Burn times in various OWB's

[Johnny Ringo]

cb 6048 once a day. aspen will hold me over unless it gets below -10 with daytime highs in single digits. If its colder than that I have to throw in the good stuff. Haven't seen the -20 to -30 stuff yet. I don't think I'll get away with once a day then. 3600 sqare foot ranch

 

[forcedintoit]

I am only heating 1200 square foot house and hot water but I must have a freak stove, my heatmor will go 24 hrs at least. The temps are in the teens havent had single digits yet but I am so happy with the stove, Heatmor is a great stove. What am I doing differently to get more burn times.

 

[woodlumn]

Heatmor 100 CSS: I load once in the morning and once before bed. our house is a 1932 renovation and we still have not yet insulated the exterior walls or curtains, so there's plenty more tightening to go. we're also using the Heatmor to heat the water. the heating system is a between-joist radiant floor heat (thick wood floors, too). house has been comfy thus far, with some nights in the teens. last winter was good too, but we didn't have ceilings or trim/moulding and had some gaps in the floor so it was a little colder then!

love the furnace, though. burning all free wood this year...lots of poplar and pine, and a good amount of oak and other hard woods.

 

[stdydub]

Hardy H-2 heating 3000 sq.ft. of a drafty house, twice daily when its cold, once when its not. so many factors though for load times... im burning all green oak for the last couple weeks, gotta say its doin real good in the hardy, better than i thought it would..

 

[jcappe]

Woodmaster 4400

I load my Woodmaster 4400 twice a day, about twelve hours apart. I don't fill it all the way just enough to get 12 hrs. I'm heating a 4,000 sq house. When temps are somewhat mild 20-30 degrees it still has the bigger chunks intact and I can get by with only loading it once if I have too, this morning was right around 0 degrees I didn't have anything but red coals. Wind is my demon, I don't have anything to block my OWB from the wind and I can definately tell when it is really windy.

 

[cleanburn]

I have a Heatmor as well. Size 400, I'm heating about 3600 square feet, 900 square feet to 55F (Garage) and the rest to about 78F and now its -10F outside wind chill here is -40F today

Still only fill it twice a day though using pine

 

[NC4AB]

I load my Hardy H2 once a day, currently using beetle eaten pine (saving the hardwood for when it gets cold). I'm heating a very well insulated 2,000 sq house, the main load that I have right now is heating the domestic hot water.

 

[KH-1958]

I have a Woodmaster 4400 and I have been averaging 12 hours between fills, but I have not been filling the box completely full. In fact tonight it looks like I could go 18-24 hours when completely filled. I am happy with the wood usage and I am heating 2500 sq ft. We don't like it real warm but it is definately saving money. I am also burning ash exclusivley (it's free)

 

[oneoldbanjo]

Woodmaster 4400

I tend the fire in the morning before I leave for work and at night before I go to bed. I never put in more wood than I need to get to the next session and so far this winter we are very mild. I have a 2,100 square foot house and 1,800 square foot garage and both are made out of styrofoam SIPS panels and it is very well insulated. When the weather in in the 30's to 40's I only need to put about a wheelbarrow of wood in twice a day. I have been burning lots of 36" long limbs and branches to clear out a pile and it burns up really quickly but makes a very thick bed of coals that burns for a long time. Larger wood seems to burn intact and does not make nearly as many coals. When I go away for a long time I pack as much 8" diameter wood in as I can get, and then pack as many small limbs and little pieces as I can fit in the OWB and then turn the heat down in the house to 55 and turn the garage heat off. I have been able to leave town on a Thursday morning and come back on Sunday and hot have to add any wood until Monday (4 days). For normal operation I could add enough wood to last 2 days if I packed the OWB each time - but I believe I get a cleaner burn and more efficient operation if I only put enough wood in to last 12 hours.

 

[Laird]

Hawken 1100 here. Have 2500 sq ft. Keep the house at 72-74. DHW and garage heater to keep uninsulated garage at 45-50. I load every 12 hours and burn a real mix of wood. Burn time would certainly improve if I insulated my garage. I load it full every evening and somewhat less during the day. Always have a couple logs left and lots of coals.

 

[beerman6]

Wind is my demon, I don't have anything to block my OWB from the wind and I can definately tell when it is really windy.

yep,yesterday filled mine at 4am,when I got home at 6pm nothing but coals,still had good temps and had to add wood at 8:30.The wind was really bad yesterday.

 

[Tracker83]

I average 24 hours between fillups with my Pacific Western model 2. The first and last month of heating I can get away with 48 hour fillups. This is heating an 1800 sq.ft. house @73F, 900 sq.ft. garage @55F, and DHW.

 

[fourapples]

I have a Heatsource1 mid sized OWB, heat an 1800 sq ft farmhouse, domestic water, and shop. Home insulation is above average. I put in a half load 2 times a day. An improvement in my second year was covered wood storage rack (6.5 cord capacity) with lighting that is close by. The lights give good back lighting much better than the glaring light on stove front for early morning and evening fills. I previously used 2 indoor free standing stoves for 25 years. Had a Craft Stove in home and Ohioan in the shop.

 

[AIM]

How many posts will it take for people to get honest? We have gotten a few honest posts but in my opinion alot of bs about burn times. I'm new to this site but not new to OWB's. 2 days? 3? even 18 hours at 30 or so degrees. It just doesn't happen unless on the rare occasion your burning PERFECTLY seasoned locust or hickory. And then 24 hours is a stretch...
Locust won't even smolder that long unless you have a burn chamber the size of a cargo van.

 

[porta mill]

owb burn times

Why would you think people are not honest about there burn times I don't think everyone is lieing about there burn time . I personally am heating a 1500 sq foot house and all my domestic hot water. and my dad's new double wide and his domestic hot water on two to three wheel barels of a mix of pine and hard wood some dry and alot of green wood and I know if I pushed it I could get 30 plus hours out of one fill

 

[oneoldbanjo]

AIM:

I have been completely honest in my post. I only build small fires in my OWB to promote clean burning and as little wood use as possible and I rebuild the fire and rake the coals every 12-16 hours. Today I raked the coals and added wood at 6:00 AM, and tonight I have a meeting and will probably not be home until about 10:00. I have a good bed of coals on the left side of the firebox and about 7 limbs that are 36" long and 2-6" in diameter - that will keep my house, DHW and garage warm until I get home tonight. It is currently 31 degrees and we are expected to have a high of 35 today. I have posted a picture of the way I load my OWB for a 12 hour burn in 30 degree weather.

If I were to completely load up my Woodmaster 4400 with a mixture of seasoned wood in this kind of weather - I could probably get 2 full days of burning time (if I were to rake the coals and get them all burned up). I have found that when I load it full the coal bed gets really thick and there is lots of unburned energy laying in the bottom of the OWB. I therefore only put a small amount of wood in on one side and rake the coals to the other so they can both burn simultaneously. My wood stack that I am burning right now is comprised of limbs and I want to get it burned up before spring/summer arrives as I want my yard back. These limbs came from the power company clearing the right of way and although they are a little more work than the big rounds - they were free heat. They tend to burn quickly and then collapse and make a really thick coal bed - unlike the large rounds which tend to burn without dropping the coals until they get very small. I have found that by burning them on one side and exposing the coals on the other side I can reduce the amount of unburned coals trapped in the ash layer.

When I am traveling and want to really long burn in the OWB I will turn up the thermostat in the house and garage and build up the temperature in the house and garage before we leave. We will be leaving this Friday for a week and I will get the garage which is normally about 50 up to 65 degrees and I will get the house which is normally 68 up to the middle 70 degrees. Then when we leave I will turn all the heat off in the garage but leave the circulating pump running to keep the underground lines from freezing, and I will turn the Domestic Hot Water heater off, and I will turn the thermostat in the house down to 55 degrees. This will put no heat load on the OWB for at least a couple of days and the OWB will only be running to keep itself warm. I will choose rounds that are about 8" - 12" round and 36" long and very straight so that I can pack them very tightly in the OWB. When I have those loaded I will add all the small stuff that I can fit over/under/between the large rounds and get as much wood as I can into the OWB. When I load the OWB I try to make sure it is as warm as possible before I do the full load so that a lot of the wood is not wasted on warming the water up - but I do like it to burn atleast a partial cycle so that I know the wood is burning and the OWB will be able to operate in the smolder mode for a while. I will ask a neighbor to come over and tend my fire while I am gone.....but he should not have to add wood for several days.

Lastly - I have to attribute my potential long burn times on having a new house made out of SIPS panels. It is very well insulated and all the panels are caulked and taped when assembled so there are not drafts in the building. The performance R value of the walls is R-38 and the roof is R-50 as a result of the Stryofoam insulation and absence of numerous wood studs that can lose heat to the outside wall. When our house was under costruction and before we had the furnace in we had a 1,500 Watt heater in the basement and when it was 20 degrees outside it could keep the house at 50 degrees. If we turn the heat off we only lose about 4 degrees in a 12 hour period. When I get the heat up to 74 in the house and then turn the thermostat down to 55 we could potentially go for 57 hours before the house ever calls for heat from the OWB.

I know that most people with normal construction and normal insulation could never expect to get the kind of burn times and low wood use that I get. My wife and I built this house in an attempt be "green" and to thumb our noses at the utility companies - we do not want to give our retirement money to the big Utility Companies to finance sports stadiums and keep their executive yaughts well maintaned.

 

[HEAVY FUEL]

:agree2:

 

[pipe welder]

To AIM you ask for honesty, I will try the best I can but first know that what you read on her is just someone's opinion and ever situation is different. There seems to be a lot of fans of the OWB here. Every time I say something negative about them somebody is offended. Well here it is from my point of view, first I am 62 years old so I am different than someone 30 years old, from my point it is a tree eating monster with an insatiable appetite. It works me to death trying to feed it and I feel like I have become a slave to the machine. This past week has been cold and windy but I swear I have burned an honest cord of wood and yes I know how to measure a cord. Never in my life have I spent so much money for an appliance that I have been so disgusted and disappointed with. There is no way in h**l I am going to go through another winter with this OWB. I have not tried coal in it yet but I am going to. I simply refuse to cut 3 times as much wood as should be needed. Am presently shopping for an inside wood coal boiler and I will sell the monster for whatever I can get.

 

[Dan-o]

burn times

I have a shaver 165, and heat a 2,400 Sq ft Farm house with 2 furnances powered by the OWB and our DHW.
Our house sits in the middle of 2 open fields, and the OWB sits in the open as well. I fill the OWB at 6 am and my wife gets home at 4:00 and throws on 3-4 logs and then i fill it again at 10pm. Using mostly junk wood, some maple and pine. We keep the house at 70-72*, the house isn't insulated that well, (working on that) so I average about 8-10 hours between loading when the wind is blowing and the temps are down.

 

[AIM]

The word HONEST probably wasn't the best choice of words. I truly meant no offense to anyone.

I talked to ALOT of people before building my OWB about theirs and what their opinions etc was on the OWB that they have. The longest burn time that anybody claimed and stuck to was 24 hours while heating their house and that was ONE guy out of I'd bet 20 that I talked to.
A few of the people I talked to admitted to not even knowing how much wood they burned due to tossing in wood every time they walked by it. Everyone else was 2 to 3 loadings a day. Most were "heavy load in morning/ a few pieces mid day/ heavy load at night". I had a few wanna tell me the 24 hour thing but after a little coaxing I got em admit that it was during 40 plus degree weather. colder than that and it was 2 to 3 a day.

Kinda like smoking. You don't even realize how many cigs in a day unless ya really sit down and count.