10 Things We Love About Outside Wood Burners

What You Need to Know About Outdoor Wood Burners

Outdoor wood burners are an affordable method of heating homes and businesses. They also reduce dependence on fossil fuels that are not renewable and help in implementing a sustainable energy strategy.

To ensure efficient burning it is essential to use wood that has been well-seasoned. Green or unseasoned wood may have a higher moisture content which can cause creosote to build up and reduce performance.

Efficient

Outdoor wood burners have been around for many years. They are an energy-efficient and eco-friendly method of heating your home. However, the typical design of OWBs that encourages an unsteady, cooler fire which causes less combustion and a higher amount of smoke, creosote, and particulates. Unburned fuels can cause health issues and fire hazards. They also degrade the environment.

Additionally the visible smoke plume that OWBs produce can make neighbors angry and lead to DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) enforcement actions. This type of public relations issue could 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 that are referred to as the Pristine Gasification Series that utilizes technology to increase the efficiency of combustion for a clean, smokeless burn. This is done with a negative-pressure air system that draws in fresh, dry, heated, filtered air from the bottom and then pushes it through the chimney faster than traditional outdoor wood boilers. This is accomplished by a unique design which uses an incredibly efficient multi-pass water-filled heat exchanger made from 409 Titanium Enhanced Stainless Steel.

When properly utilized, the Pristine Series OWB achieves an efficiency of 99% for a cleaner and smoke-free fire. It uses less wood and produces significantly less emissions than traditional OWBs. To maximize the effectiveness of your OWB it is essential to only burn clean, seasoned, dry wood. It is recommended to prepare your wood for six months or one year prior to burning it. This will result in the most efficient and clean burn.

In addition to improving the performance of your wood burner and enhancing its efficiency by executing an "dry burn" every week. This method lowers the amount of creosote in your home, increases boiler efficiency and extends the life of your boiler. Additionally, by adding a creosote removal stick each time you fill your stove, you can dramatically reduce the amount of creosote you use. The product is available from Wisconsin Wood Furnace.

Clean

A freestanding wood burner burning stove can be extremely dirty due to burned soot particles. They are difficult to get rid of so make sure you clean any buildup that may be on the glass of your stove as soon as you notice it. If not, the soot will begin to harden and be even more difficult to get rid of. Using the right cleaners for the job is essential and you should also make sure you're not damaging the glass's surface with anything that might scratch it. This could result in a weak point that will shatter glass when exposed to extreme temperatures.

Be sure to let your wood burning stoves small stove cool completely before cleaning it. Be sure that you surround it with newspaper. This will prevent any spillage of ash which could stain and mark surfaces.

Depending on the quality of the wood you select, it can take up to a year for your stove to be properly and seasoned. Wood that is properly seasoned will not only burn more efficiently and last longer, but it will also produce less creosote. This is the material which is able to build up on your fireplace, decreasing its efficiency and posing a potential fire hazard. If you're using unseasoned wood or just starting a new fire in your outdoor wood burner the best thing you can do is to open the back door to the lower part and scoop the ashes into a non-combustible bin every week.

You should also perform an annual sediment flush on your boiler at least once every four years. This is a quick five-second flush from the drain valve on your boiler. This will eliminate any sediments that have built up in the system and ensure that your boiler is operating well.

After you've completed the sediment flush, it's time to clean the exterior of your outdoor wood burner. Before you begin, it's important to cover the stove's perimeter with newspaper. Wearing protective gloves and eyewear is an excellent idea. You should also have a metal ash container as well as a scraping tool and a shovel. To protect the refractory you should lay a cloth on it to protect it while you scrape away ash and coal deposits.

Easy to Operate

Despite their popularity (they were among the 1990s' "it" trends, along with mullet haircuts) outdoor wood boilers, also referred to as outdoor furnaces or outdoor wood hydronic heaters, are frequently misunderstood. These units are not like the popular EPA contemporary wood burning stoves stoves, which are built to burn at low temperatures continuously. They use more fire and produce more smoke. Certain local governments restrict or ban their use.

OWBs are great to heat homes with high insulation levels. The smoldering, visible smoke can also be a source of complaints from neighbors, and has led to numerous OWBs being shut down or being sued in the past. To ensure that OWBs to operate properly they must be used with dry wood with a low moisture content. The use of unseasoned or green wood reduces efficiency, leads to creosote accumulation and can cut down the life of the burner. A moisture meter can help you determine the time it takes for wood to dry.

Dual-stage wood gasification (OWGB) boilers however they employ a three-step procedure that makes use of more energy contained in the wood. This means less smoke. These furnaces are more efficient than conventional OWBs and are suitable for a wide range of fuels. Wood gasification boilers require dry and seasoned wood. Most wood can be seasoned within a year, however oak and other hardy species could take two or more years to fully season. They are less water-based and have a denser mass. This allows them to retain heat longer, increasing efficiency and reducing pollution. The EPA's "Burn Wise" website and Cornell Cooperative Extension can help homeowners understand how to burn wood efficiently in order to reduce pollution to the air.

Low Maintenance

Modern outdoor wood furnaces are constructed with the environment in mind. Modern outdoor wood furnaces don't emit excessive CO2 or heat. They also burn cleaner than indoor large wood burning stove stoves. They also use 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 indoor wood burning stove wood burning stoves. However outdoor wood burners should only be used with properly seasoned or "cured" wood. It can take a year or more for some types of wood. It is important to use a moisture meter to measure the amount of water of your wood prior to loading.

In the course of operation, it is essential to check the system regularly for the build-up of creosote. Creosote is a byproduct of combustion and can accumulate in the chimney and flue when it is not cleaned frequently. It can be removed with the use of a special creosote remover that is poured into the fire. Regular cleaning of the chimney and flue will eliminate dangerous creosote and improve efficiency.

Crown Royal Stoves developed a new airflow technology called Negative Pressure Gasification to ensure 99% efficiency in combustion. This technology is employed in our EPA certified Pristine Series Outdoor Wood Furnaces to draw air upwards from the bottom and push all gases through an sealed secondary combustion chamber, that is surrounded by water and easy-to-clean turbines. The result is a smokeless, pollutant-free burn.