Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
cowtown said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
cowtown said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
Hay Dan, good job
You want to let the stove "cycle", that's what helps you conserve wood, and burn effeciently (I'm adding "dry/seasoned wood" here for the faint of heart
). Helps minimize coal build up, as well.
Yea, i let it cycle. i open back up the air when the flames have gone, to burn off the coals. I then put the new load of wood in.
Try letting it cycle longer. Let it naturally go down to bed of coals with the air closed. As BB said the other day "coals make heat". You'll save wood. Alot of wood.
Will do, thanks for the advice.
You're very welcome.
It really works, ask me how I know this
Eileen please do not think I am contradicting you here but we do things a bit different.
You will very soon start to see many posts by various folks who have tons of coals and not enough room for the wood! Happens every year and it also happened to us when we got the new EPA stove. You will also see many suggestions to add some kindling or a couple very small pieces of wood on top of the coals as this will sometimes help. However, after some experimenting a bit this is what we came up with for our stove and I don't doubt but that it should work on any stove.
Note: we have super dry wood so have less of a problem than many because the greener the wood, the more coals you will have to contend with.
We started looking at the fire and just before it reaches all coals, we open the draft to full open. At this point you really won't be losing heat up the chimney and the stove top temperature will hold; neither up or down. Then, of course, before all the coals get burned down we add wood for the next fire. Having a nice coal bed makes the stove just work so much better so don't get rid of all the coals for sure.
In the coldest part of the winter is the most difficult time with coals but doing it this way we've had no problem and many times I do add wood a bit quicker than I will at this time of the year. It is nice to have a quick lighting wood to lay on the coals which helps the new fire get established quickly. In our case, we like to add a piece of soft maple and then fill with other wood.
As for raking the coals to the front, yes, sometimes we do, especially if there are not many coals. If there is a good amount of coals, all we do is level them off. To be honest, about the only time we rake the coals to the front is before stocking for the night or if we need a long burn, say, if we are going to be gone all day. For a simple restocking of the stove, I really like just leveling them off.
EDIT: Remember that the wood you burn will determine how much you have for both coaling and for ashes.