Fine layer of ash ALL OVER the house

Regarding the fine layer of ash all over the house;

When you remove your ashes form the wood stove, do you put them into a steel can and then let them cool down? If this is the case, while the ashes are cooling, there is still enough heat to convect the air upwards form the bucket and these small air currents do and will carry very fine ash with them, only to be deposited wherever once the air cools down.

 

I have an outside air kit on my oil boiler so it can't affect the draft on the wood stove's chimney.

 

I need to do this. If my [direct vented] oil burner kicks on while I'm cold starting a fire it gets pretty ugly.

 

^^^^^This.
I've noticed this before, but when I emptied coals from the stove last night, I could see the ash coming up from the coals......before they even got put in the bucket. Still on the shovel.
As careful as I am putting the ashes in the bucket/hod, there is still a little plume of ash that comes up from the bucket. I may go back to using the ash pan this winter.

 

I've been thinking about putting an exhaust fan near the stove just to try to control the dust while working on the stove

 

If you put an exhaust fan IN the smoke pipe, you can just eliminate the dust from the stove.

I probably sound like a salesman for draft inducers but actually, no association with them or anything else to do with woodstoves. It is just surprising to me that such a common problem, smoke and ash in the house, is not addressed more directly and permanently than it is. There are lots of ways of addressing these problems but one way, as far as I have found to simply eliminate it.

Brian

 

I like the idea, but my thinking is , I make a lot of dust just sweeping the floor in the stove room. My concrete floor is shoddy at best, and holds a lot of dirt.

 

OK, cement can be pretty dusty. But maybe some of that dust IS fly- ash out of the stove?

But certainly it is different than my situation, my wood stove is in the living room and the white fly- ash used to be so pervasive here that it was all over everything, all the time. Brushing something by the TV screen by accident often left 'clean streaks' you could actually see. Plus the smoke spillage out of the stove which first landed in the living room but then made its way up the stairwell into all the rooms upstairs. A draft inducer put an end to ALL of that garbage as well as making cleaning the ashes out of the stove a very clean process; I run the draft inducer, close the vents on the wood stove, open the ash pan door and give the ash pan a couple of shakes. All of the light fly- ash is actually sucked up through the grate so that when the ash pan is actually pulled out of the stove, there is no light stuff floating off the top of the <real> ashes and the whole thing can be taken outside without leaving that fine, white fly- ash in the house. It also prevents any fly- ash from getting out of the stove while the loading door is open and I am raking the ashes and coals back- and- forth to drive the ash down through the grate; that used to REALLY throw some fly- ash into the house.

I think most people do have their wood stoves in their living quarters and it is a pretty common problem (smoke and fly- ash). For those in basements, or especially out- buildings (like wood boilers) it is not a big deal most of the time though.

Brian

 

Yes, and yes!

 

I have to be pretty darn sloppy to get ash "all over".

 

We have a fine layer of dust in the house all year, so it's not just the stove contributing to the "problem".
I can wipe the dust off my desk and within a few days, have another layer. We live in sand/dirt, on a basically dirt road, so pretty sure a lot of it is from all that.

 

Nope Yooper, ashes never ever stay in the house after scooped. they go out to the burn pit right away. I can definitely see how that would get some of the ash airborne.

I think you're onto it! My wife said last night that the correlation is between the wood burning stove being out and the furnace kicking on. The exhaust from the furnace adds more draw to perhaps make the stove chimney a touch negative. Then add in the bath exhaust in the morning and DUST.

BDF , I don't ever get smoke in the house opening the door to load the stove, or any other time honestly. Perhaps if I hit the "greenstart" button before I cleaned out the ashes it would help create draft. It gets HOT! I think my problem may be that the stove gets cold and the furnace kicks on too often, along with the other contributing factors of kitchen and bath exhaust fans. Wondering if the OAK would help as well. I think I have multiple contributing factors.

 

Sure, that could be the problem and an OAK might solve it. Especially if you live in a newer, tightly insulated and sealed house. I certainly would not recommend anyone installing a draft inducer if that will not cure a specific problem or several. Most modern stoves make connecting an OAK easy although routing the piping can still get involved and expensive but that depends on the specific installation.

You might be able to temporarily rig an OAK duct to a window vent, sort of like what is used for those portable indoor A/C units, just for a while to test the idea and see f it solves your problem. ??

Brian

 

Our home is 11 years old and I never felt that it was built super tight. Our little stove will cook you out though, no matter the outside temperature or wind. LOL
I'm beginning to truly believe that the problem lies with us not keeping the stove going round the clock and not getting those ashes out of it right away.
I'll keep pushing for the cleaning lady!!

 

Just my opinion, any house 11 years old IS tight and well insulated, and well sealed.

My house was built as a barn in 1905, and coverted into an actual house in 1948. The foundation is rocks and you can literally see through it in places :-( So IMO, your house MUST be tight.

Of course my house has been improved over the years I have lived here- the proof is that the curtains no longer move in the breeze..... with the windows and doors shut, no matter how windy it is outside. Trust me, that WAS an improvement!

Brian

 

Easy gents. This line has been said; tread carefully.

 

FatBoy85 I'm uncertain what was meant by the comment you referenced, but it has been let to fall by the wayside. I appreciate your concern, but let's all move on. Please!

 

He was just talking about the draft inducer... no offense I was just taking it lightly sorry I was figuring BDF would reply.

 

Yeah, sorry but I too missed the point of the reply. ??

My comments and innuendo are meant to be funny, or at least they amuse me, and never derogatory or mean- spirited toward anyone. I have not and do not say anything here that I have not said to my mother, my wife or my D-I-L and trust me, I have all the respect in the world for all of them. But I am pretty old and I guess just will not conform to the new P.C. world; humor is humor and does not have to have any link to real life, at least in my world.

Anyway, from my point of view, no offense meant, all is well and 'we' are all associates and in many cases, friends. The typewritten word leaves much to the imagination and so I just take these things as a broken link in communication.

Best Regards to All,
Brian