I see things like this posted here and there, if I turn my stove down that far it will not put out as much heat with more air, what am I missing? Best heat being defined as longest burn maybe? "If the wood you are burning is dry you should get the best heat with the air control closed down to as low as possible without smoldering the fire and snuffing out the flame"
the quote above is going to be quite dependant on the type of stove. draft variences will come to play in some cases as well. ive always felt each properly installed system will have a "sweet spot" where the balace of airflow to fuel and temp are optimal for the best performace, this could literally vary from install to install even if they are identical due to subtle differences in the house itself.
Well yea but the point is to have the air closed down as "far as possible", that would very with your set up, but that will not be the setting for the most heat. If that is not enough heat due to the size of the stove or the weather conditions you are not going to use that setting , saying its the best heat is pointless IMHO.
Every stove and every situation is different. Mike is right. When I was burning in my Pacific Energy woodstove it always felt best when it was cooking along with the draft handle on the bottom about 65-75% open or to the right. I have a big house and when things were getting cold out I needed it to put out as much heat as it could without getting it too hot. About 65-75% open on the draft really had that baby humming along. Now it is back up for the Gassification boiler. It will get used again in the future though.
My stove puts out too much heat for our house if we run it over 50% air for any extended length of time. When it gets cold in here and I need a lot of BTUs quick we load it full and run it on 100% air for anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes then generally cut the air back to 20 to 40%. I don't think we've ever kept it over 50% air for more than an hour. At night we heat it up then cut it back to about 20% to 30% typically. If it's really mild we'll cut it back to 10-15%. During the day I keep the ceiling fan on in the stove room to keep the heat on the first floor. Before we go to bed we turn off the ceiling fan so the heat goes upstairs.
Maybe by "best" heat they mean "most" heat, meaning if the air is turned as low as possible to just support an active burn, you will be allowing as much heat as possible from that load of wood to be absorbed by your house instead of going up the chimney, so over the length of the burn "most"of the heat ends up in your house and that to them is the "best" way to burn. What was the context of the quote?
+1 this is my interpretation too Dave.. Max efficiency.. I do this almost all the time here with the T5..
"What was the context of the quote?" Guy wanted to know how to run his new stove, that type of burn wont get you the most heat if its cold or you have a large house or your stove is a little too small. If I ran my stove like that I would be colder then I already am. Seems like a lot of the information about wood burning is not encompassing enough.
I regularly have the 30 air controls closed, or near closed, with a stove top temp in the 650-750 range. The same thing applied for the Hearthstone Heritage I ran.
+1 I think LOL Vary the air setting to vary the heat in most stove operator's books. Strong wind, barometric pressure, outside air temp are a few more variables to throw in the pot.
"if I turn my stove down that far it will not put out as much heat with more air" I would want that rephrased because as is it makes no sense even " best heat" need context
if I turn my stove down that far it will not put out as much heat with more air is at best a contradiction of terms if I turn my stove down that far it will not put out as much heat as with more air is a comparative that makes sense if it made sense then what was the question ?
Did you read my first post, I was questioning the advice given with quotes around it. "If the wood you are burning is dry you should get the best heat with the air control closed down to as low as possible without smoldering the fire and snuffing out the flame"
I agree with that if we're talking efficiency.. Most of the time I run the T5 with minimum air with good flames and heat too..
Makes sense to me. If you want the most heat out of a load, run it low so you don't have a lot of heat going up the flue. If you want the most heat per hour because room temp is low, run it hot at the expense of losing some heat up the flue. When I run 'er hot, stack thermo reads higher.... What stove are you running now?
