Among the wide variety of metal furnaces, a slow-burning furnace has gained particular popularity. Another name that can be found is a long burning stove. It is quite economical and easy to operate, suitable for garages and small country houses, as well as for large private houses with permanent residence. On the market you can find a wide variety of such furnaces, but many prefer to make them yourself. In this article, we will find out what a slow-burning furnace is, what varieties it has and how to make it with our own hands.
Design Features
This heater has the following distinguishing features:
- Volumetric firebox and large door for loading firewood. This allows you to conveniently lay firewood in large quantities.
- The division of the furnace into two parts. One of them is designed for smoldering firewood, the other - for burning gas. It is because of this feature that the device is called a "slow burning catalytic furnace."
- The presence of the so-called "tooth" - chimney flame from the chimney. It is a plate welded to the top of the furnace. The task of the “tooth” is to prevent the ingress of flame into the pipe.
Differences from a simple stove
The heating function of a simple stove is to heat the stove body and then transfer heat to the room. The combustion in it is quite intense. If the furnace is metal, it is uncomfortable. Fuel does not burn out completely, it must be constantly added, and the temperature in the room either drops or rises. The slow burning furnace is more convenient.
A simple stove is ignited from below. Flames in it can spread up and to the side. It is developing rapidly and gaining maximum value, as a result of which firewood quickly burns out and a lot of coal remains. The power of the flame in a standard stove is due to the fact that there is a constant flow of air from below. In a long-burning furnace, the opposite is true - firewood is burned from above, and fire spreads down. Air flows only to the place of fire. The result is a slow burning of firewood in the stove, which would even be more correctly called smoldering. Less heat is generated, and the air temperature in the room remains at the same level.
In addition to logs, pyrolysis gas burns in a long-burning stove. It is formed by smoldering firewood and moves to a second combustion chamber, where it mixes with air. As a result, the products of final combustion almost do not contain substances harmful to humans, efficiency increases, and heating costs are reduced.
Advantages and disadvantages
Before the slow-burning furnace enters normal operation, it must be melted to raise the room temperature to the desired level. Then you can reduce traction and switch the furnace to slow burning. In this case, the air temperature in the room will be kept at the same level.
So, consider the advantages of such stoves:
- High efficiency - 80-85%.
- Small dimensions.
- If there is no electricity and gas in the room, such a stove is the only heating option.
- Absolute non-volatility.
- Convenience of operation. After loading the fuel, you only need to adjust the level of traction. One load is enough for 5-6 hours of full heating.
- Combustion products are practically harmless.
- Heating appliances of a similar design are suitable for rooms of various sizes and methods of use.
It was not without drawbacks either:
- The chimney should be as high and straight as possible.
- Raw firewood is not suitable for burning in this mode.
- Due to the fact that smoke enters the chimney at a low speed, deposits accumulate in it.
DIY slow burning stove
Now consider the process of making a stove yourself. The main difference between a long-burning furnace is two combustion chambers that are simply connected by a grate or grate. Firewood is smoldering in the loading area. This process proceeds with small amounts of oxygen. After smoldering firewood decomposes into coke and pyrolysis gas. Gas is sent to the second chamber, where it is burned. By-products go into the chimney.
To make a simple furnace of this type, you will need:
- Sheet metal 3-4 mm thick.
- Metal corners.
- Steel reinforcement.
- Chimney pipe (steel or cast iron).
- Bulgarian.
- Apparatus for welding.
- Measuring instruments.
Manufacture
The stove is divided into three zones: the loading area of firewood with a grate from below, the ash collector, the gas combustion area, separated by a flame chipper from the pipe.
First you need to cut 4 legs from a metal corner, about a meter long, and a crossbeam (their length depends on the dimensions of the furnace that you plan to get). Next, from the crossbars, you need to weld the frame of the stove, on which sheets of metal will be attached. Then legs are welded to the frame.
To increase the heat transfer of the stove and extend its service life, do not take too thin metal for the walls. Sheets of metal are cut to the size of the frame and welded to it. On the front wall, you need to make a hole for two doors (one for loading, and the other for the ash pan).
Even before the final assembly on the front, it is necessary to weld the curtains and bolts for the doors. Next, you need to make the doors themselves and attach them. To minimize the gap between the doors and the wall, welds will be useful. On one of the side surfaces you need to make an air distributor. To do this, make a hole in the wall, and also weld a circle with a pipe and a damper to it. This is necessary to control the flow intensity. In order for the wood to smolder rather than burn, the hole should not be more than 20 mm in diameter.
On the inner surface of the side walls, it is worthwhile to make fasteners for the partition between the two compartments of the stove in advance. As a partition, a grille of reinforcement or a grate can act. On the stove lid you need to cut a hole for the chimney and install a flame chipper.
Safe operation
The surface on which the slow burning stove for the house is placed must be perfectly flat and horizontal. Any refractory material must be applied to the floor and walls in the vicinity of the heating device . The metal chimney pipe must be treated with a non-combustible composition, and a non-combustible thermal insulation should be put between the pipe and the wall.
Before melting the stove for the first time, it is necessary to check its tightness. To do this, a material is placed in the furnace that emits a lot of smoke during combustion. If you find a seam through which smoke seeps, this problem must be fixed.
Cleaning
In order for the furnace to run smoothly, the chimney must be cleaned periodically, and ash must be selected from the ash pan. If the system has hard-to-reach places for cleaning, it is recommended to burn aspen in it at the beginning of the season. She has the ability to clean the walls of the chimney. This is the simplest version of the furnace - a slow burning stove. But there are more technological and aesthetic types. They will be discussed below.
Water circuit
A slow-burning furnace with a water circuit, unlike a simple stove, can heat several rooms at once. In addition to high heating efficiency, such stoves, as a rule, have an interesting modern design that can be matched to the interior of the house. This is another feature that distinguishes them from products that are placed in garages, basements, boiler rooms or, in extreme cases, in small, rarely visited dachas. With the right choice, a slow burning wood stove with a water circuit can be a true decoration of the interior and an alternative to the fireplace. Particularly popular are models whose firebox has a transparent front wall. The visual effect plays a crucial role here. After all, fire creates a cozy, peaceful atmosphere in the house. It turns out not just a stove, but a kind of slow-burning fireplace stove.
Thanks to the use of a system of pipes and radiators, the stove perfectly warms up the whole house. At the same time, it allows you to significantly save on firewood, not to mention the savings in gas and electricity. If you do not regularly heat the stove in severe frosts, then the chances are that the water in the pipes will freeze. Therefore, experts suggest adding special additives to the water when using a slow-burning furnace to give. They will increase the crystallization temperature of water.
Automatic loading of firewood
The most technologically advanced slow burning stove is a stove with automatic loading of firewood. It, as the name implies, allows you to warm the house without the constant participation of a person. And she can do this for several days.
The principle of operation of such a stove is both simple and complex. Due to the fact that firewood is fed into the furnace automatically, constant burning is ensured. The difficulty is that the supply of firewood must be organized accordingly. For these purposes, special racks are installed inside the stove, on which firewood is stacked. In order to supply a new portion of firewood to the furnace when the temperature drops, a heat sensor is needed.
Another important nuance is a new approach to sawing wood. If firewood is usually sawn into stumps and then chopped with an ax, then here it is necessary to saw a tree with round “pancakes”. This form is necessary so that the fuel gets into the furnace as conveniently as possible. Harvested wooden circles are placed in the oven edge on an inclined shelf. When the sensor fires, they roll to the right place. The independent manufacture of such a furnace is quite problematic, since the process requires accurate calculations, as well as compliance with all sorts of requirements.
The benefits of wood heating
Choosing a boiler for heating their home, people compare the strengths and weaknesses of certain options. Having considered several types of slow burning wood stoves, we will get acquainted with the advantages of wood heating in general. Compared to other types of heating, it has quite a few strengths:
- Environmental friendliness. A wood stove does not harm the environment, and in this regard it simply has no equal. When burned, wood emits no more carbon dioxide than when it decays in the natural environment. And compared with the harm that other types of fuel cause to the ecology, this is just a trifle.
- Profitability. Unfortunately, many people think primarily about financial benefits, and then about the environment. But in this regard, wood stoves have succeeded. Firewood costs less than other types of fuel.
- This unit can be used not only for the purpose of heating housing, but also for cooking. This is especially true for those whose home is far from the gas pipeline.
- Despite the effectiveness of wood heating, it is not at all complicated. If everything is done correctly, a stove even without radiators will warm the house well.
- The stove draft creates heat exchange between the street and the house, due to which an optimum temperature level is achieved and humidity is normalized
- A wood-burning boiler gives a pleasant aroma, creates a cozy atmosphere and reminds us of our roots.
Conclusion
Today we learned what slow burning furnaces are. Of course, this is a promising option for heating residential premises, because recently the issue of preserving the environment and saving fuel has become especially urgent, and the design of the catalytic furnace allows it to get rid of the shortcomings of other, obsolete types of wood stoves.