Interesting woodstorage Show me Yours.

[MotorSeven]

Roger this all depends on what kind of stove you are running. The newer stoves with catalytic converters must have wood with below 20% moisture or it just plain does not work very well. Older stoves like my '87 does not have a cat and can burn wood with a higher moisture content....however this is also not good. The reason is that you are expending heat to make steam, which means any stove is less efficient with high moisture content. Today's rule of thumb is cut spit and stacked for a year...two years is preferred. Kiln dried limber is around 6-7% & most air dried is around 10% if it has been covered and stacked with air movement around it(not tightly stacked). Your moisture meter sounds like it is way off....hardwood firewood cannot possibly dry enough in one month.

 

[Ken45101]

I think wood under 10% is considered too dry because it will burn too fast.

No, there is no such thing as "too dry". Although getting under 10% would be difficult (perhaps impossible) for air drying.

If it's burning too fast, then perhaps you have it split too small or are overloading the stove for the size wood you have and the fire you need.

Excess moisture in wood just provides water to be heated to steam (wasteful) and moisture to condense in the chimney (bad). The less moisture, the better and safer.

I try to split my wood mixed: some larger, some smaller. Then I pick from the wood pile what I need for that particular fire. Smaller pieces for a small fire on milder days, big chunks for overnight fires.

 

[Lloyd_E]

not trying to be synical or anything but nothing i have seen is enough to hold all the wood you may need for the winter and to start storing for the next winter so your wood can be fully seasoned. and the 16x8 wood shed is a total mess. none of these interest me at all . sorry folks, not trying to be mean. just looking at it with common sense.

Funny thing is - if you meant mine - I have been doing it this way for 20+ years and it works and the wood is dry(I check with a moisture meter...because I can) and there is enough there for next season. As I empty one section I fill it for the upcoming season in year two. Let's see what you have...

 

[PeterK]

This year I doubled up my logger load. It was a good thing because my logger was killed in an accident last month. So I am out of a logger until I find a new one that will deliver to our house.

We burn 5-6 full cords per year, wood is our only source of heat although we have a hot-air oil furnace that shares the hot air ducting and blower fan. Oil is used in early Fall to take the chill out of the house and also test the system should something prevent the wood furnace from working.

But as far a drying goes, I have been furiously working the logs each spring to have enough drying time before the next heating season. That's why I doubled up this past year. But to give the wood ample drying time in a short period, I simply split the red oak, beech, etc into smaller pieces. This season, it is all perfectly dry when it hits the wood furnace (inside EPA approved Caddy EPA). Once the wood has been on the South side for the summer drying, I move a full cord plus into my cellar, still cross-stacked. In the cellar I have a hot air dump in the ceiling over the stacked wood to finish it off. The rest is stored in an inside/outside wood storage room under a deck and the remaining wood is stored near the door.

btw- The Caddy EPA woodstove is highly recommended. 6 years so far and truly a money saver compared to other energy sources.

 

[dave1949]

This year I doubled up my logger load. It was a good thing because my logger was killed in an accident last month. So I am out of a logger until I find a new one that will deliver to our house.

We burn 5-6 full cords per year, wood is our only source of heat although we have a hot-air oil furnace that shares the hot air ducting and blower fan. Oil is used in early Fall to take the chill out of the house and also test the system should something prevent the wood furnace from working.

But as far a drying goes, I have been furiously working the logs each spring to have enough drying time before the next heating season. That's why I doubled up this past year. But to give the wood ample drying time in a short period, I simply split the red oak, beech, etc into smaller pieces. This season, it is all perfectly dry when it hits the wood furnace (inside EPA approved Caddy EPA). Once the wood has been on the South side for the summer drying, I move a full cord plus into my cellar, still cross-stacked. In the cellar I have a hot air dump in the ceiling over the stacked wood to finish it off. The rest is stored in an inside/outside wood storage room under a deck and the remaining wood is stored near the door.

btw- The Caddy EPA woodstove is highly recommended. 6 years so far and truly a money saver compared to other energy sources.

Was that your logger whose truck rolled in the Pizza Hut? That was sad.

 

[94BULLITT]

Roger this all depends on what kind of stove you are running. The newer stoves with catalytic converters must have wood with below 20% moisture or it just plain does not work very well. Older stoves like my '87 does not have a cat and can burn wood with a higher moisture content....however this is also not good. The reason is that you are expending heat to make steam, which means any stove is less efficient with high moisture content. Today's rule of thumb is cut spit and stacked for a year...two years is preferred. Kiln dried limber is around 6-7% & most air dried is around 10% if it has been covered and stacked with air movement around it(not tightly stacked). Your moisture meter sounds like it is way off....hardwood firewood cannot possibly dry enough in one month.

I have a EPA stove but it does not have a cat. I like for my wood to be less than 20%. With my previous stove, a pre-EPA stove I could burn green wood. I guess I would need another moisture meter to verify if mine is accurate.

No, there is no such thing as "too dry". Although getting under 10% would be difficult (perhaps impossible) for air drying.

If it's burning too fast, then perhaps you have it split too small or are overloading the stove for the size wood you have and the fire you need.

Excess moisture in wood just provides water to be heated to steam (wasteful) and moisture to condense in the chimney (bad). The less moisture, the better and safer.

I try to split my wood mixed: some larger, some smaller. Then I pick from the wood pile what I need for that particular fire. Smaller pieces for a small fire on milder days, big chunks for overnight fires.

A non-commercial service in support of responsible home heating with wood - Can Firewood be too Dry?

 

[EddieWalker]

We have been cutting and splitting wood in the last week. I bought the Troybilt log splitter from lows for just over $1,400 and it's been working great. Love how easy it is to take where the wood is, and how nice it is to operate. We still have a little wood left over from last year, and maybe the year before. Karen took all the out and stacked the new wood first, then put the old wood on top of the new so we could get to it first. We start the fire with the old, but then feed the new wood into the stove once it's going. It burns great. I also put a thermometer on the pipe to get an idea where we are temperature wise. 200 degrees seems to keep us comfortable. We sort of let it get too warm last night and hit 300 degrees on the thermometer, so we opened up the door to the shop to cool off. Outside temps are in the 30's.



Eddie

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Eddie,

What do you do about creosote? Everything I have read says you are in prime temp range for creosote forming in your chimney at those temps and need to stay above 400 for a properly burning fire (probe thermometer 18" above stove). And obviously also stay below the 1200 limit of most chimeys

Seems to me you are just asking for chimney fires

 

[Lloyd_E]

Eddie, If you can place all of your wood bark side up it will shed some water and dry a bit faster... old fellow down the road taught me this and it does work. Watch your pipe thermometer... is it for the pipe? They also make some to go on the stove top as well but are calibrated a little different. If you can, and I do weather permitting, I sweep my chimney usually 1/2 way through the season.

 

[tcreeley]

I have a moisture meter. I have cut green trees and then checked them again in a month and they are pretty dry. I just cut a couple of trees today. One was oak, the other was a maple, they both were green. I have a few peices of the oak left to split, it got too dark to finish up. I will check them and see what they are, probably 40-50%. I'll resplit the a piece in a month an see what it is. I think wood under 10% is considered too dry because it will burn too fast.

I used to burn scraps from a furniture factory, They were bone dry and you could light them with a match, no kindling needed. They burn hot, but that is when your air tight stove comes into play. I think they were 6-7% moisture.
If I hear a sizzle, or see moisture bubbling out on a piece of wood in the stove- it is not dry enough, needs to sit another year. Wood I buy this summer/fall will not go into the stove until next year's winter at the earliest.
I've had local people who don't have air tight stoves tell me wood cut in the spring or summer is ready that winter (people up here call this seasoned wood- though it isn't). With the non-airtight stoves that burn wood fast, green wood will hold a longer fire because the moisture is preventing it from getting a good hot fire going.
I like wood heat. As a kid we had an oil furnace and a fire place. In 1975 I started using wood. Still using it.

Why a wood shed would be nice is to keep the snow off. I use a tarp now- that works and once or twice a week bring a load to the house with the tractor, and bring it in. I'd like a wood shed with easy tractor access, driveway access, and house access. Nothing can do all of that!
A friend at work has his wood boiler in his garage. He just brings the wood in for the winter and it is there to feed the boiler. The boiler keeps the garage comfortable, and it is attached to the house- so he never goes outside!