OWB ? seasoned vs. green wood

[buddylee]

Everyone tells me I can burn either in an OWB and it will heat just fine. I wanna know if there is a difference in the amount of wood consumed when it comes to seasoned vs green wood. I am cutting seasoned but I'm wondering if I need to cut some green logs to add for longer burns.

 

[Donl]

Burning green wood is considerably less efficient than burning properly seasoned wood. More energy is required to boil away the added moister in green wood. Thus more wood will be required! In my opinion green wood is never part of the solution.

 

[leaddog]

Owb are a different breed. They will burn cleaner and more efficiant if you burn dry wood period. But if you FILL them with dry wood The wood will burn up faster than if you fill them with wet wood. Either way most of the btu's will go up the stack unless you use them. The btu's are going up the stack as smoke and not making heat but still going if it is idleing. That's because an OWB still burns if it is idleing. To get the best use with one is to use dry wood and only fill it for as much btu's you need for a short time and then refill. That said most people WON'T run them that way cause they only want to fill them once a day.So they will use LOTS of wood and make LOTS of smoke. When I had mine I found that it would burn as much wood as I wanted to put in it even in OCT. It didn't make any difference to the temp. That is the biggest reason that OWB's are being banned but the big reason people like them is they can be loaded and tended to only once a day.
I think an OWB makes more sence in the really cold climates as they can be fired hard but in the shoulder seasons and the warmer states they make very poor use of wood.
I still cut as much wood as I used to when I had the OWB except now it's for me and also enough for my son plus I keep getting more ahead.
leaddog

 

[Duetech]

Greener wood creates more smoke and like stated above takes more time to burn out the watter for efficiency. OWB's are run/idle/run/idle type systems. There are times when an OWB runs full tilt and produces little smoke. That is when most of the wood in it is at the best condition for btu efficiency. The rest of the time they smoke trying to get the wood at that optimum conditioning. Cars running down long hills get the best mileage because there is less pull on the engine. Going up the hill used a lot of energy and coasting down hill is like utilizing stored energy. OWB's are similar while idling (coasting). OWB's that are chugging (going up hill) all day long are trying to reach the optimum temp where they can coast. Green wood forces them to chug longer to reach that coasting plateau. The sooner the water heats up the sooner the boiler idles. Dry wood will supply the needed heat sooner but may require strategic placement to extract the longer burns on less fuel. I can get a 16 hour smoke dragon burn in my "ceramic" OWB on a full load but I can get a 12-13 hour less to no smoke burn with one big chunk at the back of the combustion chamber and a half load stacked from top to bottom placed at the front of the boiler near the air inlet. I can usually stretch the time if I drag the coals toward the front where the blower air inlet is at (usually done for cleaning out the boiler). If I use green wood with the same loading technique the boiler hardly ever idles and smokes much more for for most of the burn.

 

[willworkforwood]

.... I am cutting seasoned but I'm wondering if I need to cut some green logs to add for longer burns.

The previous replies gave you all the advice you need - no need to add anything else. But, I have a question about what you wrote. It would be unusual for uncut wood to be seasoned. Logs can retain lots of moisture for years, and it typically takes a year (or more for some species) after cutting/splitting for it to get dried out to around 20%. Are you sure that what you're burning now is seasoned?

 

[buddylee]

I guess I chose the wrong wording. The trees I'm cuttings now are left overs from a logging operation last summer. I am cutting up the tops that are left. The leaves are still hanging on the limbs.