What You Need to Know About Outdoor Wood Burners
Outdoor wood burners are an economical solution to heat homes and businesses. They also reduce dependence on fossil fuels that are non-renewable and help to create a more resilient energy strategy.
Well-seasoned wood is essential for efficient burning. Unseasoned or green wood can have a higher moisture content which can create creosote and reduce performance.
Efficient
Outdoor wood burners have been around for many years. They are an energy efficient and environmentally friendly way to heat your home. The typical design of OWBs promotes an older, cooler fire which results in poorer combustion, and more smoke and creosote. Unburned fuels can cause health issues and fire hazards. They also degrade the environment.
Additionally the visible smoke puffs that OWBs generate could cause neighbors to voice their concerns. This could result in DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) and taking enforcement actions. This type of issue can affect the value of your property, and may cause your OWB being shut down.
Crown Royal Stoves offers a line of EPA Certified outdoor wood furnaces called the Pristine Gasification Series that utilizes technology to increase the efficiency of combustion to ensure a smokeless, clean burning. This is achieved through the negative pressure air system that draws fresh, dry, hot and filtered air from the bottom of the boiler and pushes it out through the chimney at a much more rapid rate than traditional outdoor wood boilers. This is accomplished through an exclusive design that uses a multi-pass water filled heat exchanger made from 409 Titanium Enhanced Stainless Steel.
Properly utilized properly, the Pristine Series OWB can achieve an efficiency of 99% for a smoke-free and cleaner fire. It uses less wood, and produces a lot less emission than traditional OWBs. It is crucial to use clean, seasoned and dry wood in order to maximize the performance of your OWB. It is recommended to get your wood seasoned for six months or one year before burning it. This will result in an efficient and clean burn.
You can boost the efficiency of your wood-burning stove by performing every week a "dry burn". This technique eliminates creosote build up, keeps your boiler in good condition and extends its life span. By affixing a creosote-removing stick to your stove every 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
A wood-burning stove could be extremely dirty due to burned soot particles. They are difficult to clean so make sure you remove any buildup from your stove's glass immediately. Otherwise the soot will become harder and more difficult to get rid of. It is crucial to choose the right cleaner however, you must be careful not to scratch the glass by using anything that can scratch it. This could cause an area of weakness that could break glass when exposed to extreme temperatures.
Before you begin cleaning your wood stove, it is important to ensure that it is unlit and completely cool. Also, be sure that the area around it is covered with newspaper. This will stop any spillage of ash that can cause stains and marks on surfaces.
It can take up to one year for the seasoning of your stove to be complete, based on the quality of wood you use. Wood that is properly seasoned will not only burn better, but will create less creosote. This is the material that builds up on your chimney, which reduces efficiency and posing an hazard for fire. If you're using unseasoned wood, or just starting a new fire in your outdoor wood burner the best thing to do is to open up the lower back door and scoop the ashes into a non-combustible container every week.
A sediment flush is recommended on your boiler every four years. It is a simple flush that takes five seconds from the drain valve on your boiler. This will eliminate any sediment that has built up inside the system and keep your boiler in top working condition.
After you have cleaned the outside of your fireplace that is outside it is time to clean it. Before you begin, it's crucial to cover the area around the stove with newspaper. Wearing gloves and eye protection is also a good idea. You should also have a metal ash canister along with a scraping tool as well as a shovel. You can make use of a cloth as an insulator to protect the refractory as you remove ash and coal deposits.
Simple to operate
Despite their popularity (they were among the 1990s' "it" trends, as were mullet haircuts) outdoor wood boilers, also referred to as outdoor furnaces or outdoor wood hydronic heaters, are often misunderstood. These units are not the same as the well-known EPA wood stoves, which are designed to burn low temperatures continuously. They are able to produce more fire and produce more smoke. This is why some local governments regulate or ban their use.
OWBs are great to heat homes with high insulation levels. Smoke that is dense and smoldering may be a nuisance to neighbors, which has led many OWBs to be shut down or sued. For OWBs dry wood that has lower moisture content is needed to perform properly. Using indoor wood burner or unseasoned wood can reduce efficiency, cause creosote to build up and may cut down the life of the burner. Drying wood takes time, and the use of a moisture gauge is a must for any homeowner.
In contrast dual-stage wood gasification boilers (OWGB) make use of three steps that makes use of more available energy in the wood, resulting in less smoke. These furnaces are more efficient than traditional OWBs, and can be used for a wide range of fuels. Wood gasification boilers require dry well-seasoned wood. The majority of wood will mature over the course of one year. Oak and other tough trees can take up to two years. This is due to lower water content and denser mass. This allows them to hold heat for longer, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing pollution. The EPA's "Burn Wise" website and Cornell Cooperative Extension can help homeowners understand how to burn wood efficiently, thereby reducing pollution to the air.
Low Maintenance
Modern outdoor wood furnaces have been designed with the environment in mind. Modern outdoor wood furnaces do not produce excessive heat or CO2. They also burn more efficiently than indoor wood stoves. They also use less wood to produce the same amount of heat as traditional stoves.
Outdoor wood burners require less maintenance and are more accepting of wood moisture content than wood burning stoves for indoor use. However, outdoor wood burners can only be used with properly seasoned or "cured" wood. This can take a year or more for some kinds of wood. Make use of a moisture meter prior to loading to check the amount of water present in the wood.
When operating, it is essential to examine the system on a regular basis for the accumulation of creosote. Creosote is a byproduct from combustion and can build up in the flue and chimney in the event that it is not cleaned on a regular basis. It can be eliminated by pouring a creosote removal product into the fire. Regular cleaning of the flue and chimney will eliminate dangerous creosote accumulations and improve efficiency.
In order to attain 99% efficiency in combustion, Crown Royal Stoves designed a new air flow technology known as Negative Pressure Gasification. This technology is employed in our EPA certified Pristine Series Outdoor Wood Furnaces to pull air up from the bottom and push all the gases through an sealed secondary combustion chamber, which is surrounded by water, with easy-to-clean Turbulators. The result is a smokeless and pollutant-free burn.