Performance of an automatically controlled wood stove: Thermal efficiency and carbon monoxide emissions

The development and performance in practice of a commercial automatically controlled wood stove is described. The digital control system controls the three combustion air inlets individually, based on the combustion phase, measured flue gas temperature, measured O-2 outlet concentration and desired room temperature. The control system ensured a well-controlled combustion cycle with respect to temperature and oxygen concentration, yielding improved thermal efficiency and minimized carbon monoxide emissions. A minimum in CO emissions was identified for the oxygen operation range 10-13% O-2. The improved performance has been verified by field tests in 5 private homes, demonstrating more stable and optimal O-2 concentrations and temperatures compared to manual operation. This resulted in significant lower CO concentrations (up to 27%) alongside higher thermal efficiency (up to 20%) when comparing manually and automatically controlled wood stoves. This new technology has a great potential for improving the stove efficiency/biomass utilisation and reducing the emissions of pollutants at low altitude close to private homes. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.