What You Need to Know About Outdoor Wood Burners

Outdoor wood burning stoves can be a cost-effective solution for heating homes and businesses. They also help reduce the dependence on fossil fuels that are not renewable and help to create a more resilient energy strategy.

For efficient burning it is essential to use wood that has been well-seasoned. Unseasoned or green wood has a higher moisture content and can cause creosote that can reduce performance.

Efficient

Outdoor wood burners have been in use for many years. They are a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way of heating your home. The design of OWBs favors a slower, cooler fire which leads to less efficient combustion and a higher amount of smoke and creosote. Unburned fuels can lead to health problems and fire hazards, as well as affect the environment around them.

Furthermore the visible plume of smoke that OWBs produce can make neighbors angry and lead to DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) enforcement action. This type of public relations issue could be a significant impact on the value of your property, and could result in 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 boost the efficiency of combustion for a clean, smokeless combustion. This is achieved with a negative-pressure air system that pulls fresh dry, heated, filtered air from the bottom and pushes it up the chimney at a much faster rate than traditional outdoor second hand wood burner boilers. This is achieved by a unique design which uses a multi-pass water filled heat exchanger constructed of 409 Titanium Enhanced Stainless Steel.

Properly used, the Pristine Series OWB achieves a 99% combustion rate for a smoke-free and cleaner fire. It uses less wood, and produces a lot less emission than traditional OWBs. It is crucial to burn clean, seasoned and dry wood in order to enhance the performance of your OWB. It is recommended that you season your wood for a period of six months or a year before burning it. This will result in the most efficient and clean burn.

You can boost the efficiency of your wood-burning stove by performing every week a "dry burn". This method lowers the amount of creosote in your home, increases boiler efficiency and extends the life of your boiler. By affixing a creosote-removing stick to your stove each time you fill it, you can drastically reduce the amount of creosote you need to use. This product is available from Wisconsin Wood Furnace.

Clean

A wood-burning stove can become very dirty from burnt soot particles. They are extremely difficult to remove so if you notice any spots of soot build-up on the glass of your stove, clean them right away. In the event that the soot is not removed, it will harden and be even more difficult to get rid of. Using the right cleaning products for the job is vital, but also be sure you're not damaging the surface of the glass with anything that could scratch it. This could leave a weak spot that will shatter the glass when it's exposed to extreme temperatures.

Make sure you let your outside wood burners burner cool completely before cleaning it. Also, be sure that the surrounding area is covered with newspaper. This will prevent the ash from spilling and staining surfaces.

It could take as long as one year for your stove's seasoning to be complete, based on the quality of wood you choose to use. The wood that is treated with a seasoned finish will not only burn more efficiently, but will also produce less creosote. This is the material which accumulates on your fireplace, reducing its efficiency and posing an opportunity for fire hazards. If you're using shed wood burner that's not seasoned or are just beginning a fire in your outdoor fireplace, you should open the lower backdoor and scoop out the ashes into a non-combustible container every week.

You should also perform an annual sediment flush on your boiler at least every four years. It is a simple flush of five seconds from the bottom drain valve on your boiler. This will get rid of any sediment that has built up in the system, and keep your boiler working efficiently.

After you have cleaned the exterior of your fireplace that is outside Wood burners, it is time to clean it. Before you begin, it's important to cover the area around the stove with newspaper. Wearing protective gloves and eyewear is also a good idea. Also, you should have a ash canister made of metal, a scraping tool and a shovel. You can use a cloth as an insulator to protect the refractory as you scrape away coal and ash deposits.

Easy to Operate

Despite their popularity (they were among the 1990s' "it" trends, along with mullet haircuts) outdoor wood boilers, also known as outdoor furnaces or outdoor wood hydronic heaters are still often misunderstood. These units are not like the popular EPA wood stoves, which are designed to burn at low temperatures and continuously. They use a higher rate of burning and generate more smoke. Certain local governments restrict or prohibit their use.

OWBs are ideal to heat homes with a high insulation level. Smoke that is thick and smoldering can also be a nuisance to neighbors, which has led many OWBs to be shut down or sued. In order for OWBs to operate properly they must be used with dry wood that has low moisture content. Utilizing unseasoned or green wood can reduce efficiency, cause creosote build up and can shorten the life of the burner. Drying wood takes time and a moisture meter is a must for any homeowner.

In contrast dual-stage wood gasification boilers (OWGB) employ a three step process which makes use of the available energy from the wood and results in a lesser amount of smoke. These furnaces are more efficient than conventional OWBs and can be used to fuel many different fuels. Wood gasification boilers require dry well-seasoned and well-seasoned firewood. The majority of wood will season within one year. Oak and other tough trees may take as long as two years. This is due to lower water content and denser mass. This enables them to hold heat longer, thus increasing efficiency and decreasing pollution. The EPA "Burn Wise" website and Cornell Cooperative Extension are great sources for outside Wood burners homeowners to learn how to efficiently burn wood in order minimize pollution to the air.

Low Maintenance

Modern outdoor wood stoves are engineered to be eco-friendly. Unlike indoor wood burners that generate significant smoke modern outdoor furnaces burn cleanly without the release of excessive heat or carbon monoxide. They also use less wood to produce the same amount heat as traditional stoves.

Outdoor wood burners require less maintenance and are more tolerant 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 certain kinds of wood. It is essential to use a moisture meter to measure the amount of water of your wood before loading.

When operating, it is essential to check the system regularly to check for accumulation of creosote. Creosote is an byproduct of combustion and can build up in the chimney and flue in the event that it is not cleaned on a regular basis. It can be removed with a creosote removal solution that is poured into the flame. Regular cleaning of the chimney and flue will eliminate dangerous creosote 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 burning stoves small Furnaces to draw air upwards from the bottom and force all the gases through an insulated secondary combustion chamber which is surrounded by water, with easy-to-clean Turbulators. The result is a smokeless & pollution-free burning.