I am obviously new. But how far open do you leave the draft open before you go to sleep. I have been experimenting with 1/2 and 1/4 open. Any experienced insight is appreciated.
Night time burn
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It depends on the stove, the chimney, the wood species and dryness, and outside temps. With good dry hardwood on a cold day you may be able to close it down all the way once the wood is fully burning. With semi-dry hardwood on a milder day you may need to leave it 1/4 open. A short chimney on a mild day is going to draft the poorest, especially if it is not straight up.
20% and under is considered dry. If it's reading 14-16% on a resplit's freshly exposed face of wood, not end grain, that is very dry.
If your goal is maximum burn time, I think the damper should be as closed as possible without killing the combustion efficiency. The fire needs enough oxygen to maintain a hot firebox, which is gives an efficient burn. But too much oxygen just wastes heat by carrying too much out with the exhaust. Too little oxygen and gasses/particles that could have been burned escape uncombusted, and/or you get formation of alternative reaction products like creosote as a result of incomplete combustion reactions. You just have to experiment with your own stove to find that sweet spot, and it will vary depending on your wood, the outside temperature, where you are in the burn cycle, etc. Fortunately, this is all very approximate and it's not super-critical to get the damper position exactly right.
Note that I'm no expert. These are just my observations from learning my own stove combined with a few basic concepts from the sciences.
To answer your question directly, I burned overnight at about the 10% open position. But this year I plugged the EPA auxiliary air supply hole, and now I burn at around 20% open.
-Jim
Note that I'm no expert. These are just my observations from learning my own stove combined with a few basic concepts from the sciences.
To answer your question directly, I burned overnight at about the 10% open position. But this year I plugged the EPA auxiliary air supply hole, and now I burn at around 20% open.
-Jim
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