Hi All, I have about 3.5 cords of split white birch at approximately 30% moisture according to my meter. Some pieces 25%, some pieces 35%...most at 30%. . I live in Alaska and will start burning around Early October. It was delivered in a giant pile by a few dump trucks, so I'm working on stacking over the next few days (unfortunately it's raining on the pile right now before I can get a chance to stack it). I use a Jotul f45 Greenville stove. Question is, I must have 20% or lower moisture to burn efficiently in that stove. Can I get this wood dried out enough by October 1? Can I get it to 20%? Thoughts? Suggestions? I will be tarping the tops of the stacks so they dont get rained on. and it will all be off the ground. I know it'll be close, but I think it'll dry to 20% by October 1st. Am I wrong?
Birch Moisture
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I doubt you are going to make it - especially getting to 20% through the center of the pieces (most moisture meters are measuring the surface, or close to it.)
Short of a kiln, the best way I know to accelerate the drying process is to stack in single rows exposed to the sun and wind. I generally leave the stacks uncovered until I get close to the burning season for best moisture evaporation and so as not to impede the wind carrying moisture away from the stacks. However, that depends on your local climate (I’m in Vermont.)
If you are going to cover right away, having the a cover spaced up off the top of the stack improves air flow. If that won’t work for you, a sheet of metal roofing or plywood as a cover allowed better air flow than a tarp.
Short of a kiln, the best way I know to accelerate the drying process is to stack in single rows exposed to the sun and wind. I generally leave the stacks uncovered until I get close to the burning season for best moisture evaporation and so as not to impede the wind carrying moisture away from the stacks. However, that depends on your local climate (I’m in Vermont.)
If you are going to cover right away, having the a cover spaced up off the top of the stack improves air flow. If that won’t work for you, a sheet of metal roofing or plywood as a cover allowed better air flow than a tarp.
I've stacked a bunch in my garage with a dehumidifier...thats should get at least those pieces somewhat dry. Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm going to wait and see what happens. I have a cord dry from last year so hopefully by the time I use that up, the rest will be close.
Grok claims I could make it with good wind and stacked....but I don't trust ai. He did give me a bunch of neat calculations though. Supposedly I could lose about 1% MC per week. And actually since I had it delivered about 10 days ago, many pieces went from 30% to 28.5%. So thats a great sign.
Wood dries relatively quickly until it reaches it's fiber saturation point (usually SOMEWHERE around 30%, but it varies depending on species). Below that, drying proceeds much more slowly. In addition to the stacking recommendations I made in a previous post, cutting shorter and splitting smaller will also speed up the drying process.
I'd ammend my earlier statement. With good stacking practices and adequate ventilation, you might just make it. I was able to get a couple of cords of firewood dry here in the Champlain Valley of Vermont from forewood harvested, cut, split, and stacked in July and have it ready for our heating season in November. It was just barely ready. Another month or two would have been nice. (The Red Oak was not even close to ready, but most other species were in decent shape.) I'm not sure what your drying conditions are like in your part of Alaska as compared to Vermont.
Heat and air flow are the keys. You do not want to pin plastic down to the ground covering the stack unless you also have a good source of forced ventilation (and a good source of heat, unless the sun is doing a good enough job. Covering with plastic will generally hold too much moisture in near the wood, increasing the relative humidity right inside the enclosure. The higher the relative humidity, the slower it dries. I have seen a design for a passive solar kiln which relied on natural convection rather than forced air ventilation. I can;t find that now. Googling something like "passive solar kiln" might turn up some ideas. I'd want to make sure it was a proven design before relying on it for my sole source of dry firewood.
Remember you are talking many gallons of water to be removed from this wood. If your dehumidifier allows you to rig up a hose for continuous drain somewhere out of the building, make use of that. If you are relying on manually emptying a small tank on the dehumidifier, that will get old very quickly. Leave room between your rows when stacking, and running a fan to circulate are around the stacks might help. Good air flow is a key to quick drying. My wood shed is open on 3 sides for that reason.
I'd ammend my earlier statement. With good stacking practices and adequate ventilation, you might just make it. I was able to get a couple of cords of firewood dry here in the Champlain Valley of Vermont from forewood harvested, cut, split, and stacked in July and have it ready for our heating season in November. It was just barely ready. Another month or two would have been nice. (The Red Oak was not even close to ready, but most other species were in decent shape.) I'm not sure what your drying conditions are like in your part of Alaska as compared to Vermont.
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I dump 6 quarts of water from my basement dehumidifier every day. No big deal. Give the wood 8 weeks of that action, 84 gallons of water removed, crank up the stove!
Wind often dries the wood faster than sun. Place a box fan or large table fan blowing at the stack of wood in addition to dehumidifier.
I think it’s like 6 pints. Emptying it multiple times a day when it’s partially full though. Always fills up overnight. Unfortunately it’s been raining here nonstop.
UPDATE- the birch that I put in the garage with a fan and dehumidifier has gone from 30% to 27% in 2 weeks. So losing over 1% moisture per week. Emptying dehumidifier 2-3 times a day. So far so good. The wood stacked outside I haven’t check yet and probably won’t until September.
Ctwoodtick
Minister of Fire
How thick are the average splits? That will affect drying time too. Is the wood top-covered, but open on the sides and stacked so that the prevailing winds can blow through the stacks? If so, the wood may be reasonably dry in 2 months. The thicker splits may still be > 20%, but if they are mixed with thinner splits then it could be ok.
Here a stupid question...if I was to burn a wood over 20%, I know it will be less efficient and create more creosote, but can it actually damage the stove itself? Can it impact the metal or the firebrick adversely, or is it just a matter of having poor fires and creosote buildup? FYI, I do not intend on burning anything over 20%, but I'm just curious. I guess I would think extra moisture would be bad for firebrick and make it crack more easily.
I wish I had more space in the garage for wood (the pic of uncovered wood is 3 rows deep, in the garage), but we are MAYBE having a volcanic eruption at some point here this winter here in Alaska and I need to keep room for vehicles in case of ash fall. There is a good chance of rain here every day for at least 10 days straight, so the top has to stay covered until I get a string of sunny days.
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As a side note, with some treated 2x4s, some landscaping timbers (CHEAP), and a few cinder blocks, you can have some very cool wood racks for very little money. They may not be the most study on earth, but they're plenty sturdy for my needs. Plus, you can disassemble them and move them at will when empty.
A couple of points for you:
Are you testing the moisture content on a freshly split piece? If you are just pulling a piece off the pile and testing it, you are just measuring surface moisture content. To get a more accurate number, you need to split a piece and check near the middle of the freshly split surface. (I would usually test a few places along the length, to get an idea how the drying process was working its way into the wood.)
Wood will generally lose moisture more rapidly until it gets down to the fiber saturation point. Above that point you are mainly pulling out the water that is between the cells. Below the fiber saturation point you are drawing water out of the cells themselves - that is a much slower process. The fiber saturation point is generally roughly 30% moisture content. (It varies from species to species and even from one tree to another within a species.) I don't know the typical fiber saturation point for Birch, so it's hard to say whether what you saw was happening above or below the fiber saturation point (especially if you were also measuring surface moisture). If you were above it, you can expect the drying rate to slow significantly once you hit that point.
Ctwoodtick
Minister of Fire
Good point above about making sure you are measuring the moisture accurately.
And no, wet wood will not damage a stove. However, what can happen is that you have stove on full open air bc the wood isn’t catching well initially. If you overestimate the time with turning down the air, you can come back to an overfired stove. But no, you generally will not damage anything with wet wood. It’s just annoying and like you said, more creosote.
And no, wet wood will not damage a stove. However, what can happen is that you have stove on full open air bc the wood isn’t catching well initially. If you overestimate the time with turning down the air, you can come back to an overfired stove. But no, you generally will not damage anything with wet wood. It’s just annoying and like you said, more creosote.
That's great. I told you ten days ago that the dehumidifier was going to dry that wood. Press ahead.
Thank you, John. Yes, I've been measuring from the middle after I split a piece. Trees were felled last winter, but only split recently. I'm right at that saturation point, if not below. some pieces 25, most 29-30%, some 35. The pieces were 30%ish that went into the garage with the dehumidifier, and those pieces when split are reading 27-28% now, which I take as a positive sign after 12 days. Also, many of these pieces were KNOTTY. I have a heavy splitting ax, but it seems very difficult to split. Ax is just sinking in an inch with a heavy blow. Do you think a maul would make much of a difference? My heavy splitting ax is a granfors bruk , so I thought it would cut like butter...but no dice. I also could not find specifics on the saturation point of white birch. If it was all at 40%, I'd give up and save it for next year, but this is all I have to work with, so I'm giving it my best shot.
