Nowadays, efficient and economical use of fuel is significant. People want to ensure comfort and warmth in their homes and reduce costs and negative environmental impacts. Installing a wood stove that provides a long burn is a great solution. Let’s take a better look at this issue.
How Modern Wood Stoves Work?
Today, many variations and design solutions allow you to create a long-burning furnace. However, despite all the technical differences, the operating principle of such heating devices remains the same. A long-burning wood stove uses the abovementioned pyrolysis effect to ensure better and more efficient fuel consumption.
Thus, the central part of the thermal energy is generated due to the combustion of gases released during the smoldering process of wooden logs: methane, hydrogen, and other substances. Smoldering of firewood is caused by specially dosing the supply of oxygen to the stove using a regulator. First, the fuel is allowed to burn efficiently for about half an hour, and then the access of the oxidizer to the firebox is minimized.
Heat logs under such conditions release the maximum possible amount of flammable gases, which, when burned in a separate chamber, provide heating of the pyrolysis furnace body and high-quality heating of the room. Often, the design of a pyrolysis furnace includes a water cooling circuit, turning it into a full-fledged boiler for the heating system.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Wood Stoves
First, let’s list the benefits that you get as a result of installing such a stove.
- Almost complete combustion of fuel. As a result, long-burning boilers have excellent efficiency indicators, reaching 85%.
- Cleaning and maintaining long-burning stoves is quite simple since no ash is left after the fuel burns out.
- Environmental friendliness. With complete combustion of any organic compounds, the only oxidation products are water vapor and carbon dioxide. The unpleasant odor emitted during the combustion of organic production waste is a consequence of incomplete fuel combustion when toxic under-oxidized compounds remain. In a pyrolysis furnace, combustible materials decompose entirely, so various industrial wastes can be safely used as an energy carrier, the combustion of which under normal conditions is allowed only at a considerable distance from residential areas in special landfills.
- Loading a new batch of firewood or other fuel must be done much less frequently, approximately once every 10 to 15 hours, twice as high as conventional stoves and stoves. Some industrial models of pyrolysis boilers can operate even longer on one portion of the fuel.
- The high heating rate of the coolant in the presence of a heat exchange circuit for heating the house.
- Possibility of high-quality and precise adjustment of the boiler power. Under normal conditions, it is challenging to control the operation of heating installations using solid fuel, in contrast to analogs that use liquid or gaseous fuel. However, since the gas emitted by solid fuel is burned in a separate compartment in a pyrolysis furnace, this problem is also quite effectively solved.
Unfortunately, there are no perfect solutions, so wood stoves also have disadvantages. Firstly, if you already have a heating system, dismantling it and purchasing new equipment will require investment. These costs will pay off in the long term, but this will not happen immediately. Consider these before buying and installing.
- More strict requirements for fuel moisture. If you use under-dried firewood and try to put the unit into operation before it is dry, the fire may go out, and complete pyrolysis will not begin.
- Quite impressive dimensions. In addition, you will need to provide additional space for storing firewood or other fuel.
- Inability to operate entirely autonomously. Fuel will need to be loaded into the oven by hand.
If these disadvantages do not scare you, then feel free to install a wood-burning stove.
Nuances of Operating a Wood Stove
When installing a stove in a room, observe the following rules: Since a long-burning stove gets very hot, any fusible and flammable materials should be placed away from it. There should be plenty of free space around the pyrolysis oven. Place it away from walls and furniture to avoid damage due to excess heat.
However, as already written above, this and the previous problem are partially solved by installing brickwork around the perimeter of the stove. Always leave a small layer of ash behind after cleaning the furnace. It will protect our unit from premature burnout of the bottom and failure of the boiler.
Fuel Selection
Of course, the best fuel for a pyrolysis boiler is dry logs. But, since one of the main goals of installing a stove is to save on heating the room, some other combustible materials that are constantly on hand are also quite suitable.
Inexpensive fuel pellets made from compressed wood and agricultural waste, such as pine cones, sawdust, chips, seed, onion husks, and other environmentally friendly materials, can replace firewood. Coal is also suitable, but it is necessary to consider that this fuel produces potent heat. It can be loaded into furnaces with a thick steel body. Otherwise, the pyrolysis furnace will quickly become unusable.
Conclusion
Many homeowners face the problem of choosing the optimal heating. In this case, it is necessary to consider the equipment’s installation costs and energy efficiency. The use of modern wood stoves in combination with fuel briquettes is the optimal solution for today. Such a stove will provide warmth and comfort, help reduce heating costs, and reduce the negative impact on nature.
