During the frightful weather outdoors, you want to know how to get the most heat from a wood stove. Using a wood stove is best to use during winter to provide heat for your home, and to get the most heat from the stove, you will need to regularly place at least 3 logs in the woodstove to get most of its heat and to make it last longer.
And if you want to make the stove burn hotter, all you need to do is adjust the dumper located at the top of the stove. This way, the airflow will increase, making the fire stronger. However, to make things easier, you could spend on a new stove designed with a catalytic combustor, but it comes at a high price. So, let’s stick on the woodstove. Regardless, read on to learn more regarding the topic.
Ways To Get The Most Heat From A Wood Stove
How to get the most heat from a wood stove? Since the option we mentioned above is costly, we would want to find other ways. Thankfully, you can do this in various ways. Below are some steps that can be taken so that you will improve the efficiency of the woodstove.
#1. Cleaning the chimney and stove
Cleaning and sweeping the interior of your firebox can greatly help in improving the efficiency of the woodstove. By doing this, you can clean out creosote that possibly hinders airflow. This likewise poses a fire danger to your chimney. Airflow is essential for good heat and combustion. In case your chimney is made of brick, ensure to seal the cracks.
This will not only avoid potential fire but will also help in improving airflow.
#2. Green vs. seasoned wood
Greenwood often contains moisture ranging from 30 up to 60 percent. This can result in poor combustion with lots of creosote and smoke.
Those with high moisture also require more energy in burning than in releasing heat. With that being said, it is better to utilize seasoned wood. Another consideration is whether you are using hardwood or softwood. The latter are good in starting fir since they easily burn hot. Then, add layers of hardwood logs. They also burn hot when ignited well. Plus, they burn long. Ensure not to overload your firebox. Also, remove the ashes when necessary.
#3. Seal the damper and stove carefully
You can control the airflow of the wood stove in two ways. One, through the damper, which is the primary control. This is located on top of your wood stove or in your chimney. The other one is through the smalls apps that can be closed or opened at the bottom front of the stove.
A problem may arise if there is a gap on the woodstove. Typically, it happens around the firebox door. Some kits are available that you can use in replacing the gasket. However, you will need to remove its door and allow it to cool to do this. It can be hard to do this during winter.
Other kits will let you fill the gaps easily but this fix is for the short term only. Either way, any unwanted gap can affect the airflow. This can even result in a fire that will burn too long.
It is also possible that the damper allows air to get in or the smoke leak where the spindle is emerging from the stove or chimney. The spindle is hinged onto the dapper flap. For this, you can use various quick-apply solutions that you can purchase from supply stores.
#4. Added iron
You can put cast iron on top of your wood stove. As these get hot, the stove’s capability to increase heat by presenting a wider hot surface. Some iron pieces also have fan blades that spin slowly as heat increases and run onto the blades. Although small, it can help in distributing hot air.
#5. Catalytic combustor
Recent wood stove models have a catalytic combustor feature which is integrated for increased efficiency. You can also opt to buy this feature separately and install it in your older model wood stove. Catalytic combustors are ceramic discs that are usually about 2 inches thick and 6 inches in diameter.
This is coated with palladium which is a rare metal, and it looks like a honeycomb. It is inserted on top of the woodstove, wherein the smoke escalates towards the chimney. The function of the catalytic combustor is basically to combust smoke. The smoke that comes out of the stove is the gas that has not combusted. Most often than not, it requires a minimum of 1000 degrees F to ignite completely.
But with a catalytic combustor, the smoke will be combusted at temperatures of at least 500 degrees F. As a result. The fire will burn hotter and better. Any smoke that remains which may result in creosote buildup will be reduced. A catalytic combustor can reduce the buildup of creosote by up to 90%.
One thing to keep in mind is that natural woods should only be burnt with this. You should not use treated woods, paper, and lumber. Otherwise, the efficiency and life of the catalytic combustor will decline.
#6. Forced-air blower
A better solution to distribute air is a forced-air blower. This will blow the air from the surface of the stove towards the room. But this solution is not that great since it needs electricity. Fortunately, using solar panels would be sufficient to power this. So now that we are done discussing all the ways to get the most heat out of your wood stove, you might want to go and check out this article “Why your air conditioner makes a loud noise when starting?”
It’s A Wrap!
There you have it, folks! The six ways on how to get the most heat from a wood stove. Following them can surely improve the efficiency of your stove during cold weather. On the other hand, you might be an expert in choosing the best wine, but have you ever thought about how to choose the best wine fridge? If not, then you can read that one!