2019-20 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 1 (Everything BK)

[lsucet]

I think everything depends on the heat demand needed. I prefer to light up the other stove and keep both on low for x- amount of hrs that load the same stove twice a day plus the benefit is more even heat around the house.

 

[webby3650]

Makes sense. I was just trying to push the stat further. Now i know.
It is interesting though @Highbeam comment. Small loads and high settings. Then in dead of winter full loads at high settings. Where is the low and slow? Or am I missing something?

I’m fairly certain he runs pretty low most of the winter months around the clock. This time of year just runs a quick hot fire to warm the place up on occasion.

 

[Highbeam]

Makes sense. I was just trying to push the stat further. Now i know.
It is interesting though @Highbeam comment. Small loads and high settings. Then in dead of winter full loads at high settings. Where is the low and slow? Or am I missing something?

I don’t run full loads at high settings. Must be someone else. 95% of the time I’m running full loads at the lowest setting I can for noncondensing flue temperatures. Reload every 24 hours. When it gets really cold for a couple weeks every year I boost up to a higher burn rate. About 3 o’clock on the dial.

At each end of the season there is a time (came early this year) when full loads on low setting is too much heat. Plus the days are warm and nights cool. There is more than one perfectly valid way to operate a stove in this situation.

1) Small loads at higher settings when the house and outside air is cool. I do this once a day in the mornings. Firebox is clean, glass is clean, house temperatures are cool by morning.

2) Low burn rate, constant burn, and open doors or windows to avoid overheat during warmer outside day temperatures. Gummy firebox, cool flue, dirty glass. Maybe even wasted wood since you are opening doors.

I choose #1 because I plan to shut down for the year in a couple of months and want the firebox and flue to have the dry crunchy stuff. I hate wasting fuel!

 

[Diabel]

I choose #1 because I plan to shut down for the year in a couple of months and want the firebox and flue to have the dry crunchy stuff. I hate wasting fuel!

The more i think about it, i like this approach a lot. Less gunk in the firebox over the summer months the lesser potential for corrosion. Next time i use the princess i will do same. Few hot eve fires and that will be it for the season.

 

[begreen]

This is how we are burning in a non-cat. Four split load today. 37º outside and a 7am start and I want it to burn out by around 1pm. At that point the solar gain + residual heat in the cast iron handles the heat needs of the house thru the evening, even with a stiff breeze off the water keeping outdoor temps to 55º. Around 9-10pm the heat pump will come on to keep the house at 72º until we go to bed.

 

[lsucet]

I still in a working schedule like always. Nothing changed for me with this virus situations. I still burning full time, today is snowing like crazy. I do a hot fire at night when reload. A good hot fire and dial it to my low setting. Glass stays clean decently and the gummy staff looks dry when reload, sometimes I scrape it during reload. When I am off I do some good hot fires in am to clean everything better but always checking how hot is going to be during the day to not create an oven.lol

 

[Dieselhead]

Very much into the shoulder season today. 50 degrees daytime, going to dip below freezing tonight. Mid 40s tomorrow then 30s in the overnight. Still burning on occasion here!

 

[Highbeam]

Very much into the shoulder season today. 50 degrees daytime, going to dip below freezing tonight. Mid 40s tomorrow then 30s in the overnight. Still burning on occasion here!

Burning every day here. Less fuel of course, I waffle between short and hot fires or long and low. Either way I split the fuel down into little 3-5” splits for rapid warm up.

 

[jetsam]

Still burning 24/7 here. It was 55 degrees with rain and slushy sleet today (!), 32 tonight.

No end in sight according to the national weather service!

 

[Poindexter]

Makes sense. I was just trying to push the stat further. Now i know.
It is interesting though @Highbeam comment. Small loads and high settings. Then in dead of winter full loads at high settings. Where is the low and slow? Or am I missing something?

Hey dude, late to the party, but I agree with Highbeam's response too. I am in the part of shoulder season where daytime highs are pushing +50dF but overnight lows are still just a touch below freezing, maybe +10C daytime and -1C or -2C nighttime, about?

It works for me, in my envelope, to load up say a half a box or so after dinner and just let it rip on full throttle. Might burn out at midnight or 0400, don't care. The BTUs are in the envelope, but the daytime highs are high enough I would need a bunch more pipe on the roof to keep the thing from stalling. By running it on high in the cold part of the day I have plenty of draft and cleaner glass.

I can run low and slow with 24 hour reloads when daytime highs don't get much above about freezing and overnight lows don't get much below about zero dF or so, about 0C to -17C, but there are many variables.

 

[spudman99]

I have also been quiet for a bit thanks to the loss of liberty from our taxpayer supported employees. Still in my first year burning so I have a lot to learn. Switched from mostly ash and cherry to some 8 month old Norway maple that was split small (under 3") and seasoned 1 full summer (it was free).

What a difference the wood species makes. With ash I could easily get a 12 hour burn overnight on low with an easy restart with temps in the 30's. With soft maple I can get 10 hours on low and just about stall or will stall the cat and have the STT of 200 deg or less. (not much heat). Still burning 5 out of 7 days with last night lows at 33 and highs today at 53. Turned off the heat pump 2 weeks ago (didn't tell the family...hehe)

Since its my first year I have been looking forward to getting the electric bill to calculate my savings. I have been running about 25-30% less in electric with the heat pump running far less often which translates into about $500 in savings this winter. Biggest difference is I only used 1.5 gal of propane as my back-up heat (yes I got billed for that little delivery). That translates into about a $1500 annual savings.

 

[kennyp2339]

@spudman99 - that's what its all about, saving cash.

 

[Diabel]

@spudman99 - that's what its all about, saving cash.

We all like to think that we are saving $$ by burning wood. In reality i do not think it is the case. If you add everything up plus the man hours spent......
We are all burning maniacs here, we burn because we love “fire”

 

[Tron]

If you are substituting electric heat with wood burning, then you'll probably be on the winning side (if you don't count your man-hours). If your regular heat is heat pump or gas, then probably not so much.
The only time our stove ran this week was half a day the day before yesterday, but we have highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s-50s, so that's certainly different than in AK or NY.

 

[kennyp2339]

I don't count man hours because I enjoy the work, when at my kick butt job I often find myself daydreaming about splitting and stacking, puts me in a relaxing state of mind.

 

[Ashful]

Still burning daily here, but mostly overnight. We are mostly in mid-30’s at night and 45-55F highs midday. I expect I’ll be burning into June, at this rate, it happens some years.

 

[begreen]

Still burning daily here, but mostly overnight. We are mostly in mid-30’s at night and 45-55F highs midday. I expect I’ll be burning into June, at this rate, it happens some years.

49º and finally raining. I lit a token four split fire today for nostalgia's sake.

 

[spudman99]

I also don't count man hours. I like cooking food, the preparation, cooking and cleaning all take couple hours, but I am saving money by not going out to a restaurant. Its all relative and I am not trying to argue with @Tron as his point is absolutely correct.

We have enjoyed the Princess Insert a lot, even though it does not heat my 2nd floor of a traditional Toll Brothers colonial home from 1982. I have maintained first floor heat in the 74 deg range, much higher than last year with the heat pump when I kept the space at 68. I also was surprised at the length of burn when changing to soft maple from hard maple.

In another month I will give my year end review of pro's and con's after I sweep and put the baby to rest.

 

[Highbeam]

I don't count man hours because I enjoy the work, when at my kick butt job I often find myself daydreaming about splitting and stacking, puts me in a relaxing state of mind.

It’s like sitting at a tavern for a beer. Do you consider the cost of just the beer or do you add the cost of your labor to drink it?

 

[Diabel]

Still doing full loads in the Princess, 24-26 hr intervals. It will be in the 50s next week. The plan is to try that mentioned here new burning method, i.e. small loads with fully open stat.

It’s like sitting at a tavern for a beer.

Those are the “good” man hours! Covid too care of that......

 

[Tron]

The plan is to try that mentioned here new burning method, i.e. small loads with fully open stat.

I wonder if that would get the glass clean...

 

[Diabel]

I wonder if that would get the glass clean...

Will report the outcome.

 

[lsucet]

Still doing full loads in the Princess, 24-26 hr intervals. It will be in the 50s next week. The plan is to try that mentioned here new burning method, i.e. small loads with fully open stat.

Those are the “good” man hours! Covid too care of that......

When that is a good way, I feel letting a lot heat going to the outside. I do small loads sometimes and when the stove is hot, it gets dialed to my low setting as always unless I want to burn off some creo.

 

[Highbeam]

Still doing full loads in the Princess, 24-26 hr intervals. It will be in the 50s next week. The plan is to try that mentioned here new burning method, i.e. small loads with fully open stat.

Those are the “good” man hours! Covid too care of that......

When I do small hot loads I don’t run at max stat setting. My dial has markings and there’s a “normal range labeled. I go to the top of that which is like 4 o’clock. My normal setting is like 2 o’clock. Cleans up the firebox goo nicely including drying out the glass to where I can rub the bark off with my fingers.

 

[jetsam]

We all like to think that we are saving $$ by burning wood. In reality i do not think it is the case. If you add everything up plus the man hours spent......
We are all burning maniacs here, we burn because we love “fire”

I think if I got a part time job flipping burgers for $10 an hour, I could probably save some hours and get the same heat. Wood burning takes a lot of hours!

I grew up processing and burning wood though... I think I'd miss it if I quit. (Apparently I would, because I got solar panels on the roof this year and I'm still burning!)