We tell you how to properly heat a boiler with wood and what needs to be done to make it burn more slowly in the stove.

The law of burning wood stoves and boilers states that the same amount of material can burn differently and give off different amounts of heat. However, it is important for everyone who chooses this method of heating to understand how to economically heat a boiler with wood or a stove.

Why firewood burns quickly in the stove – the main mistakes

In order to understand how to properly and economically heat a stove with wood, you need to find out what your mistake is if pieces of wood burn too quickly. Typically, the reasons are as follows:

• improper stacking of firewood;
• failure to close the valve in time;
• poorly chosen wood species;
• unsuitable wood temperature;
• unheated firebox;
• a large amount of soot;
• lack of adjustment of the amount of firewood depending on the outside temperature.

A life hack on how to make wood in a stove burn more slowly and more efficiently implies that you take into account all the above points and quickly correct the situation – then your home will always have a comfortable temperature, and you won’t have to buy firewood again and again.

How to properly heat a stove with wood to keep it warm – instructions

will tell you what to do to make firewood burn longer and give off more heat – it turned out that there are a number of nuances and important points. Remember carefully and act strictly according to the instructions.

• Stack firewood in a certain way

If you do what many people do – lay out a pyramid of firewood, put paper in the center and set it on fire, then all the logs will light up at once, as a result the heat will be strong and uneven. It’s better to do it differently – lay out the bottom row of firewood, then the top one, slightly shifting the logs 5-10 cm to the left or right, and lay the next layers in the same way. Place wood chips on the edges where the protrusions have formed, place paper and set them on fire.

IMPORTANT: Leave space between firewood to allow air circulation and use only dry, dense logs.

• Catch the moment when you need to close the valve

It’s correct to heat the boiler with wood, creating a strong draft (this will make them burn faster), but if there is not enough air, a lot of soot will form. Therefore, before lighting a fire, open the valve to create maximum draft, and then, as the wood burns, close it little by little. If you see that the wood is not burning, open the damper again.

• Choose the right type of firewood

Remember that dense firewood gives off more heat and leaves more coals – these, in turn, smolder slowly, providing the surrounding area with an additional portion of high temperature. Those people who use less dense firewood note that soft woods crumble into embers faster, burn faster and burn out faster.

For example, high-density wood is ash, plum, boxwood and acacia; if you manage to make firewood from these trees, they will burn longer than spruce, willow, aspen, pine, linden or poplar.

• Prepare firewood in advance

An important point in how to heat with raw wood is to prepare the material in advance. It is advisable to bring them into the house 2-3 days before lighting to increase the temperature of the logs. This way they will spend less heat on their own heating and more on heating the room. Dry and warm firewood will burn more economically and with virtually no smoke, unlike cold wood.

• Preheat the firebox

The same principle works here as in the previous paragraph – if you put warm firewood in a cold stove, it will burn for some time to heat the device itself, and only then the room. But even despite this, it will not be so easy for them to warm up – they will have to fight the cold air in the firebox. In order to quickly heat up the firebox, you can burn pieces of paper there.

• Observe the burning mode of the logs

The ideal temperature is up to 320 degrees, since a higher value will cause active combustion of firewood. You will have to constantly add them, eventually not receiving the necessary heat – some will “fly away” into the chimney. You can constantly monitor the optimal temperature only with a mode indicator, so don’t be lazy and buy it.

It is important to take into account the temperature not only in the firebox, but also outside – this determines how much firewood you need to put in the stove. The warmer it is outside, the less wood you need for heating. The situation when you put the same amount both at -5 degrees and at -18 leads to less savings in the first case.

• Remove soot

Soot must be cleaned off constantly, because, firstly, it clogs the chimney, and secondly, it creates thermal insulation. Walls coated with soot give off less heat, and you have to use more firewood. If you regularly remove soot, you can save a lot on logs.