Night Loading For Add On Wb

[LANNY]

What kind of burn time do you guys get with your add on wood furnaces?
How do you set the damper and the firebox spinner at night? Really would like to spend the whole night in bed, but can't seem to , and when the propane furnace comes on I really can't stand that sucking sound from our bank account......thanks,Lanny:monkey:

 

[jbighump]

the add on in my sig gets me a good 12 hrs if i load it full when i have a good fire goin. the other night i loaded it at 8pm with a good helping of oak cherry and some ash with the draft control open about an 1/4", (no spinner) and at 7 am it was still full of hot coals and some small flames, and not to mention 71 degrees in the house. all i have to do is throw some scrap 2x4's and a log in and im back in buisness. i have the oilburner set at 65 and i havent heard it kick on in a week. i think alot of it has to do with the good hardwoods and a well insulated house. By the way my stove is about 10 years old and by no means as efficent as a new one.

 

[whiting-5]

i wish i could stay in bed all night got to take care of biz though. it will go all night but not when its real cold . were you at in tn.?

 

[laynes69]

I load up with locust at night. I open the spin damper on our ashpan door all the way. When the surface temp hits around 400 I will close the damper down to 1 or 1 1/2 turns. I load at 9:00pm and by 5:30am, there are at least 4 to 5 inches of coals burning. The house stays warm. The only time we run the furnace is when its below zero. Even then, it only runs a few times maybe. With cherry and ash mixed, I have just enough coals to restart the fire in the morning. I find large splits, or rounds work best. We have a large old house, but very good insulation. Makes a huge difference. After the fire dies down it could take an hour or more for the temps to drop. We have our central furnace set for 68. Woke up this morning at 5:30. The house was 72, outside was under 10 degrees. I could get a longer burntime, but I don't want a chimney fire so I burn hot.

 

[jbighump]

:agree2:
i think the well insulated house makes a hell of a difference. when i do run the oil furnace it only runs a couple of times during the night even when it is single digits.

 

[carvinmark]

What kind of burn time do you guys get with your add on wood furnaces?
How do you set the damper and the firebox spinner at night? Really would like to spend the whole night in bed, but can't seem to , and when the propane furnace comes on I really can't stand that sucking sound from our bank account......thanks,Lanny:monkey:

I feel your pain. Try it up here where it's even colder. I can't sleep more than 3-4 hours straight (back problems) so it works great for me, gives me something to do in the middle of the night.
Longest burn time I have had was about 8 hours with mostly White Oak but usually I can go for around 5 hours burning Beech. I shut down the intake and leave the damper slightly open.

 

[LANNY]

owb

I thought mine wasn't airtight any more, so I closed the spinner and damped it way down yesterday, the fire went out from a full burn. Now I know it works right, man, there is a lot to running those things well. Do you guys split your wood big or small? I go small to get the fire started and sort of mix the load after,not rocket science? it must be. Lanny

 

[vwboomer]

I always see people saying they load it up, or stuff it full. Yet they rarely mention how much wood they put it which is crucial IMO. So, say you 'load it up' with a 10" log quartered - how many quarters do you put it? How many sticks of what diameter wood?

Last night at 12:15 I put 1 8" log, and 2 6" logs onto a very hot coal bed and went to bed. Up at 8 and theres still some heat coming off and a decent bed for restarting. 65 when I went to bed, 62 when I got up.

My old unit is most definitely not air tight. There are several small gaps around the front plate.

 

[LANNY]

firebox load

To load for my longest burns, I put in a couple of large splits, barely go in the door, then some smaller logs maybe 6". Then fill with various splits to pretty much go up to the baffle. But I do load mostly away from the door , in the back of the box. My wood comes from various sources, sons, me , etc and some is shorter than I like to cut it, would I do better if I filled the firebox all the way to the door? Lanny

 

[powerstroke73L]

What add-on are all of you guys burning? I've got an ESW 28-3500.

 

[LANNY]

Owb

Us Stove Hotblast 1537g

 

[skid row]

Jensen woodfurnace burns for 8 hours on a load of seasoned white oak.

That's about the norm for the past 15 years of use.

 

[jbighump]

johnson energy systems j 9000 largest model at the time 10-12 hrs on oak cherry ash mix. it also holds a 28" log so i usually stack 2 deep because i dont want to lift a round that is 28" long
:lifter:

 

[LANNY]

add on

Anybody given any thought to putting these things on a duct system of their own? You know, less ducts and better airflow. Seems like now the air has too many ducts to go thru.

 

[powerstroke73L]

Anybody given any thought to putting these things on a duct system of their own? You know, less ducts and better airflow. Seems like now the air has too many ducts to go thru.

I don't really know what you mean? My furnace connects at the plenum that sits on top of the furnace. The hot air then travels along the main trunk line which runs parallel to the center girder of the house. All ducts for individual rooms run perpendicular off of that to the various rooms. How much simpler could it be?

 

[LANNY]

Well the furnace adds on to the regular propane powered furnace/ac system. The add on connects to that duct system. The main system is much more powerful than the add on's blowers. When the add on blows through this large duct system there are lots of long duct take offs, as my house is long, with an addition on the west end. The main furnace does a good job of heating all this, as it was designed to. Now comes the twin 550 cfm blowers. The air doesnt seem to make it to the ends of these runs when the add on blows. I was just thinking a shorter run of duct with less takeoffs, as well as no backflow at all would work better, maybe I'm wrong.I also disconnect the add on in the summer, wouldn't have to do that...Lanny

 

[powerstroke73L]

Well the furnace adds on to the regular propane powered furnace/ac system. The add on connects to that duct system. The main system is much more powerful than the add on's blowers. When the add on blows through this large duct system there are lots of long duct take offs, as my house is long, with an addition on the west end. The main furnace does a good job of heating all this, as it was designed to. Now comes the twin 550 cfm blowers. The air doesnt seem to make it to the ends of these runs when the add on blows. I was just thinking a shorter run of duct with less takeoffs, as well as no backflow at all would work better, maybe I'm wrong.I also disconnect the add on in the summer, wouldn't have to do that...Lanny

I see what you're saying. I can run my furnace blower without actually running the furnace so essentially the add-on blower (850 CFM) is just working to feed the hot air into the plenum. Then it gets pushed by the furnace blower-I don't know what the rating on that is but I do know that the motor and fan is twice the size of the add-on blower. My house is about 40 feet long and I get a nice powerful breeze out of the vents on the far end with the furnace blower running.

 

[kyle1!]

Just for my FYI. How do you hook up the main furnance blower to run without kicking on the propane? Looking to add an add on wood furnance this fall. Thanks

Brian

 

[havenodog]

all nite burn times

Lanny
It depends alot on the type of wood you are burning. Maple of any kind I can't get all night (8hrs) Locust, black cherry, red oak, horn beam(iron wood) all of these will get you longer burn times if they are seasoned well.
my formula:
seasoned wood (the denser the better) + good draft + air tightness + firebox size = length of burn times
Not scientific by any stretch of things but it seems to work.

 

[carvinmark]

Just for my FYI. How do you hook up the main furnance blower to run without kicking on the propane? Looking to add an add on wood furnance this fall. Thanks

Brian

Your main furnace has a thermostat in the plenum that tells the fan to run when it gets warm enough in the plenum. No propane is required for this to happen, just electricity and heat. My house works this way, kind of hard to regulate the temp so we open windows(nice to have fresh air). I'm sure you could wire in an additional thermostat that would help regulate but that's over my head.