I bought a new soapstone woodstove last year and I didn't have my firewood completely seasoned, it did okay but I know I lost a lot of heat just burning off the moisture in the wood. Last years firewood was stacked in the shade, in a damp location, probably the worst possible spot to stack firewood.
This year, I have quite a few rounds ready for splitting, the problem is that some of that is white oak, so I KNOW that won't be seasoned enough to burn this year, but there is also some maple, hickory, and some ash.
I will be splitting the wood in 2 weeks, I have probably 1 cord of really dry maple that will jump start me for the winter.
I'll have 3 cord of firewood for this winter, and will burn just about that.
I'm wondering if it might be smarter for me to buy (i hate saying that :D) a couple cord of seasoned wood from someone? I know it is late in the season to be splitting firewood for this winter, but I procrastinated and that is where I'm at now. I really HATE the thought of buying firewood because I have an unlimited supply (for my purposes) but do you think I don't really have a choice? Or should I just split the wood I have, and mix in 2 pieces of not so seasoned wood, to 1 piece of very dry maple?
White oak splits rather easily unless you get a knotty piece .If you break it down smaller than normal it will dry faster but most likely not real good by this season of heating .Find some ash,it dries fast .Besides that with the EAB most of them are dead already .
Our conditions are a lot different but it would KILL me to buy firewood. I'd try the split small and mix trick and make it through.
I like where your going with this. I think I'll try splitting the pieces smaller than normal and try my best to mix in some of the driest wood with any that may be marginal.
I really don't want to buy firewood and I never have to this point, but one of the reasons I am hesitant is because I don't know when the supplier split his wood either. He could have cut a tree down 2 yrs ago and not bucked and split it until now, and call that seasoned....
:D Oh it would pain me immensely to buy firewood also .I'd pay the electric bill first I think .
You know living in the boondocks and being resourcefull it's never been a problem .I can see however around a large metropolitan area it could be although myself living in such an area would be highly unlikely .Never say never though because strange things have been known to happen .
A lot depends on how much labor you are willing to put into it. Oak is probably one of your worst bets for quick drying. Ash is on eof the best -fresh cut, Ash has the least moisture of all the commonly burned hardwoods. Stick with that as much as possible, and save the Oak and Maple for next year if you can.
If it's been cut to stove length for a while, and stored in a decent manner, it may be better off than you think.
Tips for best drying:
- if not already cut to length, cut it on the short side, and split it smaller.
- stack it off the ground, up on pallets or one poles/saplings laid parallel on the ground. The idea is to avoid wicking moisture from the ground, and to promote better air circulation around the stack
- stack in a single row, with the end facing south, exposed to the sun and prevailing winds. You want max heat (sun) and wind (to carry evaporated moisture away, thus facilitating pulling more moisture out of the logs). Stacking multiple rows right next to each other in an enclosed wood shed is NOT what you want for best drying. If space constraints forces you to do multiple rows together, try to leave at least a couple feet between rows - more space is better
- don't worry so much about covering at first... that's more important as it gets closer to being ready to burn. You might gain a bit by covering the top only, when you expect rain, but fir best drying, you'd want to uncover it on good days. If you are not going to cover and uncover repeatedly, leave the cover off for best air circulation and sun exposure.
- as you get closer to the burning season, consider covering it, or restacking it in your wood shed - but don't cover the sides. Since you are getting a late start, you are still likely losing moisture from the wood, so you still want to promote good air flow
- don't count on losing a lot of moisture in the wood once the temperature of the wood pile gets below freezing... yes, the relative humidity tends to be lower in the winter (at least in my area), but once th ewater in the wood is frozen, you won't get much movement of the interior moisture. What you lose will tend to be mostly surface moisture. Since the water isn't pure, it won'te freeze exactly at 32 F, but too much below that and you won't get much drying.
I'm willing to put in the labor and I'll do exactly as suggested. Last year, over the winter, while having a difficult time getting some wet wood to burn, I promised myself I wouldn't let this happen again! :D :D
Well, here we are, and it's happening again.....This time I mean it though. I figure I'll go through 3 cord in the winter (we still use heat so we're not fully heating with wood) so I need to split and stack a MINIMUM of 6 cord soon! That way I'll have next winter's wood dry when the time comes. I'll do as suggested and save the oak for that.
I can't say it's an excuse, but I bought a new tractor and sold my old one, and the new one didn't have hydraulics on it. I finally got around to adding a 4 spool valve which I will use for my splitter. I haven't plumbed it in yet but have the parts on order, so once that is plumbed in, I will be able to use my splitter.
I know I could be splitting by hand, and probably should be given my age and energy, but once you start using a splitter it's hard to go back to the maul.
I do have a good area to stack single rows of firewood and also have a good source for free pallets. I'll make a couple trips to stock up on pallets.
you can also make some quick-er drying stacks for the wood you will use early in the season.
stack two split pieces in a N-S line. Then on top of that two pieces in an E-W. Same general way you build end-of pile stacks. Place these piles 1-2 feet apart, in an open and sunny area and they will dry fast. It takes up a lot of space, but you really need to get it dry fast if you are going to use it this year.
Also if you are going to be burning green-ish wood, make sure to keep an eye on your chimney for creosote formation and if you are getting build up, have the chimney cleaned mid-season.
Don't ask me how I know but in addition to all above I suggest adding a second pile of wood in the house. Fill the second pile with the wood that needs seasoning. Use the dry wood in the normal pile until the wet wood is seasoned then burn it and reload with more wet wood. You will be surprised by how quickly the wood will season in a very dry house in the winter. Especially if the temperatures in the house flucuate. Colder at night and while at work warmer when home and awake.
I am not a fan of mixing wet with good as you still need to boil the moisture off to burn it and that is lost heat.
Quote from: stumper on August 11, 2011, 08:51:32 AM
... I suggest adding a second pile of wood in the house. Fill the second pile with the wood that needs seasoning. ... You will be surprised by how quickly the wood will season in a very dry house in the winter. Especially if the temperatures in the house flucuate. Colder at night and while at work warmer when home and awake.
Some good ideas, but two things to be careful of: 1) make sure the stuff you are bringing inside isn't infested with bugs. 2) if the wood is very green, there's a good chance of starting mold, especially if in an area that does not have good ventilation/airflow... You don't want to start getting mold growing in your house. It can cause some real health concerns.
QuoteI am not a fan of mixing wet with good as you still need to boil the moisture off to burn it and that is lost heat.
If you have no choice but burn some green wood, it's better to mix it to bring down the average moisture content of the charge you are burning, than to burn one dry charge and one wet one (though it does work better to start your stove on a good charge to get things hot first). This assumes that your "wet wood" is at least partially dried. That freshly cut oak or maple log is not going to burn efficiently even if you do mix it with dry wood.
Also, there is such a thing as too dry for optimal burning. Kiln-dried lumber is one such example. If you have some KD scraps, mixing them with the "semi-dry" stuff may be a good way to get a decent charge.
How about pine? I have plenty of pine already on the ground a lot of scraps from the mill. I know the arguments for and against pine, but if it is dry I figure it will create less creosote than wet hardwood. I know the btu value is very low but at least it would be dry wood.
I won't burn nothing but pine, but when I put say 5 sticks in the woodstove, I could put one dry hardwood, 2 dry pines, and 2 wet hardwoods?
ALthough, that seems like too much sorting of wood :D
Will be a way to get rid of your pine. I suppose you mean white pine,EWP? The pine will burn hot and fast,but it can be done. With my OWB,a TOTTALY different way to burn wood,the EWP works great,not so good in the wood stove I had. You can burn it,just takes twice as much as hard wood. Mixing it is the only way to really do it. Pine will last 2 hours,where good hardwood would last probably twice that long. Just depends on how much time you want to invest in filling your stove. I don't mind,gives me a way to get rid of it. All the pine I was cutting is called Scrub Pine. Goes up 4-6 feet and crotches out 2-4 times and I'm surprised it even makes straight smoke as crooked as it is.
Dry pine burns perfectly OK.
Per lb it's about the same as hardwood, but of course it only weighs about 1/2 as much, so you will need twice as many cords. But if you have mill slabs of it laying about, saw em up and let them dry for a while. Small stuff like mill slabs would be OK to burn in a few months if you got it stacked up in a warm breezy spot.
Mix it with the semi-dry hardwood and you will be able to keep a decent fire burning. OK the pine wont last as long in the fireplace, but that's not a deal stopper.
90% of the firewood used here in NZ would be pine, but of course it's not super cold in the winters here, so we don't need the maximum heating. Heck we burn cypress and cedar here too... If you are desperate you can even burn that green, but a few months drying does help.
Ian
Yes that's correct, I mean EWP. I have quite a bit of it, in fact if I have plenty to heat my house all winter with it on the ground right now, just not split and stacked. My wife and I tend to not really go anywhere in the cooler months and spend a lot of time just hanging out at home, cooking, 'playing' outside in the snow, or whatever, so I don't think the short time between loads will be too much of a problem.
I'm actually pretty excited now to burn the pine. It's funny, I always used to think of EWP as a 'trash' tree. As in I didn't think it was good for anything. Then I got interested in Timberframing, then milling, then learned the great qualities of it and thought it was great for everything except burning, and now I'm starting to think I'll like it for burning.
I probably won't do full loads of pine as mentioned earlier, maybe half and half or something similar.
I love this site! ;D
To answer this topic's question.....I would be worried if I needed a lot of heat this winter via my gasifier OWB if I had just split and stacked green wood. On the other hand, the state of Maryland reportedly only requires wood be "seasoned" for 2 months to be sold as cured firewood, or so I've been told.
So, to be scientific, before I "bit the bullet" and bought firewood on the assumption that it should be appropriately seasoned, I might take my moisture meter over to the seller and see exactly what I was buying. If it was still pretty wet, I'd put up with the less than optimal free fuel before purchasing wood that was only marginally better.
To avoid the conundrum in the future, put up as much as you need for next winter now and throughout the fall, so you won't have to ask this question again! ;D
QuoteTo avoid the conundrum in the future, put up as much as you need for next winter now and throughout the fall, so you won't have to ask this question again!
My plan exactly..... ;D
No excuses from here on out!
I'm shooting myself in the foot here too. I have a bit of wood to start splitting, and have only two cords or so of green stuff split so far. Looks like I'll be sifting through the pile for dead trees and Ash I took down.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/19459/2586/DSC00308.JPG)
I have a metal building with a concrete floor. So far there are 4 pallets (3' x 4') stacked 5' high with split wood. The wood has been down since last year, but not sure how much it has actually dried. If a cord is 128 cubic feet (4x4x8) then I figure each pallet is nearly half a cord. Temperatures inside get to 115 degrees on a hot day and routinely close to 100 degrees most other days in the summer.
It sounds like you don't have a way to keep the wood inside, but in my situation I'm thinking this will make the wood ready to burn.
Like others, it would kill me to buy firewood. I'd rather pay the propane bill before buying wood.
Two of the main keys to rapid drying of wood are heat and air flow.
It sounds as though your metal building has the heat. The next question would be does it have the air flow to carry the moisture away from the wood pile. (Otherwise, the relative humidity in the area of the wood pile will go up as moisture comes out of the wood, slowing further drying and possibly causing mold growth on the wood.)
Good point on the airflow. I think I'll aim a couple of box fans at the piles and run them. There is pretty ample space around the pallets, but likely not enough airflow
Thanks for pointing that out
Well I stack it 8 feet wide and 4 feet high in as many as 7 cords in a stack and I've never had a problem getting it dry .3 rows cut in 16" lengths is one cord that way .
It will dry if you just toss it in heap .Now the problem with that is the groundhogs will tunnel below it.The chipmunks will live within it and possibley a family of skunks on occasion .
Early in the morning the red tail hawks will be hopping around on top of it searching out a nice chipmunk for breakfast .Seems they prefer those to skunks for some reason .
I'm still cutting, splitting and stacking it for this winter. As written before, I'd recommend splitting it smaller/lighter, single-row where it gets the maximum amount of air and sunlight. I'd also stack it up like a log cabins walls for maximum exposure and air circulation. Anything that I split green from here on out will not be sold or burned by me until February 2012. I stack the oldest wood closest to the house/gate and take pictures periodically when I'm putting it up so I can keep track of dating how long it has seasoned. I'm hoping to have 40 cords in my back yard before our first frost here in early November.
Another thing you can do is mix the newer wood with the seasoned stuff when you're burning it. At night, I put the newer wood on the fire before heading off to bed.
You're lucky, clww. You probably still get some decent drying in Virginia beach for a good bit of the winter. In my area, they drying slows dramatically in the winter (water just doesn't move much within the wood when it's frozen solid).
Oh God.....I am waayyyyy behind.... :o
Quote from: Piston on August 16, 2011, 11:14:57 PM
Oh God.....I am waayyyyy behind.... :o
Me too!!!!!!!!
Bruce
:) Not me .I suppose there's at least three years stacked up maybe more .
I have gotten behind in my wood in years past, but that never happens any more. Friends always need trees taken down. Storms knock down a few every year. I have 2-3 years worth of wood done in advance without even trying.
When I was behind, I only took dead and dry trees out of the woods. Many are standing dead and are pretty dry already. Dead trees on the ground have to dry off from the moisture of being on the ground, but being dead they are usually pretty dry down to the center. With enough woods you never have to cut down live trees and wait for the wood to completely dry. Its almost like someone intended for you to burn it, and has it stacked in a nice vertical pile, just waiting for you to cut it down. :D
Hey guys, bringing back a thread from the dead, but my wife & I will be installing an indoor wood stove in the next few weeks, and I'm scrambling to find some dead wood on the ground that's still solid that I can burn this winter. If I can't find enough and have to burn some green wood, how can I minimize the creosote buildup? Thanks.
Quote from: biker250 on October 16, 2012, 07:48:09 AMIf I can't find enough and have to burn some green wood, how can I minimize the creosote buildup?
buy someone else's already dry wood, or clean the chimney multiple times during the season.
green wood = creosote, and there is not much you really can do about that.
Quote from: Piston on August 10, 2011, 11:12:46 PM
I'm willing to put in the labor and I'll do exactly as suggested. Last year, over the winter, while having a difficult time getting some wet wood to burn, I promised myself I wouldn't let this happen again! :D :D
Well, here we are, and it's happening again.....This time I mean it though. I figure I'll go through 3 cord in the winter (we still use heat so we're not fully heating with wood) so I need to split and stack a MINIMUM of 6 cord soon! That way I'll have next winter's wood dry when the time comes. I'll do as suggested and save the oak for that.
I can't say it's an excuse, but I bought a new tractor and sold my old one, and the new one didn't have hydraulics on it. I finally got around to adding a 4 spool valve which I will use for my splitter. I haven't plumbed it in yet but have the parts on order, so once that is plumbed in, I will be able to use my splitter.
I know I could be splitting by hand, and probably should be given my age and energy, but once you start using a splitter it's hard to go back to the maul.
I do have a good area to stack single rows of firewood and also have a good source for free pallets. I'll make a couple trips to stock up on pallets.
Pallets also burn hot...... get some of those an break them up and mix them in.
Quote from: brendonv on August 12, 2011, 09:20:59 PM
I'm shooting myself in the foot here too. I have a bit of wood to start splitting, and have only two cords or so of green stuff split so far. Looks like I'll be sifting through the pile for dead trees and Ash I took down.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/19459/2586/DSC00308.JPG)
I had to scavenge dead standing all last winter cause i was buildnig my house in the fall.... This year I got my wood in mid summer and cut / split and stacked in a very sunny location all summer.
I am excited to not have to scavenge every single day and night this winter. I also did enough wood for most of next year I beleive so i should have very very nice stuff starting next year. Once spring comes around ill be back at it. Its nice doing work i dont mind doing as oposed to building 24/7 cause of the stupid banks nd their time lines.
Quote from: biker250 on October 16, 2012, 07:48:09 AM
Hey guys, bringing back a thread from the dead, but my wife & I will be installing an indoor wood stove in the next few weeks, and I'm scrambling to find some dead wood on the ground that's still solid that I can burn this winter. If I can't find enough and have to burn some green wood, how can I minimize the creosote buildup? Thanks.
Look for dead standing stuff if you can , Cherry that has been dead long enough for the bark to come off burns good. Its a lot dryer than stuff that has been laying on the ground. But you do what you have to do.....
I remember cutting stuff on the ground in winter months thinking it was still solid because it was frozen only to find out aftar i hauled it out of the woods on foot it would unthaw and be rotten once the heat got to it.
Stuff that has actually been in contact with the ground is likely not very dry, and/or rotten. Better to find standing dead, or stuff that has fallen but has been held up off the ground, if you can.
I'd stay away from Oak, unless it's already dry. It takes a long time to dry (it's worth gathering and keeping for next year).
White Ash is at the other end of the spectrum: it has one of the lowest moisture content when green of any commonly burned hardwood. In a pinch, that's what people around here look for to burn if they're forced to burn green wood. Even white ash when green is not ideal, but it's better than some other options.
You still have time to get at least some drying done, and the more you get done, the better and cleaner it will burn, even if it's not to where you'd really like it.
Suggestions for getting as much drying as you can on what you've got:
- Split it shorter and thinner than you normally would. The smaller the piece, the quicker it dries
- stack in single rows, spaced well apart, with the cut ends facing into the sun & prevailing wind (if you have to choose facing into either sun or wind, I'd go with wind, if you have any breeze at all) You want to maximize the sunlight/heat to drive off the moisture, and the wind to carry away hat was driven off (if it's not carried away, it will slow the removal of moisture form the wood
- Do NOT cover the sides of the stack - you want the sun and wind to work on it. You don't want to seal in the moisture. If you have time, cover the stack only when it's going to rain. One of the reasons old metal roofing or a sheet of scrap plywood are popular covers is that they do not drape down over the sides, so minimize the amount of moisture trapped around the wood
- Once your pile freezes up, you are not going to drive out much more moisture unless you get a good warm spell. Yes, you'll lose some surface moisture, but he interior moisture will not move much within the wood
Burning tips:
- In general, you want a hot fire to avoid creosote formation. Wet/green wood makes this much harder to achieve.
- When starting a fire from scratch, start up with good dry wood to get things going. You can mix in some greener stuff after its well established and the stove is heated up. In a wood stove, burning wood in "batches" is generally cleaner and more efficient than adding a stick, letting it burn a bit, then adding another... However, burning a batch of green wood can be tough. If you dump in too much green at once, you'll cool the fire as all the moisture soaks up the BTUs (and vaporizing water takes a LOT of BTUs)
- Mix in some dry wood with your green wood. Though most wood stoves caution against burning a charge of old 2x4's and other kiln dried lumber (for fear of overheating the stove ... a little bit of moisture is a good thing) adding in some 2x4s or other scraps, or mixing in dried firewood with green can help keep a good hot fire going. If you can't have ll your firewood be under 20% MC, having the mix in a charge of wood in the stove be there can help a lot.
- Split your greener wood thin. In addition to drying better, exposing more surface area helps it burn better.
- Don't choke your stove's air supply way down -- this results burn a slow smoldery fire. This will form creosote even with well-seasoned wood. It's better to err on the side of a little too much air than not enough (this is true from an efficiency sake on any wood fire, but is especially important with green wood.
- Don't pack your firebox full when burning green wood. In general, burning wood requires more combustion space than burning fossil fuels. You have to allow room for the moisture to expand. Green wood needs more "room" than well seasoned wood (This is why a well-designed wood chip boiler's combustion chamber is much larger than that in a boiler designed for fuel oil or propane)
Sorry for yet another long ramble ... writing succinctly just isn't one of my strengths.
John Mc
Do you clean your own chimmey? I would check it every few weeks,meaning clean it. If you burn green wood.You can tell if it needed or not. I burn mostly dead wood. The standing stuff is better,but depends on how long it's been standing and what kind. I find that pine will get real dry standing,but the maple will get punky and not dry. I find the red oak,the sap wood will rot off and make for some nice wood.Some of the dead stuff may give you too much heat too, a fire that you can not control. I have a OWB and it smothers the fire out.You probaly will struggle with the fire this year. But there is always next year.What kind did you get?
Thanks for the replies guys. We are completely new to wood burning, so I'm trying to absorb the vast amount of knowledge needed to do it right the first time. What do I need to get in order to clean my own chimney? We're getting a Pacific Energy Summit wood stove. We have about 100 acres of woods, so finding wood is not a problem, I'm just not sure if it'll be dry enough. As to what type of wood, it'll vary, but no pine.
What kind of chimmey you have? It is a lined one with the orange tile or a stainless steel one? I think it makes a diffeance on the brushes that can be used.
A good resource for wood-burning tips: www.woodheat.org (http://www.woodheat.org)
BTW... it is a complete myth that burning pine causes creosote build-up. Burning green wood or burning slow, smoldering fires (starving the fire for oxygen) causes creosote. Sometimes people get this with pine because it can be easier to light when only partially dried (prompting people to burn green or semi-seasoned pine), and because when dry, it tends to burn fast and hot (prompting people to choke off the air supply in an effort to make it last like hardwood)
If you dry the pine to an appropriate moisture content, and operate your stove properly (and the stove/chimney is a good installation), the only problems pine will cause you is more trips to feed the stove, since it doesn't have anywhere close to the BTU content of the "prime" hardwood firewood species.
We haven't purchased anything yet, just got a quote on a whole setup. The chimney pipe is the double wall stainless with some sort of super duper insulation between the 2 pipes. Been told it is far & above better than any triple wall. And at $400 for 8', it better be.
I would ask where ever you are buying the chimney from what they recommend to clean it with. I would think a certain brush with long rods to screw together would do it. Give some thought to where your chimney is going too. I use to have a wood stove in the house. We had this house built. The flues were set up with the oil flue up by the peak,than the fireplace flue and than the wood stove flue. When I went to clean the wood stove flue I said Oh s... Everything should of been reversed. The wood stove should of been up by the peak. Would of been real easy to clean without another ladder to put on the roof and no reaching. I was surprised the guy doing the chimney did not mention that. I never thought of it until it was too late. I did have enough smarts to have the oil tank fill put in a good place to keep the snow cleared away to have it filled.
Good point, thanks. Our chimney will be pretty close to the peak, but hadn't thought about making sure I'll be able to reach it without a ladder. Our 4/12 roof pitch will help any efforts, though.
A bit of totally useless information:
It takes one BTU to elevate one pound(about one pint) of water one degree farenheit.
It takes 970 BTU to change one pound of water into water vapor.
Water evaporates at almost any temperature, even below freezing(sublimation).
100% saturated wood is 50% water by weight.
I can't remember the source of these figures but the saturation is probably from Vermont Castings.
If you're covering the woodracks with plastic, clear plastic tends to percipitate water on the underside and black plastic not quite so much. Moreover, black plastic seems to last quite a bit longet possibly because of a greater tolerance to ultraviolet.
I prefer my wood seasoned a minimum of 1 year. Got maybe four years racked up now just because it became available. Yeah, some of it will deteriorate before it's burned but My wood cutting days are limited.
Y'all enjoy and keep warm.
While water will evaporate at any temperature (or at least any temperature that humans are likely to encounter in nature), any migration through the interior of the wood is slowed dramatically when the wood is frozen solid. In these circumstances, most of what you'll lose to sublimation is surface moisture, or moisture that is very close to the surface.
Since you are near Worcester and the Emerald Ash Beetle you may as well cut any white ash you have or buy some.
Quote from: Slabs on October 16, 2012, 07:43:29 PM
It takes one BTU to elevate one pound(about one pint) of water one degree farenheit.
It takes 970 BTU to change one pound of water into water vapor.
Water evaporates at almost any temperature, even below freezing(sublimation).
100% saturated wood is 50% water by weight.
Depending on moisture, when burning less than fully dried wood you can use upwards of 20-25% of the energy just to drive off the moisture.
I'm not really worried about losing energy to evaporate water as I have a virtually unlimited supply of green wood that I could cut. I'm only worried about keeping the creosote at bay....being a first time wood burner, it's all new to me and I want to make sure I know what I'm doing when it comes to creosote due to all the bad things I've heard about it....it almost has me scared. haha
Quote from: 36 coupe on October 17, 2012, 05:56:18 AM
Since you are near Worcester and the Emerald Ash Beetle you may as well cut any white ash you have or buy some.
We have around here the Asian Long horned beetle. It is an invasive and shows no preference for hardwood tree type. The towns that have it are having all the trees cut down, chipped and destroyed. No fire wood is allowed.
You're probabley better off as has already been mentioned to not load the fire box up as much .You keep a hot fire with the stack temp up to about 300 degrees you'll get less creosote .
Creosote is hard to avoid though especially on a long flue because the farther away it is from the fire the more it collects.
Quote from: biker250 on October 17, 2012, 07:34:55 AM
I'm not really worried about losing energy to evaporate water as I have a virtually unlimited supply of green wood that I could cut. I'm only worried about keeping the creosote at bay....being a first time wood burner, it's all new to me and I want to make sure I know what I'm doing when it comes to creosote due to all the bad things I've heard about it....it almost has me scared. haha
Even if you have unlimited free wood, you still need to think about loss of energy. That energy is what is making the fire burn hot. When you take too much away, the fire cools.
I burn seasoned wood, though I did have one season where I got behind and it was not optimal. I basically ended up with a bit more build-up when I cleaned the chimney at the end of the year.
Don't get scared off. It is manageable, you just may want to give your chimney an extra cleaning partway through the year, and next year, get an earlier start.
Quote from: biker250 on October 17, 2012, 07:34:55 AM
I'm only worried about keeping the creosote at bay....being a first time wood burner, it's all new to me and I want to make sure I know what I'm doing when it comes to creosote due to all the bad things I've heard about it....it almost has me scared. haha
I forgot to mention my experiences with liquid creosote puking out of the plenum at the base of the stack. That stuff is wicked and resists strong alkalis and bleach for cleanup. All from using inadequately dried wood.