Congrats on going up the learning curve with great wood. Well done!
Too hot a house when burning their BK?
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Well, last night and this morning, I did hot loads into the stove, only did a full temp. initial hot burn for about 12 min's instead of the 20 to 25 min. burn, and I have to say that it is so, so much better in my house. Dramatic improvement. Also, the wood burns better because it's not a glowing fire dying down, but a milder glowing fire, heating up for most of the burn to catch up to the thermostat setting. In this way, it seems to not leave unburnt chunks of wood off to the sides after burning down to coals. And, I'm not just opening a door for an hour until it cools down a bit. I am only opening a door for the initial hot burn, then able to close it.
I measured the moisture on a piece of wood that I had in my woodbox, next to my stove for a day or two. And, it's at 12% moisture. That's very dry and I'm burning a softwood (Douglas Fir) so I would assume that if I had a hardwood that took longer to burn and heat up, that I would need that longer hot burn. In comparison, I'm probably doing the same thing, kind of, but with wood that gets hotter quicker and burns quicker.
So far, my cat thermometer needle stays within the thick white bar area, around the 9:30 o'clock position. If I did it the old way with a longer hot burn, it would get up to around the 11 o'clock position, outside of the thick white bar area, and be blazing hot, and take a long time to cool down and be comfortable in my living room.
I measured the moisture on a piece of wood that I had in my woodbox, next to my stove for a day or two. And, it's at 12% moisture. That's very dry and I'm burning a softwood (Douglas Fir) so I would assume that if I had a hardwood that took longer to burn and heat up, that I would need that longer hot burn. In comparison, I'm probably doing the same thing, kind of, but with wood that gets hotter quicker and burns quicker.
So far, my cat thermometer needle stays within the thick white bar area, around the 9:30 o'clock position. If I did it the old way with a longer hot burn, it would get up to around the 11 o'clock position, outside of the thick white bar area, and be blazing hot, and take a long time to cool down and be comfortable in my living room.
By all means sweep extra often in the beginning until you become confident about how little junk is accumulating in your flue. It doesn’t cost anything or hurt anything.
The probe flue thermometer along with a working catalyst and dry wood really make creosote a non issue for most. Yes, more accumulation than a wasteful noncat that pukes tons of heat up the stack but annual sweeps should be plenty.
I think you will be well served by extra sweepings to build confidence.
Been doing that since the stove got installed early 2020. Chimney is doing fine, I have a double-walled one all the way to the top. About 20' in length. I try to clean it annually, but last year sort of forgot about it. Cleaned it a few weeks ago and only got two handfuls of dry creosote.
I'm mostly burning dry southern pine. That's been sitting covered for 2 years plus, and is about as dry as it gets. I haven't measured lately but IIRC the last time was somewhere in the 15-18% range.
