woodstoves burn compared to wood furnace?

[A6D9]

i ahve been reading allot of info on how to burn an efficient fire ina  woodstove.

and I plan on implementign allot of new thigns i have learned.

but i have a wood furnace..should i be thinkign along the same lines?

it is forced air..with a tiny blower, and currently takes air from the basement to burn.

I do plan on startign with outside air inlet for it to burn.

but...what about burn itself?  

right now I stock it full before bed and shut the blower off and open the draft a tiny bit so it smolders all night?  is that the best way?

heck to be honnest i normaly just turn the blower on till the fire is built good...and then shut it off and let it smolder and burn very slowly...my GF only add 2 layers of wood.  i fill it to the limit.  about 4 layers up.  that way i only need to go down every 6-7 hrs as oposed to 1-2 hrs her way.

the chimney doesn;t smoke allot only on start up, and the furnace is from the 70's and has brick lining.

any advice?

[hiker]

sounds right to me--ive only have had experance with barrel stoves..

yes i would get the fire going nice and hot at start up-helps burn the crude out of the stovepipe..then slow the fire down once it gets going..[leave the airintake open a crack and almost close the damper completly]

ps: there is some sort of poweder you can buy that makes the crude that builds up on your stove pipe flake off and burn away--lessons the chance of a stove pipe fire..

cant think of the name of the product right now--one of the other members may know??

[REdiculous]

We haven't been heating w/ wood for very long but it's my understanding that a hot fire is more efficient. Pellet stoves are pretty efficient, ya?

We fill our woodstove and damp the fire down. This means the fire isn't burning as efficiently but the house stays comfy, instead of swinging from one extreme to the other. Unless it's really cold out I only stoke the fire twice a day.

Besides burning more wood, damping the fire down increases creosote build up. We clean our system every spring, w/ a quick check prior to fire-season, just to be safe.

If comfort is your goal (less work, even heat) then you're on the right path. If efficiency is your goal then you should build smaller fires more often and you should leave the blower on.

[hiker]

i load my shop stove to the max..55gal drum   [part 2 ]

run it wide open at the start-than close it down-damper and air intake..

that leaves a nice huge pile of slow burning coals and wood-puts out more heat that way

otherwise all your heat goes up the stack--coals are hotter than a flame!! the idea is to trap the heat in the stove so it radiates outwards...

when you turn the lights out the old girl glows red...hmm sounds like a couple of

my old flames........  :}

just play around with it for awhile-im sure youl find out the best setup.........

hmmm...