What is meant by banking the firelogs?

[rhoda_bruce]

I've read in story books and here and there in self-sufficient type magazines, about banking the embers, ash or whatever to have a long burn time and being able to wake up and still have embers to work with, but not sure what banking is. I did a search on the website, but nothing came up. It is very cold but keep a good inside temp, but not sure how it will feel once I fall asleep and the fire goes out.

 

[Beekissed]

Banking up a fire in a wood stove means loading it down to capacity and then closing all your dampers so that you get a slow burn all night and will still have coals to use in the morning. If your stove cannot hold a fire like this all night, it may have spaces in the joints or damper fittings that allow too much airflow for that amount of time.

If talking about a fireplace, it's very hard to still have coals in the morning in a fireplace but you can let your wood burn down to a small bed of coals, load on greener or more dense wood that doesn't burn very hot or fast and then damper your flue a little so that it doesn't draw as much air but not so much that smoke cannot escape. The key is to create a low airflow and a slow burn that will still keep you warm and still have a few coals in the morning for starting up the next day's heating.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Thanx Bee. I'll close off and see what happens.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Well, I find that unsplit small logs burn longer than logs that have been split, esp if on all sides, so I added one of those and one split log to the potbelly.
Now I normally have temps ranging from 300 to 400F in the pipe. I was watching what would happen after I added those logs to the already fairly warm stove and it went up to 475F. I was hoping it wouldn't go toward the caution area of 600 to 700F, which it didn't. It has dropped to 450F. All is closed off.
I guess I just go to bed now and see what I wake up to in the morning.

 

[Beekissed]

One thing to remember for dampering down stoves and it also has a lot to do with the type of wood burned, but about every third day or so you'll want to open that up in the morning full bore with some really hot burning wood and let the heat in the stove pipe burn out the creosote that builds in the pipe when you burn wood at low and slow temps. You can also tap on the pipe a little on all sides to kind of knock some of that down into the stove.

Creosote tends to build up more if you are burning pine that hasn't fully dried out and seasoned for a couple of years.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

We have absolutely no pine in our forests here. Crazy huh? When I was really little there was only one house I knew of that had pine around it. Apparently the pines in our area are all intentionally planted from away. When we'd take a road trip and suddenly the land wasn't completely flat and not a bayou in sight and the trees were different, I couldn't get used to the fact that everything smelled like some of my grandmother's pine cleaner, only mutiplied several times over.
I'm burning some 2 year old oak that I somehow never had to use, so it catches fast. And some maple that fell down in a storm and blocked our access to the deep woods. DS and I might have to chop some more logs today because we only have about 3 days of burning left.
I'm not sure how the experiment worked because very early this morning, I heard noises and I think DS was messing with the fire and I just didn't have it in me to jump up and check it out. He was tired and went to bed before me, but I did explain to him the principles of banking a fire. He says he was so tired that he can't even remember if he started a fresh fire or if he just threw some logs on top of embers.

 

[baymule]

I love a wood heater, but I hate starting a fire in a cold house! I wish I had a wood stove now. When I was a single parent, lived in a shot gun shack with a wood heater. I did find out that paper towels soaked in bacon grease were excellent fire starters. (I used to cook bacon in the microwave)

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I have heard one or two times that if you save the lent from the dryers and the cardboard toilet paper rolls, that you can stuff the lent in and use them as firestarters.
I tried it. It worked so so. Better than nothing. I get a big 'firelog' every few years and cut it in little pieces to use as starters.
I have the potbelly in the main house, which replaced a boxwood stove a few years back. We just needed more btu's than the boxwood could afford us. But I plan on closing in the underside of my house and putting the boxwood down there, so I can have added warmth during very cold weather.....or if I happen to want to act like I'm at a camp. I've discussed it with my brother. Trying to figure the cheapest, but safest route to have the pipes exit at a 45 degree angle. Thinking I will get him to cut me a piece of sheetmetal to use as part of a wall. Or maybe I'll frame up a 'window' and start putting bricks in the opening and work some concrete around the pipe....idk. Was also, toying with having an outside chimney, where I can send the smoke to, so I can think on having a little door and space to smoke some meats....just a thought. That way, more warmth for my house and a smoke house, all in one shot.

 

[Denim Deb]

You'll have to take some pics if you do that.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Sounds like a good idea to me!