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Do you get more heat if you burn slowly?

 
pollinator
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I am wondering. I have a great wood stove, the Italian La Nordica Rosetta.
If I wish, I can adjust the air intake so that it burns like a volcano. Or I can restrict the air inflow for a slower burning.
Is there a difference in the amount of heat I get?
If I burn fast and ferociously, will I heat the air above the house?
Two pictures to show the difference
20221020_002937.jpg
Ferocious burning. I could let it burn even faster.
Restricted airflow I could go even lower
20221019_171817.jpg
The wood stove
The wood stove
20221019_224129.jpg
Fast burning. I could let it burn even faster!
Fast burning. I could let it burn even faster!
 
pollinator
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Timber has a specific amount of heat within its composition.
You might call it total BTU- british Thermal Units.
Different methods of burning will release the same amount of energy, but may be wasteful with that energy.
A vigorous fire may cause a greater amount of heat to race up the flue, exiting the top without having time to radiate into the house.
 
Kaarina Kreus
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Thank you John. That is what I was wondering.
So as long as the wood burns cleanly, ie no blue flames - I am better off restricting the air flow?
 
gardener
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That's a sweet looking stove, I hope you'll do a post someday reviewing it. I know there is a distributor here in canada that carries it, but they were out of stock when I was ready to pull the trigger last.
 
Kaarina Kreus
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They are practically unavailable at the moment, due to supply bottlenecks. I ordered mine a year ago and when it was delivered in April, the dealer said it is extremely frustrating - demand is up but he will not get any delivery dates from the factory. He said "you probably got the last stove in the world".

In the last decades, all companies have outsourced every bolt and nitbit to the cheapest supplier. We are now reaping the results. Global "efficient" just-in-time from the cheapest source logistic chains are falling apart.

But I will gladly do a review. Should I just post it as a new topic in this area?
 
rocket scientist
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Yes Please Kaarina;
Start a new thread in this forum and tell us all about that beautiful stove!  
We like pictures!
 
thomas rubino
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As an answer to your question.
When running your stove hot, the majority of bad stuff (creosote) is burned off.
Unfortunately, quite a bit of your heat is going up the chimney.
When regulating the incoming air to slow down your fire, you lower the burn temperature and therefore the outgoing heat loss is less.
However, this lower temp causes the "bad stuff" like creosote to form.

I suspect the highest efficiency could be had by burning wide open hot and letting it coal out and cool down before adding more wood.
Living with wood heat myself, I know that unless you have an RMH... that is not a realistic way to burn.
You will find a happy medium in the middle, where you warmly sip tea and watch the snowfall out in the cold and enjoy the last stove available in the world!
 
master pollinator
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There is no single answer. It depends on the design of the stove, and the operator.

The initial burn should always be hot, to heat the stove and get the wood up to a temperature where moisture is driven off and clean, complete combustion can occur.

Once that point is reached, the stove is usually damped down to prevent overheating and keep the combustion gases in the stove longer. This allows the transfer of more heat from the stove into the room.

A high end stove will actually recycle part of the flue gas into the firebox and mix it with heated secondary combustion air, resulting in an extremely clean burn even at "half throttle."

Once it is down to a bed of coals, essentially carbon, the volatiles/creosote that would cause deposits in the chimney system have been burned away. The stove can be damped down a bit more to hold in this last heat, but not too far since carbon needs a fair amount of oxygen to burn.

That has been my experience. And BTW, once you have operated a high end, carefully engineered wood stove, everything else is a glorified campfire. Amazing machines!
 
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