First Wood Stove in a New (to me) Home
- Thread starter dnanoodle
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Is overfiring simply from having a combo of too many coals and too much wood? Is there something specific you should do in the case of overfiring? Like, reactive measures that should be taken?
Do you use a digital thermometer for this? How do I know my target temps? Is that a user manual thing?
Get a probe thermometer, drill a hole in the stove pipe 18" above the stove, stick it in. Analog.
Or get a $100 Auber, digital.
Counter measures are to open the stove door. Counterintuitive but the amount of air rushing in will cool things down.
If that fails, have a bucket of sand available. Dump it on the fire.
Never water; steam explosion and damage to the stove.
Overfiring is getting things too hot, because you are not longer able to control the fire. This can happen with dry wood if the air is not dialed down quick enough (too much wood starting to burn, creating heat, lighting more wood, so more heat more draft more air and thus more fire).
Or get a $100 Auber, digital.
Counter measures are to open the stove door. Counterintuitive but the amount of air rushing in will cool things down.
If that fails, have a bucket of sand available. Dump it on the fire.
Never water; steam explosion and damage to the stove.
Overfiring is getting things too hot, because you are not longer able to control the fire. This can happen with dry wood if the air is not dialed down quick enough (too much wood starting to burn, creating heat, lighting more wood, so more heat more draft more air and thus more fire).
I thought I didn't have photos of the rooms, but I found a few. These rooms have these doors in the middle between them. Each room is 8 mats large which is about 133 sq ft. (12.5sq m). Images 5976 and 5977 are taken from the middle where the doors are, so that might help to situate you.
Living Room - Google Drive
drive.google.com
Fire needs oxygen, fuel, and heat. A good fire is a balance of these 3. An excess of any one can cause an overfire. Instrumentation and maybe a timer is the best way to avoid an overfire.
This thread will give you an idea of the sequence.
I would have an addendum to that:
I think excess heat and oxygen indeed. Excess fuel I'm not so sure; most folks do run with a full firebox (max fuel).
The trick is to keep the balance between the three right. If you have a lot of fuel, you need to be careful to not have too much air. (I.e. start dialing down in steps before it takes off at a speed where dialing down won't cut sufficiently any longer.)
I think excess heat and oxygen indeed. Excess fuel I'm not so sure; most folks do run with a full firebox (max fuel).
The trick is to keep the balance between the three right. If you have a lot of fuel, you need to be careful to not have too much air. (I.e. start dialing down in steps before it takes off at a speed where dialing down won't cut sufficiently any longer.)
Yes, good point, I was trying to keep it simple. There are a lot of variables. If the fuel is overly dry or an oily wood, then one may need to cut back or deal with a hotter fire. Likewise, if the fuel load consists of a lot of thinner splits, it's going to lead to a hotter firebox quicker than if the same firebox is loaded with thicker splits. If the draft is too strong the fire may get too much air in spite of the air control being closed all the way, etc.
ctreitzell
Feeling the Heat
In my case, too much air travelling through the air intake...
and my chimney is tall, so draw is strong once it is drawing.
As far as coals, no...coals enrobed in a healthy layer of ash are not the super hot fuel...that said, throw a bunch of bark on your coals, things get very hot, quite fast. Fill up with a bunch of cardboard, things get too hot;
being aware of what is happening in the fireplace all the time is important IME.
The manufacturer of my stove (Panadero) suggests the maximum load (which is tiny; 2-3 Kgs per reload
in use (which is ludicrously small), I always overload...my first serious season of wood burning (2022) I did not know about over-firing an appliance. I'd not known of it before, either, and I'm 60 years old and have had many fires for heat throughout my life. These efficient modern stoves are a little different animal, IME.
In other countries, fireboxes can be enormous and those with 3 cu ft plus fireboxes likely set and forget for many hours...for me, the max time between reloads to not pay close attention to the fire is 2hrs...sometimes I can get a 4 hr unattended burn that I can save with a reload in the nick of time...but my install is still the temporary one I've had.
Personally, I'd rather get up and reload throughout the night than have to let the fire die in the evening and start a new fire in the morning...but that's because I have to pre-heat my chimney to start...which is a hassle.
Obviously it is potentially more dangerous keep a fire burning over night than restart. My missus has been suggesting I let the fire die every night this year...but she doesn't start or maintain the fire.
Thanks so much! I'll read through that thread.Fire needs oxygen, fuel, and heat. A good fire is a balance of these 3. An excess of any one can cause an overfire. Instrumentation and maybe a timer is the best way to avoid an overfire.
This thread will give you an idea of the sequence.
The other comments in this thread have been helpful too. I'll try to learn as much as I can first, but I guess there's no replacement for experience, huh.
ctreitzell
Feeling the Heat
sadly no, once you fill up your house with smoke one time...or smoke or CO alarms going off when you think there is none...they are all lessons to be learned
last year my wood supplier brought me a couple treated post splits which I did not realize until the chemical smell chased my family out of the living room. and that log was burning slow...instead of letting it burb down, I decided to remove the burning log...which was pretty dangerous on its own...I found a couple more of those treated logs in my wood pile and got rid of them...but, darn it, I had to pay for those to do that supplier's work
I could go on and on...like the the rep at the store where we bought the stove telling us it is overpowered for needs...NOPE! No way, not even close...Frankly, I have been very frustrated these past couple years because "burning wood in a modern wood burning appliance" is not as easy as everyone seems to think. Getting the right moisture content wood fuel...maintaining the stove...knowing a lot about slumbering a stove...having reload procedures...wood storage...over-firing...disposing of ashes safely...having good smoke alarm system...having an evacuation plan...getting your wood shed working for you...
there is A LOT to know and I struggled before joining this forum...I thought I understood wood burning in the home, but I was mistaken.
This forum has taught me a great deal, and I'm deeply grateful to everyone who contributes here.
Personally, I don't use any sensors for flue or stove temps...nor do I use a moisture meter to check my wood moisture content...I typically use time passed since being cut down and weight of the wood to tell me if it can burn...and plenty of times I make mistakes.
Previously, I used to start my fires from the bottom up in a leaned-up-against-one-side-of-the-stove fashion: wrong! I learned top-down starting here at hearth.com and it has been a revelation for me...seriously, it has changed my life.
I also don't start fires with paper or firelighters; I use only wood, light a candle and couple shish-kebab skewers to start a fire.
And those are just a few things...there's always something
good luck on your quest
ctreitzell
Feeling the Heat
@dnanoodle btw, head over to The Wood Shed sub-forum here at hearth.com and see a lot of the operations folks around here get up to in the "Work Done" threads and other threads there. There's a lot going on behind the scenes to keep our stoves running...even a paltry little stove like mine.
Will do, thanks! I can tell from the outside that actively using the stove requires a lot of lifestyle changes but it’s not easy to get a big picture view of it all, tbh.
ctreitzell
Feeling the Heat
indeed! yeah, I was very frustrated before I got on to hearth.com last year...I felt like I had no idea what I was doing... and I have been burning fires for supplemental heat since I was a kid. The installation of a wood burner I had never done before this one my wife and I installed 2 years ago. It has been a massive learning curve.
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