Hi folks! I have spent a tremendous amout of time in these forums doing reasearch before I bought my stove and I want to thank all of you that participate
!! This forum was without a doubt, the main reason I was sucessfull in my migration from oil to nearly 95% of my heat coming from my wood stove. My house is WAY more comfortable and my wallet much thicker! Thank you to all of you
And now, some thoughts I have about compressed wood products. No agenda here, just thought it might be interesting to hash this train of thought out with some really wood savvy folks.
After burning a combination of cord wood and BioBricks for the last 2 seasons, I know what I am looking for but don't think it exists. I understand why many folks shy away from the compressed wood products but IMO they certainly have there place, even considering the price. One of my favorite reasons is that I get a consistant burn every load and I know exactly how many to use based upon outside temperature and duration. This is great for night time use as I always get a nice full night of heat with 300 + degree stove still going in the morning. Using cord wood at night is unpredictable for me. Most times I go all night but quite a few times I wake up to relatively cool stove.
Anyway, the main issue with the compressed stuff is you need to stack it tightly to create the structure of a very large single block of wood. This prevents too much of the surface area igniting and burning at the same time which can be dangerous as it is easy to get out of control with these. Also, if you let a fresh stack burn wildly for too long, the bricks have a tendency to mushroom which of course creates more burnable surface area which can easily get out of control. Setting up a nice stack at bedtime is not easy to do with a stove full of cord wood coals. It's very each with empty stove but that is rarely the case for me.
I think I know what would be perfect for me. Fairly large solid blocks of compressed wood product. Much larger than what is currently on the market. Something in the order of 20 - 25 lbs would be ideal. Open the stove, rake the coals, throw in 2 - 25lb compressed blocks and done for the night. Open the damper just a bit to get a slight fire going on the block and then damper down before it gets going too much and I think you will have 12+ hours of really nice heat with greatly reduced possability of overfire due to the nature of being a solid block without anywhere near the potential burn surface area of 20 or 30 - 2lb brick product (if they happen to split/mushroom or simply not packed well).
I know there are a few vendors creating 6-8lb logs but you still have a problem with surface area which is why you can't throw 5-6 of these in a stove and get really great heat all night long. It would probably burn too hot and cause most of the to split/mushroom etc. which of course exacerbates the issue quickly.
Perhaps it is not economical / feasable /viable / mechanically possible to create a compressed wood product such as this but I really think this might solve some of the issues with these products.
Thoughts? Am I way off base in my thinking here?
!! This forum was without a doubt, the main reason I was sucessfull in my migration from oil to nearly 95% of my heat coming from my wood stove. My house is WAY more comfortable and my wallet much thicker! Thank you to all of youAnd now, some thoughts I have about compressed wood products. No agenda here, just thought it might be interesting to hash this train of thought out with some really wood savvy folks.
After burning a combination of cord wood and BioBricks for the last 2 seasons, I know what I am looking for but don't think it exists. I understand why many folks shy away from the compressed wood products but IMO they certainly have there place, even considering the price. One of my favorite reasons is that I get a consistant burn every load and I know exactly how many to use based upon outside temperature and duration. This is great for night time use as I always get a nice full night of heat with 300 + degree stove still going in the morning. Using cord wood at night is unpredictable for me. Most times I go all night but quite a few times I wake up to relatively cool stove.
Anyway, the main issue with the compressed stuff is you need to stack it tightly to create the structure of a very large single block of wood. This prevents too much of the surface area igniting and burning at the same time which can be dangerous as it is easy to get out of control with these. Also, if you let a fresh stack burn wildly for too long, the bricks have a tendency to mushroom which of course creates more burnable surface area which can easily get out of control. Setting up a nice stack at bedtime is not easy to do with a stove full of cord wood coals. It's very each with empty stove but that is rarely the case for me.
I think I know what would be perfect for me. Fairly large solid blocks of compressed wood product. Much larger than what is currently on the market. Something in the order of 20 - 25 lbs would be ideal. Open the stove, rake the coals, throw in 2 - 25lb compressed blocks and done for the night. Open the damper just a bit to get a slight fire going on the block and then damper down before it gets going too much and I think you will have 12+ hours of really nice heat with greatly reduced possability of overfire due to the nature of being a solid block without anywhere near the potential burn surface area of 20 or 30 - 2lb brick product (if they happen to split/mushroom or simply not packed well).
I know there are a few vendors creating 6-8lb logs but you still have a problem with surface area which is why you can't throw 5-6 of these in a stove and get really great heat all night long. It would probably burn too hot and cause most of the to split/mushroom etc. which of course exacerbates the issue quickly.
Perhaps it is not economical / feasable /viable / mechanically possible to create a compressed wood product such as this but I really think this might solve some of the issues with these products.
Thoughts? Am I way off base in my thinking here?
