More fiddling = less wood consumption.

[Marley5]

I've read on here before that loading your OWB for long burn times equates to more wood consumption.
Made sense but wasn't sure to what degree.

Well I'm retired now and constantly playing with the boiler, raking coals in a pile, just adding a dab of wood here and there, letting coals burn way down.

I believe ya'll now. Lol
I dare say I'm burning 30% less wood just tending it more, more like harassing the boiler.

Walls stay much cleaner also simply because boiler never has a chance to drop below *175.

Gotta head back out to the boiler.

 

[svk]

My indoor boiler operates most efficiently when I keep it fed to the halfway level. Like you said if it burns way down then it needs to run at full blast to get back to temp. Then the bottom wood in the middle of the boiler burns through and the sides and top are still there.

 

[babybart]

The more the Mrs. fiddles with it the more wood she gets.

 

[sirbuildalot]

I've read on here before that loading your OWB for long burn times equates to more wood consumption.
Made sense but wasn't sure to what degree.

Well I'm retired now and constantly playing with the boiler, raking coals in a pile, just adding a dab of wood here and there, letting coals burn way down.

I believe ya'll now. Lol
I dare say I'm burning 30% less wood just tending it more, more like harassing the boiler.

Walls stay much cleaner also simply because boiler never has a chance to drop below *175.

Gotta head back out to the boiler.

I've often wondered this myself. I'm not retired, but on the weekends I am typically home, and can load a piece or two every 2-3 hours vs fill it full and leave for work during the week, then 10-12 hours alter do the same. Kind of sucks, you never get to enjoy the best heat output, because your not home, and you're constantly choking the stove to get longer burns.

But the question remains, which burns less wood? Certainly loading it with less wood more often creates a more uniform heat and provides less chance of overheating. For the house, it's inhabitants and the stove, instead of getting all the heat the first few-several hours and then lingering coals.

I wonder how many people that work and don't have anyone home to load the stove during the day leave there stoves running all the time vs restart it each evening when they get home.

 

[Del_]

The same is true of indoor freestanding hot air stoves. The difference being the rapid heat a free-standing stove can make. By refilling but not filling to the max on top of a bed of coals our Jotul f600 CB will instantly jump into secondary combustion mode, its highest efficiency mode.

 

[Marley5]

I wonder how many people that work and don't have anyone home to load the stove during the day leave there stoves running all the time vs restart it each evening when they get home.

On my OWB " CB5036 " I build (1) fire per year, never goes out.
The problem was that I worked 14hrs a day with travel.
Come home and see stove temps in the 140's which consumes quite a bit of wood to get back up to desired *185.

My verdict is simply this:
Those big recovery fires are producing more heat than the internal surface can absorb to heat the water.
AND producing more heat than the pump can effectively transfer......we now have waste.

 

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

On my OWB " CB5036 " I build (1) fire per year, never goes out.
The problem was that I worked 14hrs a day with travel.
Come home and see stove temps in the 140's which consumes quite a bit of wood to get back up to desired *185.

My verdict is simply this:
Those big recovery fires are producing more heat than the internal surface can absorb to heat the water.
AND producing more heat than the pump can effectively transfer......we now have waste.

I'm surprised OWB don't have a stack temp sensor that over rides the blower if it senses that it's blowing most of it's heat out the stack instead of absorbing it...

 

[NSMaple1]

I'm surprised OWB don't have a stack temp sensor that over rides the blower if it senses that it's blowing most of it's heat out the stack instead of absorbing it...

That's the big catch-22 with ordinary water jacket boilers. Need to try to burn as hot as you can to burn efficient, which usually means throwing lots of air at it, but that sends too much heat out the pipe because of very poor heat transfer efficiency. Turn the air down, and the fire isn't burning very hot & most of the heat potential goes up the pipe in unburned smoke & nasties & stuff. With a water cooled firebox, it's kind of behind an 8 ball right off the bat.

 

[Marshy]

Glad I don't have these issues with my Froling.
With my Froling and storage system you just load the boiler based on the storage tank temp and the boiler goes full steam ahead and always burns out. The fan will dial back as the storage tank is nearing full heat capacity but if you've loaded only what you need then the wood is into the coaling phase by then so it doesnt need a lot of air anyways and it's already gassed out so there is minimal secondary combustion taking place. When it's operating in peak output the amount of air isnt much more than a free standing stove from what I can tell. The exhaust gas temperature can reach 400-425 during peak operation.

 

[svk]

I noticed this as well. When you shove the boiler plumb full and then leave it smolder there’s a lot more creosote build up versus keeping a modest tended fire going all day.

 

[husqvarna257]

With my CB 1450 gasifacation boiler I do notice less creosote if I keep the wood level down and not filling it up, good bed of coals and a piece or 2 of charred wood works well. I get over 12 hour burns with no problem. I have had it running since October with one "FO" alarm. CB calls that a fire out, I call it something else. That was my bad, I forgot to load it in the morning but I was able to open it stir the ash and get coals to revive it. I tend it twice per day and that works the best for me.

 

[svk]

With my CB 1450 gasifacation boiler I do notice less creosote if I keep the wood level down and not filling it up, good bed of coals and a piece or 2 of charred wood works well. I get over 12 hour burns with no problem. I have had it running since October with one "FO" alarm. CB calls that a fire out, I call it something else. That was my bad, I forgot to load it in the morning but I was able to open it stir the ash and get coals to revive it. I tend it twice per day and that works the best for me.

That’s cool. 12 hour burns are unheard of for me but granted I’m using an indoor boiler and would assume yours is outside?

 

[rancher2]

I run a Garn so you load it and it burns full out and puts the heat into storage. Before I retired from my town job I would try to load it as much as I could to get the water temp just under boiling when the burn was done to get as much time out of the storage as I could as I would normally be gone 14 to 15 hours a day at work. Since I am around more and just farming. I burn more smaller loads of wood and keep the max temp of the water after the burn cycle to 190 max instead of 205 or 210 like I used to run. Seems like I am using less wood running it this way.

 

[Mustang71]

I've often wondered this myself. I'm not retired, but on the weekends I am typically home, and can load a piece or two every 2-3 hours vs fill it full and leave for work during the week, then 10-12 hours alter do the same. Kind of sucks, you never get to enjoy the best heat output, because your not home, and you're constantly choking the stove to get longer burns.

But the question remains, which burns less wood? Certainly loading it with less wood more often creates a more uniform heat and provides less chance of overheating. For the house, it's inhabitants and the stove, instead of getting all the heat the first few-several hours and then lingering coals.

I wonder how many people that work and don't have anyone home to load the stove during the day leave there stoves running all the time vs restart it each evening when they get home.

That's me restart it every night. On the weekends it never goes out and it doesnt use much more wood than it does when I restart it every night. I try to burn pallet wood to get the stove and chimney temp up fast before I load any logs into it. It's still an hour from lighting to good heat output. Then you have to run it hard, since there are minimal coals, to get those logs burning.

 

[husqvarna257]

That’s cool. 12 hour burns are unheard of for me but granted I’m using an indoor boiler and would assume yours is outside?

Yea an OWB. I just couldn't see where I would have an indoor boiler and get wood into the basement easily. Owb fires up at a water temp of 174* and cuts out at 185*. The circulator runs a loop into the basement and pex tube runs the whole length so the basement stays around 73*. I use a heat exchanger to separate the boiler from the house.

 

[stumpy75]

When you're fiddling, you saw the bow a lot, and that tends to warm you up. Therefore, you use less wood!

 

[Marley5]

When you're fiddling, you saw the bow a lot, and that tends to warm you up. Therefore, you use less wood!

Makes sense to me being I'm from fiddle country. Lol