Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Woodstove embers temperature ?

metalresearcher - 24-10-2020 at 12:35

Now the colder season starts in the northern hemisphere and I am interested how hot a woodstove can go, I measured the temperature of glowing embers when blown with forced draft by a barbecue blower.
My girlfriend operated the blower as I already used both hands, one with the pyrometer and the other with the camera.
Just for curiosity: how hot can a wood fire go ?

I got 1050 - 1100 C when pointing an IR pyrometer to the hot embers.

Did anyone try this ?

woodstove-temp.jpg - 2.1MB

unionised - 24-10-2020 at 14:26

Quote: Originally posted by metalresearcher  
Now the colder season starts in the northern hemisphere and I am interested how hot a woodstove can go, I measured the temperature of glowing embers when blown with forced draft by a barbecue blower.
My girlfriend operated the blower as I already used both hands, one with the pyrometer and the other with the camera.
Just for curiosity: how hot can a wood fire go ?

I got 1050 - 1100 C when pointing an IR pyrometer to the hot embers.

Did anyone try this ?

Well our ancestors used a fire like that to melt iron.

zed - 28-11-2020 at 05:10

As I recall, Rogeryermaw, used compressed air and wood, to produce Phosphorus. So, pretty hot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mibM4WUx74Q

[Edited on 28-11-2020 by zed]

Junk_Enginerd - 28-11-2020 at 07:14

Based on my blacksmithing and metal casting knowledge; once the volatiles area gone and all the wood is charcoal, you'd be hitting the theoretical limit at about 1900°C. This temperature is roughly the same for all hydrocarbon fuels. If air is the oxidizer, it mostly varies between 1900-2100°c, with a few exceptions like acetylene and hydrogen.

As long as the volatiles in the wood remains, before complete pyrolysis, it'll be more random and probably will refuse to go past maybe 1300°c.

[Edited on 28-11-2020 by Junk_Enginerd]

Metacelsus - 28-11-2020 at 10:46

Yeah, burning wood won't melt iron. You need charcoal for that.

Grizli7 - 1-9-2021 at 10:42

The fact is that the temperature will fluctuate greatly depending on many factors: coniferous or deciduous tree, air humidity, wood moisture, wind speed, etc. -designing ovens is not an easy thing to do. But the general principle is more radiating area, more heat.