Can you burn wood standing vertically

[Adios Pantalones]

Efficiency may mean something else to him- like "puts out lots of heat". I think that you know that for our purposes it generally means "puts out lots of heat per amount of wood supplied", and "full combustion" of solids and soot.

 

[ScottF]

I will be sure to keep everyone updated with it. I love burning my fireplace and will love this also. I have been involved in wood splitting, cutting and burning all my life in one way or another so it will be fun to tinker and see what I can get out of her. Everyone here has been so gracetious in sharing information. It is a great thing. It has helped tremendously. I will stay involved and definately keep the forum updated as we start to use her. Cant wait for the cold weather so we can fire it up! I will try coal also and see what works best. If all else fails it will become a collector piece and we will buy a modern stove but not until all methods have been exhaused.
Scott

 

[ScottF]

Yes Adios, I think you are correct. He seemed to speak only about the ability to throw lots of heat when he used the term effceincy. He only used coal as did other dealers that I spoke with. These old stoves may just work better on coal as that is what they were primarily designed for. I however have lots of wood so will burn that all up first before paying for coal. Its $300 a ton in my area and I have heard one ton is equal to 1.3 cords of hardwood. But I guess that all depends on the type of wood. Anyhow my wood was all free so I will burn it first. I also have a big wooded lot and other sources so I may never go to coal.

 

[fossil]

...Everyone here has been so gracetious in sharing information. It is a great thing. It has helped tremendously.

That's what we're here for...well, that's what some of us are here for, the rest of us are just here being sarcastic. :lol: Rick

 

[ScottF]

OK, here is some interesting stuff on antique stove efficiency that makes me feel better. I spoke to a local restorer of these stove who uses them and has been in business for years. I asked him if he could install or retrofit the stove with some modern components such as a catalytic burner to make it more efficient. He told me that no there is no need. Catalytic burners and secondary burn systems are put on modern stoves only because they are so tight and can restrict the air so efficiently that they make a lot of incomplete combustion. These systems are necessary to burn the unburned gases. It is not neccessary on your stove.

He said my stove has a sheetmetal drum that is very good a transmitting heat quickly and easily to the room. As long as it is well sealed which it is, it will burn a good long time and tranfer a good amount of heat to the room. Especially if I install a pipe damper . This will allow the heat to stay in the stove. He told me there is only so many bTUs in a log and whether you burn it slow or a little quicker you still only get that amount of BTUs . He says yours will just transfer them to the room a little quicker. He told me he heats his whole 1500 square foot shop with 15 foot ceilings with one of these very nicely just by burning broken up palletts. He also told me that with the damper and the tightened up stove that they get no visible smoke out of the chimney at all.

Also this paragraph is interesting

Heating with wood has problems other than stove construction. The wood has to be well seasoned hardwood. Burning unseasoned hardwood produces high levels of creosote in the now popular "airtight" stoves. The "older" antique stoves did not have this problem as they burned wood quickly with hot fires, thus consuming most of the volatile chemicals which produce creosote.

I found it on this site
http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/execdiv/techasmt/ecep/carpntry/o/o.htm

Maybe the antiques are good heating choices

 

[begreen]

Let him sit in a room with the smoke created by the old stove vs a modern cat stove like the Encore and see who call uncle. He has only half of the facts. Many stoves of pre-EPA vintage were also airtight and did a great job of smoldering through a fire. Modern EPA stoves introduce secondary air at a very specific location to deliberately burn the unburnt gasses . If he had actually owned and burned in one of these stoves he'd know a bit more about how they operate. Put a particle meter on the old parlor stove and you will see it at a high gph count relative to a good modern stove, guaranteed.

 

[Beanscoot]

Even an inefficient, leaky stove won't fill a room with smoke if the chimney is working correctly, as the draft pulls excess air into the stove and chimney, smoke doesn't leak out into the room. Consider the most leaky fire imaginable- a plain fireplace. The smoke goes up the chimney, assuming the damper is open.

 

[PeteD]

OK, here is some interesting stuff on antique stove efficiency that makes me feel better. I spoke to a local restorer of these stove who uses them and has been in business for years. I asked him if he could install or retrofit the stove with some modern components such as a catalytic burner to make it more efficient. He told me that no there is no need. Catalytic burners and secondary burn systems are put on modern stoves only because they are so tight and can restrict the air so efficiently that they make a lot of incomplete combustion. These systems are necessary to burn the unburned gases. It is not neccessary on your stove.

He said my stove has a sheetmetal drum that is very good a transmitting heat quickly and easily to the room. As long as it is well sealed which it is, it will burn a good long time and tranfer a good amount of heat to the room. Especially if I install a pipe damper . This will allow the heat to stay in the stove. He told me there is only so many bTUs in a log and whether you burn it slow or a little quicker you still only get that amount of BTUs . He says yours will just transfer them to the room a little quicker. He told me he heats his whole 1500 square foot shop with 15 foot ceilings with one of these very nicely just by burning broken up palletts. He also told me that with the damper and the tightened up stove that they get no visible smoke out of the chimney at all.

Also this paragraph is interesting

Heating with wood has problems other than stove construction. The wood has to be well seasoned hardwood. Burning unseasoned hardwood produces high levels of creosote in the now popular "airtight" stoves. The "older" antique stoves did not have this problem as they burned wood quickly with hot fires, thus consuming most of the volatile chemicals which produce creosote.

I found it on this site
http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/execdiv/techasmt/ecep/carpntry/o/o.htm

Maybe the antiques are good heating choices

You will get plenty of heat and also burn more wood than in a new stove.

Also, you will have shorter burn times than a new stove with the same size firebox.

Your stove will also look nice, but not as nice as your furniture. I am not far from you, so let me know by PM if you need a place to store some of your pieces.

Pete

 

[begreen]

Even an inefficient, leaky stove won’t fill a room with smoke if the chimney is working correctly, as the draft pulls excess air into the stove and chimney, smoke doesn’t leak out into the room. Consider the most leaky fire imaginable- a plain fireplace. The smoke goes up the chimney, assuming the damper is open.

Correct, there should be no smoke from the stove I was talking hypothetically here, not literally. In other words as if there was just a 3ft stack on the stove. A far safer way would be to have a meter on the flue.

 

[savageactor7]

ScottF is more than a wood burner...he's one of these antique buffs. So if he want to burn his old stove I say let 'em...he's got his own wood supply. Besides he'll come around and see the light eventually ...I'd want to burn that stove too if I took the time to restore it. And I'd still be burning my old non EPA if certain people in this old house weren't so insistent on an update. but knowing what I know now I'd never go back.

 

[RedRanger]

Is he asking right side up; or downside up??

 

[ScottF]

You are all correct. I am an antique buff who just truly appreciates the craftmanship of days gone by. That is how I got into furniture reproduction. I am amazed by what our ancestors produced under the conditions they did it in. I am also a wood burner for most of my life who realizes my reproduction true rumford fireplace just wont cut it anymore. Especially with the cost of oil and my disdain for sending our American money overseas to fund places that support terrorism. I want to support American enterprises like wood and coal.

You are also correct I will probably need to see the light after some time burning and go with a modern stove. I just dont understand why they cant build a line of them (for antique craftmanship lovers) to look like they did 100 years ago. I guess its for financial reasons just like they cant build houses as ornate and beautiful as they did back then.

Also with all our great technology in this country why cant they retrofit my old beauty to perform like a new one?

I guess I am hoping to find out that I can heat my 1400 square feet with 18 ft ceilings with less than 5 cords a year. Wood is free for now but anything over 5 cords is way too much work to keep up with year after year. If I can I will keep it . If not I go modern and sadly retire the old stove. The house is 10 years old and well insulated. Do you think this can be done? Its all open concept so there are no doors to get the heat through. I do have a ceiling fan to circulate the heat to the lower areas.

 

[Jags]

Sure it can be done, but my guess is that you will be tending the fire quite often. If this is not a problem, then you are in good shape. Your gonna burn "more" wood than an epa, but you already know that. Why not give it a shot?

 

[savageactor7]

hummmm....5 cords is roughly 15 face cords down here so from my experience I don't think 5 cords will last you threw the winter Scott. But truthfully I dunno...I just guessing that NH is over all much colder than CNY.

I'm told we burn 40 FC a year here but in over 30 years of wood burning I've never took the time to measure out our wood. Being old school if I know I need 40FC I'll cut 60 cause that's just the way I'm hardwired. And mostly cutting is no big deal to me cause its in the backyard and I rarely spend over a hr a day...it just adds up and if we don't burn it this year it'll still burn the next.

How certain people in this household know we burn 'so much' a year is a mystery to me considering I mostly do what has has to be done around here...but that's the way it is.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

You burn 13 cord of wood a year??? What are you heating?

 

[savageactor7]

AP you talking to me? We heat a pre civil war 2 story 5br farm house that I upgraded with blown in cellulose insulation into all outer walls and attic, energy eff replacement window and multiple to the X factor cartons of caulking.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

That is just a huge amount of wood- unless it's white pine, then it's just a lot.

I was just very surprised. When someone tells me "6 cord", I think- "that's some hard @$$ burning goin on". Not criticizing- just wondering how you used that much