newbie - new EPA stoves and wood choice question

[Avi]

hey all,
New to the site and writing from Israel.

Will be heating a roughly 1,600 square foot space solely with wood -- and was considering a few ovens -- am leaning towards the PE Super 27 which is now available here ... the only other big / powerful stove in the same price range here is the cast iron Godin Royal 1 ... and the PE seems to outstrip it by far in terms of heat output and efficiency ... I love cast iron but here it bumps up the price considerably...

...my question is wood: There is little hardwood available in Israel, the forest right around the house is all pine and cedar -- and I can get eucalyptus and some harder citrus woods, but that is the extent of it. I currently have about 2 cubic meters of eucalyptus on have that has been drying for about 1.5 years -- and expect to need about another 1.5 to 2 cubes for the winter ... I can cut and dry softwood for next season, but there is not a real wood-burning culture here, so if I go ahead and order some more eucalyptus, even if its supposedly 'dry' - have no real guarantees on what that means ...

..I've heard that the new stoves need really dry wood to work put out real heat ... will burning wood that is not altogether dry really affect stove output to the degree that I should consider a more traditional stove?

Thanks - and sorry for such a wordy post.
Avi

 

[blades]

Any wood can be burned - But it needs to be dry below 20% internal moisture, one for the stove to work effectively and two not to produce a bunch of creosote leading to other problems. Damp/wet wood you lose a bunch of it's heating btu's driving off the excess moisture content which in turn cools the flue. That is when you start to have creosote forming because in condenses out of the exhaust gases on the walls of the flue. Plenty of west coast (US) people burn various types of Pine/ Fir/Spruce/ Cedar. Gets a bit tricky depending on the type as some have a lot of sap/pitch which is very flammable and can drive things out of control very quickly, appliance type not withstanding. Pine, Fir, Cedar/ Spruce all in the Conifers group. Fruit wood are of the Deciduous group and are considered hardwoods. Likely would give a bit longer heating cycle than the other.

 

[Avi]

Thanks for the info. Blades
I understand that the problem with wet wood is loss of BTUs and creosote -- I guess my question was more about the newer EPA rated plate steel stoves vs. the more traditional stoves. I've heard it said that performance on the new stoves suffer greatly from poorly seasoned wood -- is that truer for the new stoves than it was for the older stoves? Also is that truer for convection stoves than it is for radiant stoves...?

 

[blades]

Its true for all stoves old or new - Old stoves = smoke dragons= when they were the only thing out there nothing to compare to. Efficiency less than 50% ( likely generous at that ) new stoves 80% or better in some cases. The difference is the secondary combustion or the addition of catalytic converter or on some both.
Even in a pre EPA style stove dry wood would improve performance. The old practices die hard though so it is a continuing educational program. Doesn't help with the retailers of fire wood claiming there wares are seasoned when they maybe cut it last spring and its been laying in a big pile since- Got 2 just down the block from me sell out every year, split all winter,spring and sell that summer, fall, winter - For awhile I would buy the smallest amount from some retail service and the re-split it and see what the moisture meter would read- never found one that was true too claims- that has changed a bit , but for 98% of them its business as usual cut split and sell all in the same year. For a lot of people here in the Metro area it is just for atmosphere. Unlike myself and others that true use our stove to heat our homes and such. During the winter I pay more in utility service fees than my actual usage of NG and electric.