My Heating Research

[billxam]

There's no forum for this stuff so here I am.
We've got a wood burning fireplace. This past summer, we had a dead oak at the cabin, 72 feet tall, so I've got a l lot of firewood. We were also the area that the ice storm hit last year, losing all my pines and uprooting some old growth oak. Saddest thing I've ever experienced. Over the past few years, I've done a lot of work and experiments to get the highest efficiency out of the fireplace.

1. Made a vertical grate to stack the wood better for a better burn. The wood doesn't lay flat but rather stacked so the heat is radiated into the living space.

2. Added an open steel box to the back of the firebox and a baffle over the fire. I'm getting around 2,000 F with blue flames. Melted part of the grate.

3. Made a coal cage from perforated stainless steel.

4. Burning anthracite coal in the cage, only need to add coal every 12-14 hours.

5. Once the coal is established, I can close the flue 40%.

The steel box and baffle were the most noticeable improvements. Slows down the flow out the chimney a LOT and does a good job of reburning the wood gas.

[Tecate]

What type of fireplace do you have? I have a standalone wood stove Pacific Energy Super LE.

It has a glass front door and I have burned coal in it as well, as long as it’s put in the back behind the wood. It doesn’t have a very large woodbox inside, maybe 2 square feet and I usually only burn poplar and birch, never spruce.

For us it can be a complicated process to really heat the house, as I also have in-floor glycol heating so you have to be careful not to get too hot and shut off the floor heat and freeze pipes.

Tecate

[DontTreadOnMe]

There's no forum for this stuff so here I am.
We've got a wood burning fireplace. This past summer, we had a dead oak at the cabin, 72 feet tall, so I've got a l lot of firewood. We were also the area that the ice storm hit last year, losing all my pines and uprooting some old growth oak. Saddest thing I've ever experienced. Over the past few years, I've done a lot of work and experiments to get the highest efficiency out of the fireplace.

1. Made a vertical grate to stack the wood better for a better burn. The wood doesn't lay flat but rather stacked so the heat is radiated into the living space.

2. Added an open steel box to the back of the firebox and a baffle over the fire. I'm getting around 2,000 F with blue flames. Melted part of the grate.

3. Made a coal cage from perforated stainless steel.

4. Burning anthracite coal in the cage, only need to add coal every 12-14 hours.

5. Once the coal is established, I can close the flue 40%.

The steel box and baffle were the most noticeable improvements. Slows down the flow out the chimney a LOT and does a good job of reburning the wood gas.

Both for your attempt to tweak your heat source for the best output.
And posting it on DI!



BTW, if it is any help....would the SURVIVAL section be a better fit for your thread?
Let me know, and I can move it there.

[argentus]

I grew up in a refurbished cabin in Idaho.   Our fireplace had 90 degree curved steel tubes that curved from vertical pointing up the chimney, to horizontal pointing at the living room.   There were four of these tubes and they were about 3 inches in diameter.   I had never seen them before or since.   It was a brilliant idea.    As you probably know, the differential in distance between an input of air and the output increases the speed of the air as the distance increases.    I'm certain there is a proper mathematical way of saying that.    The tubes really worked.    we could feel a hot air movement emanating from it.   Later on, my father added a stainless steel angled plate at the back of the fireplace.  

You've done wonderful and remarkable things to further the efficiency of your fireplace.   Well done!

[Nerb]

Wood Pellets are pretty cool. I can get a 15kg bag for 5 euros and mixed with normal firewood a bag lasts about a week and is a great and convenient supplement. I also tried using just pellets in a stainless steel colander and with a level amount I got about 3 hours of reasonable heat.

A finer grate over a standard grate is all that is needed to burn pellets, not a new woodburner.

Pellets can also be laid on a good bed of embers covering the grate holes.

Burns well when stove is shut right down so it can get bloody hot. Great for cooking Pizza, Toast, simmering casseroles and a pot of boiling water for my endless tea.

I used to get a good supply of grapevine roots and stumps. Something they would donate rather than burn from a vineyard that was removed after it passed it's "use by date". Burns really hot and fast and is fantastic for barbecues too.

Fir cones are also pretty calorific in heat.

"Broom", the plant, is probably the most flammable thing I have ever experienced. Amazing crackling black smoke and brimstone! Great for lighting barbecues.

And I've burned more floorboards than I've ever walked on. A staple source in the land of renovataion projects. Thick French Chestnut around 200 years old splits beautifully for kindling and the hardware pulled from the grate can really stack up over the years with some really cool hand-made nails, bolts, rings and hooks.

Fire is Cool.

[billxam]

I grew up in a refurbished cabin in Idaho.   Our fireplace had 90 degree curved steel tubes that curved from vertical pointing up the chimney, to horizontal pointing at the living room.   There were four of these tubes and they were about 3 inches in diameter.   I had never seen them before or since.   It was a brilliant idea.    As you probably know, the differential in distance between an input of air and the output increases the speed of the air as the distance increases.    I'm certain there is a proper mathematical way of saying that.    The tubes really worked.    we could feel a hot air movement emanating from it.   Later on, my father added a stainless steel angled plate at the back of the fireplace.  

You've done wonderful and remarkable things to further the efficiency of your fireplace.   Well done!

That sounds a lot like the reburners they put in wood stoves now. As far as I know, what they do is allow for a more complete burn and reduction of C02.

[billxam]

Well, well, well. Coal needs airflow to burn correctly. Steam locomotives had blowers for their fireboxes. So, I've taken one of my AC Infinity fireplace blowers and use it to provide airflow for the coal - really helps starting wood fires tool. With it running, I get mostly blue flames from the coal. I've got to shoot a video about it.

AC Infinity

A steam locomotive firebox blower is a steam jet in the smokebox that creates an artificial draft up the chimney to pull air through the fire, essential for starting the fire and building boiler pressure when the engine isn't running or needs extra draught, preventing fireback and maintaining heat by creating a vacuum in the smokebox. It works by directing steam up the stack, similar to the engine's exhaust, and is controlled from the cab, using either shop air, steam, or sometimes batteries in models to draw air through the fire grates. 

Over the past week, I was able to melt some aluminum parts and believe it or not, I melted my stainless steel coal cage. So I need to order a thicker plate from Amazon.