Paradoxes of Burning

[Slow1]

I was struck this morning by the realization that there are several paradoxes and other apparent contradictions in wood burning. I came up with a few to share - I wonder what other ones I'm missing?

Dry wood burns longer than wet - May not be true for pre-EPA stoves, but if you don't get it then you haven't experienced it.

You have to get the firebox hotter at first to get a good long burn - it seems odd that starting off cooler wouldn't be better eh?

Less air will get your more heat - Another EPA stove deal I'm sure, but true anyway

A larger stove can get you more heat from the same wood - basically this argues for having the right size stove instead of pushing the limits of a smaller one. Early to be certain on this, but so far it appears this is indeed the case for me with the PH upgrade from the FV.

I had a couple more but forgot them... (seems to happen more the older I get - no surprise there). Anyone else think of any?

 

[nola mike]

I was struck this morning by the realization that there are several paradoxes and other apparent contradictions in wood burning. I came up with a few to share - I wonder what other ones I'm missing?

Dry wood burns longer than wet - May not be true for pre-EPA stoves, but if you don't get it then you haven't experienced it.

You have to get the firebox hotter at first to get a good long burn - it seems odd that starting off cooler wouldn't be better eh?

Less air will get your more heat - Another EPA stove deal I'm sure, but true anyway

A larger stove can get you more heat from the same wood - basically this argues for having the right size stove instead of pushing the limits of a smaller one. Early to be certain on this, but so far it appears this is indeed the case for me with the PH upgrade from the FV.

I had a couple more but forgot them... (seems to happen more the older I get - no surprise there). Anyone else think of any?

Don't know that I agree with these--I think the first 3 statements are mixing up "long burn" with "greater efficiency" or "more useful BTUs". You can smolder a piece of wet wood all day. #1, again, length of burn doesn't equal heat output or efficiency of burn. #2: getting firebox hot kicks off secondaries/cat earlier, so you're not losing BTUs in the form of unburned smoke. #3: Less air doesn't get you more heat. Air open=hotter fire. But you lose a significant amount of the heat up the chimney. #4: Don't know where this comes from. Only thing I can think of is that you can run a bigger stove with less air/potentially greater efficiency than trying to flog your smaller stove. But if you put 4 splits in each one, you'll get the same heat output (actually, the smaller stove would probably do better with a smaller load)