How Do You Place Your Wood

[s37d]

I've been trying to decide on how to stack wood in my stove. I'm relatively new to wood burning, only had the stove 3 years now. It's a good size stove in a medium sized room, so in an attempt to save wood, I've only been stacking the back half. I'll get a good fire going, then push all the coals to the back half, and stack either 1 huge piece or 2 smaller ones right up to the top of the stove. I push it to the back because the fan is in the back so the heat stays closer to it. I've been purposely only using the back half of the stove to save wood. Sometimes it doesn't burn long enough, though, and I come down in the morning and it's a bit cool. When I burn an entire stove full of wood, though, it seems to stay warmer longer. I say seems because it's hard to be sure since I burn many different types of hardwood, a mixed batch in terms of both density and moisture content.

Here's where it gets scientific, for lack of a better word. With the damper fully closed, like it usually is when we slow burn, it's burning from the bottom up. The coals ignite the wood touching them and that wood turns to coals, burning the wood from bottom to top until it is gone. If this is the case, then wouldn't adding more wood to the coal-less unoccupied front half of the stove just make it a hotter fire due to more wood being burned at the same time, but not increase it's duration since it's not becoming part of the vertical stack on the coals? Or, is adding more wood beside the coals going to increase the duration of the burn since when they ignite, there will be less air for the other wood above the coals in the back of the stove, forcing it all to burn slower and therefore longer? Or does it both increase heat output and burn duration? I know it's wood and it's impossible to make it an exact science due to so many variances, just trying to get it as precise as possible so I can get the most out of my wood supply and not create more heat than is necessary to heat the area.

 

[mizzou]

Curious about some of this also. I usually fill it all the way since I heat a fairly large area. I load the front on a small fire though.

 

[shelbythedog]

My Quadra-Fire loads North-South and burns front to back. Fill her to the top at night or when going to work. If I'm around the house and only want a small, hot fire I will put 2 pieces N-S with a space in between, and add another piece on top of those diagonally. Time to reload, rake the coals out of the back and spread flat, throw wood right on top.

 

[thepheniox]

Read the stove manual. It will tell you how to properly run your stove. Most burn from the front to the back.

 

[ratso]

I criss cross my wood like building a house of cards. I mix softwood with hardwood.

 

[greendohn]

i used to split my wood into square "blocks",,like a big thick bibles and load as many of 'em in the stove as i could.. stack 'em in the stove and left with very little air space in the stove. it seems when splitting the wood into "triangles" i couldn't get as much wood in the stove.

 

[aaronmach1]

i usually just put my wood in lentgh wise front to back. Is it important to have any air space between the logs?

 

[Jules083]

i usually just put my wood in lentgh wise front to back. Is it important to have any air space between the logs?

If there's air space my furnace burns hotter, and uses more wood. Tightly packed the fire last longer but doesn't put out as much heat. It depends on the situation. Sometimes I'll throw a short piece in diaginally to give it room to breath better, but before bed I normally pack it pretty tight so it burns all night.

 

[aaronmach1]

If there's air space my furnace burns hotter, and uses more wood. Tightly packed the fire last longer but doesn't put out as much heat. It depends on the situation. Sometimes I'll throw a short piece in diaginally to give it room to breath better, but before bed I normally pack it pretty tight so it burns all night.

this helped last night for a longer burn. Packed full and tight and closed down the ash drawer damper and 3/4 closed the flue damper.

 

[Chris-PA]

The Magnolia is slightly deeper than it is wide, so 3 logs go in end-on to the door at the bottom, and I put three more shorter pieces perpendicular to them on the top. That's to light a new fire, or if there is a bed of coals. If there are a lot of coals, I rake them into the center and then they displace the bottom center log and I put one on either side, plus the ones on top.

With it stopped down properly there is still more air at the front due to the door glass air wash, but most of the air is coming in from above out of the secondary combustion manifold. You don't want air blowing through the logs, that just burns up wood fast. You want hot coals gasifying the wood and then have that burn over the logs when mixed with the secondary air. The fire should be happening above the logs

Same with a fireplace BTW - get rid of those stupid log holders that let the air flow up through the logs and burn them up fast, and build the fire right on the hearth. Then you can get hot coals underneath that make some actual heat and last a lot longer.

 

[kentuckydiesel]

On any good stove, you can get a healthy coal bed going (3+" deep, covering the whole bottom of the stove), load the stove as tight as you can, then use the air control settings to manage the rate of burn/heat output.

Trying to build a small fire inside your stove is really just a waste of your time (and likely is using more wood).

-Phillip