How do you stack?

[westkywood]

I stack with all wood separated by species. I label it with the date it was stacked and by species. For one, I like to see how different woods perform. Two, I want to know if I'm grabbing a chunk of hardwood or softwood. Three, I want to know how long that split has been there seasoning. I aint anal bout much, but when it comes to my farwood , I reckon I am.

 

[renewablejohn]

OK i did exadurate a bit but i kind of did the math. My wood, that i cut is between 16-18"s. I thought you said it was 6"s long, if it were 6"s i seriously could fit 30 or more pieces in my stove. With it being 8"s your correct i could fit more like 15 or more in there my gut tells me i could still fit close to 17 or 18 because of the smaller pieces i could manuer them better and therefore fill the stove more completly.

As for my stove i have a 3.5cuft model Highvalley 2500. It is a CAT stove and, its been awhile but on the EPA list i think they list all CAT stoves like 90% effecient? Its somewhere in that range, at least 85% id say. I have very little insulation in my home but on a day where the high may be in the 50s and night in the 40s i can load up a good load and it will burn those 17 pieces of your wood and put out heat for say 26ish hours and still restart a fire on those coals. If i am pushing the stove as the nights dip in the 30s and upper 20sF i will load 2x a day MAX.

I do have a moisture meter, so i can tell you within the margin of error the MC of my wood. I have been useing oak on cold nights that is less than 20% maybe more like 15%. I also have been burning pine (i know about half the BTU of oak) that is 12% or less. I can still get 18 or so hours out of a full load of pine, the heat is just not as much.

Not trying to pick and argument i just dont agree that just because you have solar Kiln wood (which i am not saying does not work) that i can burn half the amount of it and get the same heat. Like i said BTU's are BTU's. I also understand my less primo wood in the 25% range is not getting all the BTUs that i can out of it due to moisture.

Looking on the Highvalley site they quote 72% efficient so maybe not as efficient as you thought.

(broken link removed to http://www.highvalleystoves.com/woodstoves.php)

I think insulation must be the big difference as that amount of wood would last use at least 2 days on the 15 kw stove and 3 days on the 5kw. We normally start a fire at 4pm and the last log goes on at 8 pm. The house then retains the heat for the rest of the day.

 

[katwillny]

Wow thanks for all the responses. As usual there are a lot of great ideas here. I think once I install my stove and see how this split burns different than that split I'm going to want some separation of species.

Bragging about our wood and showing it off is what we boys do best. More than one specie of wood at times.

 

[swagler85]

Thats pretty impressive if you can only run a fire half the day and keep the heat in the house the rest of the day. How long after the 8pm loading is your stove still putting out heat?

 

[clemsonfor]

Looking on the Highvalley site they quote 72% efficient so maybe not as efficient as you thought.

(broken link removed to http://www.highvalleystoves.com/woodstoves.php)

I think insulation must be the big difference as that amount of wood would last use at least 2 days on the 15 kw stove and 3 days on the 5kw. We normally start a fire at 4pm and the last log goes on at 8 pm. The house then retains the heat for the rest of the day.

keep in mind I am heating 2500sqft with this stove some times.

 

[clemsonfor]

ur right I looked it up 72% I thought it was closer to 80% but did think that I saw the list of all stoves and non cats were like 80 and cats were 90? Oh well shows my memory

 

[MasterMech]

Thats the difference of solar kiln dried logs. We only need to put a couple of logs on to get high heat output. Standard length is 8 inch although we do get requests for granny logs for small stoves which are 6 inch long.

16" is the "standard" length here in the US. Of course if you cut your own wood, you can cut at whatever length fits in the stove. 6" or 8" lengths in a kiln, yeah, that'll get pretty dry in a hurry.

 

[renewablejohn]

Thats pretty impressive if you can only run a fire half the day and keep the heat in the house the rest of the day. How long after the 8pm loading is your stove still putting out heat?

Fire normally stays in overnight and then we dont bother to mend it in the morning. Being an old stone house the stove is surrounded by a floor to ceiling stone fireplace which acts like a masonry stove retaining heat and giving it off all day.

 

[tsquini]

This my first season stacking by Btu output. Hard woods 21-30 btu goes in one pile. 16 -20 btu go in another pile. Guess I could also say it is organized by dry time. I'm not sure it is useful. I'll find out in a few years.

 

[clemsonfor]

This my first season stacking by Btu output. Hard woods 21-30 btu goes in one pile. 16 -20 btu go in another pile. Guess I could also say it is organized by dry time. I'm not sure it is useful. I'll find out in a few years.

huh u mean "21-30" MC? or 16-20MC?

 

[tsquini]

huh u mean "21-30" MC? or 16-20MC?

By btu/heat content of wood by the chord. I base it on the chart on chimney sweeps BTU chart

(broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)

 

[hobbyheater]

You must have way to much time on your hands in the US producing all these nice stacks. All we do is process direct into IBC containers and then with pallet forks on the tractor load into the solar kiln where it stays until we need to use it.View attachment 88519

That I like!

 

[Flatbedford]

I stack three rows deep, about 4.5'-5' high and overall about 95' long on pallets. The wood id stacked chronologically with usually ends up being by species as well because that's the way the scrounges come. I'm a wood snob, so there is no "shoulder wood" to keep separate, and being three years ahead now, species isn't that important either.

 

[chazcarr]

my answer is: poorly...

Oops.

 

[clemsonfor]

ive had some of those spills!

 

[Beer Belly]

Yup...been there

 

[Billybonfire]

With wood that size it would take me forever to load it! i would have to put like 50 pieces into my stove at the time!!

Guess some guys are sensitve about the size of their wood .

 

[LLigetfa]

I buy my wood by the grapple truckload and as it is 100% Ash, no worries about sorting by species. 12 cord fits in my shed and what doesn't fit, gets stacked on pallets outside only to be moved to the shed later.

I take from one side of the shed at a time, so the wood on one side could be from a different year or the same year only to have spent more time outdoors waiting to get laid up.

 

[Beer Belly]

Guess some guys are sensitve about the size of their wood .

My Wife preffers shorter wood.....has a hard time loading bigger stuff.....she's got some thing about "the wood is'nt supposed to touch the firebrick"

 

[tfdchief]

My Wife preffers shorter wood.....has a hard time loading bigger stuff.....she's got some thing about "the wood is'nt supposed to touch the firebrick"

I would be cutting it short then

 

[clemsonfor]

My Wife preffers shorter wood.....has a hard time loading bigger stuff.....she's got some thing about "the wood is'nt supposed to touch the firebrick"

HAHA I could say some things!!

But what does touching the firebrick mean? It has to sit on it and then touch the walls?

 

[LLigetfa]

It has to sit on it and then touch the walls?

My wife thinks it shouldn't touch the walls either. I cut the wood 2 inches shorter.

As for sitting on it, there is a bed of ashes.

 

[clemsonfor]

haha!

 

[renewablejohn]

Guess some guys are sensitve about the size of their wood .

The added benefit of shorter splits is that drying times can be drastically reduced. With the use of our solar kilns the timber is below 20% MC within 3-6 months depending on time of year. It also allows drying of wet timbers like willow and poplar without it going mouldy.

 

[Billybonfire]

John,
by solar kiln, do you mean a greenhouse or polytunnel ?.

Billy.