Too green to burn?

[begreen]

Spliting the wood smaller than normal - 2-3"splits, will hasten the drying. I'm not sure how well the basement will work. If the wood is really green it may not take much to saturate the air there. Open a basement window or door on dry days to reduce humidity in the room. On damp days, run a dehumidifier or heat the space. The wood won't dry too well if it's in a 90%+ humidity room. But mold and fungus will surely appreciate it.

An alternative plan would be to create a permanent shed open on front and back, oriented perpendicular to the prevailing winds. If you burn green check that chimney every 2 weeks. From the options presented, I like swapping out a couple of cords for dry wood the best.

 

[jpl1nh]

When you stack it wherever you decide to stack it, stack it as loosely as possible. I use a crisscross method of 2 equal size pieces one direction about 6" apart, then 2 equal size pieces on top at 90 degrees 6" apart etc. Just get as much air acess to the wood as possible.

 

[gpcollen1]

To put it simply, would that is not properly seasoned is usally more of a pain in the ass to burn than it is worth. It just involves much more work - besides it being no good for your system.

If you are not broke, do yourself a favor by purchasing some wood for this year and season that for next year.

 

[Henz]

where in VT>? Got lots of White cedars there

 

[Heartwood]

I'm getting a little confused here. Burning-up-VT has some wood he felled this spring, some from last summer, but the posts are addressing it all together. Shouldn't at least the maple he felled last summer, even what's been laying around in saw-log lengths, be about good to go by now, once he bucks his logs?

I sure hope so because I've got 4 cord of white and red oak out there from trees felled and left laying a year ago spring. I bucked the logs all through this summer into last week, and am splitting this weekend, thinking it's ready for the stove. I'm curious if you think otherwise.

 

[Gooserider]

Opinions vary, a lot seems to depend on the local climate, the exact weather the wood was exposed to, and what the wood was like when it was cut, but I would say that your wood is likely to be marginal at best. More likely it will still be downright soggy. I would say use a moisture meter to be sure.

In general, wood does not really start to season / dry until at least two things happen -

1. It's gotten off the ground - otherwise it picks up in ground moisture what it looses through drying - it will generally be the case that wood on the ground will ROT before it seasons. You may get some drying on the outside, but the center will still be wet.

2. It's bucked into rounds and split. - until it is, the surface area for drying is so small that you won't get significant drying. Bark is a good moisture barrier, mostly the drying occurs through the exposed ends and debarked spots, limb cutoffs, etc. This is only a tiny fraction of the area of a large log, so you won't see much drying until you have cut to stove length (increasing the amount of exposed end wood) and split to get even more exposed area. The shorter the distance the water has to travel in order to evaporate, the faster the wood will dry.

Since your wood is only now starting to get those two conditions, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it isn't even close to ready.

Gooserider

 

[DiscoInferno]

And of course species is important, both for initial moisture content and drying speed. I just cut/split some ash right off the ground, bark intact but full of ants and termites, which is only around 24% moisture content at worst and could plausibly be burned this year. But red oak I split and stacked in the spring is still greater than 35% in the center, and won't be good until next year. I think ash and red oak might be about the extreme cases in that respect.

 

[eernest4]

Too wet , too green , 2 burn. Any advice, opinions, constructive critizem on this mess???



I have a couple cords of unseasoned and wet(was wetted Back in sept 07 in the bleach dip) wood,
as well as 4 cord seasoned (i presume it is seasoned) it was cut down in may 05 and left
stacked in the round at various lengths from 1 ft to 2 1/2 ft. for over 2 years, but the mushroom farm from page 2 of this post seems to be growing / flurishing well in my old 2005 wood.

They were just stacked up 5 ft high and left out uncovered for 2 years.

So, I know I have a lot of wood loss due to punky soft rot, those I take away to the dump.

But some of the rest of the mushroom farm, I hope to salvage some of the better of the wood.

So, I have been filling a wheelbarrow with chlorox bleach and water solution , and dipping my logs before splitting , because I dont want to get sick from the mold,mildew, fungus, rot, bacteria and virus that is all in there and I certainly dont want them germs in my house.


The bleach clean it up enough to handle it to split , dry and burn.

Do you guys know anything other than bleach to use 4 this??

NEED FASTER WAY OF DRYING WOOD--winters comming and I doubt if I have 1/4 cord thats
dry & seasoned.

Ok a little background---- back in 05 , I didnt have a chain saw, I dint have a log splitter and I didnt have a wood stove but I had a guy come buy and offer to cut down 7 trees for $500.oo
with no clean up whatsoever and I said yes.

It seems I was using the wrong tool 4 the job , a leaf vacuum with 52 trees and spending sept,oct ,nov, warm parts of dec ,march & april to some how find the grass under the leafs & filling 115 leaf bags in the process, each year.

So, 1 thing lead 2 another & I bought a chain saw , because the yard was full of big logs and then a 1960's smoking dragon basement burner with a 3 ft x 2 ft x 2ft firebox and finally,
in 06, a 2 hp electric 4 ton log splitter.

Which is why I have all that old wet and some rotting, wood .

New for 07 is a 30 ft. construction trailer, complete with bent axil and wobbly wheels, for $300.oo delevered , that makes an excellent wood shed.
_
Now I was wondering, if I restack my wood like a 4 conered fire stack "!-_!

so that air can get all around it & maybe put a fan on it too, then prehaps I can force season
some of the wood as I go along, enough to get by this winter.

The wood in the trailer is already 1/8thed or smaller and cut to 19 inch as my toy electric log spitter only has a 20 inch stroke and can barely split a 6 inch log. may stop dead in its tracks
on a 7 in ,8in,9,inor larger. Then you reduced to shaving of 2 inch slices from the outside of the log , until there nothing left.

In reality, it is an electric limb splitter, not log splitter. Add said: will split logs up to 14 inch diameter by 20 inch long, only $475.oo plus shipping and tax.

It do split 14 inch diameter log by shaving off 2 inch slices from the outside in, so you handle the log 7 times & 30 minutes to split it.

So, that why I have rotten logs and how can i season or dry them faster.

What you think about my box stacking and electric fan idea. Any merit or just wishfull thinking???

Any sugestions???? No room by the stove for more that 1 stack of boxed wood per side
and that only if i do a lot of moving of basement clutter.

I live in central conn. house is 30x30 basement,1st floor &2ed;floor for 2700sq ft with interior
redbrick chiminy.

Is red brick fire brick???? I broke one of the bricks in half that I got when the next door
neighbor demolished his chimney and it is red brick all the way through , not cement brick
like you see at home depot.

back in 2005, I didnt know about this web site * so I made some bad choices because of
lack of info. Ran oil burner here since before I was born but cant afford to buy oil any longer now at 5 times the price of 2002. Oil was .50 (50 cents a gallon) not $2.50 a gallon, like today.
House built 1910, no insulation, lattes & plaster interior walls.

I check back tonite, see whats 2 see.

 

[DiscoInferno]

For what it's worth, rotten wood tends to dry quickly if covered and subjected to sun/wind because the cell structure that normally holds in the water is compromised. But of course that also means there's little heat value left.

 

[begreen]

Rotten, punk wood is what I used to use in my bee smokers because it smoked so well. Alder, if not kept dry, will go punky in a 2-3 years. When it gets to that state I don't even try to burn it in the stove.

 

[Rhone]

I don't think you'll be ready for a few reasons. It rains or is cloudy in VT usually a couple times a week. The wood hasn't been cut to lengths, and wood dries through the ends, almost none dries through the bark so the first step is getting it cut to length even if you don't split it yet. What dries wood fastest is sunlight, followed by wind, followed by non-humid air. A basement is a terrible place to "dry" wood in New England, all that rain saturates the ground which keeps basements humid (if not wet), I put some pieces of green wood in my basement (red maple which should dry fast) and after 2 years it hissed and spat at me... wasn't dry enough. Also, if this house is new you're talking about your foundation is probably still very wet from the pour. Putting wood in there adding a lot of moisture I think will make your basement or wood piles look like a science experiment gone bad. Keeping it inside several days before burning helps get the fire going as it dries out any moisture on the "skin" of the wood but does little for drying out the split as a whole, a split usually takes at minimum 6 months in the sun in New England to dry, oak takes a year.

Burning wet wood, your glass dirties right up. You need a lot of kindling just to get it started. You keep the air at full, and spend a long trying to keep it lit by having the door open a crack. Sometimes you need to keep the door open a crack the entire time else it goes out. The steam created often prevents secondary burn from happening which means you lose a lot of your heat and build up a lot of creosote. I burned wood that was somewhat green the first year I got my unit, it is no fun and many fires afterward I was like, where was the heat!? I just think VT gets too much rain/cloudy days for you to be ready to burn by winter at this point. The best you can do, is cut your logs to length and face the ends towards the sun and try to keep water off them. Better, would be to split & stack it with as much of the pile in the sun but, I don't think you'll be ready by winter in VT. You'll find trying to burn it very frustrating and go through wood like it's out of style and not getting much heat since, most of the heat will be used to turn the water in said wood into steam, and that steam interferes with secondary burn. The only solution I think at this point, is a solar kiln.

 

[tradergordo]

Check the Wiki
How to tell if your wood is seasoned

Personally I doubt it will be ready but I have a feeling you will burn it anyway
I'd have a big supply of Pallet Wood on hand!

p.s. I keep seeing posts about people saying they store or plan to store wood in their basements. In general, this is a really bad idea. A recipe to bring mold spores and insects (which are dormant in the wood but only stay dormant if it stays cold) into your home. In the worst case, you will compromise your indoor air quality. You could also introduce insects (such as termites) which could damage your home.

 

[bwolfe1]

Sedore Stoves burn wet, rotten, and frozen wood well. Once the stove is going you can throw on nothing but rotten, frozen or wet/green wood, and it does so cleanly, with no catalyst's to deal with.

 

[begreen]

Bruce, what are the gph and btu differences between burning dry and wet wood? Do you have lab test results comparing the exhaust gas output between burning wet, rotten, and frozen wood in a Sedore vs burning clean, dry wood? Can you post them here?

 

[Heartwood]

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I had a situation similar to Burning up in VT's. I split my four cord of red and white oak over the weekend, and am already having some success in an approach I'm trying. (the trees had been felled a yr ago spring, and bucked and stacked over this summer-I couldn't split sooner because of moving into new house.)

My initial splits are registering 30-35% moisture. What I've been doing is making very small splits, many 2" square. Since it's oak, and I'll have some moisture anyway, I'm hoping this will work out to acceptably burnable wood in a month or two, even though they're small. I stacked the splits under a patio roof, and interestingly, the wood is already starting to dry--some splits down to 25% (from the outside of the new splits of course, but remember, they're small).

So, this might be at least worth a try for Burning up in VT. I realize that I'll have to bear in mind I'm using small splits, so may have hot, short burns with them, but I have some larger seasoned stuff to mix in, as well this possibility, which is really a question (I'll repost on a new thread if necessary). If I get those splits to 15%, and I have larger pieces from the same stock that are registering 25%, do the experts out there consider that this averages out to the same as burning wood of overall 20% moisture content?

 

[smirnov3]

Bruce, what are the gph and btu differences between burning dry and wet wood?

The real question is the emissions.

BTUs is simple: wet wood (30% or so) will lose you 10% BTUs. That's true for any stove that can burn green wood to completion (ie ash) - it's just physics.

 

[begreen]

Yep, that's why I asked the gph (emissions).

 

[bwolfe1]

Bruce, what are the gph and btu differences between burning dry and wet wood? Do you have lab test results comparing the exhaust gas output between burning wet, rotten, and frozen wood in a Sedore vs burning clean, dry wood? Can you post them here?

I don't have those fugures but the dry wood will be higher for sure. If you burn nothing but wet wood the stove is working a lot harder, air input increased. Like any stove it runs best on dry wood but once it gets a head of steam, it will burn any wood or wood product. I had my stove with a good bed of coals and tried this test. I cut a semi-green Oak stump I had to 19" wide 12" front to back and 25" deep. It was basically about a 65 lb solid chunk of wood. I put it in the Sedore and it burned for 33 hours. It was working hard to do it but just the fact that it did was amazing to me. Just getting a piece of wood that size would be impossible for most stoves? I've tried this on the 2000, and 3000 with approx the same results.

 

[bwolfe1]

On another note, I don't do much wood splitting at all as I can burn the wood up to 12" in circumferance and it can be placed into the vertically. Top loading is so much easier for adding fuel and filling the firebox to the max. That has a good deal to do with the extended burn times for sure. see attached.