OK here are the results of my wood drying experiment for this year. I was actually quite surprised at what i found. No opinions here but just the facts I found.
3 different methods or non methods of drying. All the same batch of wood which was all mostly oak.
All splitting was done in April of 2008 , All trees cut in April of 2008. Live in South NH and we had a very wet summer and drying season. All moisture testing done the end of October 2008
Pile #one was split and stacked on pallets 3 rows wide,. There was no air space between the 3 rows. It was not in the sun and not in a particularly windy or breezy area. On top of the piles I put 7 mil white plastic (which I always understood to be a no no). Just the tops and not the sides . All of my splits were average 8" thick or less. This pile measured and average of 17 percent moisture on the moisture meter . I checked the moisture by splitting and measuring the interior of the 6 to 7 inch splits.
Pile #2 was exactly the same as pile 1 but not covered at all. This pile measured and average of 18 percent moisture on the moisture meter
The third was not really an experiment but just the left over rounds that I did not split. The unsplit rounds measured anywhere from 35 to 40 percent moisture.
This just goes to show me that covering doesn't really make that much of a difference at all. I tested many samples from all sections of the pile and had pretty consistent results. It also goes to show me that even difficult to dry woods can dry to be ready to burn by winter if split in early spring. I am very surprised at these results with the rainy season we had.
3 different methods or non methods of drying. All the same batch of wood which was all mostly oak.
All splitting was done in April of 2008 , All trees cut in April of 2008. Live in South NH and we had a very wet summer and drying season. All moisture testing done the end of October 2008
Pile #one was split and stacked on pallets 3 rows wide,. There was no air space between the 3 rows. It was not in the sun and not in a particularly windy or breezy area. On top of the piles I put 7 mil white plastic (which I always understood to be a no no). Just the tops and not the sides . All of my splits were average 8" thick or less. This pile measured and average of 17 percent moisture on the moisture meter . I checked the moisture by splitting and measuring the interior of the 6 to 7 inch splits.
Pile #2 was exactly the same as pile 1 but not covered at all. This pile measured and average of 18 percent moisture on the moisture meter
The third was not really an experiment but just the left over rounds that I did not split. The unsplit rounds measured anywhere from 35 to 40 percent moisture.
This just goes to show me that covering doesn't really make that much of a difference at all. I tested many samples from all sections of the pile and had pretty consistent results. It also goes to show me that even difficult to dry woods can dry to be ready to burn by winter if split in early spring. I am very surprised at these results with the rainy season we had.