DEFINITIONS
AIRTIGHT HEATER—In an airtight heater, all air enters in through the inlets. Generally, non-airtight stoves are not as efficient and their level of heat output is less controllable than that of an airtight.
BURN CYCLE—Time span between refuelings in which the wood is reduced to a bed of hot coals.
BYPASS—Movable door inside a woodstove that is opened when the stove door is opened to give a path of least resistance to smoke to prevent roll-out.
CREOSOTE—Condensed wood-gas vapor.
DOWNSTREAM TEMPERATURE—Outlet temperature of the combustor or temperature of the gas leaving the combustor from the chimney side or face.
DRAFT—Amount of vacuum created by buoyant hot air in the chimney. Draft pulls in oxygen for the combustion process and pulls out exhaust gases.
FIREBRICK—Brick capable of withstanding high temperatures. Used in furnaces, kilns and stoves. Used to mean only “hard” or “dense” firebrick as distinguished from “soft” or “insulating” firebrick.
FIRING RATE—Rate at which fuel is burned in a heater.
FLAME IMPINGEMENT– Flames directly contacting the combustor face.
FLUE COLLAR—The part of a stove to which the chimney connector or chimney attaches.
GLOW-PLUGEFFECT—When a combustor is at temperatures above 1400o F (760o C) and periodically causes pockets of wood gas in the firebox to ignite spontaneously.
GREEN WOOD—Non-dried, freshly cut wood from a live tree.
IGNITION TEMPERATURE—The minimum temperature of a flammable mixture of gases at which it can spontaneously ignite.
LIGHT-OFF—Activation temperature of the combustor catalyst.
NOBLE-METALCATALYST—A catalyst is a substance that can accelerate a chemical process without being consumed by it. A noble-metal catalyst is one made of a precious metal or metals. (In the combustor, platinum and palladium are used because they are stable under high heat conditions.)