How to Burn Wood Safely & Efficiently
Six reasons why every woodstove owner should use a stovepipe thermometer.
Safety
At a glance, the thermometer tells you if your fire is burning too hot, with the danger of a chimney fire, or too cool, with incomplete combustion, which causes smoldering wood smoke to condense as hazardous creosote.
Less Frequent Chimney Cleaning
Creosote, the bane of stovepipes, builds up surprisingly rapidly, especially in airtight stoves, when fires burn at consistently low temperatures. Stovepipes should always be equipped with thermometers, to enable the owner to avoid operating conditions in which creosote builds up and causes frequent cleaning of the flue.
Longer-Lasting Fires
When woodstoves burn too hot, flue gases rush up the chimney and valuable heating energy is lost forever. An inefficient fire leads to unnecessary reloading of fuel.
Saves Money
On chimney cleaning and wood. A thermometer for your woodstove saves you needless expense and effort over the years, by teaching you how to operate your stove at best efficiency and lowest overall cost.
Conserves Wood Resources
If for no other reason, you should monitor your stove's combustion in order to avoid unnecessary waste of fuel. An efficient fire helps conserve wood resources.
Environmental Air Quality
Burn smart - burn clean. The stove owner who burns efficiently contributes to our common goal to reduce our country's air pollution and carbon footprint. Older woodstoves, especially, require thermometers to control smoke emissions. Owners of new stoves benefit too, by using a thermometer to help optimize stove performance.
Why It's SMART to Burn Wood
Heating with wood makes good sense, environmentally and economically. Nothing can beat the ambiance, romance and aroma of a real wood fire, whether it's a fireplace or a wood stove. Burning wood brings you closer to nature and the environment. Wood is a renewable energy resource and burning wood is an economic and efficient use of the earth's energy.
Radiant Heat Is Comfortable Heat
The warmth you feel radiating from a wood stove or a fireplace is deeply comforting. There's nothing particularly romantic, beautiful, or cozy about a radiator, hot air ducts, or a central heating system. People have always gathered around the fire for warmth and companionship. They still do. During the cold winter months, when friends and family gather in the warmth around the woodstove, its presence is part of the experience. Whether it evokes thoughts of romantic evenings spent by the fireplace or the memory of childhood days, the woodstove has an emotional resonance that no central heating system can match. It is more than a mere appliance.
Burning Wood Is A Creative Exercise
For many people, heating with wood is a little like having your own garden. A garden is more work than going to Tescos for your food. But there is a payoff in the personal satisfaction of being part of the process, and in growing vegetables that are far superior to those at the store. The same is true of heating with wood. Raising the thermostat and sending a cheque off to the utility company is easier than stacking your firewood and tending the stove, but it is also far less satisfying.
Burning wood is like gardening, cooking, home renovation, or alternative travelling (by sail, bicycle, or walking). It requires participation and effort but offers commensurate rewards.
Wood Is A Renewable Energy Source
Solar power, wind power, and wood energy are all renewable resources. They can be used without depleting the earth's natural resources. A well-managed forest can be a sustainable, renewable source of energy that will help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the amount of oil, gas, and coal that we burn for heat. And burning wood is the only method of combustion heat that does NOT contribute to the greenhouse effect or global warming.
Sound wood management yields firewood as a byproduct of thinning out non-lumber grade trees. If allowed, nature will replace what we use. This means that, with care, we will never run out of firewood.
Using wood as a fuel is also good for the atmosphere because it helps to reduce the build-up in greenhouse gas emissions. Trees go through a natural cycle of growth and decay. And, whether they are burned or are slowly oxidized as they rot on the forest floor, there is a balance between the carbon they take from the atmosphere as they grow and that which is released once they die. Therefore, the use of wood recycles the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere -- unlike the use of oil or coal, which reintroduces long buried carbon into the atmosphere. Also, unlike coal or fuel oil, wood releases little acid-rain causing sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.
Wood Heat Is Secure
Since wood stoves and fireplaces operate with natural draft, no power is required to operate them. If you lose power in a severe storm, you can continue to heat with wood, and cook on the stove.
Heating with wood will give you a sense of security and independence that you won't get from any other source of heat. Plus, you have the option of providing your own fuel or buying wood from a local supplier. The firewood business puts money into the local economy, rather than into the pockets of multi-national corporations.
Answers to (Wood)Burning Questions
Q.
Everyone says you should let your wood dry for a year before using it. Is it really necessary to burn seasoned wood?
A.
The simple answer is yes, or buy kiln dried! Seasoned wood will burn better, provide more heat, and cause fewer problems than green wood. When first cut, wood is often more than 50% water by weight. It takes a lot of energy to drive off this water -- which is what has to happen before the wood can burn effectively. So green wood is hard to light, doesn't produce much heat, and smokes a lot. The water in green wood can also cause smoke to condense on the inside of your chimney's walls as creosote.
What is important is the dryness of the wood (optimally 15-25% water content), not the period of time it has been drying. At one extreme, some professional firewood suppliers use wood kilns to dry wood in only a few days. At the other extreme, unsplit, improperly stacked wood will rot long before it is ever dry enough to use.
Q.
So, how do I tell if my wood is dry enough to use?
A.
Buy a moisture meter! Or kiln dried wood!
Partly, being able to tell if wood is dry is a matter of experience. However, some of the signs you can use to tell if your wood is dry are:
The wood is lighter than green wood. However, be aware that the density and weight of wood also depends on the species. Oak is denser and heavier than pine. Still, dry oak is lighter than wet oak.
The bark is loose. As wood dries it tends to lose its bark. This is not an absolute rule, but when your wood is dry you should notice a good bit of barkless wood and free pieces of bark.
The colour of the wood fades. Different types of wood are more or less colourful, but for all species, dry wood is more subdued and faded looking than green wood.
The wood shows radial cracks. As wood dries it shrinks. As a result, it usually develops cracks, visible at the ends, which radiate out from the heartwood to the bark. Since the wood will often start to crack before it is completely dry, the presence of radial cracks is not a foolproof sign that the wood is ready to burn, but the total absence of such cracks is a good sign that it is not ready yet.
The wood loses its sappy smell. Dry wood is much less aromatic than green wood.
Dry wood makes a "crack" when hit. If you hit two pieces of seasoned wood together, they will make a resonant sound, like a bat hitting a baseball. Green wood makes more of a "thud".
Q.
I have green wood, what do I do now?
A.
If you have the time, carefully stack your wood and let it dry. If you have no other options, try splitting the wood into smaller pieces, mixing dry wood or kindling with it, and letting more air into the stove, so it burns a little hotter.
Q.
What is the best way to dry my wood?
A.
The best way to dry your wood is to split it and then stack it so that it is well ventilated, covered and off the ground. Storing wood this way for 4-6 months can make a big difference in the efficiency of your stove.
Split wood has much more surface area than unsplit wood. It also has surfaces that are not covered with bark. Therefore, it will dry faster than unsplit wood. The ultimate example of this is birch wood. Because birch bark is waterproof (which is why Indians made canoes out of it), unsplit birch wood will often rot from the inside without ever drying.
Wood not only takes up less space when stacked, but it allows air to circulate around the wood. Good ventilation is the most important factor in having dry wood. It helps to dry the wood by speeding up evaporation. If you have the space, you might want to employ a trick used by our ancestors. They stacked their wood in long thin rows spaced apart, and at right angles to the prevailing winds to ensure good ventilation.
Covering the wood and keeping it off the ground are important because these practices keep the wood away from moisture. Wood acts very much like a sponge. If it is exposed to rain, snow or moisture in the ground, it will soak this water right up, canceling out all your efforts to dry it out.
With these basics in mind, there are a few simple rules you will want to follow:
§ Do cover the wood, but do not drape a plastic sheet or tarp over your wood pile so that it covers the sides of the pile. This will trap the moisture in the pile and the wood will not dry. If you can, make a simple wood frame to raise the plastic cover a few feet above the wood. The ultimate drying place is an open sided shed.
§ Use 4” X 2” timber, poles, or pallets or some other method to keep your wood off the ground.
§ If you dry your wood inside, allow for adequate ventilation. Wood stored in a heated space does dry faster. However, drying wood gives off a lot of water. If you do not allow for that water to exit to the outside you will probably raise a bumper-crop of mold and/or mushrooms. Another reason to be careful about storing wood inside is the fact that ants, beetles or other unwanted guests sometimes ride along on unseasoned wood.
And Finally: Enjoy Your Stove!
and buy your logs from us!
