Proper way to burn all night?

[NordicSplitter]

Since this will be my first year with my stove, I thought I would get a jump on "All night Burning"....Usually get home around 4pm and hit the hay about 9-9:30pm. 4am comes awfully early. My thinking is from 4-8pm get a good fire going and then start my all night burn around 8pm with one big split (oak, black locust or hickory)...watch it for about 1/2hr, close down the damper about 80% and call it a night. In the morning before I head out, throw another big split in and go too work. Hopefully when I get home I have a good bed of coals to work with. Anything I'm missing guys? Thanks as always......

 

[chvymn99]

Thats kinda of how I do it. My get home first fire is to get the stove pumping, than depending on the timing I might slide additional fire to lay over till about 1 hour before bed. I like 1 hour it allows me to get that big chunk burning good, and able to settle her down letting her idle on out. In the morning, I get the first fire built and about 1 hour before I leave I do the same them as the evening. It takes some playing and your personal preference on how you want to make it happen. But knowledge is the starting blocks. Good Luck.

 

[pen]

It's going to take more than 1 big split in that stove for an all night / clean burn. Depending on the stoves, many will require a full firebox w/ maybe 1 large split and 4-6 med / small splits to fill it up. Leave the damper open until well engulfed and start backing things down to closed or near closed for the night. A single piece of wood does not burn for beans. It takes a bunch together each helping the other to continue the chain reaction of needing heat to create more heat in combination with the right amount of air to get a sustained and clean burn w/ lots of heat.

Also, that Oak had better be seasoned about 2 years if you are hoping to get good use out of it this winter.

pen

 

[BrotherBart]

As a former member here said once, the coal bed for the night burn is the "art" of wood burning. With some practice you will know how much to burn on the your first fire of the evening to have nothing but a hot bed of coals left when you are ready to load up the stove for the night burn.

Plan on practicing first by getting up on a Saturday or Sunday morning and treating it like you just got home from work. Get you coal bed ready and load it for a night burn. While you are there and able to observe how it burns. Helps get your timing down and get some practice setting the air control for the long clean burn.

 

[Swedishchef]

Nordic,

I do the same thing as what you are planning to do: get the fire going, load for the night, watch the fire for a bit, turn it down and go to sleep.

As Pen stated, it takes a good bit of wood. I always use 5-6 medium pieces and 1-2 large ones.

Andrew

 

[Todd]

I rake all the coals forward toward the glass, place large split or round in back, then fill in from there til the box is full. After about 10 minutes I engage the cat and adjust the air setting down in a couple different segments til I get that classic floating flame above the load.

Some people argue with this but over the years I've found that a tightly E/W loading will give you a longer burn than a N/S load. Less air will get to that bottom back log and it will have to burn front to back and slow down the burn. I guess it could also depend on the stove as well since some stoves have secondary air piped into the back. My stove doesn't and that bottom rear log is the last one to go.

 

[BrotherBart]

Time for Vanessa. Watch the last video on the page: Efficient Wood Stove Operation

http://woodheat.org/wood-heat-videos.html

 

[rdust]

I usually get home around 6-6:30, I load up with some smaller splits that I know will get me till I load around 10 for the overnight burn. I can usually burn up the smaller load pretty fast if it's single digit cold since I'll burn the stove pretty hot to warm the joint back up after being gone 11-12 hours. For the night load I'll pull all the coals to the front and fill the stove to the gills. I'll burn it wide open until the stove top reaches 400 or so then I'll start backing it down in two or three adjustments over the next half hour or so. With the Endeavor the final adjustments would end up with the air almost all the way close or just open a hair. This season I'll be learning a new stove so I'll be a rookie all over again. :lol:

Here is what my overnight or before work loads typically look like when it's cold.

 

[North of 60]

I usually get home around 6-6:30, I load up with some smaller splits that I know will get me till I load around 10 for the overnight burn. I can usually burn up the smaller load pretty fast if it's single digit cold since I'll burn the stove pretty hot to warm the joint back up after being gone 11-12 hours. For the night load I'll pull all the coals to the front and fill the stove to the gills. I'll burn it wide open until the stove top reaches 400 or so then I'll start backing it down in two or three adjustments over the next half hour or so. With the Endeavor the final adjustments would end up with the air almost all the way close or just open a hair. This season I'll be learning a new stove so I'll be a rookie all over again. :lol:

Here is what my overnight or before work loads typically look like when it's cold.

rdust, with a load like that in your new stove for overnight burns, your gonna end up late for work waiting for that to burn down enoufe to make room for more wood. Shes gonna be interesting..........

 

[rdust]

rdust, with a load like that in your new stove for overnight burns, your gonna end up late for work waiting for that to burn down enoufe to make room for more wood. Shes gonna be interesting..........

I'm actually pretty excited about seeing the new one in action. I'm not ready for the cold but I'm ready to play with the new stove, sad I think. :lol: I figure the overnight burn will just be loaded at 6:30 when I get home from work. :cheese:

 

[North of 60]

Sounds like a good plan rd..... ;-)

 

[BrotherBart]

No problem. Load the BK before work on Monday. And the the next Monday. And the next...

 

[Highbeam]

None of this 80% closed stuff, these EPA stoves do that 20% open jive whether you like it or not. Shut the air to absolute zero for the longest burns so long as your wood is dry. You can't snuff an EPA stove.

 

[NordicSplitter]

Good point.....Thanks

 

[Todd]

None of this 80% closed stuff, these EPA stoves do that 20% open jive whether you like it or not. Shut the air to absolute zero for the longest burns so long as your wood is dry. You can't snuff an EPA stove.

That's why you file down the air slide stop especially if you have a taller chimney. ;-)

 

[Swedishchef]

For some odd reason highbeam, I am too hesitant to close it down completely. DUnno why, just can't pull the trigger. I keep mine open 25% or so....

Andrew

 

[pen]

None of this 80% closed stuff, these EPA stoves do that 20% open jive whether you like it or not. Shut the air to absolute zero for the longest burns so long as your wood is dry. You can't snuff an EPA stove.

I disagree. There are too many other variables to make such a blanket statement. In addition to the wood, I say let the stuff exiting the chimney / burn time / stove temp do the deciding for whether or not it can be shut completely down.

pen

 

[Swedishchef]

Having a background in Chemistry lets me think there is always a possibility that CO will form. Yes, it SHOULD go out a chimney. But if there's any downdraft and CO is in the stove....

Andrew

 

[jotulguy]

Time for Vanessa. Watch the last video on the page: Efficient Wood Stove Operation

http://woodheat.org/wood-heat-videos.html

Vannessa is a distributor of mine. And if I may say so one of the smartest hearth people around! I love these videos!

 

[BrotherBart]

Time for Vanessa. Watch the last video on the page: Efficient Wood Stove Operation

http://woodheat.org/wood-heat-videos.html

Vannessa is a distributor of mine. And if I may say so one of the smartest hearth people around! I love these videos!

Never met her but she has been in the wood burning business for a long time. Last time I looked she wasn't a distributor for the PE stove in the video. But that video has gotten a ton of people on this site on their way. And it is fun watching John Gulland being told how to burn wood.

John invented trees.

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

Time for Vanessa.

First I've heard of this Vanessa.

 

[GAMMA RAY]

Time for Vanessa.

First I've heard of this Vanessa.

Me too....some kinda "secret" Kat I guess.... >:-(

 

[firefighterjake]

Since this will be my first year with my stove, I thought I would get a jump on "All night Burning"....Usually get home around 4pm and hit the hay about 9-9:30pm. 4am comes awfully early. My thinking is from 4-8pm get a good fire going and then start my all night burn around 8pm with one big split (oak, black locust or hickory)...watch it for about 1/2hr, close down the damper about 80% and call it a night. In the morning before I head out, throw another big split in and go too work. Hopefully when I get home I have a good bed of coals to work with. Anything I'm missing guys? Thanks as always......

I can tell you what I do and what works for me . . .

If the fire has died down or gone to coals because my wife has been sleeping I get home around 5 p.m. and reload/build the fire . . . I run the stove all evening and try to time my loads so that around 9:30 p.m. or so the stove is ready for the final load of the night -- usually at this point I have a nice bed of coals the size of softballs -- sometimes a bit larger depending on how well or not well I have managed the loading that evening.

At this time I load up the stove . . . I tend to stick with my better BTU wood when possible such as white ash, elm, maple, yellow birch, etc. vs. using my white birch, poplar, etc. I also try to have at least one large split, but I also have found that I can also go with several medium sized splits and have the desired effect. I of course do tend to fill up the firebox -- but it is not necessary to fill the whole kit and caboodle all the way to the baffle, push things right up against the glass or fill up every cubic inch (all things which I avoid honestly).

I then watch the fire for the next half hour or so . . . watch the wood ignite . . . watch the stack temps and stove temps . . . and slowly begin to close down the air when the temps on the stack and stove are good . . . depending on the wood and the fire I can either close the whole thing down in one move or more likely will close it down a quarter mark at a time, wait 5-10 minutes to let the fire "stabilize" with the reduced amount of air and then turn it down another quarter mark.

Generally I can get it so that the air control is either completely "closed" (which means only that the air control I can control is closed all the way since it is still getting some air) or turned down to being only open 25% or less.

I then watch the fire for a few more minutes to make sure things are good . . . and then head to bed . . . have some very vivid dreams . . . and then wake up around 4:30-5:30 a.m. the next morning to a bed of coals . . . throw on some kindling (my wife is more patient and uses small splits) . . . and get the whole thing going again.

 

[begreen]

Time for Vanessa.

First I've heard of this Vanessa.

Me too....some kinda "secret" Kat I guess.... >:-(

Search Canadian video. We've referred lots of new folks (and a few old timers) to watch them over the past few years. She demonstrates top-down lighting in the one referred to by BB.

 

[GAMMA RAY]

Thanks BG...I did check out those vids and I actually did find them last fall when I "googled" how to operate a wood stove...yeah I did google it...when you are left alone to tend a wood stove by yourself you do what you gotta do and I was terrified when he left me alone with "IT"...They are great vids and I did learn how to start a top down fire from that video...It came in handy in shoulder season in the spring when I would start a fire by myself when I got home from work...

The all night fire really is not during the middle of the night here...My husband works basically 11-7pm.....(me 5am-1pm)so I get the fire re-started at about 4 am and make sure it is good till he gets up at the last possible minute he can >:-( ...our schedule is good since we have a small stove...someone is always here to load when it needs it....I still want the 30 though...
The thing we have to "tweak" is for him not to put too much wood on too late....sometimes he goes to bed at about 1 or 2 am...I try to tell him that its better for me to be left with a good coal bed....then I can load it properly...
The trials and tribulations of wood burning....I am getting apprehensive...just when I was really getting used to wood burning it was spring...now I gotta start all over....
Hope its like riding a bike.....