10 Steps to maximum wood burning efficency
1. Burn seasoned wood, as this burns hotter and more efficiently, helps decrease the amount of creosote build up in your stovepipe, and saves you money.
2. Make your fires small and hot. This burns volatile gases more quickly, producing ewer safety hazards and air quality problems than a fire that is over-damped. Smaller, hotter fires mean more frequent loading and tending the stove. 3. Install a stack thermometer on the stove flue. This will help you monitor the temperature of the gases as they leave the stove. Optimum range for most efficiency and least pollution: about 300 to 400°F.
4. Remove excess ashes. Too much can clog your stove’s air-intake vents and cut down on the amount of oxygen needed for wood-burning.
5. Tighten up your house. Insulation, weather stripping, storm windows and caulking can all reduce the amount of wood required to heat your home, which in turn helps decrease the amount of air pollution.
6. Check your chimney stack. Burn your stove at different rates, then go outside and check the emissions. The absence of smoke indicates that your stove is burning cleanly and effectively.
7. Inspect your stove. Once or twice a year, depending on how often it’s used, your entire stove and chimney should be inspected. Look for warping, check the baffle to make sure there are no gaps and check for creosote.
8. Choose the proper size stove. A properly sized wood stove will do its job efficiently even on the coldest days. One that’s too big needs to be damped down, which increases creosote production.
9. Buy the most efficient design you can afford. It’ll pay for itself in the long run. Research has made great strides in designing fireboxes, drafts, catalytic combustors and other devices that improve combustion and reduce smoke.
10. Burn only the fuel your stove was designed for. Don’t burn coal in a wood stove, for example, unless your stove was designed to handle both wood and coal. Rubbish shouldn’t be burned in your stove either. As well as increasing the chance of starting a chimney fire, some plastics and other rubbish emit harmful gases.
2. Make your fires small and hot. This burns volatile gases more quickly, producing ewer safety hazards and air quality problems than a fire that is over-damped. Smaller, hotter fires mean more frequent loading and tending the stove. 3. Install a stack thermometer on the stove flue. This will help you monitor the temperature of the gases as they leave the stove. Optimum range for most efficiency and least pollution: about 300 to 400°F.
4. Remove excess ashes. Too much can clog your stove’s air-intake vents and cut down on the amount of oxygen needed for wood-burning.
5. Tighten up your house. Insulation, weather stripping, storm windows and caulking can all reduce the amount of wood required to heat your home, which in turn helps decrease the amount of air pollution.
6. Check your chimney stack. Burn your stove at different rates, then go outside and check the emissions. The absence of smoke indicates that your stove is burning cleanly and effectively.
7. Inspect your stove. Once or twice a year, depending on how often it’s used, your entire stove and chimney should be inspected. Look for warping, check the baffle to make sure there are no gaps and check for creosote.
8. Choose the proper size stove. A properly sized wood stove will do its job efficiently even on the coldest days. One that’s too big needs to be damped down, which increases creosote production.
9. Buy the most efficient design you can afford. It’ll pay for itself in the long run. Research has made great strides in designing fireboxes, drafts, catalytic combustors and other devices that improve combustion and reduce smoke.
10. Burn only the fuel your stove was designed for. Don’t burn coal in a wood stove, for example, unless your stove was designed to handle both wood and coal. Rubbish shouldn’t be burned in your stove either. As well as increasing the chance of starting a chimney fire, some plastics and other rubbish emit harmful gases.
