I have a wood burner and not a masonry heater (wish I did). I found a couple of years ago how well pine cones work. Also, I learned from you guys to start my wood burner from the top down. Cuts way down on the smoke.
when burning birchbark it has a black oil in the bark which sometime causing a stickiness on the inside walls of the chimney .. If you go outside and make a small fire and than throw some large pieces of birch bark on the fire you will see the thick black smoke.
Got a few pine trees (with cones in a few years) that WERE grown for Christmas trees that never got sold as seedlings. Got them on discount and they've been in for 5 years and are now nearly 7 foot tall. They are selectively bred especially to be the perfect straight tree. I think I paid less than 50 cents each...
IN RUSSIA they DO take like 36 hours of near continuous burning for the house to come up to temperature. I'm talking PROPER russian winters in buildings with no insulation though....
this top down burn method is negligible at best in producing less initial smoke . the distance between having the starter on the bottom or top is only about 30 cm . this is not enough to make a substantial difference in pre heating the flue. i have a two ton finnish soapstone oven and stack it bottom up which works just fine. to avoid initial flue smoke i stack my starter ,light it and in less than tens seconds toss two or three bigger chunks on top . that pretty much eliminates and possibility of smoke in the room . i wait until the fire is really sucking air ,which is about thirty seconds to a minute and then add two or three more logs . The top down method does work but it's not some kind of revelation .
How do you go about building your own masonry heater and yet get the insurance company to buy off on it? Do the same rules apply to masonry heaters as to wood stoves in terms of clearance to combustibles, venting, etc? I think masonry heaters are the way to go and the more heat you can extract from your fuel the better. But with a wood stove you can give the insurance company a brand name and a model number to work off of. Just wondering because I would love to build a new house in a few years and having a masonry heater would be ideal.
Heat is not the only consideration; ambiance counts. So what if someone WANTS to enjoy a fire burning throughout the day? it would seem this masonry heater is NOT the way to go for THIS purpose.... true?
You can burn as much as you like with the masonry heater, but it's going to get very warm in the house. Hot, quick burns are clean and efficient, that long, slow, aesthetic burn you're talking about in a conventional fireplace will make a lot of smoke and particulate pollution, waste 90% of the heat up the chimney, and due to the fact that you cannot close the damper until the fire is completely out means that your efficiency goes into the negative numbers overnight.
Buy a fake fireplace if watching flames is that important. There are many realistic ones commercially available that give the show without wasting resources. Thomas makes good sense.
As the name says, masonry heater is a heater in the first place. When the fire's OUT, the heat is ON. A conventional fireplace is the way to go if you want ambience, but most of the heat goes up to the skies. Whereas a good masonry heater is still warm on the outer surface up to 24 hours.
I have a wood burner and not a masonry heater (wish I did). I found a couple of years ago how well pine cones work. Also, I learned from you guys to start my wood burner from the top down. Cuts way down on the smoke.
Love the timber frame home as well as the masonry stove!
when burning birchbark it has a black oil in the bark which sometime causing a stickiness on the inside walls of the chimney .. If you go outside and make a small fire and than throw some large pieces of birch bark on the fire you will see the thick black smoke.
Got a few pine trees (with cones in a few years) that WERE grown for Christmas trees that never got sold as seedlings. Got them on discount and they've been in for 5 years and are now nearly 7 foot tall. They are selectively bred especially to be the perfect straight tree. I think I paid less than 50 cents each...
Would you recommend starting a fire from the top of the wood in an airtight stove too or would that not work?
IN RUSSIA they DO take like 36 hours of near continuous burning for the house to come up to temperature. I'm talking PROPER russian winters in buildings with no insulation though....
this top down burn method is negligible at best in producing less initial smoke .
the distance between having the starter on the bottom or top is only about 30 cm . this is not enough to make a substantial difference in pre heating the flue. i have a two ton finnish soapstone oven and stack it bottom up which works just fine. to avoid initial flue smoke i stack my starter ,light it and in less than tens seconds toss two or three bigger chunks on top . that pretty much eliminates and possibility of smoke in the room .
i wait until the fire is really sucking air ,which is about thirty seconds to a minute and then add two or three more logs . The top down method does work but it's not some kind of revelation .
How do you go about building your own masonry heater and yet get the insurance company to buy off on it? Do the same rules apply to masonry heaters as to wood stoves in terms of clearance to combustibles, venting, etc? I think masonry heaters are the way to go and the more heat you can extract from your fuel the better. But with a wood stove you can give the insurance company a brand name and a model number to work off of. Just wondering because I would love to build a new house in a few years and having a masonry heater would be ideal.
Tanks.. Verry interesting.
I KNO
How about the actual fire?
IDK PLAY MINECRAFT
The title is wrong. It should read as follows - How to Determine the Moisture Content of Firewood.
I AGREE WITH YOU
Heat is not the only consideration; ambiance counts. So what if someone WANTS to enjoy a fire burning throughout the day? it would seem this masonry heater is NOT the way to go for THIS purpose.... true?
You can burn as much as you like with the masonry heater, but it's going to get very warm in the house. Hot, quick burns are clean and efficient, that long, slow, aesthetic burn you're talking about in a conventional fireplace will make a lot of smoke and particulate pollution, waste 90% of the heat up the chimney, and due to the fact that you cannot close the damper until the fire is completely out means that your efficiency goes into the negative numbers overnight.
Buy a fake fireplace if watching flames is that important. There are many realistic ones commercially available that give the show without wasting resources. Thomas makes good sense.
As the name says, masonry heater is a heater in the first place. When the fire's OUT, the heat is ON. A conventional fireplace is the way to go if you want ambience, but most of the heat goes up to the skies. Whereas a good masonry heater is still warm on the outer surface up to 24 hours.
😂
Another minute and a half watching the fire catch would've been instructive.
Ready. . .set. . .notta.
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