Green wood VS dry wood, what is your experience?

[MountainsOMaine]

Classic 6048 owner since 2006. I have been very lazy about drying my firewood but after this winter I am going to have make a serious effort. Annually we burn 13-17 cords a year to heat 2,800 sq ft and domestic hot water. The wood that I use is stored outside without any cover. I have been told and I have researched I can cut my wood consumption on average up to a third if the wood is dried properly and if I had cover for it. Anyone else out there with advice?

 

[goosegunner]

A 13" diameter piece of cherry that was 17" long weighed 69lbs when I cut it from a log that had been felled 6 months earlier.

Stored in my boiler room through the winter it weighed 44lbs. When I split it open it was 18% internal.

How many of 13' diameter pieces can your 6048 hold? Every green piece like that will hold an additional 3 gallons of water. Not a real good combination for burning wood efficiently. It will take some effort to get ahead if you are burning 13-17 cords a year, but that is a terrible about of wood to heat 2800 sq ft.

gg

 

[MountainsOMaine]

Yes I know it is a terrible efficiency rating. This is why I am looking to see what others are burning in the heating months so I can get an estimate of what I should be burning. What should I be burning for cords of wood? I am think 10 maybe.

 

[bmblank]

My house is about a grand smaller, but (without actually keeping track) I'd imagine I can do with less than 5 cord a year, house and dhw.
When you say cord do you mean pulp cord or face cord?

 

[MountainsOMaine]

Pulp cord. I am also thinking of moving the OWB into my garage. I do not park in it and I store wood in it already for our wood stove. The trivky part would be getting it into the garage. Just make more sense than to build a pole barn to store wood in when I already have a space closer to the house with all sorts of storage space. Anyone else done this?

 

[bmblank]

First things first, you need to burn dry wood. I'm not dating you need to go out and get a moisture meter or anything, but work on getting a few years worth of wood built up, then you'll always have dry wood at hand and with the added benefit of having an emergency supply should you be unable to get wood for a while. And I believe you'll get way better than a third better efficiency.

 

[MountainsOMaine]

Yes agreed, I have the wood just need to go and cut it down in spring summer and fall. What about having the OWB in a garage? Has anyone on here done this? A few people I have heard done this but do not know how it has gone for them.

 

[maple1]

I have what sounds like the same sized house (ours is 2700 sq. ft in two storeys, over 1500 sq. ft. unfinished basement). 18 year old construction on a windy hilltop. I heat it very comfortably, plus our DHW (family of 5) with around 6 cord, maybe pushing 7. 13-17 cords is just nuts. You are losing a lot of heat by burning green wood, but you could also be losing a lot of heat to the ground, and the general OWB situation will also cost you heat in heat loss from the unit to the air around it.

You might be able to put a boiler in a garage, but I don't think I'd do it with an OWB - it would be an indoor boiler instead. But check your insurance guy & see what he says - that will ultimately govern what you can & can't do there.

 

[hobbyheater]

This is a page from our boiler manual . The bottom half gives an in site of the effects of burning wet wood showing the different BTU'S delivered when burning wet to dry wood .

 

[MountainsOMaine]

Yes it is nuts. I am working way to hard putting wood up.

 

[henfruit]

Based on the size of your home ect. With gasification boiler and 1000 gallons of storage you could do with 8 cords of dry wood.

 

[flyingcow]

I wouldn't put the unit inside the garage. Smoke roll out, flame roll out, etc. I think you'd burn it down or it'd just be plain midersble in there. Ins co will tell you its s no no. Locate it just outside the garage with dry wood stored in there would be better.

 

[flyingcow]

Also, 2900 sq ft

with no insulation?

or avg insulation?

or with r60 ceiling and r40 walls?

Hard to say how much wood is an acceptable amount. Then add in inside temp? Another variable. For someone to say you should only burn XXX amount of wood is subjective at best.

But I think dry wood is best. With no ice and snow on it. But it'll burn qquicker. Don't know how that will work for over nights.

 

[flyingcow]

Seems you should use 25 to 30% less with dry wood? Wouldn't surprise me if you still will need to throw in some green stuff to lengthen out the burn times.

 

[goosegunner]

Yes agreed, I have the wood just need to go and cut it down in spring summer and fall. What about having the OWB in a garage? Has anyone on here done this? A few people I have heard done this but do not know how it has gone for them.

Putting it in the garage would be a very bad idea and most likely not legally possible. I doubt that it is rated for a indoor install and the amount of creosote they can build in the stack would be very dangerous.

gg

 

[mustash29]

I am a control room operator at a trash to energy plant, I burn wet frozen crap 4 - 5 months of the year.

The BTU' needed follow this path:
First, you need to heat the wood & moisture (ice) from ambient up to 32 deg F.
Then you need to add the latent heat to turn that ice into water at 32 deg F. Huge amount.
Then you need to heat that water up to 212 deg F.
Then you need to heat that 212 water to turn it into 212 deg F steam. Another huge amount.
Then the wood can heat up to combustion temperature, burn hot and warm your stuff.

That whole zero deg ice to baking off all the steam thing is KILLING your efficiency.

 

[Clarkbug]

Yes agreed, I have the wood just need to go and cut it down in spring summer and fall. What about having the OWB in a garage? Has anyone on here done this? A few people I have heard done this but do not know how it has gone for them.

I wouldnt put the boiler in a garage, but would consider making a woodshed/polebarn/pavillion setup for it instead. Biggest issues I have seen are that there is still a lot of smoke rollout when loading, so you will want to build a raised ridge or an open vent or something in there to help clear it out. If you were to put a gravel/concrete pad, then put essentially just a roof over it, that would give you access to easily put wood in there, move it around and clean it out when you arent burning, and will provide lots of space for a breeze to help season the wood. Tarp sides help keep the wind down when you have to load it up in the winter, but wont get in the way otherwise.

If you do put it in the garage, most of the time the insurance company will make you remove anything else from the space, because they dont want cars/chemicals/etc. in there also. You could consider building a leanto/bay off of the existing garage to put it in if you are really sold on that idea.

 

[Thom Griffin]

The only time I've burned truly green wood, it was black birch, reasonably well split, and it was in an old Rite-way sheet metal stove. You need to be present to do this: starting with the bed of coals from the previous fire; fill with green wood; leave the door cracked open; enjoy the sound of hissing steam...; when it bursts into flame (about 30 minutes later) let it burn for a few minutes and then shut the door. Important that you have a clean chimney, and have a good hot newspaper fire once a week to dry out any creosote.

I wouldn't recommend this with any boiler however. Burn dry wood. You'll be happier; your boiler will be happier; and your boiler will definitely run more like is was designed to run.