Question Before Bed

[Firedancer]

Gonna hit the sack....cold here in Jersey. I normally keep my blower set low. Thinking about turning it up to blow more heat into house. Does doing so affect the overnite burn? Will the wood burn more quickly? Will it really warm the house more??

Thanks guys. Keep warm.....sleep well

 

[Woody Stover]

I don't think it'll affect the burn too much but it will cool the fire box, so I don't know. I think the fan speed is a toss-up; At higher speed, more air comes out but that air contains pretty much the same heat as the lesser amount of air at a lower speed. You can test this with your car heater; Turn the fan up and it doesn't feel as warm as the air coming out on a lower fan setting.
What the higher blower speed may do is to speed up the convection loop that's moving heat to the other parts of the house.
These are mostly guesses on my part....maybe someone who actually knows what they are talking about will chime in.

 

[RockyMtnHigh]

I don't think it'll hurt at all, just a little more circulation which in my case helps while the fire is hot but hurts as it dies down....

 

[Firedancer]

Woody, what you said does make sense to me. I am comfortable in here and my bedrooms are cooler as is the family room down the other end but its cold in nj tonight. Thought maybe I could warm things up "better" by setting fan higher. What I definitely DO NOT want is my blower to shut off before I wake up tomorrow and am afraid that if fan is high it may "cool" the stove down enough by morning and do just that..shut off.

I think I'll put that fan back on the lower setting and I'll see what the other opinions are as well.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Firedancer]

Yes rocky...exactly what I don't want.

 

[RockyMtnHigh]

IME fans don't create more heat, they just circulate it. It still goes away eventually so in the end deciding what part of the house you want warmer is important. In the end it kind of evens out really.....

 

[Grisu]

The blower cannot generate more heat, it will only transfer the heat from the stove faster to the room. If you want to heat up a space quickly that can help. If you want to have continuous heat for a long time the blower may hurt more than it helps. At some point the stove may cool down below the temp is supports well secondary combustion and you will have unburnt fuel go up the flue and you may accumulate more coals. I usually turn off my blower about 3 hours after reloading when the initial strong fire has died down and the secondaries are starting to get weaker.

 

[mnowaczyk]

Allowing more unburnt gases up the chimney... I would not have thought of that.

Hotter fires will probably burn the fuel quicker but be more efficient and provide more heat. Longevity of the fire / coals and heat output are probably inversely related.

Sure, the fan will cool the stove. More fan = more stove cooling.

The fan blows cooler air across the hot parts of the stove, and the greater the temperature differential, the more heat gets transferred. So the cooler the outlet temp, the more heat you are actually getting out of the stove. More blower will result in a lower air outlet temp as mentioned above, but you are sucking more heat out of that stove, at least until the fire starts burning inefficiently, at which point "fire health" is probably more important than getting heat out of the fire (that's about to die).

Temperature-controlled fans must be a good thing.

I hate coming downstairs to a loud fan and a cold fire... But the fire would have probably been cold by that time no matter what fan setting was used.

 

[Hogwildz]

I been running mine on high for going on 8 seasons.
No it does not create more heat, but it sure as hell transfers the heat better and helps circulate it better.
Easy way to find if it works for you, is run it on high one night, and see how it does.
By the time that thing is cooling off, the splits are in coal stage and no need to worry about burning dirty.

The blower is on there for a reason, use it, and enjoy.

 

[Sprinter]

I don't have a built-in blower, but I do point a fan at the stove now and then which is about the same thing. I have a quick reacting thermometer in the room and I've played with the fan some. When i turn the fan on, the thermometer goes up quickly, reacting to the air heating up and circulating to the thermometer. If I turn the fan off, the thermometer immediately starts to fall.off.

This is not to say that it creates heat, of course. Heat is created by the wood in the stove and it will get dissipated either by convective means or radiant means. The wood only has so many BTUs to give.

Seems to me that the blower on may give you a little more heat now, but at the expense of burn time.

But like Hogz says, do what is comfortable for you. The wood is there to keep you warm, whatever it takes. Experiment.

 

[mnowaczyk]

Seems to me that the blower on may give you a little more heat now, but at the expense of burn time.
.

"at the expense of burn time."
It is total nonsense for me to argue, but if we get all academic on this, I think that the fan will cool the fire box, causing the overall fire temperature to decrease a little bit. The cooler fire will burn slower than a hotter fire. So...

Replace the above with
"at the expense of burn temperature".

 

[Beer Belly]

I would imagine it may cool the stove down a little, but I'd rather have the help moving the heat.....ours is always on high unless we have company.....we really don't even hear it running anymore, it's part of our regular day to day noise

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Ok so, what were your results when you woke up this morning? was the stove room still warm? Keep track of things, try a different setting tonight and see what works best. Good luck, have fun, stay warm.....

 

[velvetfoot]

I think I'm in the high fan speed camp. But that could change at any time.
It could seem that you'd be wasting wood if you didn't have it on high.
Remember, we're talking inserts here.

 

[etiger2007]

I have been doing both running it on low and high, now that the temps are dipping into the 20's and teens I need to run the blower on high to get the house around 75+. Running on low did keep the stove top hotter longer and it seems like I had less black charcoal when the stove went cold, the trade off is It wouldnt raise the house temp like I would like.

 

[USMC80]

was 11 degrees last night and back bedroom was only 62, normally 68. Think I will try mine on high tonight or even buy that rheostat so I can fine tune it

 

[velvetfoot]

As a fellow hi300 owner, let me know how the rheostat thing goes.

 

[Firedancer]

Ok so, what were your results when you woke up this morning? was the stove room still warm? Keep track of things, try a different setting tonight and see what works best. Good luck, have fun, stay warm.....

Thanks everyone and sorry for the delay...busy with the holiday

So I didn't keep the blower on a higher setting. I turned it down in fear of waking to an insert that was too cool to keep the blower operating. It was a cold night in Jersey lol. As usual, I woke up to a nice glowing bed and added a few more pieces and off she went. My bedrooms, however, did have some condisation on the windows (rooms farthest from stove) which tells this gal it's too cool in there.

Still playin' and learnin'...thanks for all the input. It's appreciated.