Wood Burning Stoves for Beginners!

In the last episode we looked at what was involved with the installation of our wood burning stove. Today we’re looking at day-to-day running of a wood burner. Everything from wood management through to lighting the fire, emissions, why it’s carbon neutral and much more.

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Wood Burner Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
0:55 - Carbon neutral?
2:50 - Wood management
7:05 - Moisture content
8:05 - Setting a fire
16:35 - Heat longevity
17:55 - Cleaning the glass
18:40 - Fire problems
20:00 - PM2.5 emissions
29:50 - Running costs
35:35 - More information

#Fire #Stove #WoodBurner

[sarahallenhumboldt]

Love the way you acknowledged and spoke to your curious kitten; good man.

[PurpleCollarLife]

Thanks for the video. Here in northwest PA (USA) - we don’t need to re-plant trees. The forest naturally repopulates. We don’t cut down any living trees unless they’re a threat to our house or other buildings. We only cut standing dead trees, or trees that fell over in a storm. That gives us more than enough wood to use in our wood burner to heat for the winter months. We’ve done several videos about heating our house with firewood harvested just from standing dead trees or fallen trees on our property.

[slobberdownifyouwant]

When you test the moisture of the wood you should always put the prongs following the grain not across and always on a fresh split of timber. You should also leave ash in the fire as wood likes a good insulating bed and stays warmer for longer

[fionagardner]

We have oil fired central heating, but as soon as the thermostat switches off, the heat soon dissipates, so I installed three wood burners around the house, all on the ground floor, they all burn long and hard, that in turn heats the fabric of the house and the house is warm for the next twenty four hours without any form of heater running. love them.

[pauldevlin]

Scandinavian method of top down burning was a real game changer for me. I tend to start with big logs on bottom, then medium size logs, then kindling. I have a slightly smaller stove than that but once I light it, thanks to the Scandinavian method I don’t have to tend to it again for at least an hour and a half

[melclark]

I have one of these Wiking mini2 woodburning stoves and I am really pleased with it. One modification I did to the stove was to add a small extension lever to the air control so that it protrudes below the door. This allows me to see which position the control is set to, and also to adjust it with my foot which saves me bending down. The renovation video is great, good craftsmanship.

[MG]

Excellent video. Thanks for sharing the REAL information and not the garbage the media spew out. Regards. 🔥🔥

[buggsy]

When I was growing up, our family heated a two story 4 bedroom house with wood - mostly fir because that is what grew on the property. To get heat to the bedrooms upstairs, there was a moderate sized heat register near the top of the stairs. Even during periods of -10 degrees F, no one ever was cold. We did burn a fair amount of wood, probably between 6 and 8 cords a year. It would have been far less, but the house had no insulation in the attic or walls - a house built in the 1930s or 1940s from a Montgomery Ward mail order kit.

I heat my 2000 square foot 3 BR house with about 2 cords of Maple/Ash per year. The woods is always well seasoned, since I have plenty of room to let it sit for two years before burning. It gets a bit cool in the bedroom at the end of the hall, but a air circulating fan keeps the temperature around 60 degrees F or above during sleeping time.

[asilver]

Just cleaned my grimy glass oven door with wood ash on damp cloth. Better and quicker than anything else, easy, sparkly, safe with no chemical residue. Thanks for reminding me of old forgotten cleaning method.

[adrianhoneybill]

When the wood is saw into lengths it is also important to split into quarters. Increasing the surface area increases the reduction of water content. Use of a moisture content meter is so useful Valiant have a good moisture content gauge. Hardwoods, such as ash, birch, oak, apple and pear are good heat producers. Dual fuel stoves are very useful, however smokeless coal is needed. with 30 years of wood burners, remember chimney cleaning every year is needed. A wood burner is such a joy, including on a narrowboat. Great introduction to space heating.

[WG]

Good videos, I've watched this and your previous one with the installation. The burner seems excellent.


I'm not seeking to boast but I've had a wood stove at home since 1990 and the further background to that is experience with the old open coal fires of the late 60's and early 70's. I was born in 1963 and everyone had open coal fires back then, so almost all kids, especially sons but daughters too, had some knowledge and skills around the business of fires. Everyone had just the kind of fires with a back-boiler for DHW like the one you replaced. We had our coal fires pulled out (at Mum's house) in 1972, like millions of other people did. and went over to gas CH because that was the year that North Sea gas began to become available.

I've been fiddling with fires, burners, stoves, ranges and forges from about 1968 (aged five when my grandad taught me about the coal fire and used to let me light it - fascinating for small boys) to 1972 (aged 9) and then from 1982 when I left Mum's aged 19 and moved into a house with the exact same kind of open fireplace and back-boiler like we used to have - and like you recently removed - it was like going back in time lol. From 1983 (when I removed the crappy gas fire and had the gas supply disconnected) until 1990 I ran an open fire, mainly on coal. From 1990 I had a woodstove, first in the kitchen and then in the living room too from about 1992 and have never looked back since.

A few tips for you:

1. Try to get that wood in your garden off the ground and on a pallet or two. The bottom layer will be rotting and the damp will rise up through the pile. The same goes for in your wood store if not already. Pallets are ideal. They allow an air flow underneath as well as raising the fuel off the ground itself. Pallets are easily available and cheap, often free if they are a bit damaged (which are easily repaired for the purpose of sitting firewood on them).

2. Split all your rounds at least in half, better in four or more. They will dry a lot quicker. I tend to split everything over about 2 inches in diameter and sometimes even that diameter if it's knot-free and pretty straight.

3. All the information about 2 years 'seasoning' (drying) is overkill if you have the wood split early and sitting on pallets, under cover and with air blowing through the sides of the store (which should be slatted or mesh, not solid-sided). I have very often cut and split logs as late as June (though February/March is better) and they have been ready to burn by November and certainly by January the following year. Obviously if you do get enough wood in store to go through a full winter and have some for the following winter then that's fine, but it's not essential. The only exception might be Pine, cos of all the resin, but it's not ideal anyway cos of all the knots and twists you often find. It's a pain to split.

4. Beware of burning Elder. It actually produces toxic smoke, not just the normal toxic like all smoke but extra toxic because of what's in it. If you have totally dry pieces and add them a piece here and there in an already-established hot fire it might be ok and especially in that super-efficient modern stove you have, but be aware of this. I'm not saying I have never burned the odd bit of elder but I do try to avoid it. Better to let it rot on the ground for all the critters to find habitat in.

5. If any of the wood at the front or slatted sides of your store gets rain damp, then a couple of days indoors should dry it off. Rain-damp is nowhere near as wet as sap-damp from fresh wood, which does take longer to dry out because the moisture is trapped in the cells of the wood and takes time to release - but only months very often if adequately split and stored, not years. You will need to spread the wood out a bit however. Plastic bag storage will just make the wood sweat and the damp will likely travel through all the wood. It won't necessarily increase but it won't dissipate either. Don't dry damp wood, either rain-damp or fresh splits in your living space. Harmful spores are present. The garage is good enough if the wood is aerated.


Sorry about the TL, DR and you probably already know some of the above but other readers may not. It's not a small undertaking using wood for heating and like you say not necessarily that much cheaper if you have to buy the fuel. But if you are going to gather and process your own you need the following:

1. A source and that means log wood. Not random chopping down trees (a dangerous business) but proper woodland management and permission to do so. Not really within many people's scope. Not old window and door frames full of paint and silicon sealant and unknown treated wood and wood out of skips. Most of it is nasty and not at all eco to burn and can be nasty to process also.

2. A van or a trailer.

3. A chainsaw and knowledge of how to use it properly. Plus all the PPE to go with it. You will only ever have one accident with one!

4. A good splitting axe and a chopping block - but your back will know about it. It does help with fitness however, but less so as you age. Better to get a hydraulic wood-splitter, prices of which have soared in just the last 2 or 3 years. You need a small hand hatchet too, for splitting kindling or trimming side shoots off branches. A billhook is useful too.

5. SPACE - to work in and to store the wood when processed.

If you skimp or ignore any of the above facilities and kit you will struggle and become dis-heartened. Not to mention the increasing likelihood of a life-changing (or life-ending!) accident.

Cheers.

[robertgeiger]

You are absolutely right ash was a cleaner for thousands of years proud of you Mr. Mac

[RagnBoneBrown]

Such an excellent video, thanks Andy, I learned so much!!! Thank you for the mention. Really interesting to see the different pm2.5 levels, I'm tempted to take mine out by the busy road and see what readings I get there. Also noticed your relative humidity sensor on your monitor works, whereas mine has been reading 93% for years... Still, surprised it still works at all considering how much dust it's been subjected to. 👍

[kevinmountford]

On your carbon cycle, the experts often suggested baning burning wood but there was a major change of policy when it was highlighted that to replace burnt wood only took the time it takes to grow the tree, 20-30 years. To replace coal, oil ar gas takes 20-30 million years, a bit of a difference one would say.

[oldmanriver]

Enjoyed your video, never believed the Sheffield university research on particulates anyway. We have had a wood burner for a dozen years and now have three. Agree entirely on having logs below and kindling above. Like you we have a hundred mature trees and have planted 200 or so more, so very economic. I use the ash as fertiliser so just use paper no fire lighters. I would raise two points. Get the fire serviced, not just chimney swept. I believe it might be law in England now to have an annual service. Once in 4 years would do but some jobsworth……second, build a wood dryer. Just 8*8 cm timbers to hold a sloping corrugated roof, a slatted floor perhaps 30 to 50cms above ground and trellis round the back and sides. Let’s the wind in and the rain out. Ours is 1.5 m high over the floor, 1.4 deep and 6m long. I cut and split the wood immediately on felling and after 2 years it’s kiln dry dried level without a kiln.

[CodyJames]

Great video! You can heat the whole house in an average home. Using a fan to blow cold air from the back of the house toward the room with the fire. Also look up room to room in wall vent fans. This all circulates the heat through the home from room to room.

[asilver]

Enjoying my new stove too. In a small barn conversion with no gas, or "wet" system, just electric. Wasn't sure about stove until last year when electric off for 4 days in snow from storm Arwen. Of course, even gas CH wouldn't help then. So partially resilience, partly the ever increasing electric bills.
The main issue is the space needed. First the actual stove and floor plate within the house (no fireplace alcove). Then the fireside wood stock, tools and paraphernalia.
Then the log store(s) for the main stock, whether bought-in or harvested. Kindling (with axe etc) needs it's own store.
My mother has two truckloads of chopped log each year. Every single piece has to be manhandled from yard to wheelbarrow to stack in very large store. Then from store, into bags, then trolleyed into an ante room. Finally to the living room stove.
If you can find a way to stock, store and move your wood around, that is the key decider for a having a stove. Tends to be a rural thing, where the gas grid doesn't reach, and people tend to enjoy faffing about with wood, chopping kindling etc.

I initially used a blow torch to get the fire going. But then discovered the natural firelighters, and one of these gets fire going every time. Clean and no nasty smell either.

Good video, packed with great info.

[helihoot]

Always fascinated by how different Europe is with heaters and electric. We are in Texas. Love your Bengals

[bockersjv]

Interesting stove. Our Burley does not have the ash tray. We build new fires on the old ash and get about 20 days of burning before we ever need to empty it. Even then it’s best on our model to leave an inch of ashes on the bed. Top down lighting is easily the best way of lighting, means you don’t have to keep returning to stack more wood. I like that auto venting feature.
Usual quality video.

[FrankWoodPhotography]

The reason they say fires are bad for the environment is they don’t want you to have self sufficiency.