Hello. Firstly, thank you all for this site and the information on it. It has been extremely helpful for a complete wood-stove-millennial-novice such as myself. This is a longer post so I apologize to those who find is mundane but I hope it can help future first-timers in the future.
Background
I recently purchased a Drolet HT3000 and installed a Duravent (single-wall) chimney in my house. This is is my first home and going into it I knew it was extremely energy inefficient (~$400 for electric heat last January) so I wanted to find an alternate energy source and landed on a wood stove. I chose this route because running natural gas to my house is not an option yet and wood stoves are just cool. This is my first ever experience with a wood burning stove so everything is new. This site along with Youtube has gotten me far enough where the flue is fully installed and I can light fires (bad ones so far). I thought the hard part was over after the chimney install but I made the mistake of not researching how to actually make a fire once the stove is in place. After combing through these forums and others it appears that it is more nuanced than "point and shoot".
Mistakes
- "All wood is created equal" - Turns out I can't just scavenge wood from my land and throw it in the fire.
- "Stove operation is simple" - Turns out I can't just start a fire, close the door, and reap the benefits of a warm home.
- Lack of fuel preparation. See mistake #1.
- Craigslist.
Setup
- Drolet HT3000 stove
- Blower
- Single-wall Durablack stove pipe inside the house. Goes vertical 4 feet then 45 degrees parallel to drop ceiling then 8 feet Class A chimney through and above roof. (see picture)
- Chimguard stove thermometer placed ~5 inches above stove. I'll move this to 18 inches based on this thread.
- Temporary non-combustible "hearth" (rubber mats).
Progress so far
I have made a fire every day since installation was complete (10 days so far) always from a fresh start. The first fire consisted of newspaper, cardboard, wet twigs I found, and some green wood (not split) my neighbor gave me. After putting enough love (cardboard) into it and holding the stove door slightly ajar, I was able to get a fire to 400 degrees. I then closed the door with the air-intake wide open. Fire didn't last long and the windows was covered with creosote a few hours later.
Since the initial cluster of my first fire, I did some reading on here and realized the importance of seasoned fuel. I bought some "seasoned wood" on Craigslist even after reading the warnings on this forum. The seller told me that it was split 4 months ago but the trees had bid felled 2 years ago so I bought a cord (stupid I know). I tried making a fire with it but it too was too wet and I was not able to get the fire really going. I bought a moisture meter and split some of my newly "seasoned" wood and most of the pieces are hovering around 45%. So that chord will be used next year or maybe even year after that. I will properly store it until then.
After this debacle I got back on this forum and found some direction to burn compressed sawdust blocks. It was recommended for first year unprepared burners (me) who don't have access to actual seasoned wood. I bought a couple packs of these 'bio blocks' from the local farm store along with some kiln dried kindling and some fire starters. My logic was: I can at least learn to operate the stove with these three items since they seem to take out some of the variability of cord wood.
I was able to make some good fires with these ingredients but it takes a decent amount (4-5) of these blocks to get the fire up to temperature (~400-425) but I only get those temps by holding the door slightly ajar. When I close the door (even with the air intake wide open) the temperature drops to ~300 and then lasts about an hour.
Until yesterday's fire I have always left the air intake fully open but then I read on here that I should slowly close it to induce secondary burn. I played with that last night and seem to make some progress. I saw good secondary burning happening and the fire burned slower lasting a couple hours. The fire burned at around 325 degrees but that took 7 of the compressed logs (2 to start the original fire from cold then 5 to get the fire going off of coals from the first 2). And finally to my current:
In other posts on Hearth, there are warnings about using more than a couple of these compressed wood blocks due to overheating. As I stated above, I used 5 of these blocks and with full air intake plus the door begin slightly ajar I got the thermometer to 400 at which point I closed the door and slowly throttled the air intake.
Questions:
- My fire temps range from 300-400 which seem low compared to other accounts in this forum (note that my thermometer is only 5 inches above stove so this is even worse). I often see you all saying your temps range to 500s, 600s, and even 700s before throttling it down. Is this user error on my part, a fuel/air issue, or other?
- Any other feedback for a first-timer is greatly appreciated.
Positives:
- The thermometer is accurate as it reads the same as my thermo camera
- It has been an addicting hobby so far
- Even though my fires aren't as hot as I expect, every evening I make a fire by the end of my trials my house is heated to almost 70 (granted it has not been too cold lately)
- I have a good draft (smoke never enters the house
Conclusion:
I know I have only been making fires for 10 days and I know by next winter I will have figured out a lot regarding my stove based on trial and error. But until then, thank you all for your time and knowledge.