I just bought a moisture meter to check the dryness of my firewood for burning. What is the recommended percentage of moisture for burning indoors with a wood stove or fireplace insert?
From what I've always heard, 20% or below is ideal.
Thanks, I read somewhere 18% but couldn't remember for sure.
The wood should average below 20%. Remember that just because the surface or the end is at 20 does not mean the core is there as well. As it is drying, the surface and will usually be lower % MC then the center ( assuming it has recently been rained on).
If you dry it long enough, the wood will eventually reach equilibrium moisture content which depends on the ambient temperature and relative humidity. In most parts of the US, this is well below 20% MC (assuming reasonable storage conditions).
Split then check the center of the piece. I agree with <20% is best. Create good air flow in your storage area. Wish I had taken the time to put a good floor in my wood shed. Can not see letting it get empty enough to do that now. May try some plastic tile near the floor for ventilation. One guy I know stacks all of his wood on pallets inside. I always have some piled on my wood trailer so have been thinking about putting a slatted floor in it as some of the boards are getting beat up. Always looking for ways to improve the process. One thing is for sure, I do not have to worry about my fire wood getting too dry.
I bought a moisture meter years ago when I started with my e-2300, and still use it from time to time. Once you get a feel for the time it takes for different species of wood to season, you just let it sit long enough, assuming you have planned ahead. But I still find the readings interesting. They have, at times, changed which wood stack I have selected to use next. Or, just as often, if I need to use a lot of wood, I will add a couple of pieces of the less dry to the top of the filled firebox. By the time they reach the coalbed, the excess water is all but gone.
Quote from: doctorb on January 22, 2018, 10:15:06 PM
Or, just as often, if I need to use a lot of wood, I will add a couple of pieces of the less dry to the top of the filled firebox. By the time they reach the coalbed, the excess water is all but gone.
with a larger combustion chamber of an outdoor boiler (as compared to a typical wood stove), once you get the fire going and the chamber heated up, the average moisture content of the load tends to make more difference than the MC of any individual piece of wood (within reason)
My outdoor furnace came with a moisture meter, I haven't used it alot yet but I would like to start using it to get more familiar with how different species of dry.
Thanks It’s interesting how dry stacked and split wood properly covered can get in such a relatively short period of time. Conversely, logs felled almost three years ago that were kept off the ground are technically dry but still required some drying to get them low enough in MC to burn well in my wood stove after being bucked, split and stacked. I got low this year with our long winter season and bucked up some old dead maple logs I felled last fall but didn’t get out of the woods until this past February and they metered at still over 30%. Now hey are in the 14-18% range. These were standing soft maple that were all dead in the 18-24” diameter range felled in September and bucked in February.