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 help to create a more resilient energy strategy.
To ensure efficient burning, it is important to use seasoned wood. Unseasoned or green wood has higher moisture content and can create creosote accumulation, which can affect performance.
Efficient
Outdoor wood burners have been in use for a long time. They are an energy-efficient and green method of heating your home. The design of OWBs encourages a slower, cooler fire which results in less efficient combustion and more smoke and creosote. Unburned fuels can cause health problems as well as fire hazards, and can also harm the environment.
Moreover, the visible smoke plume that OWBs produce can make neighbors angry and lead to DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) enforcement actions. This kind of problem can affect the value of your property and could lead to your OWB being closed down.
Crown Royal Stoves offers a line of EPA Certified outdoor wood furnaces called the Pristine Gasification Series that utilizes technology to boost the efficiency of combustion for a clean, smoke-free combustion. This is achieved through an air system that is negative pressure that draws fresh hot, dry and filtered air from the bottom of the boiler and pushes it out of the chimney at a more rapid rate than traditional outdoor wood boilers. This is achieved by an exclusive design that uses a multi-pass water-filled heat exchanger made from 409 Titanium Enhanced Stainless Steel.
When properly used correctly, the Pristine Gasification Series OWB can reach the highest efficiency of combustion, which is 99% for a cleaner, smoke-free fire that consumes less wood and generates significantly fewer emissions than traditional OWBs. To enhance your OWB's performance it is essential to burn dry, clean, and seasoned wood. It is recommended that you get your wood seasoned for a minimum of six months or one year before burning it. This will ensure a more efficient and cleaner burn.
In addition to improving the efficiency of your wood burner and enhancing its efficiency by executing an "dry burn" every week. This technique eliminates creosote accumulation, makes your boiler in good condition and extends its lifespan. By adding a stick for removing creosote to your stove every time you fill it up, you can drastically reduce the amount of creosote that you need to use. This product is available from Wisconsin Wood Furnace.
Clean
A wood-burning stove could be extremely dirty due to burned soot particles. These are very hard to shift so if you notice any areas of build up on the glass of your stove, you must clean them immediately. Soot that is not removed will begin to harden and make it more difficult. Using the correct cleaners for the job is vital and you should also make sure you're not damaging the surface of the glass with anything that might scratch it. This could result in a weak spot that will break the glass if it's exposed to extreme temperatures.
Be sure to let your wood stove cool completely before cleaning it. Also, make sure that the area around it is covered with newspaper. corner wood burner Fireplaces & Stoves will prevent any spillage of ash which 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 become properly and seasoned. The wood that has been seasoned will not only burn more efficiently, but will also produce less creosote. This is the substance that builds up on your fireplace, reducing its effectiveness and creating a potential fire hazard. If you're using unseasoned wood or are just starting a new fire in your outdoor wood burner the best thing to do is to open up the back door to the lower part and scoop out the ashes into a non-combustible container every week.
A sediment flush should be performed on your boiler every four years. It is a simple flush that takes five seconds from the drain valve on your boiler. This will get rid of any debris that has accumulated within the system and help keep your boiler in top working condition.
Once you have done the sediment flush, it's now time to clean the outside of your outdoor wood burner. Before you begin, it's crucial to cover the stove's perimeter with newspaper. It is also advisable to wear gloves and protective eyewear. Also, you should have an ash container, a shovel container for ash, and scraping tools. You can use a cloth as shield to protect the refractory while you remove ash and coal deposits.
Easy to Operate
Despite their popularity (they were among the 1990s' "it" trends, together with mullet hairstyles) outdoor wood boilers, referred to as outdoor furnaces or outdoor wood hydronic heaters are often misunderstood. Unlike their cousin the EPA's popular wood stoves that are designed to burn at low, constant temperatures, these units use a higher fire rate and emit more smoke when operating. Certain local governments restrict or prohibit their use.
OWBs are ideal for heating homes with high insulation levels. Smoke that is dense and smoldering can also be a nuisance to neighbors, resulting in many OWBs to be shut down or sued. For OWBs dry wood with less moisture content is required to function effectively. Unseasoned or green wood can decrease efficiency, cause creosote to accumulate and reduce the life of the burner. A moisture gauge will allow you determine the time it takes for wood to dry.
Dual-stage wood gasification (OWGB) boilers, on the other hand, use a three-step process which makes use of the energy contained in the wood. This means less smoke. These furnaces are more efficient than conventional OWBs and can be used to fuel various fuels. Wood gasification boilers require dry and seasoned firewood. The majority of wood will be seasoned within a year, but oak and other hardy species may take two years or more to fully mature. They are less water-based and have a greater density. This allows them to retain heat longer, thus increasing efficiency and reducing pollution. The EPA's "Burn Wise" website and Cornell Cooperative Extension can help homeowners understand how to burn wood efficiently to minimize pollution to the air.
Low Maintenance
Modern outdoor wood furnaces are designed with the environment in mind. Modern outdoor wood furnaces don't generate excessive heat or CO2. They also burn more efficiently than indoor wood stoves. They also use less wood to generate the same amount heat as traditional stoves.
Outdoor wood burners also require significantly less maintenance than indoor wood burners and are more accommodating in regards 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 types of wood. Use a moisture meter before loading to determine the amount of water contained in your wood.
In the course of operation, it is crucial to inspect the system periodically for the accumulation of creosote. Creosote is a by-product of combustion, can build up in the chimney and flue when they are not cleaned regularly. It can be removed using the use of a special creosote remover that is poured into the fire. Regularly cleaning the chimney and flue will remove dangerous creosote accumulations, and increase efficiency.
To attain 99% efficiency in combustion, Crown Royal Stoves designed an innovative air flow technology called Negative Pressure Gasification. This technology is used in our EPA certified Pristine Series Outdoor Wood Furnaces to draw air from the bottom and push all the gases through an sealed secondary combustion chamber, surrounded by water with easy-to-clean turbulators. The result is a smokeless & pollutant-free combustion.