Burning REALLY WET wood.

[Marley5]

I went threw this a couple years ago myself. I hope you haven't burned all your dry wood so you have some to blend with the wet. I burned a lot more wood in my Garn during that period than normal. I takes a fair amount of BTU's to get that wet wood burned. This year all 15 cord is under a roof in trailers.

Yes good point.
I do have a cord or so of dry and mix.

Never had a problem in the past.....just go to the woods and haul back nice dry oak that's been split/stacked for a year or better.

Not this year with record breaking rain.

 

[rancher2]

Yes good point.
I do have a cord or so of dry and mix.

Never had a problem in the past.....just go to the woods and haul back nice dry oak that's been split/stacked for a year or better.

Not this year with record breaking rain.

Seems like the weather patterns have been changing. We had two inches of rain in mid Dec not normal for us, Last few winters we have been getting more rain in the winter. Don't have to shovel it but it makes going to the timber bad don't want to tear the pastures up.

 

[T27_Scrench]

I live just to the west of the Great Dismal Swamp and it is ALWAYS wet where I live. We get a lot of rain too. I stack my firewood when fresh split about 5 feet high onto three standard pallets. The pile ends up being about 4' x 7' x 5' and I cover it with a couple sheets of corrugated metal roof with a couple tires to hold it down. Leave the sides open and it stays pretty dry even with all the blown rain we've been getting.

 

[Wyrdman]

yea thats from the outside. The centers of the splits went from 40% to 20% in four weeks.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I can stack up to one full cord on my carport. That's at least 2 weeks worth of wood in my stove during the harshest cold we get around here. Plenty of time for the exterior wetness to dry. But with all the rain we have been getting even my four wheel drive tractor can't get to the wood stack I have in a field on top of a hill.

Dang, a cord of wood lasts me well over a month!
Heating season is Sept to May here, I burn about 3 cords.


Had to dig out some green logs for the shop. I cut a bunch of 4+ yr old poplar... like it's about cardboard dry.
About makes the stove glow and 2 heaping wheelbarrows worth lasts only 4-5hrs

 

[bowtechmadman]

Chop you must not be heating a very big area or you prefer it to be pretty cold.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Instead of a building, pour a slab, put a 24' sea-land container on it, paint it flat black, put two or three of those rotating roof vents on top and some slat vents around the sides. Those get hot enough for the wood to count as kiln dried.

 

[greenskeeper]

girl scout juice - 50/50 gas diesel mix. The wetter the wood, the higher the gas concentration in the juice.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

and you won't have to worry about trimming those bushy eyebrows for a while.

 

[Joesell]

I was down to some really wet wood one year. I mean, water running out of it wet.

I usually stack my wood near the middle of the OWB. So I just put 6 or 8 extra pieces standing on end near the door.

The stuff in the middle would burn down and dry the stuff by the door at the same time. Next time I loaded, I'd push the door stuff in and stack some more by the door to dry.

It's more of a pain, but it worked just fine. It actually made me realize that you don't need perfect wood for an OWB.

Fast forward a few years. Now if I find myself limbing a tree anywhere near the OWB, it goes straight from living to heating.

 

[Joesell]

I was down to some really wet wood one year. I mean, water running out of it wet.

I usually stack my wood near the middle of the OWB. So I just put 6 or 8 extra pieces standing on end near the door.

The stuff in the middle would burn down and dry the stuff by the door at the same time. Next time I loaded, I'd push the door stuff in and stack some more by the door to dry.

It's more of a pain, but it worked just fine. It actually made me realize that you don't need perfect wood for an OWB.

Fast forward a few years. Now if I find myself limbing a tree anywhere near the OWB, it goes straight from living to heating.

 

[Gugi47]

Do you have some space around your OWB?
If you do, you can stuck some wood next to it and let get dry before you feed in.
If you stuck on the left and right of the OWB You can use all from left and stuck it again, then use the right.
And do again, stuck up and use the other side.....Just a clue...

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Chop you must not be heating a very big area or you prefer it to be pretty cold.

3 bed 2 bath ranch. Keep it around 70*

 

[SamT1]

We’ve had 40” of Rain since August. I’m cutting standing dead wood and it’s pretty dang wet. Keeps raining every 10 days. I’ve loaded a lot freshly cut and split on the trailer thinking how can I sell this as dry wood? But when we deliver it’s already dried a bunch. No complaints yet.

 

[4seasons]

Dang, a cord of wood lasts me well over a month!
Heating season is Sept to May here, I burn about 3 cords.

I normally don't go thru 3 cords in a winter either. A year or two ago it got down to -25F here and was running highs near freezing and negatives at night for a week or so. That is when I can burn a cord in a couple of weeks. This winter I have been loading the stove every 24 hours or so. Probably haven't even burned a cord yet.


Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Huskyuser]

I've had one of the wettest years on record. I keep the tops of my woodpiles covered with tarps so the sides have continuous air flow.

My wood processing is a year-round event. I very rarely cut standing live trees and mostly get my firewood from customers who've had trees come down due to storm damage or just cleaning up dead-fall. I'm in the process of cutting up a red oak which is 100 feet in length, it's on the ground, with a trunk over 30 inches in diameter. I would say there's 5 to 6 cord minimum because I use everything down to 2 inch diameter.

While your wood may be wet on the outside, it's been cut, split, stacked, and drying for quite some time. As soon as the outer moisture boils off it'll burn nicely throwing off a good amount of heat.

 

[FlyingDutchman]

If you can't get some seasoned wood, go buy some to mix 2-1 with the wet. As people say, the own will cook it off but if you need some longer burn times or have issue with it going out. Might be time to bite the bullet and let your hard work season a bit before stuffing it in in the stove to let it sizzle away. I've started splitting much smaller than before so the wood is drier faster... Just getting it split will help it dry out faster in the OWB

 

[066blaster]

unfortunately all my seasoned wood wasn't exactly dry this year. we had a very rainy late summer and fall. its ok if it sits inside by the wood burner for a day or 2. I use to just bring it from the garage and burn it right away. we had 13 inches of rain over a 3 day span late August, and lots of rain September and October. I have some 3 year hickory that is saving me.

 

[bowtechmadman]

I'm definitely doing something wrong if Chop can heat 3 bed/2 bath (going to assume 2k sq. ft.) in Alaska with 3 cords. I burn nearly 10 on average heating 4k sq. ft. in Michigan (significantly shorter heating season than AK I'd imagine). Heck I'm going to burn a cord just in my sauna.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I usually burned 4 heating 1650 in Kentucky.