New wood burner questions.

[Dale.Z]

Greetings,

I am a new wood burner here looking for some expert advice / experience.
Just finished installing a Pacific Energy Summit Insert last week and I am hoping that this appliance will heat my 2500 sq ft home.
We are hoping to wean of the power grid so when the cap & trade bill goes through I won’t go into utility bill shock.

I have plenty of oak & other hardwoods that are seasoned for the past year but just exactly how to operate this thing to achieve maximum efficiency is still a mystery to me so if you all don’t mind I have several questions.
Any good websites or books, videos to help a rookie would be awesome as well.

1. Loading the firebox? Some say east to west some say north to south. How can this make a difference?
2. How much wood do I load? Full to the top, half?
3. Is it better to continually add wood or wait until it burns down?
4. Also this thing does not have an ash tray, so how often or how deep should I allow the ash to get before I remove it?

I know some of these questions may sound stupid but I am hoping not to waste too much time and fuel trying to keep my family warm this winter.

Thanks in advance,

Dale

 

[DAKSY]

Check out www.woodheat.org

You should be able get most of your answers there...

 

[Skier76]

I'm a newb myself. I've got a few burns under my belt with our new Castine.

Most of those questions can be answered with "depends...". All of our set ups are different; stove location, chimney, climate, altitude...ect.

I'm getting a better idea of how are stove burns and seem to have figured out how to get it going...and how to keep the temp steady.

The best thing to do is a little trial and error. This time of year is nice because you don't 100% "need" to run the stove right now. So if you mess with the air control too much and start to smolder....

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Greetings,

I am a new wood burner here looking for some expert advice / experience.
Just finished installing a Pacific Energy Summit Insert last week and I am hoping that this appliance will heat my 2500 sq ft home.
We are hoping to wean of the power grid so when the cap & trade bill goes through I won’t go into utility bill shock.

I have plenty of oak & other hardwoods that are seasoned for the past year but just exactly how to operate this thing to achieve maximum efficiency is still a mystery to me so if you all don’t mind I have several questions.
Any good websites or books, videos to help a rookie would be awesome as well.

1. Loading the firebox? Some say east to west some say north to south. How can this make a difference?
2. How much wood do I load? Full to the top, half?
3. Is it better to continually add wood or wait until it burns down?
4. Also this thing does not have an ash tray, so how often or how deep should I allow the ash to get before I remove it?

I know some of these questions may sound stupid but I am hoping not to waste too much time and fuel trying to keep my family warm this winter.

Thanks in advance,

Dale

Welcome to the forum Dale.

I am not familiar with your insert but the principle are the same. First and foremost is the fuel. Not enough people put enough thought into the fuel they will burn. They just think that wood is wood. Well, there is a big, big difference in types of wood and amount of seasoning. For example, that oak of yours needs 2 years to dry and that is after it is cut to length, split and stacked in the sun and where the wind will hit the sides of the wood stack. But to answer your direct questions:

1. E-W or N-S. It depends upon your stove and the length of the wood. Many times one can get more wood in one way vs. the other. Personally, I've never been concerned with this.

2. How much wood you load. Some depends upon your stove. However, I've never seen any sense in loading a stove full of wood when only a little heat is necessary like you will need in spring and fall. The big fires can wait until January.

3. It is almost always better to let the wood burn down before loading more.

4. When emptying ashes, leave an inch or two in the bottom. Let the coals burn down pretty well and then move them to the front, clean the ashes, then rake them to the rear and finish cleaning the ashes. Then smooth the ashes and put some fuel in.

As to how often to clean ashes, it depends upon the stove. On ours, we do it about every 4 days when burning full. Spring and fall more like once a week.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[firefighterjake]

Greetings,

I am a new wood burner here looking for some expert advice / experience.
Just finished installing a Pacific Energy Summit Insert last week and I am hoping that this appliance will heat my 2500 sq ft home.
We are hoping to wean of the power grid so when the cap & trade bill goes through I won’t go into utility bill shock.

I have plenty of oak & other hardwoods that are seasoned for the past year but just exactly how to operate this thing to achieve maximum efficiency is still a mystery to me so if you all don’t mind I have several questions.
Any good websites or books, videos to help a rookie would be awesome as well.

1. Loading the firebox? Some say east to west some say north to south. How can this make a difference?
2. How much wood do I load? Full to the top, half?
3. Is it better to continually add wood or wait until it burns down?
4. Also this thing does not have an ash tray, so how often or how deep should I allow the ash to get before I remove it?

I know some of these questions may sound stupid but I am hoping not to waste too much time and fuel trying to keep my family warm this winter.

Thanks in advance,

Dale

Everyone's experience varies . . . just as everyone's stove and set up varies.

Some answers based on my experiences.

1. My stove (Oslo) is set up so that it is much easier to burn east-west . . . unless I have some chunks to burn. In general, some folks say north-south loading results in faster, hotter fires vs. east-west (although this depends on the stove's design and air flow). Since the Oslo has more of a rectangular shape I've pretty much locked myself into burning east-west . . . since I don't want to really cut up two differently sized wood piles . . . to make slower or longer lasting fires in my own stove I generally rely more on my fuel (i.e. species of wood and size -- for a quick, fast fire I load up smaller splits of softwood and for a long overnight fire it's larger hardwood splits.)

2. In my case if I'm around the house or just puttering around in the evening I will typically only do a partial load . . . if I'm going to bed or leaving for work for the day I'll do a full load.

3. In either case (partial load or full load) I try to wait until the fire has gone to the coaling stage before reloading -- it's safer and more efficient.

4. The Oslo has an ash tray, but even with an ash tray I find it useful to keep an inch or so of ash in the firebox . . . it just seems to run better and retain coals longer which is useful for restarting the fire after a long day away at work or in the morning after an overnight burn.

 

[Dale.Z]

I can’t thank you guys enough.
The advice and different experiences are invaluable. DAKSY thanks for the link a ton of info there.

This thing is just going to take practice. I have maybe four fires so far with different types of wood and different loading techniques, some not so good and some that where incredible! That secondary burn is fascinating to me.

I need to just sit down for a while and read this forum there is so much information here it’s awesome along with its members.

Dale

 

[rdust]

I'm surprised no one has posted this video yet. http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/default.asp?lang=En&n=8011CD70-1