Burning the 'bacon wood'

[firebroad]

... Forget raking the coals forward to slow the burn... your burn will be slow.

I was under the impression raking the coals forward(toward the air) speeds up the burn?

 

[ddahlgren]

Who gave you that idea?

Based on our year so far, and burning a lot of lower BTU woods ('cause my higher BTU woods aren't as well seasoned!), I'm on track for 5.5 cords of wood plus 800 gallons of oil for this year.

Now I'm also burning "bacon wood," as I've gone thru most of the dryer softwoods, and started in on hardwoods split April, 2012. Still beats the 1400 gallons of oil I burned last year!

My advice, based on plenty of recent experience, for burning less than ideal wood:

1. Always put some softwoods under the the wet stuff, to help get it going.
2. Don't put a big damp split in front of your secondary inlet, as the exhaust gasses will be too cool for secondary operation (or catalyst light-off).
3. Mind your ratios... bigger / wetter splits requires more dry wood to balance out.
4. If you run out of dry softwoods, start reloading your less seasoned stuff directly on a hot coal bed. Forget raking the coals forward to slow the burn... your burn will be slow.

My best luck is to split down to somewhere between 3 x 3 to 4 x 4 and let them sit in the same room as the stove for a few days as the dryest part of the house and while not perfect better than not plus not going for a big load but feed a few at a time and leave room for a eco brick if it all starts to fall apart.

 

[Ashful]

I was under the impression raking the coals forward(toward the air) speeds up the burn?

Nope. Raking the coals forward is to avoid putting your entire load of fresh wood right on a hot coal bed, and having it go nuclear in hour 1 of the burn. Sort of a bastardized cigar burn. That said, if you're down to just minimal coals buried in the ash bed, raking them forward into a small pile does give you a place to start the kindling.

 

[ddahlgren]

Not sure if appropriate to add on to this or not but does tell the whole story in one place. i have had good luck with splitting down the marginal wood to approximate 3 x 3 splits stacking 3 pieces X 3 pieces with loads of room for air maybe 5 to 6 layers high in the stove room. After a few days these burn rwasonably well though not perfect as i can get a nice secondary burn for about 15 minutes then it starts to fail so just a crack more air and a partial secondary burn then. Can i pack these thin splits close together to look like a bigger split and slow down the burn a bit and get a longer run at it. With it just over full closed I have been getting 575 to 600 for close to anhour then goes to 450 slowly over the next 2 hours then coals an hold close to 450 for a bit. remeber I only have 1.3 cu ft fire box to work with here so a lot of heat and long burn i do not see possible with anything less that perfect wood. After kindling burns down a good bit on a cold start 1 eco brick gets me to 450 the add a couple of splits at 3 x 3 to 4 X 4 to get to 575 and start cutting the air when confident it will not die out to nothing. It seem s 550 is the magic number for the stove top for it to tolerate most anything.

 

[NortheastAl]

Just checked the price of oil, and its $ 3.95 a gallon. Gives me more reason to be happy when I wake up at night and come down to throw a couple logs in the stove.

An update. We also have ULSD (ultra low sulfur diesel) fuel oil getting delivered to our home tanks in NY by law. It has less energy than the stuff we burned last year. Higher price, less efficient, hmm, pay more to burn more? Now that is sensible conservation, isn't it? I'm so happy I got this woodstove this year.

 

[ddahlgren]

An update. We also have ULSD (ultra low sulfur diesel) fuel oil getting delivered to our home tanks in NY by law. It has less energy than the stuff we burned last year. Higher price, less efficient, hmm, pay more to burn more? Now that is sensible conservation, isn't it? I'm so happy I got this woodstove this year.

It is the same as the ethanol in gasoline it is expensive increases consumption takes a big toll on the land hard to grow without a lot of nitrates that polute the Gulf of Mexico and take food out of peoples mouth at a reasonable cost. typtical Washington sensibility at it's best. sigh..

 

[Mitch Newton]

I don't know if you are knocking me or agreeing with me - I don't need all the fancy math, never my strong suit, it is a lot simpler in my mind....let me explain
Bottom line is, 125 gallons of oil, minimum deliver at 3.70/gal = $462.50
That 125 gallons lasts about 5 weeks, if i'm lucky, with the thermostat at 68, me in wool sweaters, 2 pairs of socks....cold!
That same $400 i could use for a cord of wood, if I buy Kiln wood, lasting just about 2 months, not using other wood, burning almost 24/7 and be WARM and darn right hot most of the time. Granted, my little stove doesn't go full blast all night so the furance kicks on around 3:30 a few times until I get up at 5:30 and fire the stove back up on my nice bed of coals.

I don't know about BTUs for wood or oil or even know how to figure it out. All I know is I'm warm and Mr.Oil man hasn't been here since last April

I agree Hearth Mistress. In my neck of the woods oil is close to $4 gallon. In past years I have used 1,000 gallons = $4,000. I will use and have bought 5 cords of seasoned cherry this year at $125 cord = $625. $4,000 - $625 = a savings of $3,375. 100% payback on new stove, liner, and install. No oil deliveries and the oil boiler has not been turned on once. Next year even better since I'll be burning my own wood cut, split and stacked already. I will have ten cords by March which should be a two year supply.