Good morning everyone,
I thought you fellow wood burners might be interested in my setup. I use it to heat our 3300 square foot house. We have 2×6 walls with spray foam so it's well insulated. I burn about 3 cords a year. Probably would be 4-5 if I stayed home and heated exclusively with wood.
I run a Yukon Big Jack add on furnace. I know lots of people think they are smoke dragons but hear me out. I think they have a bad rap because people use them with wet wood and throttle them back too much. Here's how I run mine.
I start a small fire in between the two pieces of wood on the grate with fatwood and splitter scraps. Then I stack the rest of the wood in the firebox. Leaving the door open I make sure it gets going at a pretty good clip. I close the door and open the inducer flap to about half with the secondary air full open. Then I monitor the temp on the face of the furnace and pipe with an infrared thermometer. I watch for pipe temp to get to around 550° F. Then I start throttling back inducer air. I watch for front temp to get over 400°. Then I know secondary combustion is happening. I keep throttling down secondary to stabilize the face temp around 415° and pipe temp around 475°. I might have to cut back secondary a bit as well to keep it in the temp range I like. I do all this while I get ready in the morning. I keep the thermometer in my pocket to remind me. I usually get it to stable in 3-4 checks.
The key to making this work is properly seasoned wood and the thermometer. I get a 4-5 hour burn on half ash and aspen that I'm burning now. I switch to ash and maple in late December to February. With a full load of sugar maple I can get to the 7-8 hour burn time. When it gets real cold (below 0) for extended times I'll switch to anthracite coal. Costs the same as running propane but it feels like a wood fire.
Here's some pictures.
The setup
Face temp
Flue temp
Duct temp
Getting it started
Not bad
Coal fire
Hope this helps someone get a furnace like this burning as efficiently as possible.
Have good day,
Lee
I thought you fellow wood burners might be interested in my setup. I use it to heat our 3300 square foot house. We have 2×6 walls with spray foam so it's well insulated. I burn about 3 cords a year. Probably would be 4-5 if I stayed home and heated exclusively with wood.
I run a Yukon Big Jack add on furnace. I know lots of people think they are smoke dragons but hear me out. I think they have a bad rap because people use them with wet wood and throttle them back too much. Here's how I run mine.
I start a small fire in between the two pieces of wood on the grate with fatwood and splitter scraps. Then I stack the rest of the wood in the firebox. Leaving the door open I make sure it gets going at a pretty good clip. I close the door and open the inducer flap to about half with the secondary air full open. Then I monitor the temp on the face of the furnace and pipe with an infrared thermometer. I watch for pipe temp to get to around 550° F. Then I start throttling back inducer air. I watch for front temp to get over 400°. Then I know secondary combustion is happening. I keep throttling down secondary to stabilize the face temp around 415° and pipe temp around 475°. I might have to cut back secondary a bit as well to keep it in the temp range I like. I do all this while I get ready in the morning. I keep the thermometer in my pocket to remind me. I usually get it to stable in 3-4 checks.
The key to making this work is properly seasoned wood and the thermometer. I get a 4-5 hour burn on half ash and aspen that I'm burning now. I switch to ash and maple in late December to February. With a full load of sugar maple I can get to the 7-8 hour burn time. When it gets real cold (below 0) for extended times I'll switch to anthracite coal. Costs the same as running propane but it feels like a wood fire.
Here's some pictures.
The setup
Face temp
Flue temp
Duct temp
Getting it started
Not bad
Coal fire
Hope this helps someone get a furnace like this burning as efficiently as possible.
Have good day,
Lee
