The Campfire Trail: October 17 - DIY Homestead

October 17, 2022

Day 381 of the Adventure

My New Coffee Cup Warmer

I had mentioned yesterday that we were installing our new wood stove ahead of the upcoming cold weather predicted for tonight and tomorrow night. I am pleased to announce that the installation was a success and was put to use last night. I also should mention that it's been about 30 years since the last time we've had a wood stove in our house and things have changed. Evidently, there's been regulations applied to the stove manufacturing industry to reduce "smoke output". I wasn't too sure if I liked what I saw inside the firebox of our new wood burner. There were no fresh air adjustment vents in the combustion area. Also, they recommended not installing a damper in the stove pipe. Thus, the two methods for controlling the flame were missing in my opinion. I did find the fresh air intake vent, but it only provided an indirect supply of air. My skepticism was high.

We fired it up outside to cure the paint on it a couple weeks ago. During that test run, we discovered that the burning process was slower than I was accustomed to and seemed to provide less ability to control. Fast forward to last night..... Upon lighting it up. I planned to get a picture of the smoke curling up from the chimney top. There was no smoke! So much for my dramatic cabin/chimney/smoke picture! Evidently, I guess, the low smoke feature was doing its job. We started it around 3pm in the afternoon with a couple of small scraps of pine log siding cut-offs. My next surprise was that we didn't need to add any additional wood for about three hours. We added two pieces of actual hickory firewood about 6pm and let it run that way until bedtime when it still had not burned down enough to justify adding more. By Midnight, it had reached the point where I added a single piece of well cured oak about six inched in diameter. Upon checking it at 6am this morning, there was still about a third of it left.

My conclusion? After the first night, I think I've decided to be amazed by the efficiency of the burn. Of course, last night only got down to the upper 30's, but honestly, the cabin stayed very comfortable. It used almost nothing for firewood. Possibly more important though, there was no messing around with the air flow adjustments, neither inflow or outflow, to "get it right". Obviously, there is a bit of incoming airflow control at the air intake vent, but we left that alone and it did just fine at about half open. I believe we are going to be very happy with the results of our wood stove. I also think that even though there is less fussing around with controlling how the stove burns, I still believe there will be a learning curve on how to best use it as the weather continues to cool. We'll see how it all works out..........

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.” ― Roy T. Bennett

Base Camp Coffee of the Day: Lost up the Creek (Sumatra)

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