Fight Back With Sticks & Cones Oxygen Question

[max2cam]

Okay, so I'm fighting back against OPEC and $100 bbl oil with my summer wood-fired water heater that I burn sticks, cones, and crap-wood in. It works GREAT and I have cut my propane useage by 50% or more!

Out in the woods working I had the following notions and question and wonder what the answer is.

When you burn wood in any form the fire is fed by oxygen from the air, right?

Oxygen is FREE, right?

The smaller the wood is split the more surface area it has, and thus the more oxygen can get into the blaze and increase its size and intensity, right?

The question is this: If I'm burning finely divided fuel like dry sticks, branches, cones, and small chunks of wood to heat water, thereby getting a quick huge blast of heat am I obtaining FREE fuel and/or more BTUs because of all the excess oxygen I'm drawing into my sticks & cones fire?

It seems like it. Such fires don't last long (unless you re-fuel), but they are very hot and intense, seemingly out of proportion to the paltry amount of fuel you put into them.

We all know how wildly a bonfire of dry brush and branches burn. If you are like me, you regret seeing fuel being wasted as you clean up your cutting site and burn the waste. I have solved that problem and am clipping up all branches and even trees like balsam that I would normally pass up I'm chunking into 2-3" short blocks which then hand-splitting them into smaller chunks which is absurdly easy with very little effort. This is all going into a separate woodshed for wood-fired water-heater use for next summer and subsequent years.

Fight back!

 

[wmscott]

No, you are not getting free heat, in fact excess air will cool your fire, heating your chimney instead of your fire box. You only want as much air in the fire as you need to burn the fuel. The excess air that you don't need is being heated by your fire and taking the heat with it up and out your chimney.

That said, cutting wood or coal into smaller pieces increases the burn rate and heat and can result in a cleaner burn with better %. Short hot fires are better and cleaner than long cold ones that will soot up your chimney. I burn sticks, sawdust, and keep a paper bag next to the trash for all paper trash that I burn also. Evey piece of junk mail is free BTUs, too bad I can't burn spam! Then I wouldn't even need to cut wood.

 

[max2cam]

No, you are not getting free heat, in fact excess air will cool your fire, heating your chimney instead of your fire box. You only want as much air in the fire as you need to burn the fuel. The excess air that you don't need is being heated by your fire and taking the heat with it up and out your chimney.

That said, cutting wood or coal into smaller pieces increases the burn rate and heat and can result in a cleaner burn with better %. Short hot fires are better and cleaner than long cold ones that will soot up your chimney. I burn sticks, sawdust, and keep a paper bag next to the trash for all paper trash that I burn also. Evey piece of junk mail is free BTUs, too bad I can't burn spam! Then I wouldn't even need to cut wood.

Thanks for the reply and welcome to the forum.

"Excess" air was the perhaps the wrong way to express it because I'm not getting cooler fires, but FAST INTENSE BLAST fires. Maybe "extra" oxygen would be better.

I still maintain that the immense hot blast of a stick fire gains extra benefit from the rapid rate at which FREE oxygen is sucked into the combustion chamber and thus provides greater energy (BTUs) not only because of the fast burn rate, but because of the extra FREE oxygen being introduced into the blaze.

IOW: why is a stick fire so rapid with perfect combustion? Is it because of the greater amount of FREE oxygen being consumed? How much "extra" effect does the FREE oxygen contribute?

If so, then oxygen might also be considered a fuel, and a FREE one at that!

I'm with you in burning "junk mail" etc. although I wish there was a law forbidding the use of coated glossy paper and staples.

Bought a few gallons of gas yesterday and the cost was $34 for $9 worth of gas!

Fight back with wood!

 

[mga]

Okay, so I'm fighting back against OPEC

well, in reality, we only depend on OPEC for about 20% of our oil. the rest is domestic.

conserving energy, altho a wise thing to do, is also like chasing your tail. the more we conserve, the more they will raise the prices to maintain the operating costs they have. when was the last time an energy supplier laid people off due to low demand of their product?

 

[Another Bucker]

Okay, so I'm fighting back against OPEC

well, in reality, we only depend on OPEC for about 20% of our oil. the rest is domestic.

conserving energy, altho a wise thing to do, is also like chasing your tail. the more we conserve, the more they will raise the prices to maintain the operating costs they have. when was the last time an energy supplier laid people off due to low demand of their product?

Just wondering about supply and demand. I think when/if oil stays at the high prices its been, that the communist countries that have been subsidizing oil for their people will have no choice but to make their people pay fair market value for oil, and then they will have a reason to conserve thus lowering world demand and prices. just my .02

 

[max2cam]

Okay, so I'm fighting back against OPEC

well, in reality, we only depend on OPEC for about 20% of our oil. the rest is domestic.

conserving energy, altho a wise thing to do, is also like chasing your tail. the more we conserve, the more they will raise the prices to maintain the operating costs they have. when was the last time an energy supplier laid people off due to low demand of their product?

It doesn't work just that way.

The USA uses some 25% of the world's oil altho we are only some 5% of the world's population. IOW we use LOTS of gas and oil.

If the American people conserved in a meaningful way there would be an instant GLUT and SURPLUS of oil on the world market and prices would have to come down.

That said, much of the near $100 bbl oil is due to American commodity traders (speculators) from Brooklyn who buy and sell futures contracts without ever taking possession of the actual oil. They have been using every trick in the book based on daily news reports: i.e. "Turmoil in mideast," "refinery capacity," "storm in gulf," "vacation time," "trouble in Nigeria," "Iran is evil," etc. etc. to DRIVE prices UP and UP and UP!

Every DROP of oil or gas we do NOT use is fighting back against these evil SOBs!

BTT: So if I inject MAXIMUM FREE oxygen into a stick fire am I getting FREE extra energy as a result?

It sure seems that way and there sure is a lot of waste wood lying around to heat water which is a HUGE energy user.

FIGHT BACK!

 

[max2cam]

Gosh, I just had an inspiration!

Maybe I should put a solar-powered air-injecting fan on my outdoor water heater and make a BLAST FURNACE out of it!!!

FIGHT BACK!

 

[wmscott]

Actually your boost in efficiency isn't due to extra oxygen, it is due to the extra heat, you need higher temperatures to burn the 'smoke', the cresol that otherwise goes up and out your chimney unburned. They say that burning the cresol can increase your efficiency by 40%.