Quadra-Fire 41I-ACC Owner's manual - page 10
10
7045-909
October 22, 2013
41I-ACC
F. Burning Process
In recent years there has been an increasing concern about
air quality. Much of the blame for poor air quality has been
placed on the burning of wood for home heating.
In order to improve the situation, we at Quadra-Fire have
developed cleaner-burning wood appliances that surpass
the requirements for emissions established by our governing
agencies.
These wood appliances must be properly operated in order
to ensure that they perform the way they are designed to
perform.
1. Kindling or First Stage
It helps to know a little about the actual process of burning in
order to understand what goes on inside the appliance. The
firststageofburningiscalledthekindlingstage.
In this stage:
•
Wood is heated to a temperature high enough to evapo-
rate the moisture present in all wood.
• W
ood will reach the boiling point of water (212°F) and will
not get any hotter until the water is evaporated.
This process takes heat from the coals and tends to cool the
appliance.
Fire requires three things to burn:
• Fuel
• Air
• Heat
If heat is robbed from the appliance during the drying stage,
the new load of wood has reduced the chances for a good
clean burn.
Itisalwaysbesttoburndry,seasonedfirewood.Whenthe
wood isn’t dry, you must open the air controls and burn at a
high burn setting for a longer time to start it burning.
Theheatgeneratedfromthefireshouldbewarmingyour
homeandestablishingthefluedraft,notevaporatingthemois-
ture out of wet, unseasoned wood, resulting in wasted heat.
2. Second Stage
Inthesecondarystagewoodgivesoffflammablegaseswhich
burnabovethefuelwithbrightflames.
During this stage of burning:
•
Theflamesmustbemaintainedandnotallowedtogoout
to
ensurethecleanestpossiblefire.
•
Iftheflamestendtogoout,itissettoolowforyourburn-
ing conditions.
The air control located at the upper right hand corner is used to
adjustforburnrates.ThisiscalledtheBurn Rate Air Control.
Figure 11.1 on page 11.
3. Final Stage
Thefinalstageofburningisthecharcoalstage.Thisoccurs
whentheflammablegaseshavebeenmostlyburnedand
only charcoal remains. This is a naturally clean portion of
theburn.Thecoalsburnwithhotblueflames.
•
It is very important to reload your appliance while enough
lively hot coals remain in order to provide the amount of
heat needed to dry and rekindle the next load of wood.
•
It is best to open the Burn Rate Air and Start-Up Air Con-
trols
before reloading. This livens up the coalbed and
reduces excessive emissions (opacity/smoke).
• Opendoorslowlysothatashorsmokedoesnotexitap-
pliance through opening.
•
Break up any large chunks and distribute the coals so
that the new wood is laid on hot coals.
Air quality is important to all of us, and if we choose to use
wood to heat our homes we should do so responsibly.
We need to learn to burn in the cleanest way possible allowing
us to continue using our wood appliances for many years to
come.
NOTICE: Improper operation can turn any wood appli-
ance into a smoldering environmental hazard.