Re: Do you burn wood?

Posted by Billy NY on January 07, 2014 at 12:04:49 from (72.226.79.200):

In Reply to: Do you burn wood? posted by Ultradog MN on January 07, 2014 at 09:35:07:

I'd be curious about the particulate matter, air quality is important for good health, especially those with respiratory ailments, and those who don't have these problems yet, but will (younger people, still in the "invincible stage").

Its reasonable to say that burning wood is not the cleanest method of creating heat for ones home or elsewhere, its also reasonable to say that not everyone conforms to standards that make the combustion process as clean as it can be. Its plainly obvious to me, that your wood must be well seasoned and have as low of a moisture content that is possible, which will provide the most btu's out of what you burn. Dry wood certainly does not create a lot of smoke or visible by products, it would be interesting to see an analysis of the gaseous effluent coming out of ones chimney, under varying conditions, types of wood etc. Take it to the next level, wood gasification, not as simple or as cheap as a regular wood stove, but I'd certainly want to do that here, I have a nice supply of wood surrounding my home, its a resource that should be utilized, as efficiently as possible.

Some people do not manage a firebox well, don't use seasoned wood or how many variants thereof, seems a lot of the outside wood boilers are or in the past were tended by people who would toss anything in there, and smoke areas out, that would be highly annoying as a neighbor. I have someone nearby that burns garbage, it is the most annoying smoke, during nice weather, or when you are able to sit outside or have windows open, another burns coal, its nasty, reeks like heck and its always bad when there is no air moving, but still warm enough to be outside and or have windows open, people don't get it, so theres always someone going to be miffed at someone elses fire. I try to ignore it, but if I know who it is, I try and explain it, one neighbor agreed, and its much better, they still burn, but not the smoldering and annoying smoke like it was.

A few years back, I was doing some work in my fathers house at the other place, during winter, getting used to the fireplace insert air tight stove. The woodshed is attached to the den or family room and the split wood was seasoned for years, as it had not been used too often for a number of years. Wood burns very clean, maple, ash, apple, elm, black cherry, and ignites instantly on a bed of coals, you could damper it down, and limit the oxygen and really control the fire, heated the area quite well, stack shows some vapor when real cold, smoke on a cold start up, but effectively as efficient as you can get, that wood was super dry. When he moved in there, later he'd fire up that stove and would choke it off too much, the darned smoke would get into and around the barns and it was so darned annoying. You have to let enough oxygen in, and you have to leave enough opening in the damper, maintain a certain flame with what you are burning. This was like I said, the driest wood you could have, so you could dial it in so it burns longer, but without choking it, that's the part he does not get, he thinks choking it right off, and the longer smolder is getting max heat, I disagree, lower flue temp equals more creosote as well. I am sure he's not the only one out there smoldering the stove.

I sometimes have wood with some moisture,not green, but say at the bottom of my single stacks, not on the ground, I lay runners down. Other times a tarp will blow off or, what was quite dry gets wet, most will dry before I burn it as I can haul a cord inside if I need to, right near the stove to dry down. You'll get a little sizzle for a little while, I'll try and mix drier wood with it, and adjust the fire accordingly, check the stack, flame and its clear once that flame is right. My set up just does not create much creosote, no matter how use it. Only the top 2 flue tiles get any coating, lower is gray soot color, I keep my flue temperatures up, not over fired, but hot enough to not have any problems. I just inspected the flue, it has not changed, and I've burned 2/3 of a cord (size of my single stacks) of elm that was cut and split at the end of September, started that stack about a month ago, some sizzle at times, mostly not, single stack up on this hill dried down well in a short time, the rest is exactly one year seasoned. I will be starting on next years shortly. 6" pipe leads to a 8x12 flue. I check the stack frequently, its mostly vapor, though I can see black soot at times, and or blueish smoke at start up, once up and going the only visible gas is vapor, when the fire is hot and its cold, like 20 deg F or lower. One of the things that makes a lot of this soot is bark, much of the elm I burn is debarked as it falls off, and or I do clean it to eliminate places for bark beetles to live that spread the D.E.D. fungus. Burn that bark in a burn barrel and its plainly clear where a lot of soot comes from, and yes its paper dry when I burn it, I cover the pile til I can burn it.

I agree that for example with global warming, something is changing, is it man made or is it not, that is the question. If man made and it has consequences, then we should be doing something about it, as best and as feasible as can be done. Same with these wood burning devices, appliances and or what have you. You go back and look at the pollution, I posted some old rail footage years back from the nearby city, those olde coal fired locos and even the diesel ones created quite a bit, the buildings, where people lived nearby, were all subject to this, we've come a long way since. I'd lean towards, G. Carlins humorous take on enviro nuts, "Save the Earth...." his take was that the earth has been fixing itself for a very long time, but to be completely ignorant of what we do, is foolish, all things said, EPA can't come down like a dictator, but wouldn't all appreciate cleaner air, done reasonably and with commons sense, not politically motivated fervor or some corrupt self serving agenda that some group lobby's for ?

Replies:

• Re: Do you burn wood? B-maniac 13:01:45 01/07/14 (0)

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