So far this season I've been burning 14 month CSS Siberian Elm and misc punkish white oak limb wood rounds. When daytime temps top out in the low 30's and nights bottom out in the mid 20's I began to struggle to keep up with our new Fireview. Really struggling with burning down the coals as I'm trying to push the stove a little harder to keep up. The Sib Elm doesn't hiss or sizzle and the MM shows it's 16% to 18% MC, it lights quick, blazes bright and chars pretty well . . . It also seems to make a lot of ash. With Sib Elm alone we were able to hit 625 stove top maybe 2 times so far. The Fireview should be able to manhandle our 1 1/2 story Cape Cod-ish Farm House at about 1250 SF, Lately the propane furnace has been helping more and more to keep up. Starting to plan the next several winterization/insulation projects on our old house.
Flash forward to Friday low temp of 15 deg F, time for the good stuff, Black Locust, several years dead, 2 years down (leaning), CSS early this November. Wow. Many of the observations I have made and some of the opinions I was forming about my Woodstock Fireview were less than perfectly happy based on Sib Elm burning. After a mere 4 loads of the good high BTU Black Locust I have to scrap what I thought I knew to be fact and file that knowledge under the Burning Siberian Elm Category.
I was beginning to think that BW Savage and many of the other Woodstock enthusiasts must really exaggerate their results compared to what I have been able to accomplish so far. Switching to burn the Black Locust was like taking off the training wheels and letting our Fireview really run for the first time. I had to Open the Cat Bypass and close the air intake to slow the Cat Temp as we briefly touched the 1,350ish temp on the Cat Probe, 700 stove top temp. Even burnt some new paint in places last night. The Black Locust coals burn down throwing as much heat as the S Elm near is peak burn temp, and they vanish when burnt, very little ash. The furnace has kicked on one time while I was seeing if I could cross the 12 hour burn cycle (I made it by the way, but not throwing enough heat for 15 deg outside though). WOW
Flash forward to Friday low temp of 15 deg F, time for the good stuff, Black Locust, several years dead, 2 years down (leaning), CSS early this November. Wow. Many of the observations I have made and some of the opinions I was forming about my Woodstock Fireview were less than perfectly happy based on Sib Elm burning. After a mere 4 loads of the good high BTU Black Locust I have to scrap what I thought I knew to be fact and file that knowledge under the Burning Siberian Elm Category.
I was beginning to think that BW Savage and many of the other Woodstock enthusiasts must really exaggerate their results compared to what I have been able to accomplish so far. Switching to burn the Black Locust was like taking off the training wheels and letting our Fireview really run for the first time. I had to Open the Cat Bypass and close the air intake to slow the Cat Temp as we briefly touched the 1,350ish temp on the Cat Probe, 700 stove top temp. Even burnt some new paint in places last night. The Black Locust coals burn down throwing as much heat as the S Elm near is peak burn temp, and they vanish when burnt, very little ash. The furnace has kicked on one time while I was seeing if I could cross the 12 hour burn cycle (I made it by the way, but not throwing enough heat for 15 deg outside though). WOW