How long to dry firewood

[BCinVT]

Yeah,I plan on having my woodshed open in the front,and staggering the sides to get good airflow.Thanks for the heads up though.Lot of this stuff will be trial and error till I get a good system that works.

[SwampDonkey]

If you store some not quite dry near your burning appliance, like a basement, and stack your driest wood to the front, the rest will dry real fast with that wood heat.

[eamassey]

Let me give the minority report:
I have burned wood most of my life-- have two wood stoves in the house, one in the shop.  I more-or-less cut wood as I burn it, resulting in some wood being burned the day I cut it, and hardly any burned that has been cut more than a month. So, just what is it I might be missing by not having 1-year or 2-year dried wood?
I do cut blown down trees first-and I usually have enough for half the winter. (They might have been blown down 1 to 8 months.)

[beenthere]

eamassey
You are not missing anything, especially the exercise of cutting about twice the wood to get the same heat.  ;D
Keep it up, as you are prolly healthier for it.

[John Mc]

Let me give the minority report:
I have burned wood most of my life-- have two wood stoves in the house, one in the shop.  I more-or-less cut wood as I burn it, resulting in some wood being burned the day I cut it, and hardly any burned that has been cut more than a month. So, just what is it I might be missing by not having 1-year or 2-year dried wood?
I do cut blown down trees first-and I usually have enough for half the winter. (They might have been blown down 1 to 8 months.)

What you are missing is about 40% of the BTU value of the wood (comparing fresh green hardwood to seasoned). You are wasting BTUs heating up all that moisture, and wasting a tremendous amount vaporizing that moisture. In addition, since the fire is burning cooler it's burning less efficiently. A lot of what is released from this cooler fire is combustible, but not at those temperatures. Instead, those flammable gasses are just going up the chimney unburnt (or depositing on the inside of your chimney as creosote).

John Mc

[treedragger]

I don't know if you have heard of girdling a tree but it is a good way to start drying the wood while the tree is still standing.  This is where you cut about two inches of bark around the circumference of the tree.  This will cause the tree to die and start to season while it is standing.  You can go around your the woods and girdle the trees that you want to cut next year.  This way when you cut and stack it you can stack it right where you are going to burn it.  I hope you find that this helps.

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum treedragger.

Any pics of your drying method ??

[SwampDonkey]

I know a few people that burn right off the stump to. I can't tell'm any different.  There are a lot of folks that don't think ahead, like preparing for next year. ;)

[Ron Scott]

I know some to, and they're loggers who are in the woods cutting most every day. They only take a days supply of firewood home with them each day. ;)

[Black_Bear]

Let me give the minority report:
I have burned wood most of my life-- have two wood stoves in the house, one in the shop.  I more-or-less cut wood as I burn it, resulting in some wood being burned the day I cut it, and hardly any burned that has been cut more than a month. So, just what is it I might be missing by not having 1-year or 2-year dried wood?
I do cut blown down trees first-and I usually have enough for half the winter. (They might have been blown down 1 to 8 months.)

I'm not an Arkansas weather expert, but I would tend to think that the mild (relative to northern latitudes) winter temps would allow a resident of Amity, AR to more readily use green wood, especially in a well insulated building or a garage where you may not need the inside temp. to be consistently high. Most of the time we build just enough of a fire in the garage to take the chill off, especially if we are working in it. The temperature in northern latitudes will drop into the single digits or sub-zero for days or weeks at a time, without warming up during the day. Generally written, the 40% btu loss, as written by JohnMC, would be missed more in the northern latitudes than in the southern latitudes.

Also, some species burn OK green, which may be working to eamasseys advantage?? I know quite a few guys that will mix in freshly cut white ash with their dry wood, especially towards the end of winter if their dry supply is running low.   

[John Mc]

If you have to burn green wood, White Ash is the way to go. If you compare all the commonly available hardwoods when freshly cut, White Ash has the lowest moisture content... so you lose the least by burning it green. If stored properly, it also tends to lose that moisture readily  (as compared to Red Oak, that seems to want to hold on to the moisture forever). That, couple with the fact that it's got decent BTU content, and just about splits if you look at it too hard make it fairly popular for firewood.

I agree that the heating demand is probably less in Arkansas than here in Vermont, but that doesn't change the fact that he's burning almost twice as much wood as he needs to if he's burning it green. I just can't see letting that much of my hard work go to waste. On top of that, you'll get more creosote build-up (and therefore greater chance of chimney fires) if you burn green wood than burning properly seasoned wood.

Finally, burning a hot fire from seasoned wood is puts out far less pollution, especially the fine particulates that can cause respiratory problems. You see this around here if a few folks in a small valley neighborhood fire up their OWBs with green wood under the wrong atmospheric conditions... the whole valley gets choked with smog from just a few stacks.

[eamassey]

Let me respond to some points:
First, yes, Southwest Arkansas is not that cold.  The high today was 37 deg. F--and that is a pretty cold day for us.  Our normal winter is one or two nights of 10-12 deg. F, maybe 10 or 12 days in the upper teens, half the winter the overnight lows are 26-34 deg. F. 

Second, about that 40 percent some of you say I am losing.  Sure, but control (avoiding overheat) and length of burn (overnight with no attention, rake the coals in the morning and go again) are more important to me.

Third, chimney problems.  I've been doing this for 30 years in the house I live in today.  I climb up on the roof about 3 times per winter, sorry, but I can't ever find anything to do.  Well that is not quite true, in the spring the chimney cap (uninsulated thin aluminum) gets cleaned.  Creosoting is a combination of what goes up the chimney + the physical condition of the chimney.  The best defense is an insulated (definitely not thermal syphon) chimney.

Last, of course I might just be too lazy or un-organized to cut my wood a year (or more) ahead of time.  Actually, I really do much prefer to run chain saws in cold weather rather than hot.  I have often hauled wood off, at the end of the heating season, because it will be too dry by next heat season---and bark falling off, etc.  So I burn green wood by choice.
(Maybe my house is too tight and too insulated??)

Pollution issues.  Actually my smoke from the stacks look pretty clean to me.  I am also in a low population density area, and well protected from anyone building very close to me-- by owning the land.  I usually have a few large (dozer piled) brush piles to burn each year---that puts up more smoke than heating 10 houses for the winter with wood. 

I burn 60% red oak, 15% white oak, 10% other oaks, 10% hickory, 5% other, --- but never gums, sycamore, pine, cedar, etc.

[John Mc]

Pollution issues.  Actually my smoke from the stacks look pretty clean to me. 

Just being able to see the smoke is a decent indicator of whether you are burning clean. Other then when starting up a new charge in the wood stove, you should not be able to see your smoke for more than a few feet after it leaves the stack. If you can see more than that, it's not burning clean.

Hey, I'm not trying to tell you how to burn your wood. If what you are doing works for you, that's great. You just asked what you were missing by burning green wood. Up to 40% of the BTUs and a dirtier burn is the answer. That's just the physics of wood combustion in a typical wood stove.

[beenthere]

Let me give the minority report:
I have burned wood most of my life-- have two wood stoves in the house, one in the shop.  I more-or-less cut wood as I burn it, resulting in some wood being burned the day I cut it, and hardly any burned that has been cut more than a month. So, just what is it I might be missing by not having 1-year or 2-year dried wood?
I do cut blown down trees first-and I usually have enough for half the winter. (They might have been blown down 1 to 8 months.)

As was said earlier in response to your question....you are not missing anything. Just getting more exercise. No offense meant, and think you are doing just fine burning green wood. It is apparently what you want to do and have good justification to do it that way. That is great.  ;D

For others reading this thread, they may be looking for ways to make their firewood burning experience as efficient as possible. Can't do that burning green wood when it is in a cold climate. Different strokes for different folks  ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, I agree with the clean burn to. You can hardly see a wisp of smoke from my place. In this winter with it being so mild, I almost think I'm in Arkansas to. ;D I only clean my flu once a year before the burn season and clean my pipes periodically when burning because of the elbows mostly. Last fall was the first time I went up on the roof because of them darn fool honey bees building a honeycomb up there. :D

[Pullinchips]

im burning some now that i cut in Dec.  and just cut into firewood length and split about 3-4 weeks ago, and milking it with my 1 yr dry wood.  Have to split it up fine and work it more but it will burn not ideal but will work.  I read a forest service technical paper that shows that green wood put less creosote into your chimney, not the reason i burn green just cause i have never got a head of the game and just put up my woodshed last weekend.  Not tring to start the old heat green vs dry  crosote or not argument just pointing out something that i have read and what i do.

-nate

[Pullinchips]

Ok i found the technical publication i was referring to. Its a UGA Ga forestry commission publication, dont let the title distract you it is titles creosote production from beetle killed pine (this is the reason it took me awile to find it i kept looking past it thinking i know it was referring to Hardwoods) . Once you readinto the abstract you see they also considered green and seasoned hardwood in the production go to the chart where they weighed the residues, all wood green pine and dry pine and green HW had less residue as dry HW.  With out reading the whole thing again i beleive that they did the tests in a stove like a air tight woodstove and an open burn to simulate a sove and a fireplace, very interesting and contrary to what everyone thinks and says.

See publication here, no this is not mine look at the date and how old i am!

http://www.gatrees.org/Resources/Publications/ForestMarketing/GFRP25.pdf

[John Mc]

Interesting article.

I do wonder if the results would be different using a modern "clean burning" stove vs. the 1970's technology used for this study. Also, they noted that the results were obtained with the stove's air supply choked way down. This is a VERY poor way to burn wood, both from a creosote formation standpoint, and from an efficiency standpoint. It just about guarantees that you will not burn off much of the combustible gasses released.

I do agree that the commonly held idea that burning pine causes more creosote build-up is a myth. As noted in the article, the main variable is getting the air supply adjusted correctly (assuming you have a well-designed stove to burn it in).

[Black_Bear]

Yes, interesting article indeed. I think I have a new found appreciation for softwood, and a better understanding of the burning process.

I think I'll continue to burn hardwood though, it's free!!!!!!   8)

[Pullinchips]

Thanks for looking at it i was not trying to change any minds just pointing out an interesting read i found some yrs ago.  I agree i remembered it was an old article.

[John Mc]

It is an interesting article. I have an engineer friend who has done some design of wood boilers, and is really into the science of wood combustion. I'm going to run that past him to see his reaction. We've had some great debates on wood burning methods (he usually runs rings around me, but it's fun). This should kick off another round.

John Mc

[Pullinchips]

As i was on the road today to go check a logger this popped into my head again, what i though of was that yes this was in the late 70's i beleive with out relooking at it.  That was a long time ago but really not that long ago as far as wood stoves are concerned who goes and buys a new stove every 10 years yall probly have the one you built into your house or put into the fireplace when you went to an insert i bet you there are a good many from the 70's from the original energy crisis when folks switched to wood from fuel oil for heat  and im guessing that many of you are of the age that you were in the market for a wood stove in the 80's and my guess is that from the late seventies to the mid 90's that not much changed on these stoves. 
What im getting at is that a lot of you are probly running stoves similar in design to those that have been commercially availible during that period, just my assumption.  Think about it i still think of 1990 things as not that long ago, but heck that was 20 years ago

[baronthered]

I'd say that's fairly accurate for the most part. My stove is an old King I got from a relative and I haven't seen many new stoves. The only real market for a new one would probably be new construction but how many folks actually put a stove in these days?

I like to have a year at least on the wood I burn I generally follow the loggers around and get their tops and stuff they've left and try to get my wood late spring or early-mid fall. Summer too hot and muggy and late fall through spring is just too wet, wet enough most of my time would be spent getting out of where I was.

How many winters you think you could get by on this Sycamore standing at my grandmothers old house? 

[Pullinchips]

Me and my wife, one, we don't have a stove and i havent been able to talk her into one yet she likes to see it, so i have to burn three times the wood those with a stove would.

[John Mc]

I burn with a relatively new (6 year old) wood stove. It's been my primary source of heat for about the last 3 years (other than when I've got the flu or something and I'm too sick to deal with it, or when we're away on vacation, when we switch to propane). Our house is only 7+ years old, built very tight, well insulated, and we designed it with the idea of heating with a wood stove.

There have been a lot of people replacing old stoves, or adding stoves in my area in the last couple of years... the big spike in fuel oil prices a couple of years ago prompted a lot of this. There is also a program here in Vermont (I believe it's a state program, and not a federal one) where you can get credit towards a new, EPA compliant wood stove if you turn in your old, non-compliant one. It's been enough of an extra incentive that it's caused people with older, "dirtier" or worn out stoves to upgrade.

John Mc