Burning sawdust in your Greenheart workshop stove

Your can burn small offcuts, wood shavings and wood sawdust from untreated woods in your Greenheart workshop stove. To start with load the stove up with fuel. You can fill the stove to near the top with sawdust, shavings, or small offcuts. You can mix in larger pieces of wood but we recommend that you do not as it is more efficient to burn either small fuel (shavings, sawdust, etc) or larger pieces.
When the stove has been filled simply light a piece of scrunched up newspaper and place it on top of the fuel. Put the stove top back on the stove. The newspaper will light the top layer of fuel and the stove will start. This works because the air intake tube for the stove goes to the bottom of the firebox allowing top down combustion of dense fuels. Normally the air for a stove is taken in so that it comes in over the top of the fuel - this makes sawdust smolder slowly. In an Greenheart workshop stove the sawdust is burning on top and the air is being sucked down through the sawdust giving much faster combustion - and heat.

You may find that very very fine sawdust does not burn well becuase it is so dense that the air cannot be sucked down through it. If this is the case mix in larger sawdust and shavings to the fuel to allow the air to be sucked down through the stove.

Burning times

The following applies to the Greenheart 7 workshop stove. Smaller stoves will not burn for as long. Using pine shavings a full load will burn in an hour or less. On dense hardwood sawdust from sawing the stove will stay in overnight. Sawdust from lighter woods will be somewhere inbetween. Very fine sawdust from sanding will need something lighter mixed in with it to properly burn.

Refilling your Greenheart workshop stove with sawdust

Care must be taken when refilling the stove with sawdust. Because sawdust can be very fine it can ignite in the air as you are filling the stove up. Please consider this before refilling the stove when it is already lit. One option is to add a thick layer of medium density sawdust (the sort that does not become airbourne) and then add any finer sawdust on top of that. You should relight the stove again by putting a piece of lit newspaper on top of the fuel.