Ready For Winter

[jlow]

Finally stacked the remaining splits to fill my seasoning shed (8.5 cords ). It is a mix of elm, ash, oak, cherry, mulberry, spruce, pine and birch. My moisture meter will arrive this week and I will get a better idea how the process went. Being that this will be my first full year of burning, I am anxious to find out how much I actually will need. I am heating 2800 sq. ft. 24/7 with an Equinox. These splits will be moved into my garage in the first week of November.

 

[smokinj]

Yes you are thats sweeeet! I heat 24/7 from nov. late april in a wood furance is 10-12 cords 2600 sqft with a wood stove I would think 5-7 range

 

[BrotherBart]

Looks like you have plenty to let the big boy eat.

I am betting you burn four cords if you resist the urge to just keep stuffing it in there all of the time and let that soapstone do what soapstone does.

 

[smokinj]

Looks like you have plenty to let the big boy eat.

I am betting you burn four cords if you resist the urge to just keep stuffing it in there all of the time and let that soapstone do what soapstone does.

thats alot of sqft for 4 cords? and in MICH.

 

[BrotherBart]

Looks like you have plenty to let the big boy eat.

I am betting you burn four cords if you resist the urge to just keep stuffing it in there all of the time and let that soapstone do what soapstone does.

thats alot of sqft for 4 cords? and in MICH.

Load that big rock up twice a day, throttle it back and he will be amazed.

 

[smokinj]

Looks like you have plenty to let the big boy eat.

I am betting you burn four cords if you resist the urge to just keep stuffing it in there all of the time and let that soapstone do what soapstone does.

thats alot of sqft for 4 cords? and in MICH.

Load that big rock up twice a day, throttle it back and he will be amazed.

That would be very impressive to run 24/7 in mi. with that sqft. How much does a stove like that cost?

 

[BrotherBart]

That would be very impressive to run 24/7 in mi. with that sqft. How much does a stove like that cost?

Four thousand bucks.

 

[jlow]

Bart, when you say load it up twice a day and back it down, what is the trick?

 

[smokinj]

Bart, when you say load it up twice a day and back it down, what is the trick?

load it up and get it going good then back off the air intake so the load will run 12 hrs. this is good until it gets real cold out

 

[BrotherBart]

Bart, when you say load it up twice a day and back it down, what is the trick?

load it up and get it going good then back off the air intake so the load will run 12 hrs. this is good until it gets real cold out

With the EQ seven hundred pound hunk of soapstone that sucker is going to be giving off good heat for most of that 12 hours.

 

[smokinj]

Bart, when you say load it up twice a day and back it down, what is the trick?

load it up and get it going good then back off the air intake so the load will run 12 hrs. this is good until it gets real cold out

With the EQ seven hundred pound hunk of soapstone that sucker is going to be giving off good heat for most of that 12 hours.

ok now i get it 120,00 btu's very impressive stove.

 

[smokinj]

ok with the math a 4.0 fire box loading every 12 hrs is 8cube ft a day 24/7 would be 56 cube ft a week on 12 weeks only dec. jan feb is 672 cube ft or 5.25 cords not counting the shoulder season at all

 

[Hurricane]

ok with the math a 4.0 fire box loading every 12 hrs is 8cube ft a day 24/7 would be 56 cube ft a week on 12 weeks only dec. jan feb is 672 cube ft or 5.25 cords not counting the shoulder season at all

This is assuming you insert a 4 cube ft piece of wood every time. You need to factor in the air space and that will likely take 20% which then takes the calculation to 4.2 cords. I still think that is high, how many of us jam the wood box so full you cannot see any gaps, plus you need to count the coal bed !


Just my 2 cents

 

[Todd]

You just got done stacking all that wood in your shed and in a couple months your moving it all to your garage? I'd leave it there, maybe bring a little in at a time as the winter goes.

 

[smokinj]

ok with the math a 4.0 fire box loading every 12 hrs is 8cube ft a day 24/7 would be 56 cube ft a week on 12 weeks only dec. jan feb is 672 cube ft or 5.25 cords not counting the shoulder season at all

This is assuming you insert a 4 cube ft piece of wood every time. You need to factor in the air space and that will likely take 20% which then takes the calculation to 4.2 cords. I still think that is high, how many of us jam the wood box so full you cannot see any gaps, plus you need to count the coal bed !


Just my 2 cents

i'll give you that but that is also running at the lowest setting with 2800 sqft in dec jan feb your going to need the max out put of that stove a lot of the time and furance back up for sure,so as your leaning on it when its 15 degrees with hi winds your going to have to max it out alot more wood than the 2 fill ups a day

 

[Todd]

ok with the math a 4.0 fire box loading every 12 hrs is 8cube ft a day 24/7 would be 56 cube ft a week on 12 weeks only dec. jan feb is 672 cube ft or 5.25 cords not counting the shoulder season at all

This is assuming you insert a 4 cube ft piece of wood every time. You need to factor in the air space and that will likely take 20% which then takes the calculation to 4.2 cords. I still think that is high, how many of us jam the wood box so full you cannot see any gaps, plus you need to count the coal bed !


Just my 2 cents

i'll give you that but that is also running at the lowest setting with 2800 sqft in dec jan feb your going to need the max out put of that stove a lot of the time and furance back up for sure,so as your leaning on it when its 15 degrees with hi winds your going to have to max it out alot more wood than the 2 fill ups a day

He also won't be filling the firebox up exactly 4cu ft when you figure air space between the splits, coals and ash. I think he will be safe with 5 cords.

 

[jlow]

The shed has been 3/4 full since April. The wood in the front will be the wood in the back of the garage. Probably won't see the oven until March(hopefully). The shed is 250 feet from the house and I didn't want the long haul when it is cold and snowy.

 

[freeburn]

Finally stacked the remaining splits to fill my seasoning shed (8.5 cords ). It is a mix of elm, ash, oak, cherry, mulberry, spruce, pine and birch. My moisture meter will arrive this week and I will get a better idea how the process went. Being that this will be my first full year of burning, I am anxious to find out how much I actually will need. I am heating 2800 sq. ft. 24/7 with an Equinox. These splits will be moved into my garage in the first week of November.

How come you want to move it into your garage? It's sheltered in that nice lean to you made. Why move the wood more than you have to? Maybe there's something I'm missing.

 

[LLigetfa]

I didn't want the long haul when it is cold and snowy.

That's the best time. No sweating, the work will warm you and the thoughts of how it will warm you again makes it seem less like work and more rewarding.

 

[jlow]

I have a 1200 sq ft attached garage that I have sectioned off for the wood. It is for ease of use and will also free up the shed for my next year of wood which I will begin splitting in the fall.

 

[freeburn]

Your garage is as big as my house at least the upstairs! That's understandable if you want to get more wood in there to season. Have at it!

 

[kbrown]

Very nice shed. Wish I had a space to build something like that. However, I do have some questions as I am still very new to all this. When a shed is full, how does it properly get the maximum amount of airflow? What about keeping from having to handle the wood in order to make sure it's rotated? I am thinking about stacking my wood piles differently next year so they don't take up so much space in my yard, but since I scrounge for everything, then obviously I never know when and what I may get and now with different rates of seasoning going on, stacking everything in close rows would make it hard to keep track of what's ready and whats not. Again, that is a very nice shed and my wife would love it if I could confine all our stuff to one spot.

 

[smokinj]

ok with the math a 4.0 fire box loading every 12 hrs is 8cube ft a day 24/7 would be 56 cube ft a week on 12 weeks only dec. jan feb is 672 cube ft or 5.25 cords not counting the shoulder season at all

This is assuming you insert a 4 cube ft piece of wood every time. You need to factor in the air space and that will likely take 20% which then takes the calculation to 4.2 cords. I still think that is high, how many of us jam the wood box so full you cannot see any gaps, plus you need to count the coal bed !


Just my 2 cents

i'll give you that but that is also running at the lowest setting with 2800 sqft in dec jan feb your going to need the max out put of that stove a lot of the time and furance back up for sure,so as your leaning on it when its 15 degrees with hi winds your going to have to max it out alot more wood than the 2 fill ups a day

He also won't be filling the firebox up exactly 4cu ft when you figure air space between the splits, coals and ash. I think he will be safe with 5 cords.

5 cords for the primetime 12 week run.thats not counting the shoulder season with a bad boy stove like that i'd run it evey chance a got
I still say 5-7 cords and not sure way that would be a problem 2800 sq ft thats a "sipper" for that sqft l

 

[LLigetfa]

Very nice shed. Wish I had a space to build something like that. However, I do have some questions as I am still very new to all this. When a shed is full, how does it properly get the maximum amount of airflow? What about keeping from having to handle the wood in order to make sure it's rotated? I am thinking about stacking my wood piles differently next year so they don't take up so much space in my yard, but since I scrounge for everything, then obviously I never know when and what I may get and now with different rates of seasoning going on, stacking everything in close rows would make it hard to keep track of what's ready and whats not. Again, that is a very nice shed and my wife would love it if I could confine all our stuff to one spot.

You're right in that a shed packed in tight is not ideal for drying green wood. I let my green wood sit out for around 8 months before packing it tight into the shed. This year I changed my strategy and partitioned my shed so that I can leave spaces for air flow yet not give up overall capacity. I can store about two years worth and in-fill those spaces in the Fall.

As for keeping track, I have no problem remembering what went where when and I can judge by the weight, feel, and smell just how dry it is. I do tend to sort it as I pack it in and also further sort it as I pick it to bring it in the house. Then I sort it even further as I load the stove.

 

[jlow]

Wood was seasoning in piles for three months before I built the shed. I left gaps of 3-4 inches between rows (enough that I now have rabbits living in the shed) . It is exposed to all day sun and it is in the wind tunnel of my yard. When I get my moisture meter this week I will get a good barometer on how things have progressed.