Getting to Know my Stove
We've had the super-duper-hyper-efficient wood burning fireplace stove insert for almost a week now, and I'm figuring out all about it. Here, in no particular order, are some of the things I've learned so far:
It puts out a lot of heat. Once it gets going, it will keep the entire house warm with an outside temperature all the way down to about +10F. This week, the weather has not been nearly as cold as it had been, so it has actually been heating the house up to a comfortable 65-70. The main furnace has been running a little, but only a very little (and mainly when we're not home to keep the stove going).
Using really dry firewood makes a big difference. The drier, the better. Stuff which has been sitting outside should sit indoors for a day, so it can dry off. Even stuff which is in the garage tends to be a little damp, and should sit indoors for at least a few hours before burning. Any moisture in the stove cools it down and makes it burn less effectively.
But the good news is that stacking the green firewood indoors makes it season really fast. I'm still waiting for the experiment to finish, but it looks like we can get the equivalent of six months of seasoning in just a couple weeks. This is because the humidity indoors is so low, as is usual in Minnesota in the winter. This means that we will probably be able to use all that green firewood we've stockpiled.
Firewood consumption looks like about 1/2 cord/week, about what I thought it would be. At that rate, we should have just enough to make it through the winter this year, since half the season is already gone. But in future winters, we'd need to stock 10 cords to use maximum wood heat for the entire season. I don't know how practical that is (for starters, where would we put it all?).
Ashes will need to be emptied every few days. This will be an issue. But the fireplace works much better when the ashes are emptied. Ashes are hot when they're removed, and contain a high percentage of coals. I'm trying to screen out the charcoal for re-use after letting the ashes cool, but I don't know how practical that will be over the long term. Still, I hate to see good fuel go to waste.
Once it gets properly heated up, there is literally no smoke visible up the chimney. From the outside, you can't tell that the fireplace is running at all. You might get a little steam shortly after loading new firewood in, but even that tends to be just a little (and is minimized if you let the wood sit inside before loading it).
The heat from the fireplace actually gets fairly well distributed around the house. We haven't felt the need to run the furnace blower yet. It helps that the fireplace is located in a big room which is open to about half the volume of the house. There are only a few rooms which don't get much heat.
It runs for 3-4 hours on a load of firewood if you let it burn all the way down. But usually you want to put new wood in every hour or so, just to keep it running as hot as possible. The first stage of burning (when the hot wood releases gasses, before it becomes charcoal) doesn't burn as hot or efficiently as the charcoal stage, but it burns a lot faster, allowing more heat to make it into the house. Also, stirring up the coals every hour or so helps keep it hotter.
So far the verdict is: I'm happy. We're dramatically reducing--almost eliminating--our gas heat usage, and saving probably hundreds of bucks a month. Cutting, splitting, and hauling all that firewood isn't for everyone, but I don't mind since it is great exercise and we're saving money big-time.