Does your stove gobble up more wood than my fireplace?

[brenndatomu]

I carry my wood into the house with two of those $10 black "canvas" firewood carriers that TSC and everybody else sells. Packed as full as I can make them, with 22" long splits/rounds, will last me average of 24 hrs.

 

[mga]

I think the worst part is all that flame requires a huge voume of air and the fireplace is using the air in the room that you just heated to burn more and it sends it right up the chimney. It's like 3 steps forward and two back just trying to get the house up to temp.

I have qa fire roaring away right now. It is throwing out a ton of heat but within a few minutes I'll be adding more wood.
On the bright side I always have a clean chimney.

I will get an insert so some day when I leave for work at 5:15 am I can add some wood to the stove, shut it down and it will keep working for hours after that and when I get home at 4:30 pm I will have something to work with and the house won't be cold.

that's true, but that's where efficiency comes into play: when your wood burner can keep up with the air it's using to burn.

an i deal way would be to draw air from the outside to feed the fire, that way your home would not have negative air pressure.

 

[zogger]

that's true, but that's where efficiency comes into play: when your wood burner can keep up with the air it's using to burn.

an i deal way would be to draw air from the outside to feed the fire, that way your home would not have negative air pressure.

A lot have that feature. Look for rated for mobile homes. They will have an inlet you plumb to the outside.

When I was working on my first superinsulated retrofit, thats the stove that was installed. It needed an air intake, the house was too tight to draw well with a normal stove without opening a window, which defeated the purpose of dropping energy demands.

The house stayed fresh either way, surprisingly so, just going in and out caused such a low o air that it worked pretty good.

With that said, the more sophisticated way to have clean air in the home it is to use a planned air intake with a heat exchanger exhaust pre heating the air coming in. Pulled through a hepa filter is usually added . House stays cleaner and warmer with more fresh air. Drafty houses let in air, just the air is filtered if you want to call it that through wall cracks and window and door cracks with old dust cooties mouse droppings, insulation fibers, dirt and assorted nasty what nots. An actual planned unit is much cleaner.

This is more an european concept, I dont think it is common at all in the US, but it sure makes sense.

 

[mga]

A lot have that feature. Look for rated for mobile homes. They will have an inlet you plumb to the outside.

When I was working on my first superinsulated retrofit, thats the stove that was installed. It needed an air intake, the house was too tight to draw well with a normal stove without opening a window, which defeated the purpose of dropping energy demands.

The house stayed fresh either way, surprisingly so, just going in and out caused such a low o air that it worked pretty good.

With that said, the more sophisticated way to have clean air in the home it is to use a planned air intake with a heat exchanger exhaust pre heating the air coming in. Pulled through a hepa filter is usually added . House stays cleaner and warmer with more fresh air. Drafty houses let in air, just the air is filtered if you want to call it that through wall cracks and window and door cracks with old dust cooties mouse droppings, insulation fibers, dirt and assorted nasty what nots. An actual planned unit is much cleaner.

This is more an european concept, I dont think it is common at all in the US, but it sure makes sense.

as i said above, i have some thing similar to this, except my blower is on the outside:

what i did was i ran a 4" flex from the input (cold) side, then ran that into the basement and then ran it to the furthest room in the house (master bedroom) then i went up into a wall and cut two openings and put vents in there. about half way in the basement i attached a blower motor ( i used one from a high efficiency furnace)

this sucks the air from the bed room and into that heat unit thing.

as the logs sit there and burn, they heat those pipes up and the air coming out is usually around 180+ degrees...some times even into the 200's when it gets really hot. it's a nice little feature, but they don't make mine any more. it's much better than the one pictured....had it for like 25 years.

my theory was to pull the colder house air from that room, creating a negative air pressure. that, in turn will naturally draw the warm air from the room where the fireplace is down into the bedroom.

i gotta pat myself on the back....the damn thing works perfectly!

i'd like to find a way to draw outside air directly into the fireplace, but so far i haven't found a logical way to do it without destroying the bricks on the floor. and the metal box inside is really thick, so i don't want to go cutting that.

i was wondering if i ran 2" pipe down the chimney and did it that way...always thinking is not good.

 

[rmount]

I have a Pacific Energy woodstove and find that two good armfuls will do me 24 hours. My splits range from about 3" to 6", I put in 5 big ones for overnight then 2 or 3 pieces a couple of times during the day.

 

[turnkey4099]

Never heard of those so had to google it up. Pretty interesting design.

I burn as much as you most likely, a wheelbarrow full a day, little more mid season, lot less beginning and end of season, and way more primo wood in mid season, and very little primo wood at the ends or shoulders..

Really varies a lot though, and proly could get by with one quarter what I burn now with an airtight stove and better insulated cabin.

Ive heated with fireplaces three times now, and my folks had one, so thats four..When you can afford it, go to an insert or free standing heater. There is just no way to get the same burn from an open fireplace. Some are better than others, and your grate looks cool, and I guess gives a decent improvement, but...facts is facts. An enclosed controlled burn is just more efficient and will give you more usable heat with less fuel.

If I was buying my wood or had to travel and jump through hoops to get the wood, Id be double timing it on figuring out an alternative to the open jobbers.

Definition of fireplace:

A well designed method of wasting wood.

Harry K

 

[zogger]

as i said above, i have some thing similar to this, except my blower is on the outside:

what i did was i ran a 4" flex from the input (cold) side, then ran that into the basement and then ran it to the furthest room in the house (master bedroom) then i went up into a wall and cut two openings and put vents in there. about half way in the basement i attached a blower motor ( i used one from a high efficiency furnace)

this sucks the air from the bed room and into that heat unit thing.

as the logs sit there and burn, they heat those pipes up and the air coming out is usually around 180+ degrees...some times even into the 200's when it gets really hot. it's a nice little feature, but they don't make mine any more. it's much better than the one pictured....had it for like 25 years.

my theory was to pull the colder house air from that room, creating a negative air pressure. that, in turn will naturally draw the warm air from the room where the fireplace is down into the bedroom.

i gotta pat myself on the back....the damn thing works perfectly!

i'd like to find a way to draw outside air directly into the fireplace, but so far i haven't found a logical way to do it without destroying the bricks on the floor. and the metal box inside is really thick, so i don't want to go cutting that.

i was wondering if i ran 2" pipe down the chimney and did it that way...always thinking is not good.

Air intake down the chimney...

voice mode = Al, on tool time

....I dont think so, Tim...

Besides that, your other cobjob seems slick!

 

[stihly dan]

I think outside air down the chimney is genious. Air burns better hot. Most quality stoves preheat the air before its burnt. This way the wasted heat up the chimney is reused a bit. I would rep ya for that idea, but you aint gat no stah.

 

[Ayatollah]

I think outside air down the chimney is genious. Air burns better hot. Most quality stoves preheat the air before its burnt. This way the wasted heat up the chimney is reused a bit. I would rep ya for that idea, but you aint gat no stah.

Might do ok for a short run, but in a long one you'd have a bit of a struggle, especially so on lighting. And then when it gets hot, you'd have a period when the draw argues over whether to go up with the heat, or down wiith the draw...if there was draw.

 

[stihly dan]

Nah, cold air falls, and as the smoke heats up and out it will pull the air down. The air will never be hotter than the flue leaving the stove.

 

[sunfish]

A standard wheel barrow load of splits last us a week. 1200 sq foot and a Jotul 118CB.

 

[sunfish]

A standard wheel barrow load of splits last us a week. 1200 sq foot and a Jotul 118CB.

I recalculated, 3 wheel barrow loads last me two weeks when it's Cold. 1.5 per week...

 

[Fred Wright]

Open fireplaces are better suited for ambience than for heating. They tend to pull warm air from the living area and send it up the flue. I've known many folks who had fireplaces in their homes; they use them rarely, if at all.

In my view they're obsolete and a waste of construction money. I don't understand why they're still being built. They pollute and are a PITA to clean. Want the ambience of a fireplace? Save that money and put in a flue with thimble for a glass door stove.

We have an airtight freestanding burner, goes through roughly 11 - 15 splits over the course of 16 hours, depending on how cold it gets outside. When the house is warm, the stove is in low gear, open damper. A split burns for about an hour before we have to put in another. It heats this 1,300 sf house quite well.