1st year burner (well next fall) who is having a BK Princess Insert installed today.
I started splitting wood in Nov. of 2012 and have 7+ cords now. I am very concerning about getting this 1st yr wood dried as fast as possible so I stacked some of it criss-cross for max air exposure. I am considering respliting my bigger pieces to expose the wood to even more drying. I want DRY wood for next year.
Question... with the Cat basically running low and slow, heating my house off the wood gas, does it matter if I pack my Princess with large splits (I've read large splits = long burn times) or stuff it with smaller splits (historically read, hotter burning)?
I could understand in a Non-CAT stove, split sizing mattering, but with a CAT, as long as the wood u have in there, big or small, is giving off gas, I'm good to go, right? If this is a the case, I'd really like to resplit my stuff small to improve drying. If resplitting small wouldn't give me an overnight burn time with coals leftover to relight in the morning, then I'd back off, but then my <1yr old wood would be as dry which lends to other problems (creosote, not as hot a fire).
Any advice? Thx.
I started splitting wood in Nov. of 2012 and have 7+ cords now. I am very concerning about getting this 1st yr wood dried as fast as possible so I stacked some of it criss-cross for max air exposure. I am considering respliting my bigger pieces to expose the wood to even more drying. I want DRY wood for next year.
Question... with the Cat basically running low and slow, heating my house off the wood gas, does it matter if I pack my Princess with large splits (I've read large splits = long burn times) or stuff it with smaller splits (historically read, hotter burning)?
I could understand in a Non-CAT stove, split sizing mattering, but with a CAT, as long as the wood u have in there, big or small, is giving off gas, I'm good to go, right? If this is a the case, I'd really like to resplit my stuff small to improve drying. If resplitting small wouldn't give me an overnight burn time with coals leftover to relight in the morning, then I'd back off, but then my <1yr old wood would be as dry which lends to other problems (creosote, not as hot a fire).
Any advice? Thx.