woodheat.org?

[SmokingAndPoking]

AND also very useful on the new coal-bed downdraft secondary combustion systems. Just like a stove without a glass door, these secondary stoves have little to no flame present in the firebox during most burns.

Pretty much impossible to guess how hot the stove is if you can't see any flames.

 

[firefighterjake]

I burned wood for about 50 years before having a stove thermometer. I'd never even thought about one. When I bought our last new stove a thermometer came with it. I now have two of them; one for stove top and one for flue. Can I run the stove without them? Well, I see no reason why I could not; after all, I have had a few fires without thermometers. However, now that I use them I find them very useful.

My main point here is that too many times people will carry on with their information about all their knowledge that they've received for upmteen years and think that is the only way. It is not. Progress is made and some things change for the better. I do not doubt for a minute that man has lots of knowledge. I also do not doubt for a minute that he is wrong on a few things....the same way that I am wrong about a few things such as the fact that I think the best way to split wood with a hydraulic splitter is to do it vertically instead of horizontally, but perhaps some day I will realize that Jake is very wise and his way of splitting horizontally is the best way. And yes, I have picked up knowledge here in hearth.com and I don't think there are too many on this forum who has burned wood longer than we have. Let's keep on teaching and keep on learning, but we still have to learn how to pick out the good from the bad.

HehHeh . . . I fixed your quote Dennis.

Lord, please forgive me for that one . . . it's all Backwoods' fault though . . . he left an opening and I just had to take it.

On the serious side, again I agree with Dennis and his point about adopting new technology and ways of doing things . . . I mean to say when I first started driving a car none of them had airbags or many of the design features that allow many people to survive what would have been a fatal crash back then . . . and while they had seatbelts I would guess that only a very small percentage of folks chose to utilize these safety devices . . . in time however I became convinced that these were a nice safety feature to use (and this was before they were mandatory) . . . and in time new tech evolved with cars . . . and so now many more people are surviving crashes. In guess my point is . . . thermometers are a lot like those seatbelts . . . they can be a cheap and useful safety device . . . technically you don't need to have a thermometer to run the stove . . . or a seatbelt to drive a car . . . but they both make life a bit easier.

 

[oconnor]

To be honest, my favorite spot on the woodheat.org site is the Woodpile ( woodheat.org/woodpile ). Good insight on the policy and politics of wood/biomass heating. I've really enjoyed some of John's articles on that side of the house.