blows hot air from around your frame of you insert. So the fan has no effect on your burn time. Thats what I would think, maybe I am wrong, and someone else will chime in.

Jason

 

[fossil]

The blower has nothing to do with the supply of combustion air. The blower takes room air, circulates it around the outside of the hot stove and returns it to the room. All the air for combustion of the fuel is drawn into the stove by natural convection (the stove's draft) through the primary and secondary air inlets. You have the capability to adjust at least the primary air, possibly not the secondary (I don't know your appliance). If you're not happy with how quickly the fuel seems to burn, then adjust the combustion air down...be careful that you don't damp it so far down as to end up with a smoky, smoldering fire and low stovepipe temperature (or get some denser fuel). Rick

 

[woodsie8]

I guess what I am trying to achieve is to have the fan stay on (it keeps turning back off), get heat out to us in the house, use as least wood as possible and wake to coals so I can just put more wood on. Also, since I am so new, I am not sure if the goal is big roaring flames or coals for stove to work at its best.

Never did make it over for that soup, Rick Maybe I can just get some of the wife's recipes............

 

[fossil]

If you're going for an overnight burn, then you need a really good bed of hot coals, load the stove up with as much fuel as you can cram in there, open the air wide to let it get going real good, then damp it way down. Takes some practice and experimentation, not all stoves behave the same. The blower turns itself off when it senses the stove's cooled down to where the blower's no longer effective. If the stove stays hot, the blower will keep running. Depending on firebox size and type of fuel, you simply may never be able to achieve the elusive overnight burn, and sometime in the wee hours, your blower will shut itself off. You may or may not have sufficient hot coals for an easy re-light in the morning. We rarely do, even with the big Liberty, because we only have access to softwoods. Soup season's rapidly approaching! Rick

 

[cmonSTART]

Woodsie, look through the FAQ and articles here. There's a lot of good information on how to burn to get the most from your wood. Also, another site that has really helped me with the "how to" of the actual burning is www.woodheat.org. There is a couple sections there regarding this which are a must read IMO.

 

[woodsie8]

What about during the day, when we can tend the fire? Do we go for raging fire or coals? I know we want hot temps up the chimney for less build up, so in theory...... does raging fires equal less build up, warmer temps in house, and using stove like they are meant to be used, or is the goal coals? Are coals hotter or cooler than raging fires? I know this is probably elementry......... but I guess that is where I am

 

[cmonSTART]

Our budget here is really tight so we have to get every ounce of heat from our wood as possible. If you're looking for an overnight burn, what I've learned in the past year since I got serious about burning is to use the lowest air setting which will give you a complete, clean burn.

 

[fossil]

You want a nice steady fire most of the time...not raging, not a bed of smoldering coals. Load up the stove, get it burning nicely, then gradually reduce the supply of primary combustion air until you have a nice burn going while maintaining a good stack temp. If it's down to just coals, time for a reload...if it's a raging inferno, time to damp it down a bit...don't worry, you'll figger it out. Rick

 

[BrotherBart]

The best time to practice an overnight burn is starting around nine o'clock in the morning on a day off. Establish a good bed of coals and then load the stove up and get the burn going with the primary air wide open. When you see the secondary burn start begin lowering the primary air intake in three or four stages. Then use that stainless steel burn indicator that is attached to the top of the stove. The chimney. Go outside and look at it. You are looking for the lowest primary air setting you can obtain without smoke coming out of the chimney. It also gives you a chance to observe the full burn cycle of a load of wood without staying up all night.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

What about during the day, when we can tend the fire? Do we go for raging fire or coals? I know we want hot temps up the chimney for less build up, so in theory...... does raging fires equal less build up, warmer temps in house, and using stove like they are meant to be used, or is the goal coals? Are coals hotter or cooler than raging fires? I know this is probably elementry......... but I guess that is where I am

Woodsie8, you've got some good advice here so I'll just add that your daytime heating needs are much different from your night time needs. You simply require less heat during the day. Now how you load and burn depend MUCH on the wood you burn. Is it seasoned well? Is it good hardwood? etc.

During the day is when we build small fires but turn the draft up just a bit higher )if we possibly can). We'll also burn the softer woods during the daytime and leave the harder stuff for overnights. Or, if we have to be gone all day, then we'll stock it up like we do at night.

Again, so much depends upon your wood. How good of wood is it and how well seasoned.

Just remember, big flames at the start (to burn off remaining moisture) and to char the wood, then begin closing the draft. Also, not all stoves will burn all night and leave that bed of coals for morning. Also, some folks don't mind waking up to a 55 or 60 degree house in the morning. As for us, we like it toasty warm in the mornings and hate getting up to a cold house. If we have to put a log on the fire during the night, then so be it. If not, that is just fine. If the temperature is below zero, I always figure on putting more wood on the fire during the night.

 

[woodsie8]

Great advise from everyone. Thanks so much!