Do You Get More Heat on The House With The Primary Air Open 1/3 to 1/2 of the Way open , or With it Closed All the Way? Just Curious What Others Are Experiencing With Their Stoves. Im Finding with My Drolet 1800 that with a Good Load of Ash In And the primary about 1/3rd open the temps on the stovetop and glass are higher and the Blower is pushing warmer air into the room, But when the Primary is Closed the Whole Way the Temps are Lower and the Air is Also not as warm being Pushed with the Blower. Just what Ive seen This winter. This is my first Heating Season with this Stove.
Primary Air Control on EPA Stoves
- Thread starter Buck Miller
- Start date
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The air control setting depends on the setup and draft strength and the species of wood. On our stove, I can fully close the air damper for maximum burn time, but in very cold weather I may have it open maybe 25% for extra heat, especially if I am burning hardwood as opposed to our normal doug fir fuel.
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
I (from my science background) interpret “heat into the house as btus per load that go into the house (ie what is the most efficient air setting) and not as btus per hour (how fast can I heat up my house). Sure more air is going to burn wood faster and result in a hotter stove that tranfers more heat into the house in a given amount of time at the same time increased air will result in the flue gas temps will also be hotter resulting in more heat lost up the chimney. Which I say is less efficient. But if your house is too cold at the lowest setting do you really care how efficient the stove is running. Who drives at 50 mph down the interstate? It’s a lot more efficient….
Evan
Evan
Great Comments from Both EbS-P and begreen , I Agree With Both of Your Ideas, Especially that its not as efficiant running more air , But the stove is hotter and in turn radiates more heat, with My Blower pushing More hotter air because it just makes Sense . Love the comment About no one drives 55 , And begreen Like you in the colder months I Ran the stove Especially when I was their with the Pri open about 1/3 and my thermostat upstairs showed a definate increase of about 4 to 7 degrees. Thanks for your feedback
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Honestly . . . what controls the amount of heat in terms of intensity and how warm it gets for me is not the air control . . . the air control is almost always set the same (once I'm up to temp I "close" it down to get a secondary burn).
What is burning (in terms of wood species, size of wood, etc.) -- and more importantly -- how soon I reload the stove has more of a bearing on the level of heat. When it is colder out and I need more heat I tend to reload sooner rather than later . . . and the wood I pick is the primo stuff like yellow birch, oak, sugar maple, etc.
What is burning (in terms of wood species, size of wood, etc.) -- and more importantly -- how soon I reload the stove has more of a bearing on the level of heat. When it is colder out and I need more heat I tend to reload sooner rather than later . . . and the wood I pick is the primo stuff like yellow birch, oak, sugar maple, etc.
Like You Jake, I Tend To Load sooner when its Cold, and for sure wood quality has everything to do with Heat, Im Burning White ash which was cut down 3 years ago I Test it with My Moisture meter and its 12 to 17 percent so its really great wood., I Have Determined when its really cold out like below25 deg I Have to Run the primary open at least 1/4 to 1/3rd of the way to keep my house 70. I Close it off all the way when I'm gone.
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