Sensors to monitor combustion efficiency?

[Sean in the woods]

Hi, next month I will have a new Jøtul F500 V3 Oslo stove installed. I was thinking that there must be a way to accurately know when the fire is burning at its peak efficiency and when it needs help.

Is the post combustor exhaust temperature all I need or are there other sensors that can be placed in the stove that can give me more useful data? I have seen wireless sensors for wood stoves but am not sure how effective they are...

 

[begreen]

Flue gas temp is a good place to start. Auber makes a decent digital unit.

 

[peakbagger]

Temp is number one. Make sure the probe is designed for the environment. Unless you want to add a feedback loop that adjusts the air inlet volume to O2 outlet, O2 (oxygen)is overkill. Same with CO, stack CO meters are expensive and usually have a limited lifespan. Some folks like a draft gauge and maybe its important if you have a borderline stack or just want to look at something but its not that useful in normal operation

The key is burn dry wood that you have personally verified is dry ( which is usually drying it yourself), figure out the cleanest burn and figure out what temperature range you need to obtain it. The hassle is with a new stove in the fall is you rarely run it full throttle so your learning curve is quite rocky until it gets really cold. The reality is its not hard to make any stove burn efficiently in cold weather at full load. As my friend commented jokingly years ago, once the stove was in full load mode in cold weather he could burn old baby diapers . What differentiates the pros from the newbys is how well they run the stove at partial load in warmer weather.

 

[Sean in the woods]

Thanks @begreen and @peakbagger. I just ordered a couple of Auber AT200CHIM sensors. One with a 4” probe for the double wall stove pipe and the other with a magnetic surface mount sensor for the stovetop.

Once I get my hands on the stove, I’ll probably replace the stock catalyst thermometer with another AT200CHIM.

What I like about these thermometers is that they have over temp buzzers and I can see the displays at a glance from across the room.

 

[Highbeam]

Burning efficiently is not the same as burning cleanly(low emissions). I find it much easier to burn efficiently in the low demand situation and in high demand situations both cat and noncat stoves are relatively inefficient due to high flue temperatures.

Maybe @peakbagger meant it’s easier to burn clean at high settings? That’s not really true either for a cat stove. The lower settings give the cat more time to munch on smoke.

Baby diapers? Burn them hot to reduce smoke but not in a cat stove!