First year with Insert. Can Efficiency be improved?

[prezes13]

How did go with biobricks any better? I a hived my longest and hottest burns with eco bricks. On a load of a 8 ecobricks which would be about 2/3 capacity of my fire box I would get 6-8 hours of usable heat. From my experience I say ecobricks are better than biobricks. Ecos are all hardwood where bios are mix of hard and softwoods. Try to mix some of your semi dry wood with the bricks it should help a lot.

 

[Grisu]

I have wondered about it being undersised as it's rated for 2000 sqft and I have 2100 sqft. Yet at least 900 sqft are on the second floor and very little wood heat made it up there.

It is really common that most people only look at the higher end of the range when choosing a stove. However, the is no standard way of measuring heated sqft so the manufacturer can pretty much write what they want. Usually the firebox size is a more accurate predictor of heating capabilities simply because you can load more wood in a bigger stove which means more BTUs. Given your climate the stove may be a bit undersized. You will probably not be able to eliminate oil usage completely but it will take over most of your heating needs.

I'm sure at least half of the wood was not adequately seasoned. Hissing for first 10 mins in the fire.

10 min of hissing means your wood is still wet. Seasoned wood will not really hiss at all. Please have your chimney cleaned before burning again.

Starting with a small bed of orange coals I would rake the coals forward to make a pile right in front of the door. Then pack the stove as full as possible making sure to put the smallest piece on top of the coals. Close the door with the air control half open for 10-15 mins until I see a secondary burn coming from the tubes at the top. Then start to close it down maintaining a secondary burn. Usually I would leave the air control 15%- 25% open. Once it burned down to only coals (no flame), If in the low 20 I would sometimes open the air control 50% - 100% to get more heat and let the coals burn down until there was just a small bed. Repeat.

Your burning technique sounds good. After the reload I would leave the air fully open for a few minutes before stepwise closing it especially with your wet wood. You will also see when using seasoned wood that you will get less coals and you will not need to open the air so much again to burn them down.

On a full load it would be down to coals with no flames by hour 2 and the heat output would drop significantly. So I would open up the air control to get more heat and use up the coals to make more room for another load.

That will work much better once you have dry wood.

Thanks for all the calculations guys. I'm always impressed by the knowledge on this forum. I'm sure damp wood is a problem. I'll try to take your advice about staying one winter ahead for seasoning. One of my 7 cords this year was a pallet of Biobricks. They were nice, yet, pricey and more like ¾ of a cord then the full cord equivalent that they calm.

Those should have given you a nice, long burn. How did they work out for you?

What do you guys think about Holzhaufen to dry wood faster?

What Firefightertjake said. Here is a nice way of building firewood racks for quick seasoning: http://www.instructables.com/id/No-tools-firewood-rack/
What is important: The wood needs to get a lot of sun and wind. Top-covering helps in my opinion but other people here had also good results without.

 

[Grisu]

From my experience I say ecobricks are better than biobricks. Ecos are all hardwood where bios are mix of hard and softwoods.

I have not tried them yet so it is entirely possible that the Ecobricks work better than the Biobricks. However, I doubt that difference is due to the Biobricks having softwood in them. On a per pound basis there is little difference between the different wood species. Softwoods are not well regarded because they are less dense. Thus, per volume (cord) you get less BTU. That should not matter once you compress them to an uniform density.

 

[HotCoals]

I have not tried them yet so it is entirely possible that the Ecobricks work better than the Biobricks. However, I doubt that difference is due to the Biobricks having softwood in them. On a per pound basis there is little difference between the different wood species. Softwoods are not well regarded because they are less dense. Thus, per volume (cord) you get less BTU. That should not matter once you compress them to an uniform density.

That's a interesting thought.

 

[begreen]

It's more a matter of the degree of compression. The exceptional Northern Idaho Energy Logs are softwood, but compressed so that they are more dense than white oak. Put a NIEL in water and it will sink.

This is a common discussion among the pellet folks. A well-made softwood pellet tends to burn cleaner and hotter:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/hardwood-vs-softwood-pellets.78375/
http://www.woodpellets.com/heating-fuels/hardwood-softwood.aspx

 

[PlayWithFire]

How did go with biobricks any better?

They worked pretty good. Lasted twice as long and burned down completely with VERY little ash. Super easy to move, stack and store. But quite a bit more expensive then cord wood.

firewood racks for quick seasoning: http://www.instructables.com/id/No-tools-firewood-rack/

Great idea! I think I will try this. I also liked this...

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Though not sure I could build one big enough for my needs.

That should not matter once you compress them to an uniform density.

Good point, and they are both sold by the ton. Does the same dry weight = the same energy content?

One other thought. Got the stove used and 2 months back found a crack in the stove pipe. The draft definitely had air being sucked in, so no smoke in the room, but wonder if it effected efficiency. I plan on welding it back together over the summer.

 

[prezes13]

If you did well with bio bricks it tells me that your problem is mostlikely wood. I agree with you about price of the bricks. I get my wood for free so $265 a ton of bricks is expensive, but still better than buying oil at $4 a gallon.