STOVE GUIDE - DanSkan

HEATING WITH WOOD
TIPS FOR THE ENVIRONMENTALLY-CONSCIOUS
STOVE OWNER AND HEATING EXPERT
THE ENVIRONMENT
Burning wood in a modern clean-burning stove is as close to being
environmentally friendly as it‘s possible to be. Approximately 80 %
of the pure wood is converted into gas and only the natural components
of the original tree – water, carbon dioxide and minerals,
are released into the atmosphere.
When wood is correctly burned it only sets free the original CO ²
that the tree captured and converted while it was growing, making
it essentially a ‘carbon neutral’ fuel, unlike fossil fuels which only
add to the greenhouse effect. When you burn wood you are merely
accelerating the decomposition process that would happen in
nature anyway, but you get the joy of all that heat!
HEATING VALUE: kWH
Wood Type
Solid Cubic
Metres
Cubic Metres Kilograms
Robinie 3.000 2.100 4,1
Ash 2.900 2.100 4,1
Oak 2.900 2.100 4,2
Elm 2.800 2.000 4,1
Beech 2.800 2.000 4,0
Birch 2.700 1.900 4,3
Maple 2.600 1.800 4,1
Pine 2.300 1.700 4,4
Alder 2.100 1.500 4,1
Spruce 2.000 1.400 4,5
Willow 2.000 1.400 4,1
Poplar 1.700 1.200 4,1
HEAT OUTPUT
The efficiency of a good stove depends not only on the right fuel,
but also on the correct design of the bodywork and the combustion
air technology within it.
To derive the heat output and efficiency of a stove the number of
logs burning at the same time is considered. As a rule of thumb a
good wood fuel log will transmit about 2 kW of heat to a room. For
example a stove rated at 7/8 kW output with only 2 logs burning
would therefore only produce around 4 kW of heat output.
FINE DUST AND OTHER PARTICULATES
Burning wood, wood pellets or similar in poorly designed or outmoded
‘unclean’ stoves and open fireplaces will unfortunately produce many
harmful and unhealthy particulates. Since the new, more stringent air
quality standards of BImSchV (Germany) which covers fine particles
emissions, all DAN SKAN stoves are tested to ensure sustainable
and thorough combustion in order to produce very low particulate
emissions, thus minimising any potential danger to health.
This ensures that your DAN SKAN stove is as clean-burning as
possible.
THE RIGHT FUEL
The efficiency of your stove really does depend on choosing the
correct wood fuel. Fresh (‘green’) or damp wood will not provide much
heat, will not burn well and will produce excessive smoke and soot
inside your stove and chimney or flue system. Dry wood will always
burn well providing it has an average moisture content of less than
18 %. The drier the wood then the greater the calorific heat value.
Softwoods are generally more flammable and therefore have the
advantage of producing a good flame very quickly, which is necessary
for pre-fires and helping slower burning hardwood logs to catch
fire. A good bed of glowing embers is important to promote
combustion during refills.
The drier the wood, then the higher the proportion of lignin it contains
and the higher the heating value it has when burned. Woods
which are rich in tannin have a lower heating value and produce
much more soot which will dirty your stove and flue system than
wood which is easily flammable.
Our favourite is Birch because of its excellent rich flames and its
long burn time, making it ideal for burning in stoves.
After drying in the summer wood can be very dry and therefore
more susceptible to drawing in moisture from the damp Autumn
air so it is always good to bring wood indoors for final drying up to
two to three weeks before finally burning.
Finally, always try to source your wood locally to minimise the
impact transporting it has on the environment.
COMBUSTION AIR
The supply of combustion air within the stove‘s fire chamber is
critical for efficient and clean burning performance. For nearly four
decades DAN SKAN have been developing the best way to target
combustion air around the fire chamber to produce beautifully efficient
clean-burning flames. Here are the three different ways…
1. PRIMARY AIR: Primary combustion air is
mainly used for mineral fuel fires, for example
coal. It is delivered from under the riddle grate
and directed through the grate into the fuel.
2. SECONDARY AIR: Secondary combustion
air provides the main combustion air for wood
fuel. In a DAN SKAN stove the secondary air
is pre-heated before entering the fire chamber
to keep the fire chamber temperature as high
as possible for effective and clean-burning
performance.
3. TERTIARY AIR: This third type of
combustion air is post-combustion air, which
is automatically let into the fire cham-ber
above the top of the flames by the patented
DAN SKAN i-AIR system discussed earlier
and is the main reason for DAN SKAN‘s
exceptionally low fine particle values.
HEALTHY HEATING
When choosing your new convection stove
bear in mind that a small stove body working
very hard could overheat, whilst a stove with a bigger body will
provide a gentler heat – a healthier and softer warmth. Your DAN
SKAN partner will be happy to advise you on best heat output of
your new stove after consideration of your room and lifestyle.
77