All You Wood Burners, Wet Wood.

[Cyril Haearn]

People do though and very frequently too.
It's mostly to do with the suppliers not wanting to invest in kiln drying equipment (which counter intuitively uses energy!) or being prepared to store long enough to get it dry

The majority of kiln dried firewood is dried in a solar kiln or in a kiln which uses waste heat from another process. I have yet to see a kiln for drying firewood that was powered by a fossil fuel heat source (tho I've seen one using waste wood - i.e. wood contaminated by paint and varnish).

I guess that depends on the sun shining and there being enough waste painted wood, (which is foul stuff to burn anyway).
I only know of one locally, it uses the same wood as is being dried and I imagine uses electric from the grid for the fans?

I use a super simple wind,wait and sun system!
Costs nothing to run and the results (esp this summer) are superb!

Old saying
The wood warms you three times (at least), when you cut it, drag it home, stack it, just need to have plenty so it can dry out in the dry Welsh climate
Read about a family in Texas trumpland, they do like having a real fire. Just have to remember to turn the airCon up so the temperature does not get unbearably high

[Cyril Haearn]

Pellet heating seems perverse, the wood is transported, chopped up, pelleted, treated, bagged, transported again, that must take a lot of energy

Passive houses are the future, with heat stores that even out the temperature through the seasons. I would like to upgrade to living in a cave

[Vorpal]

The majority of kiln dried firewood is dried in a solar kiln or in a kiln which uses waste heat from another process. I have yet to see a kiln for drying firewood that was powered by a fossil fuel heat source (tho I've seen one using waste wood - i.e. wood contaminated by paint and varnish).

I guess that depends on the sun shining and there being enough waste painted wood, (which is foul stuff to burn anyway).
I only know of one locally, it uses the same wood as is being dried and I imagine uses electric from the grid for the fans?

I use a super simple wind,wait and sun system!
Costs nothing to run and the results (esp this summer) are superb!

I don't think solar kilns require much in the way of sunlight. They work, even when it's cloudy. It just takes longer to cure when the sunlight is limited.

Old wood burners that don't produce clean exhaust need to be banned, and people who burn rubbish, painted boards, etc. in wood burners should be penalised for it. Same goes for enforcing smokeless areas.

[Paulatic]

I cut our own wood.
If it's a new tree, the wood is cut into long lengths that I can carry, and left outside along the south-facing wall. I'll bring it round to the area where I do the logging on the horse by the shed, and cut it into short lengths and chunks - sometimes splitting it with my splitting axe - and bring it indoors.
If it's still not dry, it doesn't matter because it's put next to the stove and it dries nicely over a few days or weeks - especially if it's split.

If I can keep ahead of the game during the spring, there's enough wood to get us into the winter. If we run out by then, I cut some more.

Constant conveyor belt.

It's lit now even though it's mid-August. Doesn't need to be lit for heating of course, but the hot water is brilliant and will last for a few days as we have a huge hot water tank in the loft, so we won't light it until late next week maybe.
The wood on the hearth is mainly oak.IMG_0540.JPG

That wood would be much drier if it had been split
Ive been hydraulic splitting for a few years now but I came across this very good idea for splitting. [youtube]snuKZoDPB2w[/youtube]

[fausto copy]

The terrminology is confusing. Freshly cut wood should be described as 'green' not wet. Wet wood should really describe wood that has been wetted. Thus - green oak.

I always thought green oak was wood that hadn't been fully seasoned and was used in construction, such as the half-timbered houses of yore and the current fad for building the beautiful houses around Herefordshire.

Can you please explain why it's wetted.

Cheers,
fausto.

P.S. My current stack of wood for our open fire is from our sycamore trees and has been seasoned for five years at the mo.

[Cyril Haearn]

The wooden churches in Norway were built of tree trunks that had not been treated much, they last centuries

Modern buildings are often built with a "wood-like material", wood that has been treated and glued, lasts a few decades

The history of wood is fascinating, centuries ago the trees in the Alps were chopped down and chucked in the river. A few weeks later they were fished out in Koeln or wherever, no Kronospan back then

[PDQ Mobile]

I don't think solar kilns require much in the way of sunlight. They work, even when it's cloudy. It just takes longer to cure when the sunlight is limited.

Old wood burners that don't produce clean exhaust need to be banned, and people who burn rubbish, painted boards, etc. in wood burners should be penalised for it. Same goes for enforcing smokeless areas.

The point about solar kilns is ok as far as it goes.
But why bother? Speed of drying only?
Load it all in, unload it all out!
Then re-stack it somewhere else!
The one's I Googled look very small, to small to be useful.IMV.
An electric fan to run too?
I guess for a firewood business needing a quick turnover there may be some point but then you need a very big one. The only commercial firewood kiln I know of uses the same wood as it's drying.

Today in Wales we have super saturated air and dense low level cloud. No solar kiln will dry anything quickly here today.

A covered stack exposed to wind and sun will dry most split wood in say six summer months, though live felled hardwoods may take longer to get really dry.

The whole point for me is a sustainable energy source that provides all my heat energy needs (except hairdryer!).
The emphasis is on sustainable! And efficient.

I want to burn as little wood as possible for a given amount of heat energy. I want save trees for another day and maybe another generation too.
I want to live in a comfortable dry house without the damp that is an inevitable product of drying large quantities by the wood burner, (a few days drying live felled wood there isn't enough anyway).
I want clean chimneys without tarry residues.
I want wood that kindles easily, blazes clean and hot.
I am dependent upon it.

All I am is a little organized. No kilns!

A saw, a small splitter, and an axe.
I have largish stacks and just keep the cycle going.
I go "wooding" when the weather is fine.
This year has been exceptionally favourable.
The stacks are positioned to catch the sun and circulate air.
The simplest of solar kilns, no unloading or restacking!
The difficult bit is getting ahead, once it's there, it's a doddle.
And it's 100% renewable.
The clean ash is a useful by product.

It is some work but I consider it a very fair balance for the energy production I achieve.
Last winter I ruptured (grade 3!) a ligament in my knee (horse accident) and I was glad of fuel reserves for the long weeks of recovery.

[Mistik-ka]

Minus 40º? Bring it on!

[pwa]

If you go and buy wood with a high moisture content it won't burn well and, presumably, you won't go back to that supplier for more. It is a quality control issue. My source refused to deliver in May because the wood he had wasn't yet dried enough, so he will call me when it's ready. That's the kind of supplier you need.

[661-Pete]

The terrminology is confusing. Freshly cut wood should be described as 'green' not wet. Wet wood should really describe wood that has been wetted. Thus - green oak.

Can you please explain why it's wetted.

It's not - just a misinterpretation of B@F's words. He meant "Thus - green oak" to refer to the freshly-cut stuff.

[661-Pete]

In our experience, wood which is too fresh will still burn all right - but is difficult to ignite. If we have no choice - i.e. our stock of firewood is running low - we need to use firelighters. Not an ideal solution because the fire produces more smoke - and pollution. I should explain that our French house is in a very rural setting - and not all the neighbours are innocent!

[fixerupper]

Yeah I have two or three winters worth of olive wood stored in the yard for heating ,it's a by product of growing olives for oil ...Burning green wood is best avoided ,it can wreck or clogg your chimney, and the fire is less efficient because the heat you want in the room is used producing water vapour . Plus you need more draft into the stove to get it burning and an open damper ...so more heat is wizzing up your flue ..

[Mick F]

That wood would be much drier if it had been split

Not that oak.
Dead as a dead thing.

There's some trees near our bungalow and because of the difficulties of getting to them due to a VERY steep downward slope, I use a long pole saw and cut through the trees maybe 20ft up. Meanwhile I fasten a wire rope to them above where I'm cutting positioned by throwing a light line with a nut and bolt on the end!

The wire rope is long, and I pass that round the tree by threading on the light line and pulling it over and fixing a shackle then pulling it back as a tight loop. The other end is passed down the garden to a bolt in a wall, and by block and tackle, I can put strain on the tree.

Then, by sawing and sawing and sawing, over week or two perhaps, and pulling harder on the block and tackle, eventually the top half of the tree will come over.

The oak on the fireplace dates back to last spring and it was hanging there dead until a few weeks ago when it fell off!
I used the pulley system again to drag it out, then logged it up.

Next one to do the same with is a birch, then after that another oak. Slow process but using a chainsaw down there is lethal because when the tree falls, there's no escape if it doesn't go the way you want it to.

[random37]

The whole point for me is a sustainable energy source that provides all my heat energy needs (except hairdryer!).
The emphasis is on sustainable! And efficient.

That's all well and good for you, but if we all did it we would be screwed. There isn't the land.

We need a better solution, so normal people can have sustainable energy.

[Paulatic]

The whole point for me is a sustainable energy source that provides all my heat energy needs (except hairdryer!).
The emphasis is on sustainable! And efficient.

That's all well and good for you, but if we all did it we would be screwed. There isn't the land.

We need a better solution, so normal people can have sustainable energy.

So you reckon I’m not normal?