Optimal length for firewood-non fishing, non political

[Old Ironmaker]

As Irish said it is a no no to burn any percentage of softwood in our wood stoves down here. No choice north because that is what they have. I cringe when I see these reality shows from the Yukon and Alaska where they cut down a pine, drag it to the cabin, cut and split it and burn it the next day. They must scrape creosote of the stack every week.

 

SirCranks, you say you have a 66/33 mix of hardwood/softwood. Not good. Very little BTU value from the softwood and the tar content is high. It is cheap for a reason. I was on a sub forum dedicated to wood burning as a heat source (Gardenweb.com) I think they changed the site name. Kind of ridiculous to some as a site dedicated to fishing. The only time softwood might be burned would be Birch as a starter, lower in tar then most softwoods. If split correctly kindling of hardwood should be your starter. It creates the most heat in a short period of time in order to get the stack as hot as possible to support a good draught. Even copious amounts of newspaper with kindling is better than softwood to heat the stack.

 

I went back on that Forum and looked at where the ceiling fan should be turning. Up draught in reverse is recommended as best air distribution for heat flow. Heat rises and it takes less energy to pull hot air up than to blow hot air down. Air distribution is greater in reverse than pushing down against warm air. I looked up and the fans are in reverse. I forgot to have them blow down last spring for AC. Cold dense air is pushed against the walls rises to the ceiling and then falls to the ground. There is even a chart showing the air flow for different construction designs, cathedral ceiling is different than vaulted, flat ceilings have different air flow characteristics. It shows the best positions for fans based on design and size as well as CFM requirements based on ceiling height and room size. Those guys are as nuts as us stressing over hook sizes.

Smitty, you posted 4 minutes before me. So this isn't a rebuttal to your post.

Edited November 14, 2016 by Old Ironmaker

[smitty55]

LOL..we've been at this toooooo long! I had to go back 8.5 years to find this picture!!!

That's so funny. I start all my fires with a blow torch and if they still need a little helping hand to start well I'm not shy with it lol. Hot and fast start is what I'm after.

 

Cheers

[irishfield]

New Napoleon wood stove at camp, at the time, that I finally figured out has to have the first layer placed door to back in 12" logs and then the next layer across it or it won't get the air flow to burn based on the design (that I've since had many "heated" discussions with the designer about, as he was my secretary for our airplane club and works at Napoleon).

 

Lights fine with a bit of crumpled paper and a piece of cardboard.. now that we have it figured out!

[smitty55]

As Irish said it is a no no to burn any percentage of softwood in our wood stoves down here. No choice north because that is what they have. I cringe when I see these reality shows from the Yukon and Alaska where they cut down a pine, drag it to the cabin, cut and split it and burn it the next day. They must scrape creosote of the stack every week.

 

SirCranks, you say you have a 66/33 mix of hardwood/softwood. Not good. Very little BTU value from the softwood and the tar content is high. It is cheap for a reason. I was on a sub forum dedicated to wood burning as a heat source (Gardenweb.com) I think they changed the site name. Kind of ridiculous to some as a site dedicated to fishing. The only time softwood might be burned would be Birch as a starter, lower in tar then most softwoods. If split correctly kindling of hardwood should be your starter. It creates the most heat in a short period of time in order to get the stack as hot as possible to support a good draught. Even copious amounts of newspaper with kindling is better than softwood to heat the stack.

 

I went back on that Forum and looked at where the ceiling fan should be turning. Up draught in reverse is recommended as best air distribution for heat flow. Heat rises and it takes less energy to pull hot air up than to blow hot air down. Air distribution is greater in reverse than pushing down against warm air. I looked up and the fans are in reverse. I forgot to have them blow down last spring for AC. Cold dense air is pushed against the walls rises to the ceiling and then falls to the ground. There is even a chart showing the air flow for different construction designs, cathedral ceiling is different than vaulted, flat ceilings have different air flow characteristics. It shows the best positions for fans based on design and size as well as CFM requirements based on ceiling height and room size. Those guys are as nuts as us stressing over hook sizes.

Smitty, you posted 4 minutes before me. So this isn't a rebuttal to your post.

No prob OI, I didn't take it that way. The bottom line is to move air around, after that they can fiddle around with the last ten percent. That's why I went with a 54" five blade fan rather than a small 40". Plus my two 20" box fans add a whole new dimension to the air dynamics here.

 

Cheers

[Old Ironmaker]

That's the only way to start a charcoal BBQ. Coffee can full of charcoal with holes punched in the bottom once cherry red lift off the can and coals are ready on 2 minutes.

 

Powdered Sulphur, interesting. A Blast Furnace has what is called a Tuyere which is French for nozzle and it is made of cast Copper and water cooled. The Tuyeres could be splashed by liquid Iron and burn resulting in water infusion into the furnace, not good actually very hazardous. The furnace had to be shut down to change out the Tuyere. There could be copious amounts of Hydrogen gas burning outside of the furnace opening. Sometimes we would have to wait until the gas was burnt off and we would try anything to get that Tuyere changed and put the furnace ahead at a lost time of $1000.00 or more a minute, not an hour a minute. We would use steam to snuff out the flame and even tried Nitrogen to displace 02. Never tried Sulphur powder. I think I am going to make a call tomorrow.

 

Smitty I will propose this to the American Institution of Steel and Ironmaking and ask for 1% of lost time savings for each and every steelmaker in the world. We will give Hellen author credit. What do ya say?

[pics]

You can warm the chimney by burning some hand sanitizer as well.. pretty clean flame with no smoke..

[DRIFTER_016]

As Irish said it is a no no to burn any percentage of softwood in our wood stoves down here. No choice north because that is what they have. I cringe when I see these reality shows from the Yukon and Alaska where they cut down a pine, drag it to the cabin, cut and split it and burn it the next day. They must scrape creosote of the stack every week.

 

It's mostly black spruce actually.

There are pockets of birch here and there though.

[Old Ironmaker]

Dave, I grew up a city boy. We had 2 types of trees, Pine trees whos leaves don't fall off and the other kind.