OWB owners giving themselves a black eye

This was an interesting show from the perspective of how badly you can run an OWB. In both cases I am certain that the OWB owners are not using seasoned wood. Watching the video of the OWB and then of the indoor boiler is insane. And you see what the second guy is tossing in the second OWB. It looks like it was cut that day. Sales people need to stop telling new owners they can toss anything in their OWB. The second guy is trying but also has no clue.

http://video.wcny.org/video/2365087958/

If the OWB industry is serious about cleaning up their act they could go a long way by simply writing letters to their distributors and registered owners about better burning practices. And maybe have a better OWB page on the burnwise website. With more emphatic guidance to burn seasoned cordwood.

 

My brother has one in south Jersey and he does the same thing, throws just about everything in it. I gave up on him awhile back so he gets what he gets...

 

Nail square on head. In these cases it is far more an operator issue rather than a device issue.

 

I made it to 5:34 (pine is bad). Couldn't listen to any more of the drivel.

 

I say design a cat system into the OWB's , that would force people to burn seasoned or semi seasoned wood and also produce a clean burn and produce more heat from the woodsmoke...

 

With the new NSPS working its way through the system, I think OWB's are headed that way. Salesmen will no longer be able to say you can cut up a tree and toss it in the firebox and it will heat your home.

The one guy spent a bunch of money to upgrade to that Eclassic and is still chucking green wood into the firebox. I just shook my head at that and a lot of other things in this video.

 

I was looking at Portage and Maine's outdoor wood boiler site... Have to give them credit,,, this was one of their videos..

 

Our first wood boiler was the same as the one in the picture below. Even burning dry old growth Douglas Fir, it would some smoke just about as bad as the first one in the video. When the draft would open, the entire charge of wood in the water surrounded firebox would ignite. When the draft would close, the entire load would go into smolder mode and the tars in the form of creosote would stick to the water jacketed walls of the boiler. During the next draft open cycle, some of that accumulated creosote on the water jacket walls would ignite along with the now charred wood, generating large amounts of white smoke. It burned 22 cords in the first year and soon became history.





My favorite picture taken midway through a 6 hour batch burn. Our newest neighbors do not even know that we burn wood. The old Jetstream with storage does the same load on 4 to 5 cords per year.

 

some foggy glasses going on there

 

I had a Woodmaster 434 for 7 years... Burned pretty dry wood... use to just fill the front half with wood... That seemed to burn good with not too much smoke.... 10-12 cords a year... That got old,,, went to an EKO 60 gasifiaction boiler with water storage, that got me down to 7 cords with a clean burn...

 

There's a youtube channel devoted to OWBs in Aviston IL.

I guess some guy there has is pizzed about the people in town using them.

 

Just gives the politician some ammunition to put out more regulations and bans. If they want to be irresponsible, that is what they and everyone else ends up with.

 

It's the same thing with guns. If one person uses one irresponsibly the government has to take them away from everyone.

 

I don't think OWB owners give themselves a black eye at all. That would be like stating that all wood stove owners create creosote.
It's those that don't practice good burning techniques by using seasoned wood.
Just as there are far more people that have indoor stoves that are just beginning the process of getting this years fuel supply!

 

REGULATIONS !!! Legislated Solutions more often end up being poorly representative of what initially was intended.
Our sleepy little town of Port McNeill, population 2,500. Once the wood burning season arrives, the smoldering Air Tight stove becomes king. Times when there is little or no wind, the town is blanketed with wood smoke from these smoldering stoves - reminiscent of sawmill towns with a Bee Hive burner - burners which have been outlawed in this province.
Our town now has a bylaw that requires all wood burning appliances to be EPA Phase II compliant, but when the biggest phase II stove possible is purchased and the firebox loaded to the hilt and left to smolder for the next day or how ever long it will smolder, the purpose of being phase II compliant does not have the desired effect.
Clean wood burning technology has been around since the early 80s but remains for most and especially for those unschooled in the art of the burning of wood JUST TOO EXPENSIVE!

 

I have seen 1 day old hardwood tossed in a Wood Gun & all that was comming out of the chimney was water vapor. However his stack temp was way too high for any real efficiency. I need to be carefull with the Atmos to avoid smoke.