Fuel briquettes or firewood - which is better for a bathhouse?

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.

Good to know: Exclusive firewood holder “Harp” made of handmade solid wood

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.

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.

Fuel briquettes

Fuel briquettes for stoves are products made from wood processing products. This material is used for heating educational institutions and residential premises. In addition, such products are used in warehouses used for drying and storing wood materials. Industrial enterprises also use this type of fuel, because it is economical and efficient.

To manufacture such a product, special equipment is used, namely a chipper or a press. The choice of press depends on the area and shape of the elements planned to be produced.

In this video you will find out how long fuel briquettes burn:

As for professional equipment, a screw press is used to produce such material. The device is used to create octagonal elements. A hydraulic press is also used. It is used for the manufacture of rectangular elements with minimal density, resulting in increased material consumption.

To make such products at home, you can use impact-mechanical devices. They allow you to make the material in any shape you like. In this case, the elements will have an average density.

You can make similar briquettes yourself

Manufacturing technology

You can make briquettes for the firebox yourself. They are manufactured using the following technology:

1. At the storage stage, the peat layer is cut off using milling.
2. During the drying process, the peat is crushed to bring the moisture level to the required values.
3. At the drying stage, the finished raw material is placed in a drying chamber. There the moisture level is brought to 12%.
4. The last stage is pressing. At this stage, raw materials with a moisture level exceeding 12% are sent for pressing. There it is heated to 300°C, and the peat is sintered.

The resulting design has a smooth black surface. The moisture level of the finished product is 18%. Such products can be divided into three types: coal, peat and wood.

The advantages of such products

It is worth saying that fuel or pressed briquettes for heating are very popular. After all, they have many advantages:

1. They are environmentally friendly because no glue is used in their production.
2. Such designs do not emit hazardous substances during combustion.
3. Sulfur in briquettes is contained in small quantities, as a result of which components hazardous to the environment are not created.
4. This type of fuel ignites easily and burns twice as long as wood.
5. They are safe because no sparks appear during their combustion.
6. Fuel briquettes demonstrate high efficiency - they produce a lot of heat with low consumption.

In addition, briquettes are easy to put into the firebox, and the ash from them can be used as potash fertilizers.

Such products are easy to transport and store. They can be used not only for stoves or boilers, but also for fireplaces or barbecues. Such briquettes do not contain synthetic substances.

However, there are also disadvantages. They are expensive and therefore inaccessible to most Russians. Therefore, such fuel is supplied abroad, and Russians use firewood the old fashioned way.

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.