MacTech
Enlightened
We're in the depths of a multi-day, potentially even multi-week long power outage up here in York, Maine, brought on by a massive ice storm that blew through on 12/11/08, the entire New England area has been hammered, but Central Maine Power, in their infinite incompetence, didn't take the storm seriously until yesterday, when the reality of the problem hit them (220,000+ homes in Maine without power, hardest hit area is York county (where I happen to live)
my Outage-Log is in the General Flashlights section, where I document what lights I've been using, and verbally berate the knuckle-dragging morons at CMP for their complete idiocy and incompetence
Anyway, one of the products we're using to get us through the frigid New England winter (outside temps were 14 degrees Farenheit last night!!) has been the Pine Mountain Firelog
this is basically a brick of compressed sawdust bound together with wax, dead easy to use, just put it in the fireplace, light both ends of the bag, and in minutes, you have a roaring, crackling fire that will burn for 3-3.5 hours (for the Large log)
So, in the spirit of CPF, I'll do a flashlight-style review of the firelog....
Beam Profile; a full 360 degree powerful flood of light, capable of lighting a good sized room to a comfortable level, probably around 5 to 10 lumens, nice, even lighting, no intense spots of light (I could say no *hot*spots, but that's not strictly true when dealing with fire now, is it?
)
Color Balance; Warm orange glow (*very warm*, in fact...), pleasing to the eye, but biased more to the reddish-orange side of the scale a very comforting, pleasing color balance
Power Source; compressed pine sawdust, a very environmentally freindly source of power, while the log itself isn't "rechargable", it's made using what would normally be considered "waste" products instead of burning cord wood
Efficiency; nearly 100% efficient (I believe estimates are 98% combustion) nothing is left behind but a small amount of ash, no coals, no unburned portions, the entire firelog is consumed in the burning process
Runtime; 3 to 3.5 hours for the Giant sized log (sizes available are Handy size (2 hours), Giant size (3 hours) and Superlog (4 hours), the rated burn time is 3 hours, but we regularly got 3.5, and the fire was pretty consistent throughout the burn time, so it looks like it's "regulated" to boot
The only real downside to the Giant logs is that they're too big to fit in our woodstove, the Handy size would be great there, as it's a small cast-iron woodstove and Cast Iron is a great heat retainer and radiator
The Pine Mountain logs would be a great addition to anyone's emergency kit, more efficient and cleaner than firewood, and can stack a lot more in a smaller area, well worth having on hand for emergencies, highly reccomended
my Outage-Log is in the General Flashlights section, where I document what lights I've been using, and verbally berate the knuckle-dragging morons at CMP for their complete idiocy and incompetence
Anyway, one of the products we're using to get us through the frigid New England winter (outside temps were 14 degrees Farenheit last night!!) has been the Pine Mountain Firelog
this is basically a brick of compressed sawdust bound together with wax, dead easy to use, just put it in the fireplace, light both ends of the bag, and in minutes, you have a roaring, crackling fire that will burn for 3-3.5 hours (for the Large log)
So, in the spirit of CPF, I'll do a flashlight-style review of the firelog....
Beam Profile; a full 360 degree powerful flood of light, capable of lighting a good sized room to a comfortable level, probably around 5 to 10 lumens, nice, even lighting, no intense spots of light (I could say no *hot*spots, but that's not strictly true when dealing with fire now, is it?
) Color Balance; Warm orange glow (*very warm*, in fact...), pleasing to the eye, but biased more to the reddish-orange side of the scale a very comforting, pleasing color balance
Power Source; compressed pine sawdust, a very environmentally freindly source of power, while the log itself isn't "rechargable", it's made using what would normally be considered "waste" products instead of burning cord wood
Efficiency; nearly 100% efficient (I believe estimates are 98% combustion) nothing is left behind but a small amount of ash, no coals, no unburned portions, the entire firelog is consumed in the burning process
Runtime; 3 to 3.5 hours for the Giant sized log (sizes available are Handy size (2 hours), Giant size (3 hours) and Superlog (4 hours), the rated burn time is 3 hours, but we regularly got 3.5, and the fire was pretty consistent throughout the burn time, so it looks like it's "regulated" to boot
The only real downside to the Giant logs is that they're too big to fit in our woodstove, the Handy size would be great there, as it's a small cast-iron woodstove and Cast Iron is a great heat retainer and radiator
The Pine Mountain logs would be a great addition to anyone's emergency kit, more efficient and cleaner than firewood, and can stack a lot more in a smaller area, well worth having on hand for emergencies, highly reccomended
Sounds like an outstanding incandescent option for camp-outs, blackouts, or anywhere that fine, natural light is wanted. Good job!:thumbsup:
