I have been immersed into the world of catalytic burning for the first time this heating season. I have what seems to be decently dry Sib Elm as my main species of available wood this season. Other than making what seems to be a lot more ash than others seem to talk about, it burns well enough, lights quick, no sizzle, MC tests on my $15.00 meter at about 15% +/- 3%, but to get any serious heat I find myself running my Firev at about 1/2 throttle and having a moderately blazing firebox seems to be necessary to crank out serious heat. I recently burnt some of my Black Locust and was very pleased at the incredible improvement in all areas; ie. overall heat output, burn time, coaling heat output, very little ash created etc... And I think, but am not really sure, that the smoke even cranked more heat than I can generate off of a low flame-less firebox with the Cat feeding on Sib Elm smoke.
Thus my question. Does all smoke burn about the same? I know moisture/steam from unseasoned wood can really screw up what should be a good cat burn, but does the type of wood and the smoke they generate differ in heat output? Does it pretty much match what you might expect from the BTU chart for the wood type? With my Siberian Elm alone, I can run my Fireview with the air setting from 1 to 1/2 or even lower and it doesn't seem to increase the cat temp measured on my stove top therm nor the rear cat probe thermometer very much at all. I am doing good to reach 450 stove-top temp, 950 probe temp with a Sib Elm fueled, flame-less cat burn. I read of advised caution not to set the air too low for fear of the cat getting screaming hot, but I don't think my elm will do that even when I try to push it up there. I didn't experiment when feeding on BL yet because the weather improved and the temps warmed up enough to feed on Elm and keep up.
Just wondering what observations you veteran cat herders have made.
Thus my question. Does all smoke burn about the same? I know moisture/steam from unseasoned wood can really screw up what should be a good cat burn, but does the type of wood and the smoke they generate differ in heat output? Does it pretty much match what you might expect from the BTU chart for the wood type? With my Siberian Elm alone, I can run my Fireview with the air setting from 1 to 1/2 or even lower and it doesn't seem to increase the cat temp measured on my stove top therm nor the rear cat probe thermometer very much at all. I am doing good to reach 450 stove-top temp, 950 probe temp with a Sib Elm fueled, flame-less cat burn. I read of advised caution not to set the air too low for fear of the cat getting screaming hot, but I don't think my elm will do that even when I try to push it up there. I didn't experiment when feeding on BL yet because the weather improved and the temps warmed up enough to feed on Elm and keep up.
Just wondering what observations you veteran cat herders have made.