Bobforsaken said:
You can only achieve a secondary burn up until the point when the wood has finished outgassing. After that, all that is left is charcoal. Charcoal burns without smoke, so no gases are evolved to feed a secondary burn.
What is a secondary burn?
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You can only achieve a secondary burn up until the point when the wood has finished outgassing. After that, all that is left is charcoal. Charcoal burns without smoke, so no gases are evolved to feed a secondary burn.
It takes practice to get the wood load and air dialed in right. Next fire, once the fire is going well and the wood is starting to char, close the air about 3/4's closed and see how she burns then. If the fire starts to smolder, open the air up to maybe 50%, but if the fire has been going well enough, it should kick into secondary burn. Depending on the load of wood, the light show only lasts about 30-90 minutes, but is is beautiful while it lasts. After that you are burning charcoal.
Two things are going to change radically as you learn to burn. As the temps outside decrease, the draft is going to increase. That means that by winter you will be closing the air supply down more, possibly all the way closed, (though you can't close off the air supply 100% on an EPA stove). The other thing that will change is when you switch to hardwood burning. As long as the wood is well seasoned, the stove will get hotter and the coals will last much longer.
Two things are going to change radically as you learn to burn. As the temps outside decrease, the draft is going to increase. That means that by winter you will be closing the air supply down more, possibly all the way closed, (though you can't close off the air supply 100% on an EPA stove). The other thing that will change is when you switch to hardwood burning. As long as the wood is well seasoned, the stove will get hotter and the coals will last much longer.
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