What You Need to Know About Outdoor Wood Burners
Outdoor wood burning stoves are a cost-effective method of heating homes and businesses. They also help to reduce dependence on fossil fuels that are non-renewable and contribute to a resilient energy strategy.
To ensure efficient burning, it is important to use well-seasoned wood. Unseasoned or green wood has higher moisture content and may cause creosote accumulation, which can affect performance.
Efficient
Outdoor wood burners have been in use for many years. They are a cost-effective and eco-friendly method of heating your home. However, the standard design of OWBs, which promotes an unsteady, cooler fire that causes less combustion and a higher amount of smoke, creosote, and particulates. see here now can lead to health problems and fire hazards. They also degrade the environment.
Furthermore the visible plume of smoke that OWBs emit can cause neighbors to complain and lead to DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) enforcement actions. This type of public relations issue can cause serious damage to the value of your property and may even lead to your OWB being shut down.
Crown Royal Stoves offers a range of EPA Certified outdoor wood furnaces called the Pristine Gasification Series that utilizes technology to increase the efficiency of combustion for a clean, smokeless combustion. This is done with a negative-pressure air system that pulls fresh, dry, heated, filtered air from the bottom and pushes it out through the chimney much faster than traditional outdoor wood boilers. This is accomplished through an innovative design that makes use of a multi-pass, water-filled heat exchanger made of 409 Titanium Enhanced Stainless Steel.
Properly used when properly used, the Pristine Series OWB has an 99% efficiency in combustion for a cleaner and smokeless fire. It uses less wood and produces significantly fewer emission than traditional OWBs. It is essential to burn clean, seasoned and dry wood in order to enhance the performance of your OWB. Seasoning your wood for six months or more prior to burning is recommended. This helps ensure a better, more energy efficient burn.
You can increase the efficiency of your wood-burning stove by performing every week a "dry burn". This technique eliminates creosote buildup, keeps your boiler running efficiently and increases its lifespan. By adding a creosote-removing stick to your stove each time you fill it up, you can drastically reduce the amount of creosote you need to use. This product is available from Wisconsin Wood Furnace.
Clean
A wood burning stove can be very dirty due to burnt soot particles. They are extremely difficult to remove so if you notice any spots of buildup on the glass of your stove, you must clean them right away. Otherwise the soot will harden and be even more difficult to get off. It's important to use the right cleaners however, you should be careful not to scratch the glass with anything that may scratch it. This could result in an area of weakness that could break the glass if it's exposed to extreme temperatures.
Before you begin cleaning your wood burner you must ensure that it is unlit and completely cool. Also, make sure that the area around it is covered with newspaper. This will prevent any ash spillage that can cause stains and marks on surfaces.
It could take as long as one year for your stove's seasoning to be complete, based on the quality of the wood you choose to use. The wood that is seasoned will not only burn better and last longer, but it will also produce less creosote. This is the material that gets accumulated on your chimney, decreasing its effectiveness and creating a fire hazard. If you are using unseasoned wood or just making a fresh fire in your outdoor wood burner the best thing you can do is open the back door to the lower part and scoop out the ashes into a non-combustible bin every week.
A sediment flush should be carried out on your boiler every four years. This is a simple flush that takes five seconds from the bottom drain valve on your boiler. This will eliminate any sediment that has built up inside the system and keep your boiler in top operating condition.
After you've completed the sediment flush, it's time to clean the outside of your outdoor wood burner. Before you begin, it's important to cover the stove's area with newspaper. Wearing protective eyewear and gloves is an excellent idea. You should also have an shovel, a metal ash container and a scraping tool. To safeguard the refractory, you should lay down a piece of cloth to protect it from damage as you scrape away coal and ash deposits.
Simple to Operate
Outdoor wood boilers (also known as outdoor furnaces, outdoor wood hydronic heating systems, or outdoor wood heaters) are often misunderstood in spite of their popularity. They were one of the "it" trends of the 1990s, along with mullet hairstyles. Contrary to the EPA's popular wood stoves that are designed to burn at low, constant temperatures, these units use more fire and emit more smoke when operating. Some local governments limit or ban their use.
OWBs are great to heat homes with high insulation levels. Smoke that is thick and smoldering may cause annoyance to neighbors, which has led many OWBs to be shut down or sued. For outside wood burners , dry wood with a lower moisture content is required to work effectively. Green or unseasoned wood will reduce efficiency, causing creosote to build up, and shorten the lifespan of the burner. A moisture meter can help you determine how long it takes for wood to dry.
In contrast, dual-stage wood gasification boilers (OWGB) utilize a three step process that uses more of the available energy from the wood and results in less smoke. These types of furnaces are more efficient than traditional OWBs and can be used with a larger variety of fuel. Wood gasification boilers require dry well-seasoned and seasoned firewood. The majority of wood will be seasoned within a year, but oak and other hardy species could take two years or more to fully mature. This is due to a lower water content and denser mass. This lets them store heat longer, thus increasing efficiency and reduce pollution. The EPA "Burn Wise" website and Cornell Cooperative Extension are great sources for homeowners to understand how to efficiently burn wood in order minimize pollution to the air.
Low Maintenance
Modern outdoor wood stoves have been designed to be eco-friendly. Modern outdoor wood furnaces do not generate excessive heat or CO2. They also burn cleaner than indoor wood stoves. They also require less wood to generate the same amount of heat as traditional stoves.
Outdoor wood burners require less maintenance and are more forgiving of moisture content in wood than wood burning stoves that are indoor. Outdoor wood burners are only suitable for wood that has been properly "cured" or dried or. Certain types of wood may take up to a year. Use a moisture gauge prior to loading to determine the amount of water present in your wood.
During operation it is important to check the system regularly to check for accumulation of creosote. Creosote, a by-product of combustion, can build up in the flue and chimney if they aren't cleaned regularly. It can be removed by pouring a creosote-removing product into the fire. Regular cleaning of the chimney and flue will remove dangerous creosote and improve efficiency.
Crown Royal Stoves developed a new airflow technology known as Negative Pressure Gasification to attain 99% efficiency in combustion. This technology is used in our EPA certified Pristine Series Outdoor Wood Furnaces to pull air up from the bottom and force all gases through an sealed secondary combustion chamber, that is surrounded by water and easy-to-clean turbulators. The result is a smokeless & pollutant free combustion.