Now that my heat commander is working the way its supposed to, I'm curious how people run them when the demand for heat is lower than normal. I just got mine working correctly over the weekend, but today its back up in the 50s so I let it burn out this morning. Previously, my G damper wasn't working correctly. Now that it is, I notice that I don't have nearly as many coals left at the end of a burn and I'm getting better heat output late in the burn as a result (no surprise on either). I'm actually shocked at how long my blower runs at the low speed even though the HC Tstat isn't calling for heat. That makes me wonder if its going to run me out of the house when the weather is 45 deg and sunny. My thought for those times was to use larger splits, but cut them in half with my battery powered saw. I cut everything at 18" for this year which is on the long side for the firebox in my HC, but i can trim them down to 12"-14" and then split the short drops and toss them in when I need to get the firebox heated up and generate some coals before a full reload. Just curious how others deal with stuff like this.
How do you use your Drolet Heat Commander in warmer weather
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The HC is overkill for my house the majority of thr year. I asked the same question here a while ago and members had some helpful suggestions. Smaller fires was most helpful recommendation. It also means reloading more often but definitely cuts down on heat output. I usually end up letting the fire go out during the day.
Other things that have helped me:
-top down fires for cold starts, seem to burn cleaner and longer
-if im doing a full reload, loading logs with ends facing the sides of firebox rather than front/back of firebox seems to last longer
-can pack logs tighter together/use bigger splits. This causes more smoldering for me though and also fills my basement with smoke when secondaries eventually violently ignite and send smoke shooting out the baro
-adding 15lbs of 12 inch long splits stacked over the grate is about the least amount of wood I can add at once while maintaining a cleanish burn
-I mound coals over the grate near the end of the burn. Help keep glass cleaner/prevent smoldering while buying me time before the next reload
Other things that have helped me:
-top down fires for cold starts, seem to burn cleaner and longer
-if im doing a full reload, loading logs with ends facing the sides of firebox rather than front/back of firebox seems to last longer
-can pack logs tighter together/use bigger splits. This causes more smoldering for me though and also fills my basement with smoke when secondaries eventually violently ignite and send smoke shooting out the baro
-adding 15lbs of 12 inch long splits stacked over the grate is about the least amount of wood I can add at once while maintaining a cleanish burn
-I mound coals over the grate near the end of the burn. Help keep glass cleaner/prevent smoldering while buying me time before the next reload
Banking coals to the back, behind the grate will give a little heat for a while, and allow for an easy reload/restart once you rake them forward onto the grate and load more wood.
I like to place a nice chunky piece of oak, or something that coals well, crossways clear at the back...that usually leaves a nice hot long lasting coal pile...just depends on your house as far as how well/long that will maintain an acceptable house temperature.
I like to place a nice chunky piece of oak, or something that coals well, crossways clear at the back...that usually leaves a nice hot long lasting coal pile...just depends on your house as far as how well/long that will maintain an acceptable house temperature.
For me it depends, i like to be able to reload on coals vs a cold start so i turn my tstat down or off and give it a full load at 6am which runs the house temp up to 75 and then i reload on hot coals at 9pm house temp usually 71-72 and i do a half load and repeat at 6am. A few days ago i reloaded at 6pm with a 1/4 load and a half load at 9pm full load at 6am house was 80 and the wife unleashed lol.
Honestly, I'm problabably trying to do a fire that will warm the house up in the morning, not really provide any heat (ie blower doesn't run) after about 10am, but still have a fair amount of coals to reload with around 6pm-7pm. The unit is in the basement, and my wife is prone to forget about needing to add firewood even on cold days. Getting the house above 72 degrees is not an option. Even at 70, there can be some grumbling depending on what her hormones are doing at the time. By that same token, if it drops below 68, the conversation drifts to the opposite extreme.
The majority of what I split for this year is in the 5"-6" range. I've found that I can fit about 3 of those in a row. For warmer weather, I'm thinking of trimming those from 18" down to 12"-14". Sounds like I should also try to load those sideways for a comparison. When my Grate Damper wasn't working correctly (servo ran continuously unless blower kicked into high speed) I would have a lot more coals left first thing in the morning, or when I get home from work. Now that its working correctly, I wish there was an option to kick that over to a low temp mode so that it wouldn't burn through the coals as fast on warmer days. It doesn't need to choke down so much that it smolders, but if the Tstat isn't calling for heat, there's no reason or it to be open more than just a crack. That's more than enough air to keep the fire from smoldering (dirty). As it is now, if I go down and rake a reasonable amount of coals over the grate, I get some blue flames off of them and that's enough to kick the blower on low even though the Tstat isn't calling for heat. I don't recall what temp requires the plenum to run at low speed regardless of the heat demand, but maybe I could add a variable resister to the RTD that would require the plenum temps to be a little higher. When the damper wasn't working right, a bed of hot coals was never enough to get the blower to kick on in high speed, the fire was still pretty clean, the house didn't get too hot, and i had a good bed of coals left to work with when I got home in the evening. In fact, I would often rake them over the grate and let them burn down for 30-60 minutes to get rid of some of them before adding any wood. As the unit cools down, I wish there was a point at which the G damper closed most of the way down to maintain the bed of coals. By that point, there are very few impurities left to work about, and reloading on that bed of coals would more than offset the amount of smoke generated compared to having to start over from scratch.
The majority of what I split for this year is in the 5"-6" range. I've found that I can fit about 3 of those in a row. For warmer weather, I'm thinking of trimming those from 18" down to 12"-14". Sounds like I should also try to load those sideways for a comparison. When my Grate Damper wasn't working correctly (servo ran continuously unless blower kicked into high speed) I would have a lot more coals left first thing in the morning, or when I get home from work. Now that its working correctly, I wish there was an option to kick that over to a low temp mode so that it wouldn't burn through the coals as fast on warmer days. It doesn't need to choke down so much that it smolders, but if the Tstat isn't calling for heat, there's no reason or it to be open more than just a crack. That's more than enough air to keep the fire from smoldering (dirty). As it is now, if I go down and rake a reasonable amount of coals over the grate, I get some blue flames off of them and that's enough to kick the blower on low even though the Tstat isn't calling for heat. I don't recall what temp requires the plenum to run at low speed regardless of the heat demand, but maybe I could add a variable resister to the RTD that would require the plenum temps to be a little higher. When the damper wasn't working right, a bed of hot coals was never enough to get the blower to kick on in high speed, the fire was still pretty clean, the house didn't get too hot, and i had a good bed of coals left to work with when I got home in the evening. In fact, I would often rake them over the grate and let them burn down for 30-60 minutes to get rid of some of them before adding any wood. As the unit cools down, I wish there was a point at which the G damper closed most of the way down to maintain the bed of coals. By that point, there are very few impurities left to work about, and reloading on that bed of coals would more than offset the amount of smoke generated compared to having to start over from scratch.
If the tstat isnt calling for heat the grate damper should be closed
The most ive gone with the HC blower not running and still having coals is maybe 3-4hrs. Thats at the end of a full reload burn and glass will be getting dirty at that point. To me, blower off means btus going out the flue, less btus heating being used to heat the house. I usually bump the thermostat up near the end of the burn to avoid that. I understand wanting to avoid cold starts though.
Adding resistance to the RTD probe circuit makes the blower turn on at a lower plenum temp. I have about .8ohms of added resistance to the RTD probe circuit right now to trick the blower into running more often.
Adding resistance to the RTD probe circuit makes the blower turn on at a lower plenum temp. I have about .8ohms of added resistance to the RTD probe circuit right now to trick the blower into running more often.
If I leave the coals spread out with the thermostat satisfied the HC will close both shutters until the thermostat calls for heat. That will cause the glass to dirty up from from the corners inward.
I know mine will get some whiteish ash build up on it, but I've never seen black soot on it at the end of a burn. I'll try turning the tstat WAY down this weekend and see what happens during the day. So far, any time I go down and check on it, if it has heat to give, the blower is running regardless of what my tstat says. I haven't checked the positions of the dampers though. I'll take a look at those and see where they are at. Pretty sure they are normally open and the draft blower is on trying to heat the coals and get the fire box temp up to maintain a clean burn. IMHO, that's the problem of where we are at now with the EPA. The unit has to prioritize a clean burn over putting out the heat demand at the end of the cycle, even though its down to a bed of coals which burns pretty darn clean already. It would be cleaner and easier to maintain some coals to avoid a hot start, but that option isn't available because the EPA testing doesn't take that into account. I'll get off my soap box now... lol
Black soot. Not the whole window, mainly works its way in from corners/bottom. But noticeably more than if I keep things hot. My unit will often shut both the dampers though at that point if no heat is called for. Then the draft drops to .03iwc which probably doesnt help. If there is no call for heat my HC basically falls asleep for the last few hours of the coaling stage and blower hardly ever turns on.
Have to agree some of the EPA regulations can be annoying lol. Would love a variable speed fan based on plenum temp. Im assuming manufacturers would offer that already if it didnt have to do with emissions.
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Mine does that to, i sont get any black soot buildup on the corners though i just progressively get whiteish ash. Im amazed how clean it is. Mine does seem to go to sleep with no call for heat which im fine with if the weather is good. I dont mind having the heat just radiate up through the vents. Shockingly my 1941 farmhouse can hold the heat quite well compared to some. Enough that 12 hours after a full load at 36 degrees im getting hollered at again LOL
The only time my glass gets black is when i burn some subpar wood and even then once its going it cleans itself up
Hmmm, maybe my problem is coming from lack of draft in the flue then once things cool down.
Assuming that your firebox gets hot enough to burn all the soot and creosote off the glass during the burn cycle, I wouldn't think there would be enough soot or creosote left in the wood to cause any buildup during the coaling stage, especially the end of the coaling stage like we're talking about. I could be wrong though. I would have just thought that all of that would have already been burned off since it ignites at around 450 deg.
That's exactly what went through my head...
The leftovers are usually in the corners/sides. Maybe they dont get the chance to heat up/bake as well as the rest of the wood.
Ill try opening a window at the end of the coaling stage to see if I can bump the draft up enough to keep things hotter.
My barrow sets my max draft at about 0.06"WC. I've only been running it in its fully functioning form for about a week now so I wouldn't say that I have a lot of experience. With that said, for me if I go check and the baro is closed, then the fire box is pretty much cold to the touch. There may be some coals, but they will be buried under quite a bit of ash, and I think this morning was the first time that actually happened. I checked it at 4:30, raked the coals from the night before up into a pile over the grate (pretty healthy pile), and added 2 very short splits (about 4" long) just so I'd have a few coals to work with when I got back to it again at 6:30. When I came back, the blowers were off, drafts were closed, coals were burned down, and the fire box was cold. The two small splits left me with a small, but reasonable size mound of coals to use with the next load. It did take several minutes with the door cracked open before I got a flame, but I didn't notice any build up on my glass while I was loading it.
What's the general consensus for the fix to the green button/light suddenly not working? (at any time)
I noticed with mine sometimes when the thermostat is calling for heat and theres heat available with the blower on after a reload my light will be off but it seems to operate as intended and once tstat is satisfied it changes to the slow blinking light
Honestly, I'd call their tech support. Those guys were VERY helpful. The CPU board has some LEDs on it that come on based on the call for heat, fire box temp, ect. I don't recall which light means what, but their techs can walk you through it. Maybe your bulb just burned out, or maybe something else is going on.
My baro-damper is mounted to a T on my flue pipe. The original CPU didn't want to control my dampers correctly (this has been resolved), and I was having the smoldering/sudden ignition issue a lot more frequently. I added a 12" length of flue pipe between the T and the Damper to give the damper more time to close. That helped reduce the amount of smoke I get when this happens. If I'm putting large, short chunks in trying to get a longer but cooler burn, I'll throw a couple sticks of kindling on first. Just something that can ignite easily and generate some flames before the smoke has a chance to build up very much. The kindling is gone in about 15-30 min, but its added initial heat keeps the smoke from building up and causing that problem. Once the fire is going, so long as my wood is dry, I don't really get any smoldering.
Now that the weather is a little bit warmer, I learned another trick on using my heat commander. Since the bottom of the firebox is flat, if I pile the coals in the center, and then put a decent size 1/4 split on both sides with the center of each piece facing outwards and the bark facing the coals, and then add the rest of my wood, those two pieces will hold coals for a long time. If I do this and only load the firebox about half full, the fire will turn these 2 pieces to charcoal during the normal burn and coaling cycles, but they themselves will be consumed at a much slower rate. Basically using the tree's natural fire resistance (ie grain structure) to my benefit. I just have to make sure that I'm not laying them on top of any coals when I load them so that they have to burn from the bark towards the center.
I've also noticed that if I do a better job of keeping the ash pan emptied, I don't tend to have an issue with the secondary gasses igniting all at once (ie exploding and blowing smoke into the basement). So far it only seems to happen when the ash is piled up high enough in the pan to reach the grate and obstruct air flow immediately after a reload.
One more step up the new learning curve ( I think).
I've also noticed that if I do a better job of keeping the ash pan emptied, I don't tend to have an issue with the secondary gasses igniting all at once (ie exploding and blowing smoke into the basement). So far it only seems to happen when the ash is piled up high enough in the pan to reach the grate and obstruct air flow immediately after a reload.
One more step up the new learning curve ( I think).
For anyone that might be needing the QMID code for the Drolet Heat Commander to claim the 2025 Biomass tax credit, here's the link to the certificate from Drolet's website.
The QMID number is the Qualified Manufacturer number located in the bottom right corner which is G3B8.
The QMID number is the Qualified Manufacturer number located in the bottom right corner which is G3B8.
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