A Question Regarding Oven Wood Consumption

[albacore]

Today, for the first time, I decided to weigh how much wood I used to get my oven up to temperature and cook five pizzas.

The oven is 80cm internal diameter and I used approx 11kg of wood, excluding kindling. The oven wasn't particularly hot - the pizzas took 3-4 minutes to cook, so I could easily have used more wood to get the oven hotter.

The oven is pretty well insulated with 50mm of calsil below the firebrick floor and the exterior render is only slightly warm to the touch.

Is this wood consumption normal? The chimney is 1m tall and sometimes I think that all the heat is going up the chimney.

Lance

[devontiger]

albacore, have you a damper on the flue?
Have you a picy of your oven somewhere?
I use a lot of small bits of rubbish wood for starting up & temp rises very quick for a budget oven.

Last week I was doing 6 large pizza's in 90 secs each.
I keep the fire going all the time, only pushing it to the back when ready to cook.
If I remember next time, I will weigh the wood. 

[albacore]

D.Tiger, there's a link to my original build at the bottom of my post with plenty of pictures. Yes, would be good if you could weigh wood next time you fire.
Cheers

[devontiger]

You are about right with the wood use.
Ive got 8kg out to use.
Most use is getting up to temp.


Just to add, I didn't use all that wood, & used kindling for start up, plus odd bits & bobs.
So I would guess about 6-7 Kg for actual cooking.
My oven is a 90x90cm base, with internal 60x60cm.

I did 7 pizzas Saturday & cooking time was under 90 seconds.
Loads of residue heat left after as oven was still hand warm in the morning.

[albacore]

Thanks DT. What size is your oven?

Lance

[deadboddan]

I have often wondered about the chimney, I am in the final stages of building my oven and since I was keen to retain as much heat as possible I have allowed some ridging to allow me to fit an inner door that will effectively block off the chimney. Always seemed strange that so much is spent on the insulation but then only a dampner is in place in most cases to prevent heat escaping that why?

[oblertone]

An insulated door between the dome and flue is the way to go for maximum heat retention.

[simonh]

I tried my new door for the first time yesterday, temp this morning (12 hours after we finished with the oven) was 180c on the floor, 170ish on the walls.

[oblertone]

Perfect temperature to bake those extra pizza bases that never got used that you put into greased bread tins before you went to bed ... You did put them into tins didn't you ?

[devontiger]

And, what do you then do with them??

[simonh]

Extra pizza bases??

[devontiger]

Aug 3, 2018 11:34:53 GMT oblertone said:

Perfect temperature to bake those extra pizza bases that never got used that you put into greased bread tins before you went to bed ... You did put them into tins didn't you ?

So,  what do you do with them??

Surely not a lot of good once cooked??

Or what else are you thinking of doing with them??

If I have any left over, I freeze them.

[oblertone]

Providing I'm not too cider affected at the end of the evening I knead all the uncooked bases together, put them into loaf tins which then go in the fridge overnight which delays the rise. In the morning I let them come up to room temperature while raking out the oven,then bung them in for about 35-40 mins. Fresh loaves for breakfast.

[devontiger]

Now thats an idea, fresh bread.

[downunderdave]

Aug 4, 2018 17:36:48 GMT devontiger said:

Now thats an idea, fresh bread.

Another idea is to make calzones. These were traditionally cooked after the pizzas when the oven temp has come off and then eaten the next day for lunch when working in the fields. 
Take some leftover dough and roll out a really large base, then fill one half of it with leftover toppings. Fold the base over like a really big pastie. If you’ve let the flame die for some time the oven temp will have come off so you can bake them for around 5- 10 mins.