What You Need to Know About Outdoor Wood Burners
Outdoor wood burners are an affordable way to heat homes and businesses. They also reduce the dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels and aid in a sustainable energy strategy.
A well-seasoned wood is vital for efficient burning. Wood that is not seasoned or green may contain more moisture that can cause creosote to accumulate and decrease performance.
Efficient
Outdoor wood burners have been around for many years. They are an energy efficient and green method of heating your home. The typical design of OWBs favors an older, cooler fire which results in poorer combustion and a higher amount of smoke and creosote. These unburned fuels could cause health problems and fire hazards, as well as deteriorate the surrounding environment.
Moreover, the visible smoke plume OWBs produce can make neighbors complain. This could lead to DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation), taking enforcement action. This type of public relations issue can be a significant impact on the value of your property and could even lead to your OWB being shut down.
Crown Royal Stoves offers a line of EPA Certified outdoor wood furnaces known as the Pristine Gasification Series that utilizes technology to boost the efficiency of combustion for a clean, smoke-free burning. This is achieved by using the negative pressure air system that draws fresh hot, dry, filtered air in from the bottom of the boiler and then pushes it out through the chimney at a much more rapid rate than traditional outdoor wood boilers. This is accomplished through a unique design which uses a multi-pass water filled heat exchanger constructed of 409 Titanium Enhanced Stainless Steel.
Properly utilized properly, when properly used, the Pristine Series OWB has an efficiency of 99% for a cleaner and smoke-free fire. It consumes less wood and produces significantly less emissions than traditional OWBs. To enhance the effectiveness of your OWB, it is important to only burn dry, clean, and seasoned wood. Seasoning your wood for 6 months or more prior to burning is recommended. It helps ensure a smoother, more energy efficient burn.
You can improve the efficiency of your wood-burning stove by performing every week a "dry burn". This method helps to eliminate creosote build up, keeps your boiler running efficiently and increases its life span. By adding a stick for removing creosote to your stove each time you fill it up, you can drastically reduce the amount of creosote that you use. This product is available from Wisconsin Wood Furnace.
Clean
The soot particles that are left in the aftermath of burning wood can make a stove look very dirty. These are very hard to shift If you notice any areas of build up on the glass of your stove, you must clean them right away. Soot that is not removed will harden, making it even more difficult. Using the right cleaners for the job is vital, but also be sure you're not damaging the surface of the glass with anything that could scratch it. This could result in an area of weakness that could break the glass when exposed to extreme temperatures.
Make sure you let your wood burner cool completely before cleaning it. Make second hand wood burning stoves to surround it with newspaper. This will prevent any spillage of ash that can stain and mark surfaces.
Depending on the quality of the wood that you use, it can take up to an entire year for your stove to get properly and seasoned. The wood that has been treated with a seasoned finish will not only burn more efficiently, but also produce less creosote. This is the material which accumulates on your fireplace, decreasing its efficiency and creating the potential for a fire hazard. If you're using unseasoned wood, or just starting a fire in your outdoor fireplace, it's best to open the lower backdoor and scoop out the ashes into a non-combustible container every week.
You should also do a sediment flush on your boiler at least every four years. It is a simple flush of five seconds from the bottom drain valve on your boiler. This will get rid of any sediment that has built in the system and will ensure that your boiler runs well.
After you've completed the sediment flush, it's now time to clean the exterior of your outdoor wood burner. Before starting, it's important to cover the floor area surrounding the stove with newspaper. Wearing gloves and eye protection is also a good idea. You should also have a metal ash canister, a scraping tool and shovel. To safeguard the refractory, you should lay a cloth on it to shield it as you scrape away ash and coal deposits.
Easy to Operate
Despite their popularity (they were among the 1990s' "it" trends, together with mullet hairstyles) outdoor wood boilers, also known as outdoor furnaces or outdoor wood hydronic heaters, are still often misunderstood. Unlike their cousin the EPA's popular wood stoves, which are designed to burn at low, constant temperatures, these boilers have a higher fire rate and emit more smoke when operating. This is the reason why local governments have a policy of regulating or banning their use.
OWBs are best suited to homes that have high levels of insulation. Smoke that is thick and smoldering may cause annoyance to neighbors, which has led many OWBs to be shut down or even sued. In order for OWBs to function properly, they must be used with dry wood with a low moisture content. The use of unseasoned or green wood can reduce efficiency, cause creosote build up and can shorten the life of the burner. Drying wood takes time, and an instrument to measure moisture is a must for the homeowner.
Dual-stage wood gasification (OWGB) boilers, on the other hand, use a three-step process that makes use of more energy contained in the wood. This means less smoke. These furnaces are more efficient than traditional OWBs, and are suitable for many different fuels. Wood gasification boilers require dry well-seasoned wood. The majority of wood will be seasoned within a year, but oak and other species with a hardy structure could take two years or more to fully mature. This is due to a lower amount of water and a higher density. This allows them to hold heat for longer, increasing efficiency and decreasing pollution. The EPA "Burn Wise" website and Cornell Cooperative Extension are great sources for homeowners to learn how to efficiently burn wood to reduce pollution to the air.
Low Maintenance
Modern outdoor wood stoves are designed to be environmentally friendly. cheap wood burning stoves do not generate excessive CO2 or heat. 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 also require significantly less maintenance than indoor wood burners, and are more tolerant when it comes to the moisture content of the wood. However outdoor wood burners should only be used with properly seasoned or "cured" wood. This can take a year or more for some kinds of wood. Use a moisture gauge prior to loading to measure the amount of water present in the wood.
In the course of operation, it is essential to check the system regularly for the build-up of creosote. Creosote is an byproduct of combustion that can build up in the chimney and flue if it is not cleaned frequently. It can be eliminated using the use of a special creosote remover that is poured into the fire. Regular cleaning of the flue and chimney will remove dangerous creosote and increase efficiency.
In order to get 99% efficiency from combustion, Crown Royal Stoves designed a new air flow technology known as Negative Pressure Gasification. Our EPA certified Pristine Series outdoor wood furnaces make use of this technology to draw air from the bottom, directing all of the gasses through an insulated water-surrounded secondary combustion chamber with easy-clean turbulators for a smokeless & pollution-free combustion.