Advantages of Burning Wood or Coal on Grate Vs. No Grate or Sand
If you burn coal on sand or just ashes from a previous fire, it would be nearly impossible to burn. Coal requires air under the fire or it will not ignite. Wood will burn without a grate but very imperfectly. There is a small amount of oxygen (air) in wood. Just enough to make a smoldering fire to create a great deal of creosote and smoke in your heating appliance, smoke pipe and chimney. To burn wood or coal on sand or just plain steel is similar to burning garbage in a barrel. If you ever try it you will have a very smokey fire because there will be a lack of oxygen (air). Unless you cut some holes at the bottom of the barrel. Many outdoor boilers use this (non) technology. That is one of many reasons why they smoke so much.
To prove the above theory to your satisfaction, you can try the following if you have a wood-burning fireplace. Remove the grate. Start a wood fire on the firebrick or steel hearth. It’s not only hard to get burning, when it does start to burn, the flame will be uneven across the wood and it will be a smoky flame. For a second test, place the wood in a steel box with only the top open. That will cause even worse results than the first test. Now place the wood in a fireplace-designed grate. Nice fire, right? It is because you have provided air under the grate.
Consider burning on a heavy cast iron grate with an adequate amount of air available to the firebox from below the grate, regardless of what type of wood or coal burning appliance that you choose. Adequate air under the grate helps assure you of a reasonably clean fire with reduced smoke or creosote coming from the flame. A wood fire will last a little longer without a grate at the cost of a dirty fire and more smoke and creosote build-up on every part of your wood or coal burning system, including the firebox, smoke pipe and chimney.
If you want an even cleaner fire with less creosote and soot buildup in the system, provide a secondary air source above the flame. This is known as secondary air. If you provide 80% of the air from below the grate and 20% of the air from above the flame, you can increase the efficiency of the wood burning appliance by as much as 40%. This is because 40% of the energy produced by a wood or coal fire leaves the initial flame in the form of unburned gases. By igniting these gases, you not only get a cleaner burn with less soot and creosote, the efficiency of the wood or coal is increased dramatically, thereby stretching your savings on the purchase of wood or coal.
David Tjosvold is the President of Alpha American Co. Manufacturers of Yukon-Eagle Multi-fuel and wood furnaces. David started out with his first furnace distributing company in 1965. In 1976 he developed the Yukon multi fuel warm air furnaces that were to become the first UL Listed wood/coal and multi-fuel warm air furnaces on the market and still are today. Check out the products at Wood Furnace Company
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Tags: Burning, cast iron grate, Coal, David, David Tjosvold, Fire, Grate, Nice, sand, smoky flame, steel hearth, wood
