How to automate wood ignition in a stove

Popular in recent years, solid fuel boilers, like stoves, have a number of disadvantages that relate more to the inconvenience of operation. This is the need to prepare firewood, load and ignite raw materials in the firebox. Such steps require physical participation of a person, and some moments require great effort.

Are there ways to automate the ignition of wood in a stove?

Progress does not stand still, and the use of new technologies makes it possible not to chop wood manually. They make do with wood splitters with electric or hydraulic drive. Fuel loading is done less frequently when using fuel briquettes or long-burning technologies. One question remains open: automation of fuel ignition.

There are several theories that finely chopped wood and pellets can be ignited by using a forced spark and forcing air into dry fuel cells. Some of these axioms describe the beginning of the combustion process with the need to use additional flammable substances: gasoline, kerosene or the like, while others claim the ignition of wooden products subject to the required humidity regime.

These versions lack practical confirmation. Until solid fuel equipment is equipped with an automatic firewood ignition system, the axioms confirming such actions remain theoretical!

The only measure that allows you to quickly ignite solid fuel in the firebox of a stove or boiler is a previously prepared stack of firewood, under which a wick is placed, covered with pieces of paper and finely planed chips or briquettes. The cord is impregnated with flammable liquids and taken out of the firebox to the outside. This method was used back in the middle of the last millennium to quickly light large numbers of candles in palaces and castles.

REFERENCE! Pyrolysis boilers are equipped with an automatic ignition system! It sounds nice, but in fact, the automation is installed on the secondary chamber, where the combustion of gases obtained during incomplete combustion of wood in the first chamber occurs. The temperature during automatic ignition is above 100 degrees!

One of the ways to quickly ignite is to use special flammable liquids, which are used to moisten the surface of the laid firewood and set it on fire. But this method is not classified as automation.

ATTENTION! Developers of modern pellet equipment equip some models with automatic ignition! But, the condition for the operation of this option is to control the ignition of the fuel and turn it on again, which, at a certain humidity, does not give the required results! Therefore, human presence is mandatory, and, if necessary, intervention in the operation of the unit!

Pellet stove combustion

The use of granular fuel in boilers and furnaces allows saving a significant amount of resources. This is achieved by controlling the combustion process with maximum use of the resulting thermal power. Depending on the size of the pellet attachment, the time between loads increases to several days.And the use of special burners allows you to use the resource economically, while increasing the efficiency of the heat source.

The use of pellets relieves the user of solid fuel equipment from the labor-intensive preparation of firewood and makes it possible to burn it in boilers and conventional stoves. To do this, make small changes:

• the design of the grate is redesigned: the free air cavities are made smaller than the granular fuel used;
• A pellet burner with a feed mechanism and a loading hopper is installed on the loading window.

The availability of the first method allows you to easily convert an old furnace to use briquetted fuel. In this case, the volume of loaded granules will be limited by the size of the firebox, and the burning rate will be regulated by opening the lower damper.

The second method will allow you to take full advantage of pellet heating: rarely load the container, increase the efficiency of the stove and control fuel combustion. Installing such a burner with a container will not take much time, but the cost of the equipment will exceed the price of a household solid fuel boiler. Thanks to automatic adjustment of pellet ignition, resource savings will justify the money spent in 2-3 heating seasons. Automation will allow you to reduce fuel consumption to a minimum, but igniting newly loaded pellets after extinguishing requires the physical participation of the user.

IMPORTANT! When installing the burner, the size of its body must correspond to the internal contours of the loading window! The absence of tightly fitting surfaces causes air to “suck in” and leads to a decrease in the efficiency of the equipment used!

The ability to quickly, within 15 minutes, install and dismantle the pellet burner will allow you to alternate the use of firewood with granulated fuel.

How to control the combustion process

The use of burners allows granular fuel not to burn, but to smolder. It is this feature that makes the installed equipment economical. The smoldering rate, as in any solid fuel units, is regulated by the amount of air supplied. In addition, the burners are equipped with special grates that allow you to select the smoldering mode.

The shape of the slots indicates the possible power of use. Small perforations will put the unit in economical mode, and the presence of large space in the grate will allow you to use the burner with maximum heat output. The equipment is also equipped with devices for operating in medium smoldering modes.

The air supply can be adjusted manually. This method is considered crude because it does not allow achieving the desired efficiency. The use of the required grille and manual air control will bring the equipment closer to the desired energy efficiency of using pellets.

Most modern burners are equipped with a controller with a control unit that creates the required conditions for smoldering. Such electronics regulate the supply of both fuel and air (or only air) supplied to the burner working area. The use of electronics by pressing several buttons brings the equipment into the required operating mode.

Given the limitless technical possibilities, everyone wants to comfortably use household appliances for various purposes.Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to ignite the stove using a button, even after equipping it with a pellet burner. A few more years will pass and the situation may change.