smoked up our house last night

[Mikeyvon]

We have burning with our phoenix for about 2 weeks now. It has been doing a great job and making our house (2025 sqft) a little too warm (we are getting naked). We are in a fairly windy location and later in the night we saw sustained winds around 40 mph and gusts in the 60+ range. Our wind comes mainly from the West. My stove pipe (double wall) is 16' tall and my chimney (triple wall) is around 12'. It does have 2 45's with about 22"s in between them. I have a standard cap on it. My roof pitch is 10/12 with the pipe around 10' from the Western edge.

Last night, I loaded it up and let it burn for a while then turned down the air. My wood is mixed good and semi-good. I have been doing this nightly. We have no problem keeping good burn temps of 350-550. Last night my wife woke me up and said the house is smokey. The smoke and CO detectors did not go off. We have only seen smoke once before and that was at start up, yesterday. I open up the air controls and some windows. The fire started going good again, but I was unsure so I stayed on the coach until the wood was burned up.

Is this something I should be worried about? Should I get a wind proof cap? Should I just not burn on windy days (or let me fire burn hard and go out when it gets windy)? I have hydronic heat as a back up and can heat my house for cheap that way on windy days.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[weezer4117]

when is the last time the chimney was cleaned good?

 

[Mikeyvon]

never.....


but it has only been in use for two weeks.

 

[Hogwildz]

I get that rarely once in a while. Just had some serious wind the other night, and after reload and even during the blazing phase, I smelled a lil smokey smell. I found that with the wind actually driving the smoke low level, the smell makes its way into the house through untight windows etc. Not so much smoke that its gagging, but more the smell. Comes with wood burning. I like the smell so that also helps.

 

[Mikeyvon]

This will be our 5th year burning. Last 4 were in a rental. We moved into the home we Owner/Builder built in November. I just finished the stove up two weeks ago. I felt this was far more than the normal amount of smoke we get. After I woke up and was watching the fire, I would hear a gust and the fire would die down big time, smoke would come out (either from the ash door or stove door, it was late and I was tired). After 1/2 a minute - 1.5 minutes the fire would return.

I am guessing the best thing to do would be to purchase a wind-proof cap. I have little ones and the thought of CO poisoning just does not sit well.

Any suggestions on good ones or other routes I may take?

 

[Hogwildz]

This will be our 5th year burning. Last 4 were in a rental. We moved into the home we Owner/Builder built in November. I just finished the stove up two weeks ago. I felt this was far more than the normal amount of smoke we get. After I woke up and was watching the fire, I would hear a gust and the fire would die down big time, smoke would come out (either from the ash door or stove door, it was late and I was tired). After 1/2 a minute - 1.5 minutes the fire would return.

I am guessing the best thing to do would be to purchase a wind-proof cap. I have little ones and the thought of CO poisoning just does not sit well.

Any suggestions on good ones or other routes I may take?

Understood. Let me ask a few questions:
How tall is the chimney, and how tall compared to any walls, roof(s) nearby?
Is it in a center roof with another section of building or wall higher than the roof the stack is through?
What I am getting at is something I may go through when I install my second stove here in the addition.
The main house roof is perpendicular & higher than the addition roof. Mike at Englander has already informed me I may have down draft problems from the upper roof creating turbulence or lack of draft flow due to the two different height roofs next to each other. Could this be your issue?

 

[JerseyWreckDiver]

How high does your chimney terminate above the roof? With a 10/12 pitch and the chimney needing to be 2 feet above anything within a 10 foot radius on a horizontal plane from the base... it should be pretty high, yes? Once in a while, no matter what a gust just hits just right, but if this is common during wind I would say you chimney termination is not correct for your roof.

 

[weezer4117]

2 weeks, if i would have paid more attention i could have answered my own question!! (long day) i would suggest that you find a better protected cap, one that that protects the sides and top to help minimze any down draft. 60mph winds makes it hard to maintain a good draft (obvioulsy!) also you may resort to your back-up heat source during these weather conditions, damn mother nature!!

 

[LLigetfa]

...my chimney (triple wall) is around 12'. It does have 2 45's with about 22"s in between them. I have a standard cap on it. My roof pitch is 10/12 with the pipe around 10' from the Western edge.

Considering you lose a couple feet just to get through the roof and having a couple of feet chewed up with offset, it sounds like you only have about 8 feet on the outside. Probably about 4 feet too short.

 

[Mikeyvon]

The inside stove pipe is around 16' Here are a few pictures of the chimney. Looking at it, 4 extra feet may not hurt (except for working on it).

the wind comes from the left side of this picture.

 

[Mikeyvon]

So what do you guys think would be best? Chimney pipe or windproof cap? Both are about the same in $ and both require me getting on my steep roof. The cap would be easier, but not by much.

 

[LLigetfa]

You might need both but I'd try the cap first. With the bulk of the chimney outside, and with a reduced overnight burn you probably didn't have enough flow up the chimney and it cooled on the way up and got too heavy to keep going. If you have cold winds, you will have to sacrifice more heat to servicing the draft.

 

[Highbeam]

I would do the cap first. Another section would make that look dorky and you already have 28' of chimney. Worst case, you add the cap and then add the pipe.

The vacu-stack style cap or even those hooded ones you see at the beach would look way better than the one you have there. I'm not sure if either of those caps utilize a spark arrestor but by looking at your pines and snow I suspect a fire hazard in the summer without one.

 

[savageactor7]

Mickey I doubt it would be a plugged chimney if you getting the house that hot...so sure like previously recommended remove the cap. Sometimes I think some caps can slow the smoke just enough to cause problems.

Anyway here's hoping you can lock down that smoke problem soon cause if you can keep the house that warm that's great imo. Be careful up there and use a body harness if you tie off.

 

[Mikeyvon]

I do not get up there with out a harness and ascenders.

Which caps work best or is it just based on preference?

Here are some I found;

(broken link removed)

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(broken link removed)

 

[Highbeam]

Good point savage, that would be a heck of a fall if you slid off that roof.

To be clear, I actually think that you should be considering wind resistant caps with some sort of spark arresting feature. That climate looks like high alpine where even when the ground is dry and ripe for fire, there is cold enough weather for a fire. All those pine trees drop those pine needles that love to start huge forest fires. Our mod fossil lives in a similar climate and really feels the need for one.

Do they even make wind resistant caps with spark arrestors?

 

[Mikeyvon]

spark arrest screens are required here. Fires are a huge problem.