Woodstock IS + Fiber Fuel = Awesome!

It is 1 over here on the east side, and my stove room is only 80. You need some fans or something to move that hot air around!

 

Even my wife would think that’s a bit warm. What’s the stove top temperature?

 

I fear Gpsfool might have over roasted himself past medium rare into the medium well to well done range.

 

Ok experiment is over - 10:45am. Today is a holiday for me so I got to sleep late. When I got up house was 60 - that’s where the boiler thermostat is set - Radiators was warm, thus boiler was providing most of house heat at this point. 18 hours and 15 minutes on a load of Eco Bricks. Due to extreme cold I was pushing the stove hard. Air setting on the stove was higher than what it normally would be for more normal weather around here (1-2 small notches) more air. Stove top peaked @ 550 but settled to around 500. Late evening stove top was @450, I bumped up the air a small notch, stove top crept back up to 500ish and that’s where it was when I hit the sack at 2am. Cat probe was just north of 1200 much of the day, was 1075 when I bumped up the air.
I expect with more normal weather conditions those bricks would have provided enough heat for some more hours than they did with the test.

Back to when I got up today... Stove room (A Florida room off the main house superstructure) was 65. Cat probe was ~250 and stovetop was ~200. Amazingly little ash in the fire box, there were 5 mostly intact slightly swollen, blackened punky blocks left at the back wall. Slight orange glow noticeable. Scattered glowing orange small block bits elsewhere, but mostly an empty firebox. I expect if I repositioned what was left and added a bit more air they’ed come back to life for a more heat, but Not enough BTU’s to warm up the house.

As a comparison, with regular wood, for me, that's a mixture of dry cordwood - Maple, Ash, Pine, Black Locust, etc. when I stuff the firebox full I can get higher peak temps but not for the sustained time as the blocks provided. Mid winter I need usually 2.5 loads of wood a day. Stove room with cord wood fuel can get to 100’s temps but rarely is it so cold outside.

As to high stove room temps - yes, there is a bottleneck there... Florida room door into house is sliding glass door; no easy way to increase door opening size. I do have a small fan at the floor pushing air in. Perhaps someday the misses will allow me to relocate the stove to a corner of the living room - one can dream....

Will I switch to using blocks - no as $20 day is too high, I’m a scrounger, I get all my wood for free, provides exercise and serves as an excuse to mess with axes & chainsaws.

 

If those bricks have the same BTU content as the brand I have, you were kicking out a lot of heat to go through them that fast! Can you do a fan at the top of the door blowing hot air out of the Florida room and another on the floor blowing cold air in? Or send your wife on a vacation and move the stove when she is gone.

 

It is a balmy 1 and dropping with wind blowing hard out there. I just put another 36 bricks in the IS, but I doubt we will get 24 hours out of this load! That’s OK, I am sure it will still do a LOT better than the 3-4 hours my old stove would have gotten.

It should be enough to burn from now until morning, but I am thinking I might top it off before bed because...well, why not?

 

Only 71 inside this morning. Plenty of fuel left for now, but the air control is currently at 1/2 open so it won’t last too long.