Shoulder season advice for a new wood burner

[7acres]

I'm here in the sprawling metropolis of pumpkintown SC. Currently sweating because at 1030 this morning my wife loaded the Buck 81 with a load of hickory. It was 39 this morning with a breeze. Needless to say the A/c is on in the bed room.

Looks like several of us are on the learning curve this month! I had good success yesterday and even better success last night. Woke up today and the house was 72. We loaded slightly more wood (BTUs) and burned it with the air 3/4ths open. Stove was barely warm to the touch this morning!

Got the heat we wanted when we wanted with no excess.

 

[begreen]

These stoves are meant to have the air closed down until the fire gets lazy, but not smoldering. Try closing it down further for a longer burn.

 

[Ashful]

3/4 open with dry wood might turn most stoves to an iron puddle. Careful, there!

 

[Dmitry]

I had my first fire today , just a small one to cure paint and furnace cement , Hopefully I will have problem you guys having . Looking forward to it

 

[7acres]

These stoves are meant to have the air closed down until the fire gets lazy, but not smoldering. Try closing it down further for a longer burn.

I was trying to solve the problem of the stove still putting off heat 20 hrs later. Wanted to burn up the load fast so the house would be warmed up but the stove would be cooled down by morning. It worked. But if I risk ruining my stove by burning the stove for several hours at 3/4 air please don't hesitate to point it out.

 

[tarzan]

I was trying to solve the problem of the stove still putting off heat 20 hrs later. Wanted to burn up the load fast so the house would be warmed up but the stove would be cooled down by morning. It worked. But if I risk ruining my stove by burning the stove for several hours at 3/4 air please don't hesitate to point it out.

When I read your post I thought it was a misprint. Surely you meant 3/4 closed.

What are your temps when running the stove that way?

You may be fine but it sure sounds like things would be getting way to hot.

I think the problem would be that although the stove top may or may not show excessive temps you would be sending a ton of heat up the stack.

 

[Ashful]

I was trying to solve the problem of the stove still putting off heat 20 hrs later. Wanted to burn up the load fast so the house would be warmed up but the stove would be cooled down by morning. It worked. But if I risk ruining my stove by burning the stove for several hours at 3/4 air please don't hesitate to point it out.

Do you have a thermometer mounted on the stove top, or other suitable hot spot? Most newer stove manuals will call out the proper location for a magnetic thermometer. Strive to keep it under 700F.

I got some fantastically long burn times with my first F12, when I started. I remember 26 hours, on one occasion. Then I learned I was burning wet wood, and probably was plugging the cat without ever achieving ignition (back before I had a cat thermometer). With dry wood, expect maybe 2.5 - 3.0 hours per cubic foot of firebox, unless you're running a catalytic stove.

 

[7acres]

When I read your post I thought it was a misprint. Surely you meant 3/4 closed.

What are your temps when running the stove that way?

You may be fine but it sure sounds like things would be getting way to hot.

It does get quite warm in the open living space surrounding the stove. Gets up to 78-80F. But we sleep on the end of the house in the master bedroom. Never gets that warm there. Over the night time hours the heat spreads and cancels out the outside temps.

Ultimately what I was going for was for the house to be warm in the morning and the stove to be cold. Don't want to have to run the AC when the Sun comes up because the stove is still cranking out the heat. Also, I'd have to say the air lever was more like 60% open rather than 75% (3/4). Stove Top temps are low 500s when it's been cruising for an hour.

When the bedrooms behind the stove are occupied by the kiddos this technique will not work during shoulder season. It will be too hot. So I got the result I wanted for now. But I'll have to adapt to something different in the future to keep all areas of the house a more even temp. I'm glad I've got the problem of excess free heat to deal with though!

 

[wildlingabovethebridge]

I too am in the same experimental period. I have a 1400' 3br well insulated ranch, and the stove is on the far end of it. Our temps right now are averaging high 20s-30s at night and 40s-50s in the afternoon. I've found that i need to keep the living room (where the stove is) about 73deg to keep the far bedroom about 68. I'm burning birtch right now. The patteren that seems to be working is to start a fire in the moring with 2-3 smaller logs and get the stove up to temp. Then when those burn down to coals I add a bigger log and close the damper about 3/4 to 4/5 closed. This will keep me at the bottom of the burn range (300 ish) for quite a while. After that if it feels like the house is still getting warmer i choke it down all the way, and the coals produce just enough heat to maintain the temp untill my evening fire. The first week i was totally overloading it while learning just how much heat this thing (PE Super 27) can put out. Definately glad I got all this birch as I'm pretty sure my maple and oak would have to stay at a low smolder damn near all the time.

 

[7acres]

I too am in the same experimental period. I have a 1400' 3br well insulated ranch, and the stove is on the far end of it. Our temps right now are averaging high 20s-30s at night and 40s-50s in the afternoon. I've found that i need to keep the living room (where the stove is) about 73deg to keep the far bedroom about 68. I'm burning birtch right now. The patteren that seems to be working is to start a fire in the moring with 2-3 smaller logs and get the stove up to temp. Then when those burn down to coals I add a bigger log and close the damper about 3/4 to 4/5 closed. This will keep me at the bottom of the burn range (300 ish) for quite a while. After that if it feels like the house is still getting warmer i choke it down all the way, and the coals produce just enough heat to maintain the temp untill my evening fire. The first week i was totally overloading it while learning just how much heat this thing (PE Super 27) can put out. Definately glad I got all this birch as I'm pretty sure my maple and oak would have to stay at a low smolder damn near all the time.

Yeah, I feel like I'm just as much on the learning curve figuring out my house as I am figuring out how to burn my stove! But at least I'm having fun and the wife is happy with all of this.

 

[wildlingabovethebridge]

Yeah, I feel like I'm just as much on the learning curve figuring out my house as I am figuring out how to burn my stove! But at least I'm having fun and the wife is happy with all of this.

Yep I know exactly what you mean, learning how much heat the house will store, how the place drafts and convects. The wife and i just got it as a wedding present and its been fun re-learning how our house works!

 

[ColdNH]

I had the same issues, of too hot a stove for too long in shoulder season. I scrounged up 3 cord of pine last year and it works perfectly for this time of year. gets nice and hot but only for a shot amount of time and cools the stove off fast and leaves no embers. Pine is a wood burners secret weapon if used right!

 

[firefighterjake]

It's already been said . . . but hey . . . I might as well contribute something to up my post count so I can get enough posts to win the toaster oven.

-- Smaller fires with smaller loads of wood. No need to fill it to the gills . . . yet.

-- Use your punks, chunks and uglies . . . punky wood, chunks of wood and those twisted, Y-crotched and odd splits that just won't pack in nice and tight. Save the good stuff that will neatly stack up on each other for later in the year.

-- Avoid the urge to reload. Heat up the stove . . . and then let the stove heat up the house by radiating heat off it. The one rookie mistake I made in the first year was listening to the TV weather guesser say it would be a "cold one" with temps in the low 40s and I would load the stove and then re-load it again . . . or even a third time . . . and that made for a very, very hot room.

-- Use your "junk" wood . . . although one could argue that there is no such thing as junk wood. This is the time of year to use your softwood -- I've been burning a whole lot of pine and poplar (along with the aforementioned chunks, punks and uglies.) Get a hot fire . . . heat up the stove . . . and then let the stove heat up the home.

 

[7acres]

It's already been said . . . but hey . . . I might as well contribute something to up my post count so I can get enough posts to win the toaster oven.

-- Smaller fires with smaller loads of wood. No need to fill it to the gills . . . yet.

-- Use your punks, chunks and uglies . . . punky wood, chunks of wood and those twisted, Y-crotched and odd splits that just won't pack in nice and tight. Save the good stuff that will neatly stack up on each other for later in the year.

-- Avoid the urge to reload. Heat up the stove . . . and then let the stove heat up the house by radiating heat off it. The one rookie mistake I made in the first year was listening to the TV weather guesser say it would be a "cold one" with temps in the low 40s and I would load the stove and then re-load it again . . . or even a third time . . . and that made for a very, very hot room.

-- Use your "junk" wood . . . although one could argue that there is no such thing as junk wood. This is the time of year to use your softwood -- I've been burning a whole lot of pine and poplar (along with the aforementioned chunks, punks and uglies.) Get a hot fire . . . heat up the stove . . . and then let the stove heat up the home.

Great advice. You know, I've read that before over the past year. But now that I'm actually burning and not purely in the classroom hearing this again is just what I needed. Thanks for the tips!

"Get a hot fire . . . heat up the stove . . . and then let the stove heat up the home." Makes perfect sense reading it this time!

 

[smokedragon]

But yep, hickory, oak and a fair amount of cedar on the property too

In a very similar climate to you. We burn poplar, yellow pine, and cedar this time of year. They burn faster and put out less BTU per pound. Well seasoned hickory is double the heat output of any of these woods (or more).

Those woods are great for this time of year, and also for kindling a fire.

Also, I open up my stove a little more early in the burn, so that by morning it is ~200 when I check on it.

The first fire with the new IS was like that.....sweltering the next day. We learned our lesson really quick.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

And since it's the start of the shoulder season it was a nice 73 outside but inside (with all the doors and several windows open) it was 78 because the stove was still putting out the heat.

had to smile at that. My den where my stove is located is usually about 90 and the rest of the house in the low to mid 80s. Hoping that comes down a little when it gets colder.

 

[Poindexter]

For moving air around the house start with a cheap box/window type fan like you probably already and own and try pushing cool air across the floor towards your stove.

If that doesn't work, then consider the $$$ fans that fit into the top corners of doorways or cutting whachamacallits into the wall space above your doorways.

It doesn't matter if you push cool air to the stove or suck hot air away from it. Just get a convection current going, that will help.

 

[Charles1981]

1) pack less wood
2) collect soft wood for shoulder season
3) Open some windows and get a fan going the next day
4) Don't burn the stove until it gets colder

When we first got our stove we wanted a fire when it was 40 out as well. Same thing happened.

Our house stays warm enough until the nights start getting down to 32 or below. So we don't even really bother until the freezing temps hit.

We have 10 cords of CSS ash and oak that I order.

But my property has lots of cotton wood on it. I always make sure and take 1-2 down a year. It burns hot and fast relatively and is great for the shoulder season.

 

[tarzan]

Some real good advice here on shoulder season burning but 7acres, unfortunately for you, you may never get to have that draft sucking cold weather for weeks or months at a time that many here are so fortunate to enjoy

 

[Ashful]

For moving air around the house start with a cheap box/window type fan like you probably already and own and try pushing cool air across the floor towards your stove.

If that doesn't work, then consider the $$$ fans that fit into the top corners of doorways or cutting whachamacallits into the wall space above your doorways.

It doesn't matter if you push cool air to the stove or suck hot air away from it. Just get a convection current going, that will help.

You have the right idea here, but I'd put finer points on the details:

1. Most box fans are too large, noisy, and powerful for this application. They're made to move a LOT of air to keep you cool in summer, and for this task you only need to stimulate a little natural convection. In fact, a strong breeze will make you feel colder. The preferred implement here is a 6" or 8" desk fan, running on low speed, sitting on the floor in the coldest area, pointed toward the stove.

2. It does matter whether you move warm or cold air, and although the reasons for this sound very insignificant, they really do seem to make a difference in overall comfort. First, cold air is more dense than warm air, and so your CFM's result in more lb./min. of transfer. Second, and surely more importantly, is that the transoms over your doors impede your attempts to directly move warm air. Forcing cold air along the continuous and uninterrupted floor toward the stove room will push the warm air out of the top of the stove room, by displacement.

There are lots of variables, so no one set of guidelines works for all situations, but these two points are ones we see people discovering over and over.

 

[begreen]

Personally I like a 10-12" table fan because the usually have a nice low speed at which they are whisper silent. Bigger blades move more air silently at low rpms. There are also some good floor fans that work well. This Stanley/Lasko fan is popular for its tip resistance.
http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-High-Velocity-Blower-Fan-655702/dp/B0001BJDUQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1414525273&sr=8-2&keywords=stanley fan
This little Honeywell is perfect.

 

[Ashful]

Yep, but a 10" fan is still only 25% the cross section of a 20" box fan.

 

[turbojoe]

Good read

 

[touchthewindrider]

Just like most here, I am learning how to burn shoulder wood. It took a bit of discipline to NOT fill the fire box to
the gills. The first time I did I had temps soaring to over 1000 YIKES I hustled to get the fire back under
control and was able to reduce the heat in a matter of minutes. But, now I put one, maybe two sticks on at a time.
The stove reaches 600 to 700 degrees and sits there for an hour or so...then I add another stick or two...the stove
radiates heat and the house stays warm.
Working much better!!

Also, I use a small Vornado fan in the door way of a bedroom, blowing out, and it keeps the room very comfortable. On low speed, very quiet.

 

[smokedragon]

The stove reaches 600 to 700 degrees and sits there for an hour or so..

That would run me out during shoulder season. We finally got the glass on our IS clean last night and this morning (dropped to 33 last night). We have been running 400 - 450. Beefed it up to 530 before bed last night and woke to 76 downstairs and 71 upstairs (with yellow pine only).

Maybe I have more control over my stove, but I can't imagine getting my stove that hot on a full load during any season.