does unseasoned wood produce more coals?

[par0thead151]

this is my first season burning, and i have been lucky thus far to burn only standing dead trees whos bark has fallen off(seasoned naturally)
my last batch i got a tree that was not dead(white elm)
it seems to produce more coals that take longer to burn down during the coaling cycle.
so much that i just end up scooping them out and adding more wood(the coals do not produce much heat)
i am running a enviro venice 1700 insert in a Zero clearance fireplace.

does unseasoned wood produce more coals?
am i wasting a lot of BTU's by pitching some of the coals?

 

[savageactor7]

Yup. unseasoned wood will give you more coals that are slow to burn down.

I'm unfamiliar with the operation of that stove but many of us here rake the hot coals forward, toward the door. Then put a split at a time on the hot coals to burn them down to ash. quicker. Burn hotter too that will help.

If your pitching coals in a bucket that sits on the hearth that bucket still radiates heat. Just raking the coals will make them burn down faster. That white white fuzz (ash) on coals can insulate a hot coal for a very long time so raking is good.

Now if your burning locust there's nothing you can do about the coals except mix the locust splits up with more of the other splits.

 

[gzecc]

Part of your problem is the elm. It is not a good burning wood. I think its best split small and mixed with a higher quality wood.

 

[LLigetfa]

Ja, unseasoned wood does produce more coals. It also produces chimney fires. Burn no wood before its time.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

this is my first season burning, and i have been lucky thus far to burn only standing dead trees whos bark has fallen off(seasoned naturally)
my last batch i got a tree that was not dead(white elm)
it seems to produce more coals that take longer to burn down during the coaling cycle.
so much that i just end up scooping them out and adding more wood(the coals do not produce much heat)
i am running a enviro venice 1700 insert in a Zero clearance fireplace.

does unseasoned wood produce more coals?
am i wasting a lot of BTU's by pitching some of the coals?

I agree about burning no wood before its time. Many times you will find that when the unseasoned log has burned down where you should be able to break it apart you will find that you can't. It is still solid. That is one big telltale sign of unseasoned or wet wood.

I'd also like to state that just because the bark has fallen off of a dead tree, that does not mean that wood is ready to burn! That is one big misconception we see over and over.

We burn a lot of dead elm and most times do not cut until all the bark has fallen off. However, 99% of the time we find that it is not yet ready to burn. Perhaps you can get away with burning only the tops and branches of the tree but most of that log will have lots of sap remaining and needs to sit for another year before burning.