While Wood Fire Temperature may not appear to be an essential factor, the temperature at which your wood stove works is crucial concerning its efficiency. Wood combustion is better when the furnace is at optimum Wood Fire Temperature. In other words, burning wood will mainly produce heat, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. With incomplete wood burning, you get unwanted by-products, such as smoke, excess carbon dioxide, and creosote whip-clogging. Learning this process will help you keep your stove efficient.
The study of burning materials is not entirely straightforward. In addition to heat, there are many factors to consider, like kinetics. Kinetics is how fast the reaction is.
When the fire burns as a heat source, we need the energy to start the combustion process. When the process begins, there needs to be a constant energy source that allows for increasing the activation energy. The combustion process requires wood. When wood burns as fuel, small molecules, and gases are liberated from wood surfaces when there is a heating wood. The gases react with oxygen in the air to produce combustion products and heat.
What is the Best Wood Fire Temperature?
Seasoned firewood wood remains dry for a long time. Wet wood, including green timber, is difficult to burn and produces less heat. Avoid using wet wood, and always use the dead tree if possible.
The energy content or Wood Fire Temperature comes in BTU (British thermal units). The standard method to estimate the Wood Fire Temperature is to state the BTU and compare it with your needs.
The wood releases a certain amount of heat. Trees with high Wood Fire Temperatures are elm, maple, and red oak. Softwoods, like white pine, basswood, green ash, and white spruce, are very dense and burn more time with the same heat capacity.
Wood Fire Temperature and Color
Fire is the result of the chemical reaction between fuel and oxygen. When the reaction produces enough heat, flames form in the area. Pets change color over time and often have multiple colors in different parts.
The two most distinctive properties of fire are heat and color. The color of a flame relates to the temperature. You can estimate the fire’s temperature by identifying the light’s intensity.
It is frequent to use blue as a cold color and red as a hot color. Nonetheless, the reality is the opposite for fire flames. Red is generally on the outer edge of the blaze. On the exterior, the Wood Fire Temperature is lower than the inside. Contrarily, blue is the hottest temperature. The warmest part of the flame is the center. This motive is why the center usually burns with a color different from the outer edges. The blue flames are the hottest, followed by the white ones. Then yellow, orange, and red are the primary colors you can see in fires.
Combustion for Wood Fire Temperature
Wood combustion is a complex chemical reaction. When it begins initially, all that happens is that the water in the wood dissipates or vaporizes. This method uses the initial energy. When the wood equals 500 degrees Fahrenheit, it decomposes chemically. At this point, you get volatile gases, and you can feel the heat of the reaction.
When the temperature approaches 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, gases and smoke burn, reacting if they have enough oxygen. The remaining coal of the reaction burns at temperatures above 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Burning Smoke
There are ways to burn smoke and volatile gases without raising the wood temperature to 1,100 degrees. For example, some stoves have a catalyst that causes the smoke to burn at only 600 degrees Fahrenheit.
Non-catalytic stoves use circulating air to burn smoke and gases and are easier to use and maintain than catalytic stoves. However, catalytic stoves can burn wood more slowly. Also, those stoves can cook at a lower temperature than a non-catalytic stove and still work correctly. This procedure makes catalytic stoves more efficient.
Wood Fire Temperature
The theoretical maximum for a fire-based carbon in the air at the standard atmospheric pressure is around 4500°F / 2500°C if you use pure oxygen instead of air. Also, if you increase the air pressure, it can become even hotter.
Standard firewood limits to a maximum of about 1600°F / 900°C. However, you can do it in stages. First, we have the conversion of wood into charcoal by burning it in an environment with limited oxygen. Then also forging, which blows air onto the coals that ignite. Then it can get much hotter, at least 2500°F / 1400°C. This state is close to the melting point of iron.
How To Control Wood Fire Temperature
You can adjust the Wood Fire Temperature in a stove with adjustable vents that allow oxygen to reach the fire. You can open the vents to increase the oxygen inside the grill, allowing more fire and a hotter burning. Also, holes can reduce oxygen around a radiator, which reduces the temperature.
When assessing how much to open or close, a little fan movement can change temperature—closing all four vents completely to extinguish the fire.
Wood Fire Temperature Examples
Propane torch
The combustion of propane and air is approximately 1900 °C. A butane fire will have a similar temperature.
Burning Match
For such a small flame, a domestic match burns at about 600-800°C.
Candle flame
The hottest part of the candle’s flame burns around 1400 °C, while the average temperature is usually 1000 °C.
Bonfire
The temperature of a bonfire gradually heats to about 600 °C, but bonfires can reach 1000-1100 °C.
Firewood
The firewood fires burn around 600 °C. The temperature can change depending on the type of wood and its condition.
Bunsen burner
An exceptional Bunsen burner is adjustable, with safety flames measuring about 300 °C. The Bunsen burner fully open can reach 1500°C, with visible blue and white penetrating flames.
Hardwood vs. Softwood in Wood Fire Temperature
Different woods produce different levels of heat. For example, dry wood emits more heat than wet wood. This is because, in the initial chemical reaction, all the heat evaporates or vaporizes the water. Therefore, the less water there is, the more heat you can feel.
Different wood species emit different amounts of heat. In general, hardwoods burn more than softwoods and radiate more heat. Some species with a high caloric value include walnut, red and white oak, yellow birch, and sugar maple. Species with a low caloric value include redwood, cotton, hemlock, and Alamo.
Hardwood has a higher score in thermal energy for a volume of wood. Therefore, they are a better stick for heat and Wood Fire Temperature. However, they are more challenging to do the ignition first.
Coniferous trees have low density and tend to be more resinous. This fact means they ignite much faster. Therefore, it may be better to start with trees where the fire is burning. However, they generally produce less heat and burn more quickly.
Some examples hardwoods
Best firewood – Ash, red oak, white oak, beech, birch, walnut, maple, walnut, cherry, dogwood, almond, Apple (incense-a lovely perfume)
Different Fireplaces
Before, some flues were of wood with a packet of mud inside. The average temperature of the chimney for such an open fire is 250-400 degrees.
Nowadays, there can be different temperatures in different parts of the fireplace. The highest temperature in most fires comes after the fire has been going on for a while. These temperatures are between 1200 degrees to 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. However, since so much air circulates the fire, grids and other nearby objects unusually exceed 1000 degrees.
Nonetheless, the gas fire burns at a lower temperature, with the grill being the hottest part at about 1000 degrees. This fact is evident because the grids sometimes shine. Also, the iron shines at approximately 1000 to 1100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fire Prevention with Wood Fire Temperature
Keeping a stove warm to avoid fires may seem counter-intuitive, but it is logical at the chemical level. Creosote is a tarred substance that prides itself on the chimney as part of the smoke. The sticky creosote obstructs the shot and prevents good circulation. Moreover, it is highly flammable.
The typical cause of a fire in the chimney is the burning of creosote inside the fireplace. There are many methods to combat or prevent this. One of the ways is to keep the shot hotter than 250 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperatures above this point are too high for the creosote to condense on the surface of the chimney.
