E-Classic too much wood?

[libby99]

I've gone thru 6 cord of wood since last week in October with my e-classic. I called Central boiler direct and they did there
cal. on oil to wood and they told me I should use 7 1/2 cords compared to my 1100 gallons.Is any one else using lots of wood. and does anyone have ideas of what I might be doing wrong?

[Gary_C]

What kind of wood, wet/dry, split/unsplit?  You may not be doing anything wrong. Are you heating more or less, same temperature?

Need more information.

[mikey]

I too have the E-classic, just got it going at christmas. it started out fine but have had many problems with it lately. the wood burns up way too fast and is not keeping the heat up , I got the gas backup with it and it runs about half the time

[thecfarm]

I feel any info like this is always in the sellers favor.Just like MPG,it's in their picture perfect world.Most places will always tell you how much wood it will use,and they will be on the high side.Does sound good.Just like pellets stoves,only one bag a day they told my FIL. He uses 2,but does like it warm.I learned my lesson when I bought my Mother a Monitor.Salesman said that will heat her place easy.Yea,when it's above 10°.Always had to go over and start the wood stove at night to make sure she was warm enough.

[DR Buck]

With my CL6048, above 40°  I put wood in it every other day.   

Between 30° and 40° I add wood every 24 hours.   

Below 30° and these past few days where it's in the teens I've added wood twice a day.

[boilerman101]

That does not sound too bad. With my CL5648 I replaced a previous 1200 gal per heating season useage typically with 10 cords of wood. Keep in mind, this winter has been much colder than the previous 2 winters.
Unless you have burned a CL6048 or CL5648 unit and now an E Classic, you really don't have anything to compare useage too.
Every house heats differently and the variety of wood and moisture content of it, will create various amounts of btu's.

[libby99]

I have dry seasoned split wood oak, maple,little elm.Well that wood is gone now Heating the same space and keeping it a little colder now because my daughter is two now so she keeps the blankets on. And on a whole for the year it isn't colder here in maine because we have had alot of above normal temp.
That 7 1/2 cords of wood would be great but I've used 6 and we're not even half way thru and the 7 1/2 is for the whole year just like the 1100 gallons was.
I don't think central boiler is being truthful with people any time you make something cleaner burning for the epa is uses more fuel. I feel like I got had.Because everyone is telling me the stove is fine, and it is burning way to much wood.

[Gary_C]

If you decide to throw that thing away, let me know. I've got all kinds of wood and no stove.  ;D

[Ironwood]

I do not own an OWB, but have a few friends that do. Are you burning dried wood? Most folks throw in wet wood, and it smolders (very slowly) until the blower kick on and spurs the coals into action, drying the wood and cooking off the moisture to burn the fuel. If you are burning dry wood, perhaps it is not able to "slow down" in between calls for heat and is consuming it fast. Just my opinion. You will need to sort out your peticulars (demand cycles, water temp settings, wood moisture content, and the like), also some folks have said that their units are loosing heat due to poor insulation on the unit itself (like they want t oput a building around it). Just some random thoughts.

Ironwood

[woodmills1]

I do think there is another factor involved when considering wood usage vs amount of oil consumed previously.

Here is my example.  When I was burning oil I set my thermostat to keep the house only up to a temperature that my wallet could afford, and relied on my two wood stoves to bring certain parts of the house up to livable temperature.  I bet I used 6 to 8 cord of wood along with nearly $3200 in fuel bills(winter 04-05).

Now, with my OWB, and since its installation, my house is at a much more uniform temperature,  The coldest rooms that do not have direct heat delivery are between 62 and 66, with the majority of the house at 66 when it is bitter cold outside(-14 lowest night so far) and 70 when it milder(10-25 at night).


add in that my electric cost for water heating has fallen to nearly zero


My point........If you want to compare oil to wood........the only fair way is if the wood set up is keeping your house at the same temperature that you maintained using oil.

BTW  I cut and stacked nearly 20 cord last year and cut and burned hand to mouth for the end of feb. till nearly june

this year I put up 29 cord, burned nearly 3 cord of freash cut dead and green from sept 5 till I started on the big pile and I am about half way through the 29 cord now.  I will probably finish the pile around march.  My house is a heat monster.

[renegadecj]

Have you checked your damper door?  I left mine open one day, and it burnt the wood up like crazy.  I have also had creosote block it so it doesn't completely close, and that burns the wood quicker as well.

Still learning myself...the E-classic definitely burns less than the 6048, but also takes more "hand holding".  The 6048 was a "load it and leave it" machine.

[MudBud]

Woodmills, WOW that much already?  I am heating about 3500 Sqft on the Seacoast area and of course the two women in my life like the whole house at 72.  My super store water is also on the wood. I have been burning junk wood, wood chocks made of pine, some fresh cut pine, some pallets and a few other odds and ends and as of mid Oct I have only burned 5 cord.  Now I only stacked a total of about 8 cord so I will be short and have to get some more wood chocks from work.  However this is much better than $8k worth of oil I would have had to spend this year.  I only fill it 2x a day and about 3/4 full.

The temp of the boiler is set at 185 which is where I have found it to be the best no matter what the winter time temps are.

Why have you gone through so much so far?

[schoe]

I've been heating with my 'e'classic since Thanksgiving and the biggest variable by far is moisture content of the wood.I really have been all over the map as far as specie and moisture content.I have been coveting some very dry cherry and sugar maple which produces so much heat that to keep the water at 185 is effortless.(blower runs for very short bursts followed by long intervals in sleep mode)Because I have a plentiful suppy of wood,I've noticed my wife and I are much more liberal with the thermostat setting.Could give the impression of  being  inefficient.Just a lot more work with higher m.c. wood.Because of bridging, I have to pay more attention   rousting the wood around to get it settled down closer to the opening to the lower chamber ,whatever you call it.Overall could'nt be happier. Anybody who's dissatisfied and wanting to sell, contact me.Icould use another for rental properties.Still learning.Split pieces stacked close to the door and not longer than 24 inches seems best for my owb.If the woods longer you get angled pile especially if you really load it up.Thanks to all who have given so much good advice.Gary

[delbianco]

It sounds like you are burning too much.  I have the E-CLassic 2300 and heat a 3,00 sq ft home.  We are using approx 1 wheelbarrow of wood per day, and keep the house at 71.  I load it once per day.  The wood is unsplit dry logs, approx. 10 inch diameter and about 1 or 2 feet long.  The unit is steady at 182-185.

My only complaint is that the light above the door is already melted.

[woodmills1]

my house is 4300 sg ft of 4 distinct sections.  Front is 4 room colonial 2 story from around 1830 with no heat delivery to upper and no insulation.  next is 1940's kitchen with two rooms above again with no insulation and no heat delivery to upper.  Then a 28 by 16 room with 3 rooms above all heat delivered maybe insulated.  Last is a 20 by 30 10 foot high room insulated 2x4 const with a separate on the wall gas heater and a separate on the wall unit for the hot water from the wood furnace.

The main heat is oil hot air in the absolute front of the house with 20 foot of main duct that then runs all the way to the back of section #3.

I did replace all 20 windows in the front and the top of the second section

The hot air system is very poorly designed with return air only taken from the front of the house

[JJ]

Hi,
I have had my e-Classic running since end of November.

I burn 1000 gal of oil last year.
So far with e-Classic I estimate I have burned only about 10-20 gal, but about 6 cord of wood so far.
Mostly I am burning hemlock, which only has about 1/2 the btu per cord as maple and oak.

Still I did not expect to burn through the wood so fast.  Dealer told me to expect about 7 cord per year.
Soon anyway I will be out of wood and be back to burning oil; unless I can find dry wood for less than $300 a cord (at that price, may as well burn oil, which is less than $2 a gal)

For next year I plan on getting 10 hardwood cord put up.

Thinking about the value; @ $300 a cord, it will be $3000 a year -vs- $2000 to heat a year with oil (if $2/gal).
I hope to buy tree length for about $100 a cord, then will still make sense to heat with wood, even if oil stays around $2/gal.   With wood priced near or above $200 a cord (current local price for green), makes no sense to make the effort to burn wood while oil is this cheep.

          JJ

[woodmills1]

If you contact some local tree services I bet you can get all the softwood and low grade hardwood you want, cut up and dropped off for free.  Around here the stuff too big for a companys chipper is just a problem.  I get my free logs cause I also take their junk.  Most of my tree service contacts used to cut the stuff into chunks and pay to dump it.

[FOURSEASONS]

  Wood Use:  I started my E-Classic up the end of Oct I have gone through aprox 7-8 Cords I was told by the CB REP at my Dealer Open House that he lived in Minn and used 5 Cords last year about the same size house 2,500 sq ft I know we have had a colder winter I will most likely go through 12 Cord to April then I will shut down. This is not what I expected!!!  Fourseasons

[beenthere]

Fourseasons
What can you tell us about the wood? 
How are you measuring a cord?

What is the drying history of the wood since cut?  since split? dead wood? species?

Sure sounds like a lot of wood, but then species, moisture content, amount of decay, etc. will make for differences in expected heat recovery.

[boyno]

"Been there" is totally right--so many variables involved with wood.  Also, here in Cow Hampshire, it's been much colder this winter than any of the last 5 or 6 years at least.  We had our January thaw last week and it got up to 33 degrees one day.  Wind and sun can make differences in how much heat your house loses and gains. (Especially if you heat a greenhouse!)

During late November/early December we were burning one full load of green hemlock in our CL 6048 per day (heating a 3000 ft poly-covered greeenhouse).  Through most of late Dec and Jan, we were up to almost three loads of hardwood (mix of green and dead-standing maple-oak-beech), and just about keeping up.  The last week or so as the night temps got above 0 and the days got longer, we're back to two loads a day.

At my own house I've gone through about 20% more than I used all last year.  A dealer really can't tell you how much wood you'll use, no more than he can predict how cold it will be any given winter.

[woodmills1]

I am into a rack of maple now so wood usage is way down and house nice and warm.  That pine just burns right up.

[FOURSEASONS]

Ben There: Sorry for taking so long to get back to you about my wood type and aging, I use Red and White Oak that is what we have here in Pa , Split as requested I am now putting Whole logs in 8"- 12" they seem to be burning fine no problem most of our wood is all seasoned still tryin to figure what  works best??  I am having some Cresote showing up in the Flue Tubes I am concerned about what they will look like by the end of the heating season. We used to use Acid Wash in Flue Tiles years ago to get them clean not sure what CB has to say about that I have a request in to my distributor . Does any body else have any  problems  with their flues getting Zapped up; the Turbulators are fine just dust then off  but what I am concerned about is the steel flue chases.  Thanks Fourseasons

[MudBud]

Four, I await to see how CB tells you how to clean them.  I dont' think I worry about them blinding off as I still can get the tuberlators out without issue.  After 3 months I tried to run the brush down through them and I felt like it was going to stick half way in, so pulled it out as I remember some had problems with the shaft melting off and getting the brush head stuck.  It would be good to see if you could clean them with some sort of liquid that would melt the creosote, maybe blank the bottom section and pour in throught the top and let it sit for a while....

let us know what you hear.

[muckamuck]

I have burned about 8 cords (5 semidry hardwood 3 pine) in my e classic since Dec. 5 for my old double farmhouse (5000 sqft with DHW).  This is more than I was expecting, but it has been colder than usual this winter.  By comparison, I burned 1600 gal of oil plus 2 cord wood for whole year last year so that is equivalent to about 12-14 cords??  That was with the set temp at 195F.  I have since turned it down to 180 in an effort to get greater efficiency of heat transfer from the wood to the water and colder smoke going up.  I may even go lower on the set temp because I have ample baseboard and I can probably get away with lower water temperatures as my house is staying warm without too much trouble.  Unfortunately I am nearly out of dry wood (it is expensive now) and getting into wet wood remaining in piles under the snow.  This year I'm going to get more wood, split fairly small, under shelter in April for next year.

[FOURSEASONS]

MUD BUD Sorry for taking  some time to get  back to you. Spoke with the Sales Mgr at CB Dennis Filer, he said it has been a long cold Winter the fellow that said he used 5 cords from Minn said he will go thru 10-12 cords this year. I asked him about the Cresote on the flue chases he said he will look into it. I gave him Copperfield Chimney Supplies to see about the Acid Wash to get them clean he is going to call them. He also said the bricks that have been falling out he said to remove that the stove was tested with them out so it will not hurt the efficency that they said will achieve. I also told him he can get the correct brush from Worcester Brush Company that will match the diamond shaped flue lines the round one after a while you will end up with a round hole maybe. Burning larger big pcs seems to slowing it down no problem keeping it at 185*.  Fourseasons..