Newbie here

[Oldman47]

Just a quick introduction.
I am completely new to wood burning and to this forum. I am in the process of building my own home and am looking at using a Napoleon 1100 model stove as an emergency backup to my ground source heat pump. So far I have installed the chimney and have met all requirements listed by Selkirk in their literature. My next steps will be installing the floor protection around the stove area and then setting the stove in place. Since this is a new very well insulated home I expect to need to have outside combustion air so I am working in that direction also. I have some wood, ash, that has been drying for about 2 years now in my backyard that needs to be split and transported to my new home. I seriously do not expect my wood stove to ever become my primary heat source but do think it would be nice to run it on the colder days of the year so my water furnace does not need to work as hard. I own 40 acres, mostly wooded, so I expect to pick up a few new dead falls each year and to cut and split them as fuel without the need to actually drop any trees. I am in the process of acquiring splitting tools and already own a Stihl 024 chain saw.

 

[prezes13]

Wood starts its seasoning process after its cut split and stack of the ground, preferably in sunny windy spot. Your ash might be ready next year if you split it and stack no later than spring. Wood burning is like a hobby which is very addicting. Once you will get the stove going its a different kind of heat. You will want your stove on all the time. Just ask around here most of us started as a supplemental source of heat. Welcome to the forums, you will find answer to your every question here. People here are extremely knowledgable and helpful. You want to burn wood its a great place to start.

 

[Oldman47]

Thanks for the welcome prezes13. I guess I need to check moisture when I start splitting my ash. I thought it was seasoning sitting in a nice location and stacked as rounds.
My first real question now.
I have been reading through the pinned topics for newbies and it strikes me that most problems seem relate to inadequate combustion air issues. I bought my stove with accessory outside air intake kit because my new home is relatively tight but, and it is a big but for me, the instructions tell me to hold the door slightly open when starting a new fire or reloading the stove. So, how does that work? I am assuming I need outside air to avoid smoke leaking into the house but the instructions seem to be telling me to burn house air whenever I light a fire or stoke the stove with new fuel. If I actually need that outside air it seems like the open door just bypasses that outside air duct to burn my house air and worse yet there is no draft to keep the fresh air coming into the firebox through that outside connection because I have created a "hole" in that air path. What am I missing?

 

[begreen]

The primary issues we see here are poorly seasoned wood and inadequate draft. Modern stoves need to have an adequate height chimney. They are tested with a 15 ft stack. In particular Napoleon stoves can be fussy about this. If you can go higher, do.

 

[Ashful]

Thanks for the welcome prezes13. I guess I need to check moisture when I start splitting my ash. I thought it was seasoning sitting in a nice location and stacked as rounds.

It will dry very slowly when stacked as rounds, so most folks only count the drying time after it's split and stacked, preferably under some sort of cover (plywood, old roofing, shed, etc.). However, Ash is unique among hardwoods, being of of the fastest drying hardwoods you'll find in Illinois. If you get it split and stacked in a nice windy spot now, it should be mostly acceptable by next fall. Keeping snow and rain off the wood will help it dry a little quicker, if time is an issue, and you definitely want to get a cover over it at least 2 - 3 months before you burn it.

 

[Oldman47]

Thanks begreen. I have yet to light a fire in my stove so I have no experiences yet. I am reading instructions at this point and just trying to make sense of them. I figure the more answers I have going into this the better my first fire will be.

 

[valuman]

Welcome to the forums and to the world of heating with wood. Be prepared for total, incurable addiction to take hold next winter.

 

[begreen]

How tall will the flue system be on the 1100 and will it be straight up?

 

[Oldman47]

My flue is almost straight up. I had to do a small offset to get required clearances to combustibles for the chimney and still put the stove where I wanted it. I used 2 of the 45º elbows in my 6 inch DVL before entering the attic to get that offset with no pipe between them. The end result is a vertical pipe of about 5 feet from the stove to the offset, then about 10 feet above the adapter at the ceiling to get my minimum 3 feet above the roof and 2 feet above the peak of my roof. Call it 15 feet vertical plus those 45s with a 8 inch offset using only the 45s. To me, my most concerning path is the 13 feet of 4 inch cold air intake that I need to use to supply outside air. Even though it is mostly horizontal I am worried more about potential smoke in my living space due to possibly inadequate combustion air supply.

 

[begreen]

You'll have to try it. It's going to depend on the house's fresh air recovery. The house should not normally have negative pressure.

It's possible that this may not be the best stove for the application. There are other stoves that work better with shorter chimneys.

 

[Oldman47]

Thanks for that begreen. If I run into problems with a too short chimney, another 3 foot section of the Selkirk is cheap compared to a new stove so I would probably go that way.

 

[begreen]

Agreed. Be sure to add a roof bracket brace at the 5' level if pipe is added.

 

[Oldman47]

After some reading here I have seen 2 things that I need to know.

For most of you the first will be easy. What the heck is OAK?

Next is the thing I see all over the forum with people talking about stove top thermometers and stove temperatures that make them concerned. My owner's manual, which is all I really know about burning wood, suggests a flue gas monitor so many inches above the stove outlet. I think that was 16 inches. It never mentions a need to monitor the stove top itself. I guess I need to understand what a stove top tells you that the flue thermometer will not. I'm not crazy about drilling holes in my flue for a monitor so if both methods are equally useful I might join you all with a stove top thermometer.

 

[begreen]

OAK = outside air kit. This is how the outdoor air is connected to the stove

Stovetop thermometer will tell you how hot the stove is getting. It's good to know when the stove feels like it's not getting hot enough, when it is burning too cool or too hot or at risk of overfiring (over 800F on the stove top). Because the stove is efficient the flue temps will generally be cooler, except on startup. Flue temps are good guidance for turning down the air control, especially on startup or reloads. And the flue temp is good guidance for when the gases are too low and may condense into creosote.

 

[Ashful]

When I started burning in a stove, as opposed to my lifetime of using open fireplaces, I thought these guys running multiple gauges on their stoves were a little high strung. I figured woodburning is supposed to be low-tech, and I had a pretty good gauge of how things were doing by how close I could hold my hand to the stove.

Fast forward a few years, and I use three thermometers on each stove:

1. Stovetop - Just to know when I'm overfiring, or when it's time to reload.
2. Flue - Tells me when to engage the catalyst.
3. Catalytic combuster probe - Tells me when the catalyst is active, and if it's overfiring.

I could do without the stovetop now (my hand does still work). I could use my IR gun for the stovepipe, but it's nicer to just look at a dial in passing, as I await each new load to reach the right exhaust temp for catalyst engagement. The cat probe is indispensable, as I have no other way of knowing what's really going on back there.

 

[Oldman47]

Thanks for the information. It turns out I have an OAK and just didn't recognize the abbreviation. If I understand what I juts read, the stove top tells me how the stove is doing and the flue temperature is really for avoiding creosote build up. Good to know. Now I just need to source my instruments. I have a non-cat stove so cat temperature is not going to be one of my worries, thank goodness. This all seems complicated enough without that to worry about.
It turns out the wood I thought was seasoning is not, even though it has been cut for almost 2 years now, so that is the first thing I need to address. I own a 30 acre wood lot so most of my wood will be coming from naturally downed trees. I know there are several that I spot every time I walk through my wood so it will be a case of cutting into rounds and transporting to my home site. Most are walnut, hickory and oak so nice dense wood.

 

[begreen]

Flue temps are also important on a cold startup. The stove top isn't hot enough yet so I need to pay attention to the flue temp to know when to start backing down the air.

 

[BobUrban]

Welcome. It is - and it is not - so complicated as it may seem prior to first fire(s)

I grew up heating with wood and had what I thought was a good understanding of the process - Then I found hearth because I am an information sponge and really got an education on savvy wood burning procedures.

Yes, it is a big metal box that you fill with fuel and light. It gets hot - your house warms - you are happy.

But.. to do it safely and with as little frustration as possible there are a few simple things that can go a long way towards the end goal no matter what the stove is used for. ie. ambiance and weekend burning, supplemental heat or as a primary heat source. At some point your stove will be all of these things and often "all" at the same time.

Truly I feel after you have done everything to install it correctly the most important factor in the equation is your fuel and most important in that is it's dryness or is it at or near 20% moisture. This eliminates 90% of the pitfalls and frustrations of getting started wood burning in general as well as being a SAFEST practice. All the other bumps you run into can typically get sorted out with a quick message here and a tweak or two.

Up side is you have wood that is of a caliber that can be ready in time for burning next fall and very likely some will be good enough right away. Tops of those downed trees(especially ash and elm) can be ready off the saw so you have a great and invaluable resource. As a best practice for cutting future firewood - at least in preparation for the near future - separate the tops from the rest in your stacks and this will provide you with the best available wood on hand to get started. After you get ahead a bit(depending on the amount you want to burn) you can begin to forgo the separation and just stack away. Splitting what you have smaller rather than larger will expedite the process as well. Think 3-4" splits vs. 4-8" in regards to next years wood vs. two and three years down the road.

I only have a stove top therm as I didn't want to deal with multiple temp readings or drill into my stove pipe but it is not, by any means, a bad idea to have both. In time they will become a reference as you will come to understand your stove and set-up by sight, sounds and overall performance. All situations are different even with the same stove so part of the learning curve is just that - a learning curve.

Enjoy the process and sleep comfortably knowing you are ahead of most first time burners with your wood resource and knowledge available here with some very experienced and helpful people that for the most part just want to pass along their knowledge to promote safe, enjoyable burning practices.

 

[Ashful]

It turns out the wood I thought was seasoning is not, even though it has been cut for almost 2 years now, so that is the first thing I need to address. I own a 30 acre wood lot so most of my wood will be coming from naturally downed trees. I know there are several that I spot every time I walk through my wood so it will be a case of cutting into rounds and transporting to my home site. Most are walnut, hickory and oak so nice dense wood.

As you collect and split, make two separate stacks.

Stack 1 will be your walnut, and any maple or ash you may find. These will season in 12 - 18 months.

Stack 2 will be your oak, hickory, and any other super-dense woods you collect. These will not be ready for burning until the 2017/2018 burning season, if you split them today.