Putting full load in and going to bed

[nodtmf]

Oh hi,

I too have a PE Summit and wondered the same thing. This thread has been very helpful. I have a 2300 sqft house, single story. I have added through-wall fans and a antic mounted fan with ducts to distribute the air...hopefully this will work. (House has a boiler- radiant heating system) I load up, full air till the wood chars. The flames are dancing so so much that it isn't obvious to see the secondary burn. When I turn down the air I see the secondary burn. I point an IR gun point just above the door and it reads any where from 550 to 700. I then settles in at 500s. I am using oak in the Santa Cruz mtns. Actually not cold enough here yet, where cold is only the 30s and 40s. (but hey, I did my time, farm house out side of Winnipeg Manitoba

-Glen

 

[thewoodlands]

Chris because ours is a basement install we build up the heat in the basement (78 degrees) which makes upstairs 70-72 after burning for awhile. So last night it still was 78 downstairs so I only put in 3 splits then went to bed, woke up and the upstairs was 70 and the downstairs 72.



zap[/quote]

That sounds great. One thing I do think is going against me is that I haven't been burning non-stop. Recently the stove has been going out because we haven't been home and I am not comfortable leaving the stove burning while away since I haven't mastered the air control settings yet. When I get home I want to get things heated up so I am probably building bigger fires to get everything up to temp. I am hoping eventually and when I become more comfortable with the stove that I can start burning more often so the basement and everything is up to temp all the time.

Chris[/quote]

Chris we never load up and leave the house for the same reason, if we are going some place at night we make sure we build the heat up during the day so it still will be warm when we come home.

Also if we are going out our last load that will burn down to coals will be our better wood, Sugar Maple or Beech.

zap

 

[corey21]

nice video.

 

[greythorn3]

my old blazeking adjust the air intake itself, i just set it at the heat level i want, and then head to bed, noncat of course.

 

[firefighterjake]

Not much to add here . . . mostly just echoing here.

Like many others I put my last load of the night into the stove a half hour or so before I head to bed . . . and like other folks I often will dial back the air a quarter "turn" at a time . . . although if I've been burning for a good portion of the day I can sometimes dial it right down to the quarter mark or less . . .

If the wood is good and seasoned and things are groovy you should have some nice sustained secondaries firing off within a half hour or less with the air turned down quite a bit . . . at this point . . . sit back, turn off the TV and just chill in front of the stove and enjoy for a bit longer . . . if the secondaries are still going strong head to bed and start dreaming of cutting down monster sugar maples, oaks and black locusts.

The secret is to give yourself time to get things established and dialed in before heading to bed . . . or heading to work . . . or heading anywhere . . . that's the one drawback to wood vs. oil/propane/pellets . . . you really do need to babysit it for a while.



---

Lillyrat . . . as mentioned . . . if you're turning down the air and it looks like a Portal to Hell has just opened up in your woodstove you're doing something right since you have achieved secondary combustion which is a good thing . . . now if little demons start popping out of the flames . . . well then, that could be a bad thing and in fact there might be an actual Portal to Hell in your woodstove and that may not be a secondary burn.

 

[fire_man]

I think 3 splits is as big of a fire as we've had so far this fall. We'll probably go with 4 before too long. Hope you made it to church on time.

Dennis: How the heck is it with all of your wood and cutting you don't end up with any chunks or uglies? Not that I mind them, they go to good use, but with all the wood you burn I never hear you mention anything but splits?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Tony we do end up with some uglies and they get burned every year. Until they get burned they mostly get thrown on top of the old galvanized roofing we use to cover the wood. When we burn that stack of wood, we either burn the uglies then or sometimes we just throw them away. Sometimes we throw them onto another stack that already has uglies and then in the end, sometimes we get so many we just throw them onto a brush pile.

Actually when I am cutting the firewood, many times I'll come on a knotty place and actually just cut out a small portion of it. I end up with a piece or a couple of pieces that are short this way but those just get thrown into the stove. When my wife used to help me, even the notches that are cut for felling the tree gets saved and burned. She still goes behind me after spitting to pick up the chips that are left. I usually just leave them.