Log burner investment?

ariarnia

thriftytracey said:

I don't understand how you can leave the ash to build up - our wood burning stove has a tray underneath that is almost full after each fire.  Could probably leave it for two fires max before it would spill over.

i think it depends on what you are burning the size of your stove and how much you put on it? 

we have a 5kw stove and its the hamlet solution 5 widescreen. so its not very tall but is wider than a lot of stoves (we have quite wide chimney breasts). we dont need it going full pelt all day and night nights so probably burn about 6kg of wood in an evening starting at about 4 or 5 and stopping putting anything on it sometime between 8 and 10. 

Qyburn

It depends on the design of the stove, and where the air come in. Our living room stove needs airflow under the grate, so that doesn't work if the ash is too full. The front room stove only has air supply above the grate. Some dedicated wood stoves don't even have a grate.
Our ash gets sprinkled onto our rougher grassed areas.

mmmmikey

I find that I get a lot less ash burning logs than I do burning briquettes, and much less ash burning regular briquettes than bark briquettes.

mmmmikey

...and a LOT of ash burning my shed due to an unfortunate incident with hot embers

markin

The is a good reason that the is a million spit A/C units in Finland with just a Pop of 5 million, Fires are hard work, And they are just as popular in Sweden and Norway, along with the old storage heaters.


Now here's a 10hr video to make you 'Feel' warm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VB4bgiB0yA

dunstonh

I don't understand how you can leave the ash to build up - our wood burning stove has a tray underneath that is almost full after each fire.  Could probably leave it for two fires max before it would spill over.

Obviously, stoves and their ash capacity differ.   We go about 2 weeks without emptying the ash on the stove we use daily from about midday to last log around 9pm.   The tray underneath has a small capacity but once the ash is no longer falling through, it starts to build up.    

However, if you are burning good quality wood and burning it correctly and dont use much paper or kindling (we use twigs from our own site which are seasoned), then you shouldn't get quick ash build up.

Effician

thriftytracey said:

I don't understand how you can leave the ash to build up - our wood burning stove has a tray underneath that is almost full after each fire.  Could probably leave it for two fires max before it would spill over.

If you want to go a bit nerdy then look at the wood ash you throw away, it should look & feel like grey flour with no combustible material left, this would indicate a complete burn in the firebox. By leaving the previous fires ash in place , if there is any charcoal that failed to burn up fully in the ash bed then  it will get used as fuel on the next lighting.