Burning Peat Briquettes and Night Briquettes

paperclap

Hi all,

So, we own a Clearview Pioneer 400 multi-fuel stove. Lovely little 5kW stove!

Typically, we'll burn seasoned wood.

Recently, we've been gifted a big batch of Bord Na Mona peat briquettes (smokeless) and Lekto night briquettes (not smokeless).

I know there is some controversy on whether peat should be burned at all, as it isn't the most sustainable fuel. I hear Bord Na Mona will soon seize all operations on harvesting peat. This aside, as mentioned, I have a big batch of it.

Does anyone have experience with burning peat briquettes and/or night briquettes?

From my understanding, wood likes to receive air from above, across the glass (air slider / clean air). Whereas coal likes to receive air from below, via the grate (spin wheel / dirty air).

However, I can't for the life of me find any concrete information on how to best burn peat briquettes. I've seen that the Lekto night briquettes are made up of softwood bark, so presumably they would burn just like regular wood (receiving air from above)? Though, I've not yet tried burning them.

Could anyone shed some light?

Thanks in advance!

lohr500

Can't help you with the peat briquettes, but I got some Lekto night briquettes a couple of months ago to try with our small wood burner (Morso Super squirrel). I am really impressed with them. If I put two in the burner at around 10pm on top of the dying embers, then they are still glowing the next morning, even up to 9am. I shut down the air vent below the grate and the chimney damper and they just seem to burn away slowly. In the morning, I open the chimney damper, throw on some logs and there is enough heat in the Lekto briquettes to get the wood burner back into action. 

dunstonh

lohr500 said:

Can't help you with the peat briquettes, but I got some Lekto night briquettes a couple of months ago to try with our small wood burner (Morso Super squirrel). I am really impressed with them. If I put two in the burner at around 10pm on top of the dying embers, then they are still glowing the next morning, even up to 9am. I shut down the air vent below the grate and the chimney damper and they just seem to burn away slowly. In the morning, I open the chimney damper, throw on some logs and there is enough heat in the Lekto briquettes to get the wood burner back into action. 

did your glass not soot up with the overnight burn with air off?   That is the usual criticism with Lekto night briquettes as you need as little air as possible to get the night burn.    It is a really fine line between too little and too much.   
Or maybe those that see that are burning them by putting them in the stove too early (whilst the fire is still burning strong).

lohr500

Yes, the glass does soot up, but most of it burns off next day once back on regular logs. When we 1st installed the wood burner nearly 30 years ago, I was obsessed with keeping the glass clean. Now it doesn't bother me  The original glass panel is crazed and has some burned on deposits, but the stove still heats the room and you can see the wood glowing through the glass. Part of the charm!!!

matelodave

What about crud in the flue or does the daily burn disperse it. I'd have though that a slow overnight burn would cuase a lot more soot to build up. What does you chimney sweep say about the quality and quantity of soot since you've used them

lohr500

I've not used them for long, but I haven't noticed any more build up of crud in the stove than when we damp it right down overnight on wood logs. We only use the wood burner at weekends over winter and I am embarrassed to say I have never had the chimney or flue swept in 30 years  Every now and then (when I can remember) l let the burner rip for a few minutes during the day time to get the internals, flue and chimney really hot and that seems to keep it clean.  So I am probably not the best person to comment on their long term effect!!!!

paperclap

Thanks everyone.

We'd finally used up our batch of Lekto night briquettes, and can't really say I'm all that impressed.

They advertise 8+ hours or the like, but again, I don't get anything more than an hour for each. And, often find myself having to put two in at a time to even sustain the 200-250 degrees temperature.

That said, their intended use is of course a "night burn" (it is in the name, after all!). Trouble with that is, surely when letting the temperature drop low, you create creosote... which is obviously not ideal!

Think I'll just stick to good old fashioned wood from here on out.

dunstonh

Your experience matches what many others have said. i.e the only way to get the long burn is to shut the air right down to virtually nothing and soot and creosote everything up just to give you enough embers in the early morning to light it again without a match.

paperclap

Sure wish they'd state this! I'm sure I could get a 24 hour burn time... when burning at 5 degrees!

Lesson learnt.

One thing they are handy for, however, is getting the fire up to temperature in the first place. We'd recently run out of wood, but had a batch of peat briquettes. The peat briquettes are an absolute bore to catch as they're so dense. Whereas the Lekto briquettes caught with no issues, as they're all bark!