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Old 03-26-2022, 01:29 PM   #11
SailinAway
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DickR View Post
There is a wealth of information on this forum: http://www.hearth.com/talk/
where there are subforums for all kinds of things related to burning wood. Do a search on starting a fire and read through the opinions and experience. You'll see discussions of "top-down" vs "bottom-up" starting. I never had luck with top-down, which likely means I wasn't building the starting pile properly. But I always get a bottom-up pile going well, so that's what I use.

As others do, I scrounge all my wood, cutting, splitting, stacking,etc. For starting purposes, I also scrounge dry blowdown stuff from the woods, after a lengthy dry period, collecting multiple boxes of kindling ranging in size from spaghetti to perhaps an inch. I also save a box of paper-thin birch bark when I see it lying around or peel it off any birch logs I cut up.

My stove is small, too; it will take a 16" piece "north-south," and a little longer diagonally if the split width isn't too big. When I split rounds, I like to get a variety of widths, so that I'll have smaller pieces for starting. So what I do is to place a couple of pieces maybe thumb-width N-S, a couple of smaller pieces across that, fill inside with small strips of birch or other easily kindled stuff, then build up with progressively larger kindling and finally some not-too-big splits. Before lighting, I have to be sure the clothes dryer and range hood are not running. The house is very tight. I do have an insulated directly-connected outside air duct to the bottom rear of the stove, but anything exhausting air from the house will cause backdrafting when I try to light the fire. I usually leave the stove door ajar for a short interval to enhance the startup burn. Once the flue is full of hot flue gas, and the draft well-established, I can close the stove door and let the dryer or range hood be used; the stove will pull air through the outside connection.

I don't fill the firebox with a lot of wood, even after the burn is well-established. I don't burn for primary heat; we use the stove to warm up the lower level in the evening for watching TV. We could turn up the thermostat for that zone, but we like to watch the fire. It must be leftover cave-man DNA still in us. If we burned for primary heat, our use of the stove might well be different.

The comments on proper seasoning of wood are right. Some hardwoods, especially oak, take at least a couple of years to dry to under about 19-20% moisture content, and that's stacked under cover, not getting rained on regularly, and open at the sides for airflow. On hearth.com you'll see threads on stacking and drying. You can buy a moisture meter, which you can press into the face of a freshly-split piece to get a readout on water content.

Split wood from a vendor that is advertised as "seasoned" may be anything. Back in early 2011, we had been using our supply of dry wood for heating both the cottage and the new house (before the new heating system was installed). We nearly ran out of wood, so I had a load of "seasoned" wood delivered. Around a third was dry and burned well. Another third was so-so, but would burn if mixed with wood that was dry. The rest - well, any wetter and I could have taken a bath in it; I set it aside to dry for a couple of years.

One other thought: be sure to run the stove sufficiently hot so that the glass on the door stays clear during the burn. You should be able to wipe any soot from the inside of the glass the next day, using just a scrap of dampened paper towel. If you get creosote blackening the glass, and it's not easily removed, you aren't running the stove hot enough, which may mean the wood is too wet. If creosote is darkening the door glass, it also is depositing on the inside of the chimney over time, and that could lead to a fire down the road if not cleaned regularly.
Dick, thank you for this detailed reply. I see you have the same challenge as I do with the size of your stove. I guess loading diagonally is the only solution. I use "bottom up" loading in the sense that I start by placing two larger logs in the bottom. I find that that creates 3" or so of air space at the bottom. Otherwise, the pile of kindling tends to collapse and smother the fire. I never knew a clothes dryer could create a draft! I open a window on the theory that it will improve both draft and air quality. My chimney is probably a bit short, and it's on the down side of a hill.
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