- Nov 27, 2012
- 0
Question:
I just moved to the country and come from a big city. Here I have an air tight stove with 2 valves... 1 on each door. So when I got here, to my surprise, there was already wood stacked up, and was told that it was 4 years that it has been there in the house. I guess it is very dry. I started to use that wood to give the stove a try after of course having the stove and chimney checked out. Everything was fine.So basically I lit a fire with newspaper and a couple of branches. All went well and I added a larger piece of wood and so on. I had a great fire but the heat was not that great when I checked it out with a temperature gage that I bought made for that. 180 degrees was it's max even though the comfort zone was about 375 degrees average. Someone I ran into days later said to close my doors next time , so I did. 30 minutes into it 330 degrees WoW
, but wait... there was white thin smoke everywhere!, so I hurried and opened the doors.I was scratching my head while looking at the knobs on the stove that were opened full...hummmm... and now I just found out on the net that my wood is too dry and to change my wood stock. Damn it ! I just bough a truckload of that wood with some of the stock having mushrooms on it. The guy told me this wood was dry but would give me extra cords which he did. What a bargain But now I am stuck with what I think is that the wood is too dry and I guess the combustion in the firebox is not right and smoke comes out from anywhere it an come out... Now what can I do ?The guy told me to get lost when I told him that the wood was too dry, so can I just hose the cords with water or what ??? The chimney is cleaned , the stove is in perfect condition and approved by an expert who came and inspected it way before I bought the scrap wood. 5% of the wood was rotten, but the rest was good and 70% of it was nice but very very dry of course !What can I do? I cant afford to throw away all those 12 cords of wood !!
Answer:
What's happening is that the fuel is volatilizing (turning to gases) all at once because of the lack of moisture. That's why smoke is pouring out because this dense smoke is not very buoyant and your system's draft cannot suck it all up the flue fast enough. You need a gradual release of smoke & gases from the fuel. That's what a stick of wood, with a 15-20% moisture content does for you.
The best wood to burn in a woodstove is wood that has been seasoned (cut, split, stacked) for 18 months. The ends should have many cracks on the ends. Mushrooms on the sides is not a good sign of properly seasoned, usable-for-wood-stove, fuel.
Well, there's not much you can do with this fuel, except two things. One, sell the wood to someone with a fireplace. It's perfect for that. Or two, buy greener wood (more moisture), and mix this greener wood with the fuel you have. Over the years, that's worked out okay for folks in a similar position.
I just moved to the country and come from a big city. Here I have an air tight stove with 2 valves... 1 on each door. So when I got here, to my surprise, there was already wood stacked up, and was told that it was 4 years that it has been there in the house. I guess it is very dry. I started to use that wood to give the stove a try after of course having the stove and chimney checked out. Everything was fine.So basically I lit a fire with newspaper and a couple of branches. All went well and I added a larger piece of wood and so on. I had a great fire but the heat was not that great when I checked it out with a temperature gage that I bought made for that. 180 degrees was it's max even though the comfort zone was about 375 degrees average. Someone I ran into days later said to close my doors next time , so I did. 30 minutes into it 330 degrees WoW
, but wait... there was white thin smoke everywhere!, so I hurried and opened the doors.I was scratching my head while looking at the knobs on the stove that were opened full...hummmm... and now I just found out on the net that my wood is too dry and to change my wood stock. Damn it ! I just bough a truckload of that wood with some of the stock having mushrooms on it. The guy told me this wood was dry but would give me extra cords which he did. What a bargain But now I am stuck with what I think is that the wood is too dry and I guess the combustion in the firebox is not right and smoke comes out from anywhere it an come out... Now what can I do ?The guy told me to get lost when I told him that the wood was too dry, so can I just hose the cords with water or what ??? The chimney is cleaned , the stove is in perfect condition and approved by an expert who came and inspected it way before I bought the scrap wood. 5% of the wood was rotten, but the rest was good and 70% of it was nice but very very dry of course !What can I do? I cant afford to throw away all those 12 cords of wood !!Answer:
What's happening is that the fuel is volatilizing (turning to gases) all at once because of the lack of moisture. That's why smoke is pouring out because this dense smoke is not very buoyant and your system's draft cannot suck it all up the flue fast enough. You need a gradual release of smoke & gases from the fuel. That's what a stick of wood, with a 15-20% moisture content does for you.
The best wood to burn in a woodstove is wood that has been seasoned (cut, split, stacked) for 18 months. The ends should have many cracks on the ends. Mushrooms on the sides is not a good sign of properly seasoned, usable-for-wood-stove, fuel.
Well, there's not much you can do with this fuel, except two things. One, sell the wood to someone with a fireplace. It's perfect for that. Or two, buy greener wood (more moisture), and mix this greener wood with the fuel you have. Over the years, that's worked out okay for folks in a similar position.
