That is what it looks like when creosote is being made, but not what it looks like just before a chimney fire. With a chimney fire there is a low rolling deep black smoke,,,then "poof" up it goes into a fire ball as the creosote hits the ignition point. My ex-wife was having her hair done so I was out in the parking lot just minding my business jamming out to Styx and see this low rolling black smoke and KNOW what is going to happen. I run in to call the fire department to call for help, then run to the apartment building, but its too late...boom...off goes the fireball. Inside there is the dumb woman sitting in a bathrobe on her lap top oblivious to the roaring fire going up her chimney. I tell her about what I just saw and that the fire department will be there soon, and she is like, "well, I suppose I should get dressed if you called the fire department, completely unconcerned. Anyway the fire department gets there and brushes everything off. "Oh yeah, we come here every week for a chimney fire." That is why I say "dumb woman", its not her gender, its how silly she was because she never changed how she stayed warm.
I will honestly say I have burned firewood that has been too dry. Halfway through a winter my coal stove crapped out and so I substituted a wood-only stove and dug firewood out of my Grandmothers House. (This is the same Tiny House we live in now). Back in my Grandfathers day, they kept 7 cords in the woodshed, but another 2 cord under the floorboards "for emergencies". You had to pull the floorboards up, but if needed it was there. I knew it was dry because it had been there for 25 years or so. That wood was honestly too dry. It burned up like paper.
That’s a lotta steam. Gotta think it’s photoshopped by someone who thinks it looks attractive. Had a conversation not long ago with a guy using an OWB. Was explaining to him how I’m attempting to get three years ahead. Told me he has to burn green wood or his OWB will get too hot. Started asking him questions and he just said he had been doing it that way for thirty years and he knew what he was doing. End of conversation if you get my drift. Didn’t get to ask him if his OWB has controls. So I’ll ask here, can’t you adjust those things for less air, less heat etc? Can’t imagine even thirty years ago they would design one without controls of some sort.
I blew the picture up and the stainless steel chimney is clean on the outside. If this was a common burning practice you would see creosote dripping down the side of it so my guess is Photoshop or something
just going by what he said so i assume no photoshop...Said it wasn't a long exposure and just a quick snap. Pretty sure most of these places he photographs are Air B&B's, or basically rental cabins. Point being, if your chimney looks like this, you may have an issue. Ironic that the urban hipster global warming/climate change crusaders are also the ones on his post ranting about how beautiful the smoke is.
I was checking out his instagram account and one of the cabins he stayed in earlier this year goes for $999/night. He does take some very nice pics though lol
Yeah definitely some cool places showcased on his page, some of which are practically wilderness resorts. Always like seeing the different stove setups in those cabins.
There is also a manufacturer's sticker on one of the windows and the shakes have no weathering, nor do the concrete piers. This cabin appears to be brand-spanking new.
A lot of the older units were optimized for coal-that you could burn wood in- only control was air intake below grates- wood/coal boilers were designed as batch burners meaning that you fired them up to heat a big tank of water typically in a jacket around the burn chamber. which of course does nothing for optimum efficiency as you basically always have a cold fire. Hence leading to the term smoke dragon. there is a pallet shop that burns their cut offs and such right next to the freeway on my way to or from my shop - in the morning there is enough smoke from that thing to make it very hard to see where you are going. If there is no breeze the bit of valley there is completely smothered by it.
My father had an outdoor outdoor wood boiler and sized it for his indoor pool, 5200 sq ft house, domestic hot water and garages...it was a nice thought, but he never took into account that his indoor pool, when brought up to temperature, would hold it via mass. In the end he had a smoke dragon because the unit smoldered all the time as it was way oversized for its typical demand. We burned slab wood off the sawmills to feed it so wet/dry made no difference for us.
