Lots of dust and hazy windows - Wood burning???

[mr2autoxr]

This is my first year wood burning and I notice now that we do not run our forced air furnance at all now that the dust in the house is unbelievable. We have to dust the entire house, not just the living room where the stove is about every 5 days or you can just draw pictures in the dust on everything.

I also looked at our windows yesterday and the inside of them have a nice haze to them as they are now very dirty. They weren't hazy before we started burning at the end of Sept.

Does wood burning cause this much dust, even all the way back into the bedrooms? Or is this just because our furnance fan doesn't run and filter the air? What does everyone do, live with it? Or run their furnance fan?

Thanks
Mike

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I don't notice it in my house.

Since it is your first year burning I wonder if your wood is wet and you are burning a little smokey. A little bit of smoke coming out every time you open the door could add up... The furnace filter could be the difference in what you are seeing. They get dirty from something!

Matt

 

[Pagey]

I have a little more dust on the end tables in the stove room, but nothing that I could draw in every 5 days. Not sure what's up with that.

 

[Stephen in SoKY]

I assume you have a CO detector in operation?

 

[mr2autoxr]

Yup, CO2 detectors and never gone off. It is a PE Summit BTW.

I guess it could be sometimes from opening up the door as every once in a while we get a puff and can smell it. I know for sure the wood isn't wet as it has been drying for 1.5 years and the top has been covered since Sept.

I'll have to watch opening up the door more and see if that could be contributing. I try to crack it and let it sit for a second before I slowly open it up.

 

[firefighterjake]

Yup, CO2 detectors and never gone off. It is a PE Summit BTW.

I guess it could be sometimes from opening up the door as every once in a while we get a puff and can smell it. I know for sure the wood isn't wet as it has been drying for 1.5 years and the top has been covered since Sept.

I'll have to watch opening up the door more and see if that could be contributing. I try to crack it and let it sit for a second before I slowly open it up.

Well there's your problem . . . you've got a carbon dioxide detector . . . good for detecting fizzy soda in the house.

We get some dust . . . but I don't notice it any more than normal . . . seems like the winter months always result in more dust anyways . . . maybe because I'm around and notice it more.

I suppose it's possible to get more dust since the heated air from a woodstove will move the dust around . . . and in cleaning in and around the stove there is always a chance of kicking up the fly ash . . . smoke spill outs is not much of a problem for me though since I normally open up the draft a bit before adding wood or simply open the door a crack before opening it all the way.

 

[fire_man]

I always thought the extra dust I see when I start burning is because every time I empty the ashes from the firebox with a shovel, I get a little puff of ash into the air. Its really hard to dump the ashes without getting at least a little Puff.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yup, CO2 detectors and never gone off. It is a PE Summit BTW.

I guess it could be sometimes from opening up the door as every once in a while we get a puff and can smell it. I know for sure the wood isn't wet as it has been drying for 1.5 years and the top has been covered since Sept.

I'll have to watch opening up the door more and see if that could be contributing. I try to crack it and let it sit for a second before I slowly open it up.

Be sure to open the draft full for a minute or two before opening the door. Then open it just a crack and wait for a few seconds before opening it further. This will cut down on the dust a lot and you should not get smoke from opening the door.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I always thought the extra dust I see when I start burning is because every time I empty the ashes from the firebox with a shovel, I get a little puff of ash into the air. Its really hard to dump the ashes without getting at least a little Puff.

You do not need to get any puff of ash into the air when you clean the ashes. All it takes is very careful and slow movement and never dump the ashes off the shovel. Put the shovel into the bucket (or whatever you are using) and very gently slide the ashes off the shovel or rather, slide the shovel out from under the ashes. That is the clean way to doing ashes. Make believe they are rotten tomatoes and handle with care.

 

[fredarm]

Run the furnace fan once a day for an hour or so to act as an air cleaner.

 

[SteveKG]

In thirty-five yr. of wood burning, I have had the dust problem. Though it sounds as if yours is maximum. However, I have not had any haze on the window glass and that is odd. I do some part time window washing and have since the mid-80s, and I often find a film of gunk on the interior side of windows. However, in the cases I've seen it is usually from cooking or cigarette smoking. Worst cooking offenders appear to be beef/pork, bacon and burgers and the like. Anything with oil or grease to it, cooked, puts off a little grease in the air even if you don't see it. Smoking...well, you know what that is. But if this is new since beginning to burn wood??? I just don't know what that could be. If it is leaking smoke from your stove, that could get to be a serious health issue, but it would be noticeable so I doubt that is what it is. If you haven't changed your cooking habits, I just don't know.

But I would be interested for you to post the source of the haze when you figure it out. The dust problem is somewhat alleviated by frequent vacuuming and dusting. Frequent. It will not go away, though. If we leave off the vacuuming and dusting for even a few days, the dust is on everything. [Used to drive me completely crazy in the vinyl LP/turntable days, let me tell you.] And we are quite careful about removing ash from the stoves and fireplace.

We have taken to running three good air cleaners [distributed throughout the house] 24/7 and keeping their filters cleaned regularly. This has helped with the dust, but it has not done away with it. We also live with six large dogs and they bring outdoor dust in on their coats, so that adds to the problem, in our case.

 

[fire_man]

I always thought the extra dust I see when I start burning is because every time I empty the ashes from the firebox with a shovel, I get a little puff of ash into the air. Its really hard to dump the ashes without getting at least a little Puff.

You do not need to get any puff of ash into the air when you clean the ashes. All it takes is very careful and slow movement and never dump the ashes off the shovel. Put the shovel into the bucket (or whatever you are using) and very gently slide the ashes off the shovel or rather, slide the shovel out from under the ashes. That is the clean way to doing ashes. Make believe they are rotten tomatoes and handle with care.

Thanks for the tips, Mr. Savage. I will give this method a try. I am usually in so much of a hurry to get the fire going again that I forget the "slow movement" part. I have heard the ash bucket they sell at Woodstock is perfect for the Fireview and helps reduce ashes, but its so expensive that I'd hate to buy it and be disappointed.

 

[Slow1]

I always thought the extra dust I see when I start burning is because every time I empty the ashes from the firebox with a shovel, I get a little puff of ash into the air. Its really hard to dump the ashes without getting at least a little Puff.

You do not need to get any puff of ash into the air when you clean the ashes. All it takes is very careful and slow movement and never dump the ashes off the shovel. Put the shovel into the bucket (or whatever you are using) and very gently slide the ashes off the shovel or rather, slide the shovel out from under the ashes. That is the clean way to doing ashes. Make believe they are rotten tomatoes and handle with care.

Thanks for the tips, Mr. Savage. I will give this method a try. I am usually in so much of a hurry to get the fire going again that I forget the "slow movement" part. I have heard the ash bucket they sell at Woodstock is perfect for the Fireview and helps reduce ashes, but its so expensive that I'd hate to buy it and be disappointed.

I too have been tempted by that nice bucket sold by Woodstock (and others btw) but I guess quality and design come at a cost. So I've been using my rather too tall bucket so far this year and found that I am able to get the ashes out with minimal amounts getting airborne by using the 'move slow and push the shovel into the pile' method suggested above. I do have to hold my bucket at quite an angle to do this and I imagine that one of these days I'll slip and drop it releasing a pile of ashes on the floor and quite a plume into the air... probably will happen when the wife is standing there and a few minutes before the most anti-woodburning company we have ever met is ringing the door bell. Guess maybe then I will justify paying for the other....