10 Essentials On Outside Wood Burners You Didn't Learn In School
What You Need to Know About Outdoor Wood Burners
Outdoor wood burners can be an efficient and cost-effective method of heating homes and businesses. They also reduce the dependence on fossil fuels that are not renewable and help to create a more resilient energy strategy.
To ensure efficient burning it is essential to use seasoned wood. Wood that is not seasoned or green 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 eco-friendly method to heat 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 lead to health problems, fire hazards, and affect the environment around them.
Furthermore, the visible plume of smoke that OWBs produce can cause neighbors to complain and lead to DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) enforcement action. wood burning stoves ideas 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 has a line of outdoor wood furnaces that are EPA Certified. The Pristine Gasification Series makes use of technology to increase the efficiency of combustion and produce a smokeless, clean burn. This is achieved with a negative-pressure air system that draws fresh, dry heated, filtered air from the bottom and pushes it through the chimney faster than traditional outdoor wood boilers. This is achieved by an exclusive design that uses a multi-pass water-filled heat exchanger constructed of 409 Titanium Enhanced Stainless Steel.
If properly used correctly, the Pristine Gasification Series OWB can attain an efficiency of 99% for a cleaner, smoke-free fire that requires less wood and produces significantly fewer emissions than traditional OWBs. To enhance the performance of your OWB it is crucial to burn only dry, clean, and seasoned wood. It is recommended that you prepare your wood for six months or one year prior to burning it. This will result in an efficient and clean burn.
In addition to improving the performance of your wood stove, you can also improve its efficiency by executing a "dry burn" every week. This method eliminates creosote accumulation, makes your boiler efficient and extends its life span. Additionally, by adding a creosote removal stick each when you load your stove, you can significantly reduce the amount creosote that you use. The product is available through Wisconsin Wood Furnace.
Clean
A wood-burning stove could be extremely dirty due to burned soot particles. They are extremely difficult to shift, so if you see any spots of buildup on the glass of your stove, clean them as soon as you notice them. Soot that is not removed will begin to harden, making it even more difficult. Using the right cleaners for the job is vital however, you must also ensure that you're not damaging the surface of the glass with anything that might scratch it. This could result in a weak point that will shatter glass when exposed to high temperatures.
Before you begin cleaning your wood stove, you should make sure that it is unlit and completely cool. Be sure to cover the area surrounding it with newspaper. This will stop any ash spillage that could stain and mark surfaces.
It can take up to one year for the seasoning process of your stove to be completed, based on the quality of the wood you use. The wood that is treated with a seasoned finish will not only burn more efficiently, but also produce less creosote. This is the substance that is able to build up on your fireplace, reducing its efficiency and creating an opportunity for fire hazards. If you are using unseasoned wood, or just making a fresh fire in your outdoor wood burner the best thing to do is to open the back door to the lower part and scoop ashes out into a non-combustible container each week.
You should also perform an annual sediment flush on your boiler at least once 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 debris that has accumulated inside the system and keep your boiler in great functioning condition.
Once you have done the sediment flush, it's now 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 an ash container, a shovel ash container and a scraping tool. To safeguard the refractory, you should lay a cloth on it to protect it while you scrape away coal and ash deposits.
Easy to Operate
Despite their popularity (they were one of the 1990s' "it" trends, along with mullet haircuts) outdoor wood boilers, also known as outdoor furnaces or outdoor wood hydronic heaters, are often misunderstood. They are different from the popular EPA wood stoves, which are built to burn at low temperatures and continuously. They have an increased rate of fire and generate more smoke. Certain local governments restrict or ban their use.
OWBs are great to heat homes with insulation levels that are high. Smoke that is thick and smoldering can also be a nuisance for neighbors, which has led many OWBs to be shut down or sued. To ensure that OWBs to operate properly they must be operated using dry wood that has low moisture content. Using green or unseasoned wood decreases efficiency, causes creosote build up and can cut down the life of the burner. Drying wood takes time and the use of a moisture gauge is a must for the homeowner.
Dual-stage wood gasification (OWGB) boilers are, on the other hand, use a three-step process which makes use of the energy in the wood. This results in less smoke. These kinds of furnaces are much more efficient than traditional OWBs and can be used with a greater range of fuel. Wood gasification boilers need dry, seasoned wood. Most wood will season within a year, but oak and other hardy species may take two years or more to fully season. They are less watery and have a larger mass. This allows them to hold heat for longer, increasing efficiency and decreasing 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 stoves are engineered to be environmentally friendly. Unlike indoor wood burners that generate significant smoke modern outdoor furnaces burn cleanly and without the production of excessive heat or carbon monoxide. They also require less wood to produce the same amount of heat as traditional stoves.
Outdoor wood burners require less maintenance and are more accepting of moisture content in wood than wood burning stoves for indoor use. Outdoor wood burners are only suitable for wood that has been properly "cured" or seasoned. This could take a whole year or more for certain types of wood. It is important to make use of a moisture meter to measure the amount of water of your wood before loading.
When operating, it is essential to inspect the system periodically for the accumulation of creosote. Creosote is a byproduct from combustion that can build up in the flue and chimney if 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 remove dangerous creosote buildup and improve efficiency.
Crown Royal Stoves developed a new airflow technology known as Negative Pressure Gasification to achieve 99% combustion efficiency. Our EPA certified Pristine Series outdoor wood furnaces employ this technology to pull air from the bottom, directing all of the gasses through an insulated, water-surrounded secondary combustion chamber that is easy to clean Turbulators to ensure a smoke-free and pollution free combustion.