That was why old steam locomotives; whether wood or coal, had in their specifications the "grating size". That determined their useful pulling power. IF a homeowner really was determined to adequately heat their home for a winter with the least amount of wood, then on the shoulder seasons they could have different lengths of wood to do that. It would be no different than using longer lengths wood, but of a species of wood that has less btu's. The difference of course, is that "cords" is a measure of volume, where as the BTU is a measure of work. *Shorter wood changes the amount of cords (volume) that needs to be produced and lowers the btu of the wood. *Changing the species of wood, only lowers the btus
It is interesting to note that brenndatomu is not wrong; IF he was to burn a cord of Ash firewood cut 8 foot long, piled 4 feet high, four feet wide , while I burned a half a cord of Ash Firewood cut 4 feet long, piled 4 feet high and 4 feet wide; the btu's would be 23 million btu's for him instead of 11.5 million btu's for me. But the problem with that is; we do not burn firewood in some giant pile out in the back forty. For practical purposes, we have factors involved like length of the season, degree days, heat retention factor of the home, and design of the stove. I can work hard all day shoveling sand against the tide, but that work is not producing anything meaningful. Neither is putting up 20 cords of Ash firewood every year, having some 460 million btu's sitting in a pile, then pumping half of it up the chimney because of a poor woodstove design. In short, BTU's means nothing if we cannot put it to practical use warming our backside. Myself...yes I am moving towards shorter wood, and yes around 2 inches! I am getting into firewood chunks because for me it can be a 100% mechanical operation. My wood/coal stoves can handle wood chunks as well due to their grate size and ash shaker designs.
you're saying that pot bellied stove is more efficient than any other stove because it burns less wood?
No, not at all. I am not sure what its efficiency rating is. My pot bellied stove has nothing to do with the conversation, Most woodstoves by design send 50% of the heat up the stove pipe. Outside wood boilers are like 30% efficient. I would think being 120 years old, that my pot bellied stove lies somewhere between those two extremes. My pot bellied stove is able to heat my home, only because my home is super-insulated. The appliance is matched well to the residence in other words, just like an old steam locomotive with a small grate (and thus lower tonnage overall) would be a switch engine and not a mainline freight hauler.
Don't know about the handful of sawdust , but the burning of sawdust packed solid into an appliance for that purpose seems to have some merits from what I have seen on various U-tube postings- bit of a variation on a rocket stove application.
they work good in rocket stoves, but in a stove I think you need some hot coals to get them burning good.
Dedicated sawdust burner assembly- but not in a conventional stove. requires the rocket effect up the middle of the packed saw dust. Not much way to accomplish that in our stoves.
LodgedTree, yes some wood stoves are inefficient. 50% wow.. There are some rated over 80% now.. Not trying to argue, BUT with moving too another home, that may be less insulated, and considering your health situation and your family. It might be worth some research to you.. In my stove smaller loads equal shorter burn time.. And less of super clean cat burn.
Yeah it will be a completely different stove that is for sure. A lot of it will be the chimney. My old one was a single wall stove pipe up the outside of the house topped out at 14 feet. The next house has a masonry chimney, 26 feet high, up the center of the house, so I know it will draft better. I can see shorter burn times burning wood depending on the damper setting, but am not sure how it will work burning coal. The extra draft should draw the air up better through the coal bed keeping it lit, but typically with coal, you can change the coal size to adjust the heat output and burn times too. With the logging this winter I am on the 30 year firewood plan now, but you know me and my out of control coal burning fetish! Not to be argumentative myself... but putting new insulation in that other house before winter is a no-brainer. It is not just the lack of insulation, but also lack of wiring, and did I mention the 12 layers of wall paper would have to peel off if we did not remove the wallboard? I got some cedar shingling to do on the outside, then I am going to get to the wiring and insulation before winter. I have Rock the Flock this weekend so my week is ensuring all the prep for that gets done, then back to going full-bore on the house. We should be in it by October.
