Just curious what ya'll think about this article. What can you add to the discussion.

http://www.woodheat.org/preparing-fuel-supply.html

I think it provides good information. Almost as important is the type of wood you burn. Nothing beats good hardwoods, Oak, certain Elms, Walnut, Pecan, Bois d' Arc, Kentucky Coffee Tree (Coffee Bean) etc.

Covering the wood will Depend greatly on your climate. The author prefers not to cover, but I think cover can make a difference. in the south it can be damp and humid most of the summer.

Good article.

One thing I find myself doing is to mix the wood I load in my wheelbarrow for burning.  Some wood on one stack may be a little too dried out or dry rotted, while another stack might be heavier, more dense, or less seasoned.
Once a fire is going good, I will use the bigger, heavier stuff to sustain it.

When you process or at least stack every piece, you have a good idea what you are burning.

Pieces that are not well suited to burning in my stove due to size or shape, I set aside for campfires.

There is a lot of black olive trees here in FL. Makes good firewood.

Our woodburning stove is about six years old. It is a high efficiency model. The manufacturer recommends drying the wood down to 12%. If the wood is above 14%, moisture bleeds out of the end of the wood. The manufacturer says that if moisture is bleeding out of the end of what is being burned, it is too moist.

My take-away from that is...the type of stove you have will determine how dry you need to season your wood.

I have a friend who grew up in a house that was heated by wood only. They had a huge stove in the basement. He and his brother were tasked with collecting firewood. They would go out to the grove, in the Winter, find a tree that was small enough that they would not have to split it. They would cut it down and chop it into lengths. The next day it was getting thrown in the woodstove.

They had to clean the chimney several times a year rather than once every two years, like I do. I also get a lot more BTUs out of the seasoned wood. The other side of the coin is...they didn't have to fuss with what they burned nearly as much as I do.

I heat with wood exclusively, and burn oak only in a Lopi Liberty stove.

I was processing wood for winter 2016/17 yesterday and this morning.

I season in above ground racks for 1-1.5 years and at the end of summer prior to burning, tarp the wood I am going to burn. It never sees the weather again, unless it doesn't get burned that winter. I bring about a weeks worth at a time up to the house, where it is under roof.

I don't see much wrong with the article although I think his 6 month cure time is very optimistic, and downright wrong if burning green hardwood. I also see that it looks as though he has the wood stacked out on the ground. Firewood will leach water up from the ground and rot, and insects in greater numbers will find their way into the wood. Single depth wind rows up off of the ground make for the best cure.

Well. this property has a wood burning in the basement and carport/ pole barns with roof. So, I cut a tree down (size that would work in wood stove).

Should this wood stay outside to cure and then bring in as needed or can it get moved inside if there is room once cut?

Wherever the wood is, there will be nasties which you might not want in other areas.  Mine is under a shed roof which allows air to circulate, while keeping the rain off the stacks.

I only want to move wood once, and I take a wheelbarrow at a time from storage to patio door, as often as it takes. I guess you have to allow for a basement and whatever it takes to get the wood down there.

yea, i guess itll be a learn as I go thing. lol.

Let it bask in the sun and wind as long as you can.

Split wood dries faster.

Bugs,mice,snakes like wood piles. Wherever the wood is the vermin will find it. I keep mine a 100 yards or so from the house and bring it down to the house with tractor.

Chimney cleaning brushes and rods are cheap, buy your own and clean once a year (put shop vac hose in the stove, turn on, clean away). On the subject of chimney cleaning rods, they are fiberglass and made for linear loads. If you decide to chuck them up in a drill motor (torsional load) and have your wife run the drill while you feed the rod into the chimney, expect (spectacular) failure of the rod(s).

If you can get it somewhere that it is top-covered but still exposed to sun/wind that is where it will dry the fastest. Generally the occasional rain etc on your wood won't effect it's drying much, but if you live where you get frequent rains and you're trying to dry wood quickly (IE, you need it for this winter) your best bet is to top-cover (cover only the top, not the sides) to get you every bit of advantage you can get...

Regarding the article, there is a lot of truth in it.

While it is true that older wood burners (smoke dragons as they are often called) can and will burn wet wood they won't do so efficiently, and they will put out more smoke and cause more creosote deposits in the chimney.

With modern, EPA rated wood burners it is pretty much mandatory that you burn dry wood (<20% moisture content). You will have a terrible burning experience if you don't.

I burn in an EPA rated stove, have burned dry, seasoned wood for 5 years and have never had to clean my chimney because I don't get any deposits except fly-ash (small ash particles that stick on the interior of the pipe).

Regarding wood: different woods season differently, different woods start out with different moisture contents, do a little research on firewoods. There are charts that show green (living or fresh-cut) moisture content and that will tell you a LOT about how quickly it will dry.

Wood that takes a long time to season (can take up to 3 years to season): oaks, honey locust, & most hickory are among those that I'm aware of
Wood that seasons quickly (in ideal cases can be cut in spring and be <20% m.c. by fall): ash (white ash is the best/fastest), soft-maples, conifers, etc
Medium length (1-2 years): hard maple, beech, black locust, Osage Orange, & elm

Definitely need to cut, split, & stack the wood for it to dry effectively. It's common to see people advertise freshly cut/split wood as seasoned simply because the log/tree has been down for a few years; that isn't the case and if you were to measure the moisture content of that wood it would be very high...

Thanks. Yea I know about the stove, ive got one *long story*. Im guessing they only used it heat the basement, unless it can heat up enough to actually have the heat hit the second floor (main floor). But yea, itll be on the list. Id like to get a wood burner up stairs as back up, so ill have to research the whole "stove in the basement" thing.

In Ohio I do not like covering the wood, other then laying something on the top row!
Covered, dark places, is where many animals also like to make there home!
Also stack mine off the ground. So I can see under it! As well as mutual feline
friends can help keep it life less!!! The dog too!!!


IMHP:  PITA45

Yea no matter what I plan to have it off the ground, so air can circulate to help dry it. Either 2x4 or iron pipe.

you are going to need way more than that in XX state. Pallets stacked 2 high are fine for a base and you can get em free.



 

A cheap but dry firewood shed is a valuable out building on any retreat or homestead.

4x4 supports, 2x6 bands and supports and tin. In the Southeast, this will survive for decades without a problem. No snow load though :)

Pallets work great for keeping up off the ground but you can stack on ground, you'll just end up losing the bottom row most of the time. Turn the first row bark side down and if you rotate regularly it might be able to be burnt.

Don't get all wrapped around the axle of the "don't burn pine!" cries. What you want to avoid is burning LARGE chunks of PITCH pine- aka lighter knot, aka "punk", etc. That stuff is like gasoline.
You'll know it when you see it.

Properly dried non punk pine will burn just fine, so don't turn your nose up at it. Obviously the hardwoods is what you WANT to burn/put up for the most part though.

Learn the look and sound of seasoned wood versus fresh. Clap pieces together and notice the sound difference, look at the texture of the wood, etc. Depending on space, etc. you may have fresh wood sitting next to some seasoned wood, etc.

From a survival standpoint, properly seasoned (at least a year under cover) wood barely smokes, which is important for security reasons. Seems to give off less smell also but that might be subjective.

We have heated solely with wood for 16 years now and the last 3 feeding three stoves. We try to keep at least 5 cords on hand at any one point. Three different sheds.

Learn to maximize efficiency in your wood production- the less times you "handle" the firewood, the better.

Good luck and stay warm!
Lowdown3

All great points!!! Just adding a small bit of emphasis and clarification.
Red= my emphasis
Blue = my addition
Punk or punky means rot, rotten, or partially rotten

I live in a subdivision on less than half an acre. I've had several neighbors that know I have a stove, know I burn wood for heat, and have to see my firewood stacks being consumed through winter months ask me, "Why don't you ever burn your wood" or "I haven't noticed you burning wood this year..."

The truth of the matter is, I burn properly seasoned wood in a high efficiency (low emissions) modern stove. The reason you don't get much creosote etc with these stoves is because there is so little smoke. So little smoke in-fact, that most people can't even tell your stove is going because there is no visible smoke and the smell is so faint that they don't even realize that your fire is burning away inside at the EXACT time they are asking you why you haven't been burning wood...

Those are nice.  I put down a sheet of old metal roofing and put runners made of treated landscape timbers to stack on.  Gives you a good air space.

What kinda stove do you have? Pics would be nice too.

I'm guessing you're not in Florida if you need wood burning stoves... and have a basement

I "wont" be, lol. There is a wood burner in the basement now but inspector said not to count on it for really cold temps.

I personally have a Kozyheat Z42 CD (Cast-iron door model), but any EPA high-efficiency, low-emission rated stove should perform similarly if installed properly and is burned properly.

The Z42 is actually a "zero-clearance fireplace" which means it's a stove made to look like a fireplace (with doors) that can go directly into studded wood walls etc (as the name implies there is no required clearance to combustibles).

Pics can be found at their website and elsewhere (I believe hearth.com has a photo gallery). If you want pics of my particular install I can't post photos from work and I have too much going at home right now to mess with hosting/posting. If you'd like me to text some pics from my phone PM me your number.

Ah nice.. for the basement of this place, id have to get a stand alone type.