How many splits per load are you burning?

[Mr. Kelly]

I have a PE Summit, which is a pretty big box.

While we're here during the daytime (weekends, etc.), I burn 3 or 4 splits at a time, in an effort to balance out room temp vs. wood consumption. Overnight, I do about 4-6 splits.

What are your wood-burning strategies, and have you found anything in particular that seems to be energy efficient?

 

[rdust]

Load it full in the morning, half or so after work and full for the overnight when we have temps like this. Obviously when it's warmer I'll load less. Number of splits doesn't mean much since they're all different, sometimes that may be 6, 8, 10 etc.....

Picture explains it better, here is an overnight load.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

During the day, a combination of E/W & N/S keeps a good burn going through the day. At night, I'll beat 'em in with a sledgehammer until the box is full. :coolgrin: I'm STILL burning what I had left over from last year, so it could be anything from 12-24" of either Pine or Aspen, whatever is closest.

 

[Mr. Kelly]

Picture explains it better, here is an overnight load.

That's a serious load! I was loading that kind of fuel last year, our first burning year. This year, I'm not loading that much, and I'm not sure I'm feeling any real detriment. I'm trying to see if I can save wood.

 

[heatwise]

3 or 4 in the phoenix , this displaces about 75% of the box volume. biggest pieces for prolonged burns. i tend to use less wood when its sunny due to solar gain. the basement buck stove is fed scraps. i fill it about 1/4 to 1/2 full . on the rare occasion i do put a few small splits in with the scraps . i run the stoves hot with a fair amount of draft and only pack em full when the temps fall low and its cloudy and windy.

 

[rdust]

That's a serious load! I was loading that kind of fuel last year, our first burning year. This year, I'm not loading that much, and I'm not sure I'm feeling any real detriment. I'm trying to see if I can save wood.

It's really not that much, it's only a 2.2 cubic' firebox.(18"x18") Last year(first year) I burned almost 5 cords of wood from November 1st-whenever it stopped(can't remember). Right now I'm only a little over 2 cords in and started burning the last week of September. My situation has changed though since my wife was home during the day last year and fed the stove non stop. I find loading the stove in cycles works better for us rather than tossing in a split or two as needed.

 

[madrone]

That's cheating rdust, you've clearly removed the tubes in order to load it that full.

 

[bogydave]

1/2 load at night, 3 splits around afternoon sometime.
It's been warm 20s at night almost 40 today.
I let it almost go to ashes in the after noon.
1/2 load at night is waking up at 74 °f in the house thru afternoon.
Wife got so used to the 70s, so I burn even in this heat wave.

My flue set up don't like the "smolder mode" for 20 hours, so I just use less wood for these warm spells & burn midrange.

 

[rdust]

That's cheating rdust, you've clearly removed the tubes in order to load it that full.

Nah but it's right up against them. My biggest issue with this stove is the height of the firebox, another couple inches would be wonderful.

 

[begreen]

Depends on the size of the splits, but when it is cold out, I load the T6 with about 8 decent sized splits or 3 big muthas and a couple on top to fill in the gaps.

 

[soupy1957]

Tough thing to gauge really...........we try and keep a balanced load in there, after the initial start-up in the morning (no, I typically don't keep it going all night, but let it burn out by 10 PM or so). Once a good stable burn is established with kindling and other smaller pieces, we load about 2 logs every hour and a half or so, with the damper at its "sweet spot." We'll keep the fire going like that all day and into the early evening.

-Soupy1957

 

[PapaDave]

Since it's relatively warm out this am, I only put 3 splits in about 9 am.
Overnight, depending on weather, I'll load anywhere from 5-10 splits. Last night was 6.
I recently came to the realization, that even though my firebox is almost 2.5 cu ft, I can really only load about 2 or less cu ft unless I stuff little pieces in the empty spaces.
Makes me think more and more that getting the 30 will be just about right for me, since that'll probably only get loaded to about 3 or less cu ft max.
Energy efficiency can mean so many things, which are we talking about, mine or the stove's? :cheese:

 

[jensent]

We have the Lopi Endeaver. Very happy with it. This is our seventh winter with the stove. A local tree service dumps wood when they are called. They are glad to do it as it saves time and dump fees. We burn what ever is dumped, silver maple,elm, mulberry etc. We split 16 inch rounds to 1.5x3.0 inch splits. Season 2yrs minimum. Each split has different heat potential. To start the fire in the morning we use 4 to 5 splits on the coals from the overnite burn after removing the ashes. Additional splits are added to keep the stove top at 300 to 450F. When the fan stops we add wood. At 500F I would cut back the draft drasticly. The chimmney has stayed clean as we burn with quite a bit of air. Ran a brush thru it at 3yrs and 6yrs. Only get half a cup of soot. The stove has never been filled half full. I would rather error on the side of caution.
Tom

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Enough to keep her warm, no less.

Depends on the split, I have some that 3 is all you can get in there, maybe 2.. but others I could put in 20.. I kind of split random sizes..

 

[rdust]

We split 16 inch rounds to 1.5x3.0 inch splits. Season 2yrs minimum. Each split has different heat potential.

Sounds like kindling! My Endeavor would peg the needle if I loaded a handful of splits that small.

 

[wkpoor]

Only 3-4 medium splits. I'm limited because the coal bed is always in the way and if I did put more in it would scream the temps.

 

[joshlaugh]

Daytime is usually 2 med size and 1 smaller. For evening or when it is really cold I put a large, two meds and as many small splits as will fit. Typically 4-6