Lowest Warm Weather Stove Temps?

How low a temp can you keep your stove going when the weather is 60* during the day? (I can get my TLC-2000 down to about 180 on a magnetic stove-pipe thermo)

My Hyfire is running about 145-150 degrees (inside the pipe), (Coaltrol Min=7, FR=0)
my draft is really, really low but with the lower pipe temps, it still drawing some.

My keystoker (direct vent) is around 125 degrees.

I just checked mine and it is 146* inside the flue pipe just above the stove and still drawing -.03 draft. The baro is just bouncing a little every once in a while. It is 57* outside right now.

my flue temp today was 145* magnetic on the pipe 56* out side burning a Harman mkI

My magnetic thermometer says it's just under 200 on the front of the stove above the door. My Fluke 561 IR thermometer says it's actually about 170 or so. Idling as low as I dare without killing the fire.

BTW...I pointed the IR thingy at the fire...pretty neat watching the temps drop from the fire as I worked my way down the grate. 900 plus just before the blue ladies....hotter just above them, but this thing only goes to 1000 or so...

It's 57* outside tonight my magnetic thermometer is reading 200* above the stove door, stove pipe above my baro is reading 105* with my laser thermometer. My draft is holding steady at 3 on my Mano and my Baro is just bouncing a little bit every once in a while. My FR is 0 and has been idling so far tonight.. I'm going to try to set my min FR to 5 instead of 6.

Fire went out two times.

smith10210 wrote:I'm going to try to set my min FR to 5 instead of 6.

I set my min at 4 a few days ago & fire has not gone out yet. I'm burning Blaschak coal & will post results. This warm weather is good for testing min setting.

Sorry, I didn't notice this was in the hand fired forum.

70* here,

the Channing is set at MIN 4,

Feed rate 0%,

Internal Temp at throttle is 150*,

Internal pipe temp is 100* two feet above the stove.

Draft is .02.

Baro set at .03, windy today 25mph gusting to 40mph, baro flapping like a clapper valve on a duck's butt!

Sipping coal.

In KY it could snow tomorrow!

BK

I read the above posts, and had to laugh, all the stoker guys reported with low temps and idling fires. And the one hand load guy : who reported his fire had gone out twice. [I'm not laughing about that].

The point is the physics of chimney draft. The air in the chimney needs to be warmer than the outside air to get natural draft. The hand load stoves if they don't have a combustion blower to force air through the coal bed, are dependant on the chimney draft to pull air through the coal bed.

So you are in a catch-22. If you cut the heat back enough to keep the house from overheating, then there is not enough heat in the chimney flue to create enough draft to keep the minimized fire burning. So most hand feed stoves need to be run warm during warm weather, sometimes warmer than during cold weather, just to keep enough heat in the chimney.

The stoker folks have a fan pushing air through the fire bed, and this assures combustion. The fan also keeps the air moving up the chimney, this is how a stoker boiler can run year round to provide domestic hot water.

How about some more hand feed responses?

Greg L

120° on my magnetic pipe thermometer on my TLC-2000. I'm burning pea coal right now. In a couple of days I'll get into my nut coal and then as the season starts to wind down I'll switch back to pea.

I try to stay on about a twelve hour schedule when it gets warm so it isn't being starved for air. I just burn less coal. I hate to restart. So far only one match this year.

LsFarm wrote:I read the above posts, and had to laugh, all the stoker guys reported with low temps and idling fires. And the one hand load guy : who reported his fire had gone out twice. [I'm not laughing about that].

How about some more hand feed responses?

I run a hand fired boiler, the stack is about 100* (internal probe thermometer)and the boiler's water is about 200*. The high limit on the aquastat is set at 180*, but boilers store heat so no big deal. I do have a lousy chimney (short and exposed, 1 story on a two story house. The house has a better chimney effect than the chimney!

I make a habit of running it in overshoot (probably not a great idea with a stove), it keeps the draft blower off and the fire is happier without the up and down pattern that the blower creates going on and off.

I let the EFEL die out Monday morning after going all weekend, house was still 70 Monday morning! Sun shining, AKA solar energy kept the house still at 70 when I got home from work. I just hooked up my wood burner , so I tested it yesterday evening, to keep constant house temp. A bit cooler this mornng, but not bad! Today record temps! Saving black diamonds and even turned the Solar DHW panel on today!
See Global warming isn't all bad!

EasyRay wrote:120° on my magnetic pipe thermometer on my TLC-2000. I'm burning pea coal right now. In a couple of days I'll get into my nut coal and then as the season starts to wind down I'll switch back to pea.

I try to stay on about a twelve hour schedule when it gets warm so it isn't being starved for air. I just burn less coal. I hate to restart. So far only one match this year.

Well, you got me beat with one match...I had to relight a few days ago when my shaker grates jammed. So, two matches isn't bad either!

Noon weather report predicting 68* temps in the Boston area.. I have shorts on