How to properly heat a Russian stove: advice from experienced stove-makers. How to heat a Russian stove How to melt a Russian stove

A stove in a home will last for decades if used correctly. It is important not only to comply with the ignition conditions, but also to control the combustion process. You also need to be able to use the optimal amount of firewood, so how to properly heat the stove means to achieve the maximum efficiency that it is capable of. Operational safety lies in the absence of carbon monoxide and overheating of the case, and for this you need to know some rules and nuances.

We start kindling

There are different designs of stoves, but the principle of using them is practically the same. You can also light a fireplace and a sauna stove. In general, any stove brings comfort to the house, and the interior is filled with a special flavor. But if you have not lived in the house for a long time, it is important to correctly make the first kindling, since the subsequent operation depends on it.

Theoretically, you can use any materials, but it is better to heat a classic stove with wood. They give the least waste and soot, and coal, for example, gives more carbon monoxide. At the same time, another furnace device is intended for coal, peat, since an ordinary grate is clogged with burnt residues. However, even the preparation of firewood should be carried out competently, since the quality of combustion and the operation of the furnace depends on their parameters.

It should be borne in mind that even slightly damp logs reduce the percentage of efficiency and contribute to the accumulation of condensation in the chimney. Soot adheres to its walls, as a result of which traction decreases. The kindling of different stoves is distinguished by the laying of firewood, for example, before stoking the Russian stove, the firewood is put in a well of 10 logs, and after firing it is shifted into the crucible. For a stove without a cooking chamber, another technique is used: the firewood is applied in an even layer, the upper ones form the shape of a slide.

If ignition is carried out after a long break, use the upper kindling. It ensures a slow ignition of the flame and a gradual heating of the case. Bottom ignition means that the kindling is placed under the wood. This method is acceptable if the oven is heated regularly. It promotes rapid heating of the firebox and the entire body, which leads to high thermal loads.

What kind of logs to take?

If there is a possibility of choosing a type of wood, it is advisable to know with which wood it is better to melt a cold stove, and which keep the heat for a long time. The most calorific varieties are the following (listed in order of decreasing parameter):

Hence it follows that for the first operation or after a long break it is better to take coniferous firewood. They gradually ignite, heating the firebox not too quickly. For daily use they take alder, birch, oak. They are convenient for fast burning and heating of the case within half an hour.

How much fuel should I put in the firebox?

The optimal thickness of the logs is 8 cm. Dry firewood with a height of 40 cm is placed on the grate. The rule is observed: the more moisture they are, the less they are laid at a time. If, in addition to firewood, other types of solid fuel are used, its moisture also affects the amount. For example, coal is placed 15 cm high, and peat with a moisture content of up to 30% - up to 30 cm high. It is important to know that coal is placed on a bed of burnt wood to protect the grate from clogging it with fractions.

The bottom layer of firewood lies evenly on the grate - this rule is observed in any stove. In this case, there should not be large holes for the free passage of air and its exit into the pipe. Ideally, the firewood covers the entire grate, but the air passes through it evenly. If there is too much of it, it can be seen by the white color of the flame. If it is small, it will become saturated red. If, after burning, blue flames appeared in the coals, it means that carbon monoxide began to be emitted. In this case, they are leveled and the chimney valve is opened, if it was closed by that time to save heat.

We heat the stove according to the rules

First, the ash pan is cleaned of combustion products, then firewood (or peat, straw, coal) is applied. A piece of birch bark, cardboard or paper is set on fire, placed under firewood or placed on top of them. The grate should not be clogged with pieces of solid fuel - air will stop passing through it and the quality of combustion will deteriorate.

During the burning of wood, they are stirred, turned over with a poker, since the stove must be heated in such a way that they burn evenly. This must be done at least 2 times during the entire heating time of the furnace. The first batch of firewood should be small in volume. After about 40 minutes, it is supplemented with the next batch of logs.

Often the first kindling after a long break does not work. This can happen for the following reasons:

the oven is damp
it's warmer outside than in the house
closed chimney valve

In this case, a small amount of paper is first burned, warming up the chimney, and only after that firewood is laid on the grate. It is firewood, and not another solid fuel, since it is better to heat a cold stove with it, which has not been used for a long time. You should pay attention to the difference between the Russian stove, since it has a cooking chamber for cooking. A well-heated oven of this design allows you to cook food within 5 hours after the end of the furnace.

The following rules for firing up the stove and using it should be observed:

The oven body must be heated to 70ºC.
The heating process lasts a maximum of 2.5 hours. Then close the dampers, otherwise the oven will cool down quickly.
In addition to firewood, you cannot use other woodworking materials, for example, sawdust. They prevent air from passing through the grate normally.

Overheating of the case must not be allowed, as this leads to cracks and to its subsequent collapse. That is why it is undesirable to heat an unfinished and non-insulated house. At the end of the process, the unburned firewood is collected in the center of the firebox and wait until it burns completely. You can also take them out immediately and put them in a metal bucket.

Russian stove has several purposes, in particular, it can be used to heat a room, it can be used to cook food, and it can also be used for drying and thermal processing of herbs and fruits. No matter how you use it, it is very important to know how to heat a Russian stove.

The main advantage of such ovens is that not only the cooking chamber, but also the lower part of the oven is heated simultaneously during the heating. The stove consists of several main elements, which include a cooking chamber or crucible, a heating chamber and an additional marque. All these elements provide the furnace with high efficiency rates.

If you use the stove regularly, then there will be no problems with kindling it, but if you do not use it regularly, the stove can smoke when firing. This process occurs due to the formation of reverse thrust. In order to avoid smoke, you need to warm up the pipe by burning paper, birch bark or splinters. It is also important to take into account the air temperature outside and in the room where it is located.

The thickness of the walls of the Russian stove ranges from 12 centimeters to 24 centimeters, respectively, it will take some time to warm them up. The maximum heat release occurs not earlier than after 5-6 hours of heating. In order to overheat the internal masonry, the stove must be heated gradually and evenly.

Before stoking the stove it is necessary to take out all the contents of the cooking stove, clean the blower, clean the firebox from ash, and also open the latch. The stove must be heated once or twice a day in one of two ways.

The most economical heating method the stove is burning firewood in it, which must be stacked tightly to each other. The first tab of firewood should be maximum, all subsequent ones are reduced by one and a half to two times. The firewood must be loaded when the first batch has turned into embers. The stove must not be heated with an open fire door.

Kindle the stove can also be done in two ways, they are usually called top and bottom. The last method is the most common and consists in the fact that kindling takes place under the firewood, while with the upper method of kindling, the kindling is installed on top of the firewood. Regardless of the method of ignition, the blower door must be opened 5-10 centimeters. It is necessary to ensure that the firewood is dry, as well as that they, coals and ash do not fall into the side holes of the hearth.

After the end of the furnace, the coals must be moved with a poker into the firebox, and all valves must be closed. Regardless of the method chosen, it is necessary to heat the Russian stove no more than 2.5 hours.

Russian stove is multifunctional and assumes different uses. So, for cooking and baking, a special cooking chamber is intended, or as it is also called a crucible. After the end of the firebox, you can cook for 6 hours. In order to bake bread, it is necessary for the oven to cool down a little, you also need to close all the valves.

During cooking it is important to determine the temperature in the brewhouse. So, if placed on under the paper, it turns black - this means that the temperature is above 300 degrees, which means it is too early to bake bread.

In order to cook delicious food in the oven, it is necessary to cover all containers with lids. Also, in order to make cooking take less time, you can add a little boiling water to all dishes. Use pans without plastic parts as they may melt.

In order for the Russian stove to serve for a long time, effectively and functionally, it is worth knowing what cannot be used, namely:

Gasoline and other similar materials for kindling the stove;
All kinds of waste, including construction and household waste, must not be burned in the furnace;
Use raw wood, as evaporation of moisture consumes a significant amount of heat;
You must not heat the stove with an open fire door;
Burn color and glossy printed materials in the oven;
Do not heat the stove with woodworking waste;
Cover the top of the stove with flammable materials, this may cause a fire;
Lay the space between the stove and the wall with combustible materials;
Drying is ineffective in a confined space without air movement;
Overheat stoves, it is better to heat the stove more often than usual than to use a forced firebox;
To heat the stove in an unfinished house.

Cleaning the oven requires special attention., since the efficiency and long-term of its work depends on it. Every year, before the start of the heating season, the stove must be cleaned with a poker. There are special holes for this, closed by doors. It is necessary to scrape thoroughly with a poker or a broom on the inner walls of the oven, this will help to remove soot and ash.

It is worth noting that with proper combustion, soot is practically not formed, and the stove is clogged only with ash, which can be easily removed.

It is known that a properly designed and built Russian stove will operate efficiently for more than a decade. It is the poet who needs to entrust such painstaking and responsible work to professionals with many years of experience. , has established itself as a reliable, stable and experienced contractor and will gladly help you in all matters related to the stove, bath, sauna or pool. Our work is not limited to practical advice, design and construction, we find complex solutions that take into account your wishes and fantasies.

One way or another, it must be remembered that proper operation of the oven will save you time and money.

Despite the widespread use of liquid and gaseous fuel stoves, the operation of solid fuel stoves is no less common today. Not every user thinks that an improper wood-burning stove leads to an increase in fuel consumption like firing a Russian stove with wood by an average of 15-20%, as well as inefficiency of the heating process, violation of the safety of the fireplace or stove operation with a reduction in its service life. The question of how to properly heat the stove with wood depends on its design and provides for various approaches.

A wood-burning stove should undergo preventive maintenance work to clean the chimney from soot and soot two or three times a year, if necessary, including its repair. Prepare the stove immediately before starting firing. For this, all combustion products are removed from the ash pan (ash, soot). If the inner oven walls are covered with soot or ash, it will warm up weakly and for a long time, burning a large amount of firewood. The grate must also be cleaned, since with clogged grate gaps there will be insufficient air circulation to support intense fuel combustion.

The right choice of firewood

The wood must be well dried. If you heat the stove with damp wood, when they burn, a large amount of soot will be formed, clogging the chimney, as well as condensate, the accumulation of which on the walls will lead to a rapid destruction of the furnace structure. To dry well, the wood after splitting must lie in a dry woodshed or under a street shed for at least a year. The correct stacking of firewood is considered a criss-cross method.

Stock of firewood

Depending on the type of wood, a certain amount of heat is released during combustion. The best wood for the stove is considered to be solid hardwood fuel. These are birch, aspen, oak, linden. Birch firewood generates more heat than aspen or pine wood, gives an even, high flame and does not spark. When choosing oak logs, a middle aged tree should be used. It is better to use alder logs to clean the chimney from soot. Aspen firewood burns quickly without leaving any coals. Linden, fruit and coniferous firewood is inappropriate to use for kindling a home stove or fireplace, but they give life-giving and healthy vapors into the air, so it is better to use them for heating a bath.

For the most efficient heating, it is necessary that the logs are of the same thickness (on average, 8-10 cm).

Firewood

To ensure a good combustion process, it is necessary to take a responsible approach to the preparation of the primary solid fuel ignition mass. As a rule, the volume of the primary ignition mass for firing up is not less than ¾ of the loading capacity of the furnace. The ignition tab should contain flammable materials - paper, birch bark, thin dry branches, dry shavings. It may happen that, after the combustion of the mass for ignition, the process of combustion of the main bookmark of firewood does not start. To avoid this, you must use logs with thin splinters. Thus, the primary bookmark should contain firewood of various sizes.

When the ignition has taken place, you can lay the main part of the firewood, consisting of whole logs, preferably of the same diameter. In this case, you should not lay large logs in a small firebox, they should first be split into two parts. During the heating process, large logs should be turned over for uniform combustion.

Beautiful oven

To know how to properly heat a Russian stove, it must be borne in mind that, in the process of kindling, the stove valve, or view, as well as the ash pan door located under the firebox chamber (firebox) are important. The shutter regulates the draft force, and the blower door regulates the amount of air supplied. If during the process of the furnace they are in the open position, the combustion temperature will decrease, since the excess air will carry most of the heat out through the chimney. If the latch and door are closed, there will not be enough air in the combustion chamber and the wood will not burn completely. Therefore, in order to properly melt the Russian stove, after laying the ignition mass, it is necessary to open the valve and close the ash pan.

After the kindling starts to burn, the main part of the fuel is put in. In order to properly heat a Russian stove with wood, they can be laid in horizontal rows close to each other or with a gap of 1 cm. As a rule, the firebox of a Russian stove is small, so the firewood is loaded in several portions. In addition, a Russian stove usually has a stove, and it has a so-called summer and winter course. If you do not need to warm up the heating plate, then the summer valve opens.

After the firewood in the firebox flares up, it is necessary to open the blower door and close the firebox. Then the blower door is closed, but not completely, and the combustion draft is adjusted with a view. To know how to properly heat a Russian stove with wood, you need to monitor the fuel combustion process:

If the flame is golden straw in color, this is a sign of normal combustion.
Bright flames and a humming sound indicate an excess of air. This can be corrected by closing the blower door.
If the flame smokes, the combustion process is sluggish and with a lot of smoke, it is necessary to add air to the firebox. For this, a view opens to increase traction.

When the firewood of the first bookmark has burned down to the state of coarse coals, it is possible to re-fill, while the unburned firewood is raked to the center of the firebox. When all the firewood burns out, even the bluish flame will disappear, and ash will appear on the coals, after ten minutes you can close the blower door and view.

How to heat a Russian stove with wood: precautions

To make the kindling process as efficient and safe as possible, some points should be taken into account:

The Russian stove is heated for no more than 2.5 hours. A longer heating process can damage the stove and overheat.
It is not allowed to get into the combustion chamber of plastic products, painted wood, bitumen, and also to use gasoline, kerosene, and similar combustible mixtures for ignition.
Do not close the view before the blue flame above the wood disappears. This can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning.
If the stove has not been used for a long time, check its draft and open the cleaning door before firing up.

Rules for kindling a metal furnace

Metal stoves are common both in homes and baths. The difference between the sauna heater is that its design contains a direct-flow outlet for increased safety. In order to properly heat the sauna stove, it is necessary to take into account the rapid combustion of the primary fill due to the abundant flow of air. In this case, it is important to promptly turn the burning fuel so that large unburned coals do not form.

Metal stoves installed in residential buildings have a curved chimney system for long-term heat retention. The rules for lighting firewood in such stoves relate to the prohibition of the use of liquid combustible mixtures. For the rest, you should adhere to the recommendations, as for kindling conventional furnaces.

A few words should be said about the peculiarities of kindling brick fireplaces and long burning stoves. In the first case, a larger amount of firewood will be required for the primary and main ignition, as well as the time for kindling. In the second case, the features of the combustion chamber suggest a longer combustion process than in conventional fireboxes, therefore, firewood should be laid at intervals not every 2.5 hours, but every 4 hours.

In the cold Russian winters, both the poor and the rich warmed themselves equally - they flooded a large Russian stove, usually standing in the middle of the hut. A properly heated Russian stove could heat a large wooden house even in the most severe cold.

In addition, it was in the Russian oven that one could cook not only tasty and fragrant shanezhki, but also a full meal for a large family.

Even today, Russian stoves are frequent guests in private houses and cottages. Therefore, according to the site www.laser-m.ru, you must definitely know how to properly and quickly melt a Russian stove in a matter of minutes.

1) Firstly, the wood for kindling the Russian stove must be dry. Because wet and damp firewood will melt for a very long time and smoke heavily.

2) Ideally, dry and even birch logs are considered firewood for a Russian stove. They burn well and give a lot of heat.

3) In order for the firewood to start quickly, it is necessary to fold them correctly. The best way to stack a birch stack of firewood is well. It provides good fresh air blowing over the wood and excellent draft during combustion.

4) In order to melt the Russian stove, you will still need kindling. There are two options for kindling - a finely chopped torch or birch bark.

To chop a splinter, it is better to choose a small and sharp hatchet, and the log is even and without knots.

Birch bark is the top layer of birch bark. Remove it with a sharp knife from chopped wood. Birch bark can also be prepared in the forest by removing it from felled birch trees.

5) In order for the draft to be better when firing up the stove, it is necessary to slightly open a special damper installed on top of the chimney - a view.

6) Birch bark is placed in the center of a folded wood well and set on fire from several sides.

7) When the Russian stove is hot enough and near the entrance to it, you can put cast iron pots with a cooking lunch. Food will perfectly "come" without standing on a "direct" fire, due to the high temperature.

8) After the firewood is burned out, the ember is usually placed in the inner part of the Russian stove (the second stove in the stove), and putting dry wood on it is heated as usual. This saves heat and increases the heating of the house.

9) At the same time, in a standing Russian oven, you can bake a large number of various sweets, ranging from pies and shanies, and ending with closed pies and, of course, fragrant and hearty homemade bread.

10) When the coals stop flashing with lights, but are covered with ash and only slightly smolder, you need to cover the view in order to save the heat leaving the hut. Subsequently, the view will need to be closed completely.

In such developed countries as the USA, Canada, England, Japan, many people still do not want to give up stove heating. They say it is economical, comfortable, good for health. Environmentalists confirm: dispersed emission from house stoves is much easier for nature to "digest" without a trace than a salvo of the same power from a CHP. But why - economically? Everyone knows that the stove is gluttonous. Because those people know how to heat the stove. It is more difficult than brushing your teeth, but the art of the stoker can also be brought to full automatism.

The consequences of improper heating of the furnace can be expressed graphically, see fig.:

Although, by the way, it is also possible to heat the black bath so that the smoke from the outside will hardly be visible. However, the designs of house stoves have evolved over the centuries and therefore suffer serious violations of the operating mode (furnace operation). Quite a few people learn to light the stove intuitively, and it seems to work well, see eg. video:

But read also the comments to it - mostly fair. First of all, the danger of burning remains unobvious. Secondly, increased fuel consumption. How to properly heat the stove is not only and not so much art. This is a whole science that requires a thorough knowledge of heat engineering, thermochemistry and other fields of knowledge. The purpose of this publication is to provide the reader with information to master it. The result is more than worth the effort: heating costs for the season are reduced by up to 40% (!).

How solid fuels burn

To begin with, you don't need to strain the mental apparatus especially. It is enough to know, firstly, that the thermal efficiency of liquid fuel and gas stoves is completely determined by the design of the stove / boiler, burner and fuel properties. There are practically no opportunities to achieve its savings by disrupting the normal operation of the device.

However, firewood, coal and peat are different. The consumption of solid fuel for heating depends significantly on how the furnace or boiler is fired on it. It is explained by the peculiarities of the combustion of solid fuel: when the furnace is started, it is initially gasified by heating, releasing flammable gases. This process is called pyrolysis. Pyrolysis gases burn, releasing heat, which heats the carbon base to the combustion temperature, which releases the remainder of the total heat of combustion of this type of fuel.

Note: pyrolysis gases of coal are called coke oven gas, because under certain conditions of its combustion, the carbon base remains unburned, forming coke. Wood can also be burned only at the stage of gasification - you get charcoal. As a fuel, it is currently used only in cooking, since it is very expensive, and burning wood onto coal is a very non-ecological process.

Correct gasification of fuel is especially important if the stove is fired with wood: wood pyrolysis gases provide a very significant part of the heat of combustion of wood and can ignite its fine-structured carbon base without additional measures. At the same time, pyrolysis gases are capable of burning very quickly - the oven will not be able to receive all the heat from them, it will experience a thermal shock that is by no means useful for it, and the excess heat will have no choice but to fly into the chimney. The basis of a correct wood-burning stove is to organize a gradual gasification of firewood, at the same time preventing the temperature in the firebox from dropping below that required for the combustion and complete combustion of carbon. The fact is that quite easily combustible amorphous carbon, when heated above 600 degrees, begins to transform into a modification of graphite. Ignition temperature of amorphous carbon approx. 1100 degrees (depending on its structure), and graphite - over 2000.

The following important circumstances:

The rate of release of pyrolysis gases is highly dependent on temperature - times.
Two - graphitization of amorphous carbon is a very energy-intensive process. In an insufficiently heated furnace, a kind of looping at the pyrolysis stage with the formation of a large amount of graphite soot is possible, when the bulk of the heat from the combustion of pyrolysis gases goes to the formation of graphite.
Three - the maximum temperature in the firebox, at which the stove will receive and accumulate heat or immediately transfer it to the room, is 1200-1300 degrees.
And the last: the energy release of coke oven gas in a conventional furnace is not enough to ignite the amorphous carbon of coal. Its ignition temperature should be created in the firebox of a coal furnace already at its start-up (kindling).

The furnace firebox in the bath has essential features. A significant part of the pyrolysis gases is carbon monoxide CO - carbon monoxide. Its effect on a person in a bathing microclimate increases many times over, because CO is able to penetrate directly into the body through steamed skin. The concentration of CO in the air, which causes headaches and discomfort in a room at 20 degrees, can be fatal in a bath. In this regard, the setting of the furnace stroke and its shutdown are of particular importance, see below.

Based on this, the correct firing of a solid fuel stove should be carried out next. way:

Kindling a wood-burning stove must quickly heat up the fuel before intensive gasification begins;
The kindling of a coal furnace must warm up the initial fuel load (see below) to the ignition temperature of amorphous carbon in at least one place. Then the coal heats up by itself, because its energy release and thermal conductivity are high enough;
The course of the firing house stove is set by the air supply and by adjusting the draft to the maximum thermal efficiency;
The course of the sauna stove is set for instant combustion of pyrolysis gases or (not very desirable) for their immediate exhaust into the chimney;
The stove is stopped before the fuel burns out into ash or, if the fuel is of low quality, before the coal goes out;
Stopping the sauna stove is carried out by extinguishing unburned coals immediately after the complete cessation of pyrolysis, see below, because carbon monoxide is also capable of releasing afterburning amorphous carbon.

Note: firing a stove with peat gives a huge amount of acid radicals. From a house with a peat oven on the move, it carries sour for tens and hundreds of meters. As a result, the harvesting of peat and its use for fuel is prohibited in many countries, and things are moving towards a complete ban everywhere. Therefore, further features of the furnace firing with peat are not considered. If to heat the stove is a matter of vital importance, and there is nothing besides peat, then they heat it in the same way as with brown coal, see below.

How to heat the stove

In general, the firebox of a solid fuel stove consists of the following, formally speaking, production cycles:

Procurement of firewood / coal and preparation of their consumable load;
Unloading the ash pan from the ash of the previous furnace;
External examination and routine (preventive) cleaning of the fuel section;
Starting the furnace on a working stroke and setting the furnace stroke;
Additional fuel loading until the consumable charge is used up or until the furnace warms up to the required degree (furnace heating);
Stopping the oven.

Here are the basic rules, the first is that starting the furnace is not igniting the kindling. The furnace is started when it is already in operation, and there are a lot of subtleties here, see below. Second - do not shove the entire consumable load into the oven at once. It will not be possible to set the furnace stroke to the maximum thermal efficiency, and you can immediately plunge into graphitization with enhanced soot deposition. In order for the stove to give more heat, using less fuel, it must be heated.

Firewood

Preparing firewood for a furnace is much more difficult than preparing coal. Therefore, we will talk about the latter further, in the section on coal firing. In the meantime, let's get down to firewood. They are prepared for the trail heating. way:

Timber is sawn into blocks and logs of the required height (length), see below;
Churaks prick into pieces of wood of a section close to a sector of a circle or trapezoid with a height (in section) of 8-10 cm;
Logs with a diameter of less than 7-8 cm are cut in half or quarters;
Logs with a diameter of less than 4-5 cm are left unpunched;
Put the prepared fuel in a woodpile under a canopy or (better) in a wood shed (woodshed): woodpiles - separately, half a log and a quarter - separately, woodpile - separately;
Maintain air drying for at least 2 years. In the most extreme case, you can heat it with one year old wood;
During the heating season, the firewood is transferred to the room and dried to chamber (room) dryness in a wood log under the stove or in a wood box next to it;
Instead of the firewood used for the next firebox, the firewood or firebox is replenished with firewood from the woodpile until the stove comes out of operation after kindling, see below.

Churaki and logs

The height of the blocks and the length of the logs for chopping firewood should be 3-7 cm higher (longer) than the length of the grate of the stove, but just as shorter than the length of the firebox. To put it simply: ready-made firewood should fit into the firebox, slightly overlapping the grate, but at the same time not resting against the walls of the firebox.

Sectional shape of firewood

Sharp corners and edges of the wood will provide intensive gasification from kindling, immediately heating the formed carbon to ignition. Further, as the wood burns, the intensity of gas release will drop to a value that allows you to set the optimal oven stroke. Half-logs and quarters are used for initial loading (for kindling, see below), and logs for summer heating of the hob and possibly also for initial loading.

Woodpile

In a woodpile, firewood not only dries to air dryness (less than 30% moisture). During aging in a woodpile, water-soluble organic compounds of wood (simply - juices containing proteins and sugars) are bituminized, forming combustible forms. The calorific value in the reference books is given specifically for firewood of at least 2-year aging. Annuals, in comparison with them, lose up to 10-20 potential heat, and autumn spring felling of the same year - up to 50% or more (!).

Firewood and firewood

Air-dry firewood (absolute humidity up to 25%) will give up no more than 85% of its potential (reference) heat. In addition, the consumption of heat from the combustion of pyrolysis gases for the evaporation of water will bring down the temperature in the furnace by 100-150 degrees: graphitization and soot deposition will increase. Therefore, the wood must be dried before the firebox to room dryness (no more than 12% absolute humidity); the reference calorific value of firewood is given just for it.

It is better to dry the firewood in the wood bowl, pos. 2 in the picture: moisture rises through the capillaries of the tree to the upper cuts and evaporates perfectly. Firewood from an outdoor captive on the floor in bulk reaches stove condition in 7-10 days; firewood in a wood log under the stove on legs (pos. 1) or trenches (brick posts - stove props) in 2-3 days, and wood in a wood log, standing 1-1.5 m in front of the stove - for 2 fireboxes, those. per day and from evening to morning.

Ash pan and ash

The ash pan is unloaded from the ash just in front of the firebox, so that accidentally remaining sparks in the ash do not cause a fire somewhere. By the way, in this case, the owner and / or stoker of the stove is responsible by law. Before unloading (simply - taking out and shaking out) the ash pan into it through the grate bars sweep away the ash residues and small debris from the firebox with a broom. Well, you, of course, know that stove ash is an excellent mineral fertilizer.

Inspection of the furnace condition

Perhaps you also know that up to 15 cubic meters of water is sucked in through a gap the thickness of a match between the fire door and its jamb. m of air. It will bring down the temperature in the firebox by 200-250 degrees. This in itself will reduce the heat transfer of the fuel load by 15-20%, and the increased deposition of soot over time by the same amount. Therefore, the utmost attention should be paid to the state of the furnace before starting.

How the furnace is arranged from the point of view of a stoker, who may not be able to lay bricks on bricks, but who knows his business, is shown (schematically) on the left in Fig.

On the right, there is also given the purpose of furnace devices and brief instructions on the nature of routine maintenance with them. If the stove is not running and the fuel is completely burnt out, all doors and dampers must be tightly closed. The reason is dust. Burning and bituminizing, it forms a dense carbon deposit, which is very difficult to tear off without damaging the furnace structure; The graphite soot is easily cleaned off with a long handle (a broom of twigs without leaves). Moreover, particles of graphite, settling on bitumen soot, gradually turn into a highly combustible finely dispersed amorphous carbon. Dust deposits are the most common cause of combustion of soot in a chimney. Therefore, during the inspection of the furnace, it is necessary to wipe the doors with their frames from dust, completely remove and wipe the shutters of the view and gate.

Note: about the rest of the devices and points of the regulations in Fig. see further in the course of the presentation.

Traction and acceleration of traffic jams

The process of preparing the stove for the firebox necessarily includes checking the draft. The safest way to do this is with a candle (pos. 1 in the figure below) when the kindling and initial loading are already in the firebox. The furnace door is tightly closed, the ash box is opened and a burning candle is brought in it. At the edge of the door, the flame should reach into the oven without breaking. If there is no candle, it is not so reliable, but enough so that the waste does not go immediately, the traction is checked with a match with an empty firebox. The blower door is closed, the furnace door is slightly opened by 2 fingers and a burning match is brought to the gap with the head down, pos. 2. The flame must also be drawn into the oven without breaking off.

On a stagnant stove (for example, a summer cottage during the winter), a situation is possible when the firebox is empty, the channels and chimney are clean, and there is no draft. The same may be the case if the oven is new, not completely dried before the first start. Then, firstly, they check the draft on the chimney cleaning door with the firebox and blower closed. Yes - there is a steam plug in a damp oven. No - there is an airlock in the chimney. It is eliminated by burning a torch (possibly 2 or 3) from the newspaper in the chimney through the cleaning door. It did not help - you need to inspect the chimney deflector, whether it is damaged, not clogged.

If the cork is sitting in the oven, newspapers or, better, shavings are burned in small portions in the firebox with the blower, view and gate fully open. The steam plug is squeezed out of the oven with difficulty: you will have to put it on a newspaper sheet or a handful of shavings crumpled into a loose lump more than once. However, in small country stoves, it often happens that both plugs are stuck, but not tight. In this case, you can expel the steam-air plug from the furnace directly from the firebox, see the video:

Note: in fact, the best way to get the cork out of the oven is to keep it out. It is very simple - when leaving for the winter, plug the openings of all oven doors and the mouth of the chimney with rags or straw. The pipe is plugged so that the plug lies on it with a cap (mushroom) and is wrapped together with the plug with a film, otherwise it may fall into the chimney until spring.

Loading and kindling

The initial loading of firewood into the stove is most often combined with kindling it. In some cases (see below), the stove is first melted and firewood is placed on the kindling. In any case, for the successful operation of the stove, you need to have tongs for firewood and coal as part of the stove utensils. Without them, it is very difficult to fix incorrectly settling firewood and load new ones for flooding, and without this, the course of the stove during the fire will be lost all the time and some of the heat will be lost.

The main mistake of the initial loading of the stove - a splinter and kindling are placed on top of the stacking of firewood, on the left in Fig. below. The furnace will start, but the primary pyrolysis gases, whose task is to “stir up” the furnace, will burn in vain. Worse than in vain: since the system of smoke channels (or the bell) of the furnace has not yet warmed up to more than 200 degrees, an intensive deposition of fire hazardous amorphous soot will occur in the structure of the furnace.

The second mistake - not knowing that the stove needs to be heated during the heating, or being lazy to do it, they immediately give a full working load of firewood (in the center). The primary pyrolysis gases will cool down on the top wood before reaching the high-end of the firebox, and there will be no strong deposition of amorphous soot in the structure of the stove, but until the stove goes into operation, a lot of wood will burn in vain. In the second half of the furnace time, the situation shown on the right in the rice will arise: the grate is clogged with unburned coals, the bluish color of which indicates the formation of carbon monoxide. In this case, it is impossible to bring the stove to the correct course with air and draft (see below): you need to thoroughly request the firebox and stir up the coals, immediately releasing a lot of heat into the pipe.

There are 2 cases when firewood is applied (with tongs!) To the burning kindling (on the left of the next figure): if the cork was previously expelled from the stove, or if the stove has to be heated with annual or annual wood. Then the kindling is best done from a not abundantly oiled rag (so that it does not drip from it) or a slightly oiled, loose lump of 5-6 newspaper sheets or 3-4 handfuls of shavings slightly drenched in oil. But what about the PPB (Fire Safety Rules), completely prohibiting the kindling of flammable liquid stoves? Not violated, see below.

Generally speaking, one or half of a newspaper sheet, a handful of shavings or 2-3 splinters will be enough to kindle properly prepared firewood in the oven. But place the kindling immediately, before loading the wood, under the middle of its future laying. If you then slip the kindling from the side (in the center in the figure), a situation arises similar to the initial overload of the stove with wood (see above), only the side ones will now act as the upper ones.

The next situation: you need to melt a metal stove with a cramped firebox and a small furnace door, or a brick stove with deliberately damp wood (for example, in a taiga hut). In a cramped firebox, it is impossible to immediately lay out the initial stack of firewood, and ordinary kindling will not warm up the raw firewood before gasification begins. Let us also assume that there are no rags and no oil to soak it. In this case, wood (double) kindling is done: the thinnest and driest logs (for example, from the nearby deadwood) are pricked (using a knife) into thin sector woods. From the poles, lay out a well for 1-3 tiers in a turn of tiers approx. 45 degrees (on the right in the figure). Newspaper, coniferous, “Christmas tree” hunting-tourist, etc. are placed in the well. kindling, ignited from one match. If the kindling is newspaper, the paper tail is taken out. The well is covered with very thin poles or a splinter and - rest assured, it will light up, how cute!

Flammable liquids and oil

Let's study carefully the PPB with the appendices. There is enough about spontaneous combustion of oils, but many edible and technical oils are not on the list of flammable oils. We turn to the specialized literature and in the end we find a clear difference between flammable and non-flammable. The point is not at all that a drunken idiot can pour a can of gasoline into the stove. A drunken dunce will foolishly hang himself. And the fact is that flammable liquids vapors: a) have a flash point, possibly even below room temperature (at a certain concentration; b) are capable of detonation without additional technical measures. And oil vapors: a) flare up at temperatures above the maximum tolerable by man; b) either do not detonate at all, or it is very difficult to make them detonate. Simply: vapors of flammable liquids in the furnace can explode and spread it; oil vapor - no. But oil vapors burn, developing heat and generating a lot of heat. Therefore, starting the stove from oiled kindling (but so that it does not drip and flow!) Will not be a formal violation of the PPB.

Note: by the way, ovens, incl. coal-fired, they run perfectly well from kindling soaked in butter, margarine, some kind of spread, which are certainly not flammable. The ancient Chinese (they were the first to use coal) and the Greeks (charcoal) used cow, buffalo and yak butter to melt coal stoves. Curiously, both of them, by no means fools, considered butter unsuitable for food.

Firewood: stacking and heating

Proper stacking of firewood for the initial loading of the stove is the most important condition for its efficiency. If the first firewood was stacked incorrectly, the stove will have to be brought to the working stroke almost all the time of the furnace (1.5-2 hours). During this time, a lot of useful heat will fly out into the pipe or be converted into soot and carbon deposits. The basic rule for laying the first firewood in the firebox: flames from the kindling should immediately appear above them. Then the primary pyrolysis gases will do their useful job without interference. For this, firewood is laid in a layer:

2 or more annual firewood, dried in the room - up to 30 cm.
one-year dry or fully matured unfinished - up to 20 cm.
juvenile and raw - up to 15 cm.

"Do" means that at least 15-20 cm of free space should remain above the stacking of firewood to the arch of the firebox. This is necessary for complete combustion of pyrolysis gases and free exit of water vapor into the chimney.

Conditioned firewood is placed in the firebox, as it is folded into a woodpile: corner to corner, on the left in Fig. Do not worry, there will be enough air through the gaps between the logs. And along them, the tongues of the primary pyrolysis flame will immediately reach high upward, providing a rapid gasification of wood throughout the entire mass. Putting the first log of the initial load obliquely, as is sometimes advised, is not necessary - it will be much more difficult to set the furnace stroke. An oblique log is placed when reloading fuel, see below.

Firewood underexposed and too large are stacked in a log house in the center. A log house as a way of laying firewood is not a well. The middle of the wood well is wide, free, and in the tiers of the log house, the gaps between the logs are 2-3 times less than their thickness. If substandard firewood is also damp, then above the wood kindling for them, the first tier of laying is laid with a well, and the next (e) - a felling. Finally, in a stove with a cramped firebox and, especially, in a sauna stove (see also below), the entire installation is laid out in the same way as wood kindling (on the right in the figure), only a piece of wood for it can be taken larger, in accordance with the furnace firebox.

Heating, control and heating

After firing up the stove, the gate is half closed, the blower door is closed to a gap of 2-3 fingers, and the furnace is tightly closed. A properly started furnace, 10-14 minutes after the furnace door is closed, automatically goes into operation. Traditionally, it is controlled by the temperature of the stove's forehead (it should start to heat up) and noise: in the room they turn off (silence) all sound sources and listen to the noise of the stove, holding the ear 5-10 cm from its forehead. Rustling - went out on the move. It is deaf, as in a tank - there is not enough air, you need to check if the wood has gone out, and open the blower. After 5-10 minutes, repeat the control - it does not rustle, open the gate. If the stove is humming, in 3-4 doses, after 2-3 minutes, we open the gate a little until it rustles. The gate is open 3/4 or more, but there is still no rustle - we open the blower and - see the previous page.

How to make a peep

The course of the metal furnace is checked and set before reloading the fuel, so the initial load should be set as low as possible. The brick stove can be set to the correct course immediately after lighting it up, guided only by the color and type of flame. If the firebox door is on glass - no problem. But, if the door is deaf, then you do not need to open it to control the start of the furnace - the flow of air will knock down the still weak course of the stove and you will see in the firebox something completely different from what it actually was. The firebox can be opened to control and eliminate gross violations of the furnace operation, see below.

Furnace doors are often made from the so-called. hypereutectic cast iron - very hard, heat-resistant, heat-resistant, little subject to thermal deformation, but extremely fragile and difficult to process. Nevertheless, it is possible to make a peephole (peeper) in the blind door of the furnace for visual control of the furnace operation if there are:

A round (required!) Piece of heat-resistant glass 4-6 mm thick and up to 7 cm in diameter, but not more than half the height of the furnace door.
Freely adjustable circular drill (centrobore) with victorious cutter.
Victory twist drill for drilling the pioneer hole for the centrobore guide.
Desktop drilling machine.
Blowtorch, gas or liquid burner (diesel, kerosene, mining).

How to drill a stepped hole in the cast-iron door for the glass peephole is shown in Fig. Two indispensable conditions so that the door does not crack during processing or sweating: only with a drill with a soft wood cushion (pine, for example), and the center of the hole must coincide in the geometric center of the door. Then its heat focus will remain where it was, and the door "will not feel" the peepers.

The glass in the socket is fixed with a split ring made of elastic steel wire. To secure it, the finished door is taken out (or in a fireproof room), laid face up on a fireproof lining and thoroughly heated with a flame. The steel will weld and stick tightly to the cast iron, but it will then be possible to pry off the ring to replace the glass.

Travel violations

Now let's see how the furnace is going and "pull up" the air with draft to the optimum. In general, the white color of the flame indicates the combustion of pyrolysis gases or an excess of oxygen, yellow indicates complete combustion of the fuel and the optimal temperature in the furnace, red indicates incomplete combustion of fuel due to lack of air or draft, red indicates the consumption of combustion heat of pyrolysis gases for graphitization and the deposition of soot, and blue or light blue - about the release and partial combustion of carbon monoxide.

A trace is possible here. cases (see fig.):

Additional fuel loading (flooding)

The first rule for reloading the furnace is not to open the furnace door for more than 15-20 s. Otherwise, the stove will go astray. Until you expose it again, a lot of heat will be lost. If, for example, during this time it was not possible to correct the stacking of firewood (see below), then you need to close the firebox for 2-3 minutes, and only then reopen it. Hence follows the second rule: add firewood to the firebox in layers (in order). So you can load the entire remainder of the consumable load at once, but at least the same 15-20 cm free should remain under the arch of the firebox.

The procedure for adding fuel to the furnace on the fly is as follows:

After 20-30 minutes after starting the oven, we check whether it is at full speed. A metal stove should puff with heat (the temperature of the outer surface is not lower than 300 degrees. On the forehead of a brick one, at full speed, you can barely hold for a short time a strained calloused palm (temperature - about 70 degrees).
We check the subsidence and burnout of the wood stack: you can add fuel if the log cuts are almost completely charred, pos. 1 in fig.
If the wood stacking settles loosely or spreads, we correct it, carefully prying and shifting the logs with the heel of the poker, pos. 2.
Firewood correctly loaded into the stove settles, burning, tightly, pos. 3. Then it is better to wait until there is space in the firebox for the entire remainder of the consumable load. each additional load slightly knocks the furnace down.
For additional loading of firewood, one log is laid obliquely with tongs, the firebox is closed and wait 2-3 minutes.
The additional loading of firewood is carried out when the slanting log flares up, pos. 4. Thus, the firebox is divided in height into 2 parts: the lower one will remain in working mode, and the upper one in a hot firebox will start up almost instantly. Heat loss will be minimal.
After 5-10 minutes after reloading, check the furnace operation and, possibly, set it, see above.

Note: the volume of the consumable loading of fuel into a brick oven is determined on the basis that it should be heated no more than 3 times a day for no more than 2 hours.

Stopping the oven

When stopping the stove, it is important, first, to prevent the release of waste into the room. The second is to prevent the brick and cast iron stove from releasing the accumulated heat into the pipe. Steel in this respect is not critical: its own heat capacity is negligible compared to the heat of combustion of the consumable load.

The sign of the formation of carbon monoxide is very clear: these are either tongues of blue flame, or a bluish coating of ash on coals, see fig. The latter is also a blue flame, only very low and over the entire surface.

In order to avoid heat loss, it is not necessary to rake the coals into a heap and burn the remaining 2-3 logs on them, to the left on the trail. fig. They will give much less heat than the draft is blown into the pipe from the heated furnace. Leave this firewood for the next firebox.

For proper stopping of the furnace, the coal is spread with a poker all over the hearth of the furnace. The blower is fully opened, and the gate is closed. The gate is not a view, in its damper there is either a cutout, or a hole, or, if the gate is rotary, a gap between the damper and the frame, which provides minimum thrust. By the way, a rotary gate is better in terms of safety: it cannot be confused with a view.

Having given maximum air and minimum thrust, they wait until the blue lights disappear on the coals. If the wood is conditioned, it will take no more than 10 minutes, and in the meantime the coals will burn out to ash. In the coals of substandard fuel, yellow sparks may remain (on the right in the figure): there are still combustion centers; if you close the view, the waste will go. The red color of substandard coals is most likely not combustion, but the color of smoldering incandescent carbon. There is little heat from it, and such coals can smolder to ash for hours. Therefore, substandard coals, not burnt out in 10-15 minutes, are collected with a shovel and quenched in a bucket of water. After making sure that nothing is burning or smoldering in the furnace, they close the view, the firebox, and the blower.

Note: in the hayle of the furnaces of bell-type furnaces the so-called gas view that does not allow the oven to cool off quickly. Therefore, any coals can be allowed to grind to ash in them. But then you still need to close the view - when the cap cools down a little, the gas view will creep up from the firebox and the draft will pull again.

Features of the firebox of other stoves

Certain types of stoves have their own characteristics of the firebox. First, simple Dutch women, especially dachas, often build without a gate. There is nothing you can do about it - the furnace will have to be set only with air and it is not always possible to achieve the minimum fuel consumption. Secondly, furnaces with a developed duct system (for example, a Swede) respond to adjusting the draft and air for 5 minutes or more. Therefore, you need to set their course in stages and carefully. It is best to heat such stoves with the same type of conditioned fuel. Then, once you have set the stroke, you need to remember the position of the gate with the blower door and, at the next firebox, immediately put them on the working stroke.

Russian

It is basically impossible to put a gate in a Russian stove, but there is no need for it: the design of the Russian stove is such that the draft and air in it are automatically adjusted to each other. It is easy to set the course of the Russian stove: we rake the coals to the sides, compact (possibly) the stack of firewood, and the stove will do the rest. The only thing is that firewood cannot be loaded into a Russian stove with a hut (tent): a strong flame will hit the vault of the hearth, pos. 1 in the figure:

In addition to the increased fuel consumption, this is also bad because the vault and stove bench overheat, which can cause the stove to fail. Firewood is loaded into the Russian stove with a log house, pos. 2: the flame licks the vault, and the whole blockhouse can be gently pushed back with a couple of logs, which is necessary for the preparation of some traditional Russian dishes.

Note: unfortunately, such a wonderful design as the Russian stove currently fully retains only its culinary value - it is not adapted to the conditions of modern life. See the video below for a traditional way to heat a Russian stove for heating and cooking.

Video: firebox of a Russian stove in the traditional way

Bathhouse

Economy for a sauna stove is not the main thing, but it should not give a waste in any case. Therefore, firstly, all manipulations with the blower and the gate of the sauna stove are performed so that there is no lack of air in the firebox. If, for example, you need to muffle the stove, then first cover the gate, and then blew. It is necessary to disperse - first the blower is opened, and then the gate, etc. Second, the coals are scooped out of the sauna stove with a scoop and extinguished in a bucket of water as soon as the blue carbon monoxide flame disappears, regardless of the type of fuel. For more information on how to heat a sauna stove, see next. plot.

Video: the correct heating of the stove in the bath

Charcoal fire

The peculiarity of coal as a furnace fuel is that its gasification begins at a temperature significantly higher than that of wood, and when heated to less than 800-900 degrees, it flows sluggishly. But if the coal is quickly heated to 900-1000 degrees, it gasifies quickly and violently, developing a high temperature in the furnace. Therefore, coal is more difficult to ignite, and when lit, it gives more thermal stress to the stove than firewood.

Also, amorphous carbon of coal generates much more heat per unit mass due to its higher density. Since the heat capacity of the furnace is limited, and the thermal time constant of the brick furnace is large (these are the same 1.5-2 hours of heating time), less coal should be loaded into the brick furnace, and the number of furnaces per day should be increased to 3-4.

The Russian stove cannot be heated with coal: it is adapted only for firewood. Very carefully you need to heat Swedish stoves, Dutch stoves and other channel stoves with coal for 3 or more revolutions. The channel furnace has great resistance to the flow of gases, and in weather conditions that reduce the thrust (wet off-season, strong wind in the opposite direction to the prevailing direction, etc.), there may not be enough air for burning coal without burning even with the blower and gate fully open. The oven of a Swedish stove when fired with coal will not work as it should: it should not be engulfed in an excessively hot flame.

Young geologically fossil coal, lignite, which retains its woody structure (pos. 1 in the figure) is unsuitable for firing furnaces: it immediately crumbles into dust, completely clogging the grate. By the way, gentlemen, rewriters-uniqueizers, who invented this - lingitis? There is no such thing. Lignite is so named because it retains the structure of the mechanical basis of wood - lignin.

Shiny black anthracite, the oldest fossil coal (pos. 1a), emits a lot of heat, rapidly but briefly gasifies and is difficult to ignite. Anthracite can be used to heat cast iron and heat-resistant steel stoves, in the certificate for which anthracite is indicated as a regular type of fuel. Occasionally - bell-type and channel furnaces for no more than 2 turns with a fireclay furnace. Loading into the furnace - in a layer of 15-20 cm.

Brown coal (item 2) can be used to heat any stove, but it is an extremely environmentally friendly fuel. The production of brown coal in the world is steadily declining. It is impossible to store brown coal in large quantities (more than 10-15 kg): it ignites spontaneously even without wetting. Ordinary coal (gray, pos. 3) is certainly suitable for heating cast-iron and brick stoves with a fireclay firebox. Coal from individual deposits can also be used to heat brick ovens without chamotte. Loading - in a layer of 12-18 cm. Thinner - will not flare up; thicker - the upper pieces are gasified without benefit.

Kindling coal

Coal can be set on fire with an ordinary torch or newspaper, but up to 30-40% of its calorific value will be lost in the furnace. For coal stoves, special lighters are produced (and made independently), which give a sheaf of strong flame, immediately heating the load to 1000-1100 degrees. But the same effect will be given by the oil vapor from the oiled kindling, see above. You just need more of it than for a tree: a rag the size of a men's T-shirt or 5-6 newspaper sheets. More than once, being on business trips in the wilderness, the author had to start up an old titanium-fired water heater with the help of newspapers and watery "Peasant" oil of the then release. The titanium firebox enters with a half-shovel of coal, and this was enough for 3-4 people to wash after work. Only one condition: to load under such kindling, you need sifted coal, without dust, so that the gaps between the pieces are free. You can learn more about how to heat the stove with sifted coal from the video

Video: furnace furnace with sifted coal

From coal dust mixed in water, you can mold and dry fuel cakes, pos. 4 in fig. above. However, consider: firstly, coal dust is a strong allergen and carcinogen. Secondly, it is self-igniting and explosive. Rudolf Diesel originally designed his internal combustion engine for coal dust (there was no oil in Germany at that time), but it was the ease of its detonation that forced him to switch to rapeseed oil, and the diesel engine was invented only later.

How to heat coal safely

The main task when firing a furnace with coal is to avoid waste. In coal stoves and boilers, this is provided constructively. If a wood-burning stove is fired with coal, then, setting its course, you also need to monitor the state of the burning mass.

Burning coal gives a little visible flame. When firing a stove with coal, you need to give more air than for firewood with the same draft. And everything together is adjusted so that the upper pieces of the burning mass do not seem to be translucent through, on the left in Fig. If all the coal seems to be glowing (on the right), then its complete gasification will end quickly, there may not be enough air for the complete combustion of carbon and waste will go.