Tell me I havent had this conversation almost verbatim. “Gotta burn green wood or my furnace will get too hot” Now I woulda swore even the old crude ones would at least have a method of regulating intake air. Extol the virtues of dry wood. The needless waste of energy converting g water to steam. But no, in the end “I’ve been doing it this way for 20 years I think I know what I’m doing”. End of conversation. Hey, I once thought I knew what I was doing too. Now I know enough to know I don’t know enough. Such is life.
The more I know, the more I realize I don't know chit. I do however, know to burn dry wood. So, I got that goin' on.
Same thing goes for folks around here saying you can't burn pine, spruce etc in your wood stove, that dogma is deeply ingrained, funny thing is a lot of the "burn it green" OWB guys will readily burn pine
When we bought our house with the insert, the inspector said we could load it up and crank down the air so that it could go all night.. we were getting lots of smudge on the window (hate to imagine the chimney, but it’s past due to be cleaned). We stopped setting it to cruise because we didn’t want to clean the window every other burn. And I read it is a bad idea to throttle back. Does having seasoned wood make it more appropriate to throttle back? Any effect on the secondaries? I’m at about 2.5 of my 3 year plan, if past performance is an indicator of future gains. I might burn more now that I am learning how to do it right Sorry if off topic, but I figured I’m due for some education.
Yes! You can throttle back further (less heat up the flue) and the stove will still run hot...with great secondary burn action! And still have a clean chimney! As far as the glass staying clean...it will stay cleaner...some stoves are better at this than others though...
Indeed good dry wood will let you throttle it down a lot more without giving you a black window. But even with dry wood you can still throttle them down too much. In addition to that, for those who think you can throttle down a stove to get an all night burn, what is the sense in making the house cooler or even cold at night? True, those of old times used to do that but also those of old didn't know much about insulation in their homes or teepees or root cellar homes or sod huts or......... I simply can not see any sense in heating the home to a certain temperature in the daytime then letting it cool at night. Just think about Mother Nature. When is the coldest part of the day? Where I come from it is usually the coldest from dawn and the hour after dawn. Naturally exceptions are made when the timing of the cold front moves through but minus that, the coldest is not in the middle of the night; it is early in the morning. So why get up at the coldest time then fight to get the house to a comfortable temperature? To me, it makes no sense at all. And while we're on the subject, why should people walk around or sit around in their homes and wear outdoor clothing or sit in a chair watching tv and covering themselves with a blanket? I guess heating with oil, gas or electric then perhaps it is good but heating with wood and having to do those things is ridiculous. I heat with wood so my family can be warm. They do not have to wear heavy shirts or sweaters in my home. And if someone comes in from being outdoors and are cold, I want them to feel the warmth in the house and not sit there and shiver. Rant over. To further the question put out by mrfancyplants the glass window on our stove has gotten black one time and that is the first time we ran the stove. That is because we have a soapstone stove and the stove had sit outdoors all summer so naturally had moisture in the stone. As soon as that moisture dried, the glass cleaned itself and the only thing we get on the glass now is some fly ash. That is the way it should be. I've never understood stove manufacturers who put out a stove with glass so you can see the fire but the glass won't stay clean; it turns black. What is the sense of having glass in that case. But fear not; there are only a couple like that that I know of.
Dennis, show him your wood burning primer, he'll be blown away with the benefits of burning seasoned wood
It takes a couple years or so to get wood dry enough to burn well (depending on the wood). I don't remember if this winter was your first, but the good burning stuff should be burning in your stove next winter (again, depends on the wood). "Throttling" the stove with wet wood is asking for a gunked up chimney. Throttling the stove some with dry wood is awesome. Once you start burning dry firewood, you won't want to EVER go back to burning wet wood. I'm with wildwest , here's Dennis' woodburning primer.............https://firewoodhoardersclub.com/fo...ning-by-backwoods-savage.6/download?version=6
mrfancyplants , if you like the idea of secondaries now, you will more impressed with secondaries with seasoned wood, as well as the reduction of what ends up on your glass, sticks to your chimney on the way up, and much cleaner burn coming out the top, promise
I would highly doubt that he'd even read it. Besides, he already knows all you need to know about wood burning...
Oh yes. mrfancyplants just to let you know, our old stove was not too great so we cleaned our chimney many times every year. When we installed our present stove, we found we could go probably 5 years or more without cleaning. However, my wife still remembers the old stove so she checks the chimney every year. Quite naturally there will be a very small amount of gunk right at the top but it is almost nothing. Just tap the outside of the chimney (steel chimney) and it falls. I'll never forget the first year after burning in our new stove and she insisted on cleaning the chimney. If I remember right we got about 1 or 2 tablespoons of fly ash is all there was. No black or brown at all.
This is my first year working on the three year plan, but i scored a bunch of yellow poplar and silver maple earlier in the Spring that should be good by the time I make it through the left over wood from last year. A fair amount of 3-yr standing dead cherry. The solid trunk was still wet, but the hollow trunk and branches seem dry. Haven’t checked with a moisture meter. I have a nice stack of Bradford pear for next year along with a little locust and just starting on an oak pile for the year after. I re-read and appreciate the primer. Still wasn’t sure if the secondaries can still work while throttled.. maybe it depends on the stove. Ours seems to have only one air control lever.
I was occasionally able to get a reburn on my old stove, but the newer stove is a piece of cake. One air control to close partway, then the secondaries start suckin' air. It's fun to watch.
Almost all stoves with one lever you are controlling the primary air...the secondary is wide open all the time...but secondary air has a long path, usually around the firebox so it gets preheated...air takes the path of least resistance so when the primary air control is open, the air will come in there moreso than the secondary tubes. When you start closing the lever down, the air flow starts to transfer to the secondary tubes...which will give you those cool looking flames if you have the firebox hot enough, and are using dry wood. There are a couple models of stoves that the air control lever does throttle the primary and secondary air both.
mrfancyplants in my stove the secondaries work better with dry wood. Secondaries in my stove is burning the smoke before it goes up the chimney. Smoke only Burns through my catalytic converter once it hit 500 Degrees. I have never had luck getting spoke to 500 Degrees with wet wood because it doesn't burn hot enough. So in my experience you will get more secondaries with dry wood.
