Anybody familiar with air flow involving wood stoves? My house developed a nasty habit of smoking up the place when the wind is blowing. I fixed the one for the heating stove by installing a dryer vent (for the stove to get air). I think its because the house is so air tight there isnt enough air inside to draw from. The only stove thats doing this is the wood cook stove. If any of you are familiar with one, the firebox is only as big as a loaf of bread. There isnt much fire to create a draw.

 

If it does it when the wind blows, but not otherwise, you may need to extend the chimney up a bit. The roof line can make it push into the chimney, rather than aid in drafting it out. You could try opening a window a bit ans see if it helps, but more than likely a chimney extension would help. Do you have a cap on the chimney? They may help as well.

 

its higher than the roof now, and there is a cap. The chimney is on the windward side too.There isnt any trees or buildings close either.

 

rule of thumb is a minimum of two feet higher than the ridge.... I know that seems a bit impractical for chimneys vented on the outer perimeter of the building, but I had the same problem. I also had to go all the way up with the triple-wall, which got expensive. Another thing that helped before I was able to get the triplewall was to install a "T" at the top and cap the ends with regular vent caps. this created an induction when the wind was about. I also used foil insulation (like for water heaters and such) on the exposed chimney to help keep the warmth on the LOWER HALF of the chimney. at least half of the chimney has to remain warm for the draw to work. My roof was a 14/12 pitch,tho, so it was a bit oppressive.

 

I have had similar problems with my wood stove. What finally worked was a vacuum cap for the top of the chimney(stove pipe). It creats a low pressure in the pipe when the wind is blowing. I finally found one at the Westlakes Ace Hardware store in Columbia. It cost around $12.
Good luck, you are going to need that stove tonight!

 

Welcome to the Missouri chapter gyrogear.

 

WOW! I'm impressed. Your first post and it's a useful one. Awesome and WELCOME to the group.

I've got a pellet stove in my basement that actually uses 120V for it's fan and to feed the pellets. We lost power the first winter and the smoke just rolled into the house. I extended the chimney outside another five feet and it now draws on it's own when we loose power.

 

You need to set up a battery pack and inverter for those times... don't necessarily have to keep the batteries there all the time, just be available when you do need them.

 

Hello, and thanks for your kind words for this newby.
Re: Power outages and your pellet stove. A UPS (Un-interruptable Power Supply) will solve this problem. They are designed to power computer systems when there is a power failure, and are available in wattages from 100 to 1000's. They plug into a standard electrical outlet and your load plugs into them. When power fails, they immediately take over by using power from their internal battery pack, through an invertor, to power your load. I see them quite often at university surplus auction for very little money. Seems universities won't replace batteries; they just use our tax money to buy a new UPS. I have a 1600 watt unit for my computer that will run the whole system for several hours. I paid $10. for it at auction. Also have a 4200 watt unit that will power my building...as soon as I can afford to buy the batteries! That one uses four 12volt batteries and puts out 120 and 240vac.
Add up the wattage for the items you want to power to determine the size unit you will need. On 12 volt units, you can always add an extra battery or two in series to extend the run time. This will keep that pellet stove cranking when the power goes out.

 

Yeo, I know what they are. I have them at home on both computers, the wireless internet router and back-up drives and my big screen. Those are more important than the pellet stove. I have a regular wood fireplace for the emergency heat. My pellet stove issue was when the power went off, it flooded the house with smoke because the fan went off. I fixed that issue by extending the outside flue for the pellet stove so it will continue to draw air on it's own and not smoke us out inside.

Thanks though.