Lighting, replenishing and getting heat from smokeless fuel

John_the_Boy

Bag of anthracite bought today to try - cheers for the tip :T

grumpyoldgal

John_the_Boy, where do you buy anthracite from please?


My installer came out last night, I had logs burning a good 90mins before he arrived.


He agreed that there wasn't much heat, we talked about the size of it - he agreed that the size was the smallest that we could have for the room size, but to have a larger one we would have needed to have the fire place knocked out (and hubby wouldn't have wanted that).


Anyhow with him being there a good hour later he did have some more warmth out of it - with the airwash being almost closed. He felt that the vents at the back were pushing too much air in, altho he checked the manual where it says that they are factory set at the appropriate setting.


He is going to speak to Stovax today and possibly come back and tweak them.


We were unable to keep the heat at what he got it to when he had left, I don't know why


With regards the arch, I am happy to put a door in, but hubby isn't (I don't know why......) so the installer has suggested that we seal it off for a couple of days and see if it improves the warmth in the room. so that is our next stage......when "himself" can get round to it.

John_the_Boy

I got a bag from my local farm supply shop (contrywide farmers) but any coal merchant should stock.

I must say I got much better heat from topping up with anthracite - thanks you Suki for the idea. Got the stove thermometer to 360 - which is ideal.

Grumpoldgal - what stove do you have and do you have a flue liner?

I have a Stovax inset and find if I load it up with wood - 2 reasonably large splits on the bottom and 3 smaller pieces on top with some kindling and a firelighter in the middle to start it all off I can easily get over 400F on my stove after 90 mins with the odd split added if space allows.

alleycat`

Hi grumpy, what Stovax have you got?

I've got the original model Stockton 5MF in a room that's well over 20' long by a good 13' wide and it's "open" at one side into a "mirrored" room of the same size.

Approx. like this:-

---

int door

---

stairs

---

opening

---

stove

-air

---

ext pat door --
brick

That "mirror" room has an open "vaulted" staircase at the far end so it's not what you'd consider a "closed off experience".

The openings between the rooms are equivalent size of a set of french doors (so about 7' x 7').

My house is reasonably modern / insulated and it'll raise the temperature in the living room from 16C to 22C over a period of a few hours and if i started the fire at 6pm then approx 7KG of smokeless would still have the stove at 150C+ at 7am the following morning (and that's without doing anything to try sustain the fire after about 11pm).

I only run smokeless at approx. 310C (at the flue) rarely need to try get it any hotter than that.

Wood, which i prefer to use, will get the room hotter, faster but it will not "sustain" like smokeless will do.

So unless your room is massive and/or your house is exposed / badly insulated i'd be surprised if you can't get it working to some degree of comfort.

The only time i really have any bother is if the wind is strong/gusty and from a specific direction but that's more to do with controlling the fire than it is getting heat from it.

grumpyoldgal

Hi Alleycat


thank you for your reply. I've yet to hear from him again, and it was a !!!!!! to get started last night but eventually I did, and then put the vents (both of them at almost closed just like he did)and got a reasonable room warmth. We have a Stockton View 5.


I need to get a thermometer because I couldn't tell you what the room temperature got to, but the stove thermometer was sitting just toward the top end of operating efficiently, so 245C.


Our room (copying your idea) is:


--- PATIO DOORS

---

Door to kitchen

---

ARCH ----
Door to hall


stove

---

Window

---

My measurements were rough the other day using a tape measure and my slippers lol!!! However I noticed a house like ours on Rightmove so have copied their dimensions.......they don't have the arch so theirs is One huge room. Width 11'7" and length 30'10"


I am at a loss with the vents really. I have read so many things on t'internet regarding getting the stove going which is fine, and then they generally say to close the primary vent if burning Wood, and close the top airwash if burning SF. When he initially installed the stove he said I would run it with the airwash vent at around 50% open - but to increase the heat output the other day he almost closed it.


But nowhere tells me then what to do to maintain my fire and heat and re-fuelling blah blah with regards to the vents.


x

A._Badger

grumpyoldgal wrote: »

Hi Alleycat




I am at a loss with the vents really. I have read so many things on t'internet regarding getting the stove going which is fine, and then they generally say to close the primary vent if burning Wood, and close the top airwash if burning SF. When he initially installed the stove he said I would run it with the airwash vent at around 50% open - but to increase the heat output the other day he almost closed it.


But nowhere tells me then what to do to maintain my fire and heat and re-fuelling blah blah with regards to the vents.


x

It's really quite simple and I think Suki had it nailed in her recent post.

If you are using smokeless, light the stove with all vents wide open. Once the fire is burning well, leave the bottom vents wide open and close the top vents so that most of the air to the fire is coming up through the hot coals. Leave the top vents slightly open so that an amount of air is flowing down across the glass, helping to keep it smoke free.

If you wish to slow the fire down (though it doesn't sound like you do) control it by closing the bottom vents to achieve the rate of burn you require.

I don't like to be a voice of doom but, frankly, judging from everything you have posted, I strongly suspect the stove isn't big enough for the job. How you handle that with your retailer, I can't say, but if you followed his advice about what to buy, I'd pursue it quite hard with him as it sounds as if you might have been badly advised.

alleycat`

Just to be clear.
Does your therm use Fahrenheit or Celsius?
When i say 310 or 450 i mean Fahrenheit.

I note you put 245C in the last comment which is about 450F.

Just want that clarifying as 245C is right at the top of optimum burn.

Swipe

I think over the next few days will be the tell tale sign if your stove is big enough or not. If you can stay warm enough during this cold spell by running your stove at full tilt then you should be fine on an average winters day.

grumpyoldgal

Hello all


Alleycat - yes 245C is right. I know that shows it to be at the top of the optimum performance, but I can keep my hand an inch away from the glass there is that little heat coming from it!


The installer is going to adjust / close the tertiary vents at the back of the stove, as he thinks these are jetting too much air into the stove which is shooting straight up the chimney.


Then we can see how it goes. I am a little worried about this tho, as I thought this made the stove run more efficiently and therefore would produce more heat?


It is my biggest regret now. Something I was so excited about and I have cried with sheer frustration at the sheer waste of money and this situation we are now in.


thanks for all your responses x

michaelgordon

i have been reading this thread with interest and after trying to use smokeless last year but didnt much asdont think i was doing it right but could not remember correctly still have most of the bag i bought. So today as it was cold enough and was in all day so started a fire this morning with kindling and logs it got going well but i wanted to keep it on with a steady heat all day and with logs i normally only burn for two or three hours a night before it gets too hot so put some smokeless on and it hovered between 300 - 400f it did dip below this a couple of times and i had to rescue it with more smokeless and a log to get it going again. I started at 9 and used the smokeless at about 1030 and kept refueling with about 15 or so coals another three times and stopped about 4 temp in room got to about 29 has been dropping but still at 26 now and still warmth coming from fire and its still glowing.

I do have a couple of questions. On the grate there is a lot of small pieces of coal that have not burnt down and a couple of large pieces, is this normal? Does smokeless produce more soot on the liner, if i continue to burn mainly weekends only but will probably be using it daily for a couple weeks over Christmas will i need to get it swept again as i only had the one sweep in June this year (only installed august last year).

Thirdly and i think this will be the debatable one but can smokeless be burnt with wood i know there is something here with regards to this and it producing an acid when smoke condenses on the liner but again someone here said thats nonsense as they were a sweep and never seen it. Is the way i started today going to be ok?

Thanks in advance