How to heat a stove with fuel briquettes, basic principles

Kindling the bath

Eurobriquettes are a universal fuel; they can be used to heat all types of stoves and boilers. They can be used in outdoor grills and home fireplaces. At the same time, the consumption of fuel briquettes is always significantly less than conventional firewood.

Many people are interested in whether it is possible to heat a stove with fuel briquettes if it is made of steel, like an ordinary heater? This question is quite logical, since such stoves have restrictions on the calorific value of the fuel; you cannot heat a steel sauna stove with black coal, which emits 4900 kcal/kg of heat. But in the case of Eurobriquettes, less heat is released, which means they can be used to heat a stove in a bathhouse.

For a bathhouse, not only the heat generated is important, but also the duration of burning of wood or alternative fuel. The longer the wood burns with maximum heat release, the better it is for the sauna stove and the sauna itself.

Lighting fuel briquettes is not very easy, the fire does not catch immediately, but after they light up, they will burn and smolder for a couple of hours, which is much longer than the combustion of ordinary firewood. Such a long combustion time of fuel briquettes is explained by their high density and low humidity.

Let us note that, according to people’s reviews, you should not completely fill the firebox of a sauna stove with Euro-wood, so as not to quickly reach the maximum heat transfer values.

An interesting point with Eurobriquettes is the residues left after their combustion. Having increased density characteristics, this fuel burns almost completely; it does not leave a large amount of ash, only a small pile of ash. Ash from fuel blocks smells unpleasant, but is an excellent fertilizer.

When Eurobriquettes burn, virtually no smoke is emitted, which is very valuable for maintaining the cleanliness of fireboxes, boilers, and chimneys. According to experts, linden fuel briquettes contain the least amount of resin, so when using such fuel, chimneys and boiler nozzles suffer the least.

Fuel briquettes are an excellent option for lighting a black sauna. As we have already said, this fuel is environmentally friendly, does not emit smoke, provides enough heat, and phytoncides appear in the heated air, which have a beneficial effect on the human body and improve immunity. Using the same linden eurobriquettes, you will feel how your body is healing, inhaling the pleasant aromas of flowers, honey and trees.

Of course, there is also a drawback to this type of fuel - it cannot quickly generate a lot of heat, it releases it gradually. As we have already said, the combustion is uniform, which, unlike firewood that flares up quickly and quickly dies out, allows you to easily maintain the same temperature.

General information

Fuel briquettes, or Eurofirewood as they are also called, are made from pressed natural materials, most often sawdust, sometimes peat or straw, rarely from seeds or nut shells. During the pressing process, most of the moisture is removed from the wood, which makes it possible to obtain high calorific characteristics. Unlike firewood, whose maximum dryness is determined by 20% humidity, the same parameter for fuel briquettes is 8-9%.

The design of briquettes can be different:

• Eurobriquettes RUF - made exclusively by pressing without additional processing.
• Nestro Eurobriquettes are compressed logs that have a cylindrical shape, sometimes with a hole in the middle.
• Eurobriquettes Pini-Kay are compressed sawdust fired with a gas-air mixture to create a more durable shape, which increases storage time and protection from moisture.

Regardless of the type of fuel briquettes, their density is higher than wood, which allows them to burn well and release a large amount of heat. Thermal characteristics differ for Eurobriquettes made from different materials; usually high-quality types of wood, cereal seed husks, straw, and peat are used.

Direct use of fuel blocks

In the production of all types of eurobriquettes, no adhesive additives are used, since wood and similar materials contain a suitable lignin component that can glue all the sawdust together.

Due to the fact that fuel briquettes are made from drier wood, their calorific value is significantly greater than that of ordinary firewood or brown coal and is remotely comparable to the characteristics of black coal. For example, dry birch firewood emits 2500 kcal/kg when burned, brown coal about 3800 kcal/kg, and fuel briquettes 4500 kcal/kg. Thus, for heating premises, the option with such fuel is quite acceptable, but are fuel briquettes suitable for a bathhouse, is it possible to heat a stove in it using this fuel.

Stove for heating a house

Eurobriquettes are often used for heating houses. One ignition of the stove is enough to maintain the fire for a long time without adding fuel.

To light a brick oven, you must first light the bricks. To do this you will need tree bark, wood chips, and dry newspapers. Fuel should be placed on top of all this

At the moment of kindling, it is important that there is airflow. When the first part of the briquettes lights up, you can add the next batch

There are two ways to fill the stove with fuel briquettes:

1. Place the bars loosely in relation to each other. This helps to quickly heat the house.
2. Fold the raw materials tightly. This will cause the fuel to smolder, which is a suitable option for heating the house at night. The consumption of fuel briquettes in this case is much less compared to firewood.

Harvesting and storing firewood is more difficult when compared to storing eurobriquettes. The finished compressed raw materials are placed in separate packages, which are wrapped in cellophane. This prevents moisture from entering. Store fuel in utility rooms, basements, sheds or attics. The products are in the shape of tubes or bricks, so they are very convenient to store. Bars take up much less space than firewood.

Useful tips

Those who want to make such a product with their own hands must consider the following points:

1. To make the elements burn better, you can add a little paper torn into pieces.
2. All elements will stick together better if you add starch to the mixture.
3. In order to effectively burn small wood waste when producing such fuel, it is worth using a special shaft-type boiler. It is also important to remember that homemade presses are of lower quality.

House heating

Fuel briquettes are probably ideal for heating a home. The ability to light the stove once and maintain the fire and heat for a long time without additional tossing allows us to talk about the good characteristics of Eurobriquettes. Let's look at how to heat a brick stove with fuel briquettes within the house.

What is better to choose regular firewood or “euro”?

The main problem associated with biomass gasification as an electricity generation technology is the purification of the gas resulting from the process of impurities that accompany it. Gasification has a number of advantages. The resulting gas is more versatile and can be used for the same purposes as natural gas.

It can be burned to produce heat and steam and can drive internal combustion engines and gas turbines to generate electricity. These processes use the biochemical characteristics of biomass and the metabolic action of microbial organisms to produce gaseous and liquid fuels. They are more suitable for wet biomass conversion than thermochemical processes.

Of course, pressed bricks will not burn immediately, so let’s figure out how to light fuel briquettes. This is quite simple to do; first of all, you should put tree bark, wood chips, and some dry newspapers in the oven, and then place alternative firewood on top. During kindling, while the wood chips are actively igniting, we adjust the airflow. As soon as the fire starts on the first briquettes, you can add the rest.

Digestion of biomass soaked by bacteria in an oxygen-free environment creates a flammable gas called biogas. In this case, the biomass is placed in a closed container and allowed to ferment; After a few days, depending on the ambient temperature, there will be a gas that is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide. The remaining material in the digester is a good organic fertilizer. In China and India, digests were intensively promoted for domestic use when replacing firewood.

So which is better?

Black water and honey can also be used as raw materials, which also serve to purify water. Biomass can produce liquid fuels such as ethanol and methanol. The first is produced by fermentation of sugars, and the second by destructive distillation of wood. The technology has been used for centuries to produce alcoholic beverages and, more recently, to replace fossil fuel substitutes for transportation. These fuels can be used in pure form or mixed with others, for transportation or for driving cars.

Another option is to heat the stove with fuel briquettes after the first batch of wood has burned and decent coals have appeared. In such a firebox, the fire can quickly be caught on Eurobriquettes.

Price

The price depends on the materials used and the production process. The estimated cost for some types is indicated in the table:

Fire wood stoves

Wood-burning stoves provide efficient heating of residential and non-residential premises. They are presented in many models, differing in their technical characteristics and design. They use the most ordinary firewood as fuel - they can be purchased by the truckload. But this fuel cannot be called modern and efficient. And today it has been replaced by fuel briquettes for heating stoves.

To clarify, let's look at the main disadvantages of traditional wood fuel:

Ordinary firewood must first be chopped and then placed in neat woodpiles. This is a very labor-intensive and time-consuming process.

• It is inconvenient to stack firewood in neat stacks - if they are the same size and format, then this is not so bad. But if some logs are thin, while others are thick, and even knotty, then the masonry will be crooked and oblique (although a lot here depends on the “curvature” of the hands);
• Firewood needs to be split - it often comes in the form of round logs that require chopping. Swinging an ax in cold weather is a dubious pleasure (although useful);
• Firewood is often damp - seeking for their own profit, lumberjacks sell the wood in a raw state, without first drying it. Compared to almost dry fuel briquettes for heating stoves, they will not be easy to light;
• Low calorific value - a cubic meter of firewood produces less heat than the same wood briquettes of the same volume;
• Firewood produces a large amount of ash - the same wood briquettes practically do not clog the stoves;
• Wood burns with clicking and crackling sounds, burns unevenly, clearly inferior to briquettes in this regard.

Firewood is the most common and cheapest solid fuel for heating stoves and boilers. But fuel briquettes are superior to them due to their convenience and high calorific value.

Conclusion

Thanks to modern technologies, we can use alternative fuel - briquettes. These are compressed particles of various materials. The most common briquettes are made from sawdust, but similar products can be purchased from straw, peat or coal.

With the help of fuel briquettes you can heat a bathhouse, a summer house and a private house. Their main advantages are environmental friendliness and high heat transfer at an affordable price. Disadvantages include the long time it takes to ignite the fuel and the pungent smell of ash, which is uncharacteristic of firewood.

Advantages and disadvantages of artificial fuel

Eurofirewood got its name because of its regular geometric shape and is an alternative type of solid fuel (wood or coal). They are convenient for heating stoves, fireplaces, and using for solid fuel boilers and other types of heating appliances. In order to decide which type of fuel to give preference to, you should consider all the advantages and disadvantages of briquettes over firewood. To produce briquettes, waste from the food and wood processing industries is used. They include:

• sawdust;
• husks of cereals (rice, buckwheat) and industrial crops (sunflower);
• peat;
• straw.

The compressed briquette holds its shape due to the physical properties of the components included in its composition.

Ideal drying of the fuel material determines good combustion, compact and aesthetic appearance. No glue is used in the production of briquettes, so such products are environmentally friendly and safe for humans.