It’s ten o’clock in the evening. You have to get up for work in the morning and you absolutely don’t feel like working at three o’clock in the morning.
And then you find wood briquettes in the store with the inscription “At night – lasts up to 10 hours!”
That sounds like a dream come true. Switch it on in the evening, wake up to the warmth in the morning. But what exactly do these ten hours mean?
Do they burn for ten hours or do they just glow?
And here lies the catch.
Manufacturers of night briquettes often specify the time. burning and glowingHowever, this is not the same as ten hours of intensive heating.
While the briquettes initially burn with a flame, they may later only glow for a long time, gradually releasing the remaining energy.
Glowing embers in the firebox in the morning do not mean that the stove has heated the house with the necessary power throughout the night.
Regular firewood or night briquettes?
There can be significant differences between the various briquettes.
Normal wood briquettes They are produced by pressing suitable wood raw materials. They are suitable for regular heating in heating appliances whose manufacturers permit this.
Nightbark briquettes They are usually made of bark or a mixture of bark and wood. Some are designed to burn and glow for a long time.
The manufacturer BIOMAC, for example, states that its Extralong Night Briquettes have a burning time of up to 10 hours. However, this is a value for a specific product and not a guarantee of the same result in all stoves.
Can I put them in any wood-burning stove?
NO!
And that is perhaps the most important piece of information in the entire article.
Just because briquettes are made from wood does not automatically mean that they are suitable as fuel for all wood-burning stoves.
The list of permissible fuels in the operating instructions for the respective appliance is authoritative. Some models allow the use of logs and wood briquettes, while others restrict their use.
Also, pay attention to the quantity. Some briquettes expand when heated. An overfilled combustion chamber can cause problems, and exceeding the permissible fuel quantity can overload the stove.
I add briquettes and close the air supply. Will it burn longer then?
That could be a dangerous mistake.
Insufficient air supply can lead to incomplete combustion, increased formation of carbon monoxide, smoke and tar deposits.
Even briquettes intended for nighttime use are no reason to operate the oven outside of the manufacturer’s instructions.
The burning time should not be extended at the expense of poor combustion.
How about using it before work?
Two things need to be distinguished here.
Leaving a large amount of briquettes in a conventional wood-burning stove when you leave the house and trusting that the fire will sustain itself for several hours may not be a safe or manufacturer-approved way of operating.
It always depends on the design of the stove and its operating instructions. Long-burning briquettes alone do not transform a conventional stove into a fully automated heating system that requires no operator intervention.
If you need to heat your house regularly while you are away, a different heating method or a more appropriately designed system may be more suitable.
Is it worth buying night briquettes?
They can be an interesting choice if the oven manufacturer allows them and their properties match your heating method.
However, do not assume that the statement “up to 10 hours” means ten hours of the same performance.
And if you especially need warmth when the fire has gone out, you should also consider a suitably designed storage heater.
Wood briquettes can extend the heat release time, but they are not a magic button that turns every stove into an unattended heater.