The wood I'm burning this year is 2 years old, stacked off the ground on frame racks, and top-covered with synthetic roofing underlayment. Like most of you in the Northeast, we have experienced 3+ months of well above average rainfall. I noticed some low spots in my tarps were letting water pool and drip on the splits. When I started burning this year, it was taking forever to light off the catalyst. Hot reloads are less problematic as the coals burn off some of the surface moisture.
I have moved one cord onto our covered screened porch, but now that it is below freezing most days, I don't expect much further drying.
As a highly un-scientific experiment, I brought in half a dozen "heavy and wet" splits and set them by the stove for 4 days. Red oak and white birch. I weighted them when I brought them in and wrote the values in marker. After four days, I weighed them again, re-split them and measured moisture content.
Start Weight (lbs)********End Weight (lbs)*******Weight Loss (%)******Moisture Content (%)***********
5.45***********************5.37***********************1.5***********************16
3.56***********************3.36***********************5.6***********************17
4.77***********************4.53***********************5*************************18
6.37***********************6.22***********************2*************************16
2.03***********************1.75***********************14************************20
4.7*********************** *4.61***********************2*************************16
As expected, the smaller splits (more surface area) lost more moisture than large splits, but overall I was happy with 3-5% reduction in moisture content just by pre-staging my wood in the stove room for half a week.
While I was re-splitting, I grabbed a couple outdoor splits that still felt wet, and measured 22-23% MC.
I'm considering building a couple tall racks out of iron pipe and staging 3-4 days worth of wood in each one. That way I would be burning wood that has had 4-8 days in the stove room, potential reducing MC by 5% percent from its initial value. Any reason not to do this? Any risk of a 15% split getting "too dry" at 10%?
I have moved one cord onto our covered screened porch, but now that it is below freezing most days, I don't expect much further drying.
As a highly un-scientific experiment, I brought in half a dozen "heavy and wet" splits and set them by the stove for 4 days. Red oak and white birch. I weighted them when I brought them in and wrote the values in marker. After four days, I weighed them again, re-split them and measured moisture content.
Start Weight (lbs)********End Weight (lbs)*******Weight Loss (%)******Moisture Content (%)***********
5.45***********************5.37***********************1.5***********************16
3.56***********************3.36***********************5.6***********************17
4.77***********************4.53***********************5*************************18
6.37***********************6.22***********************2*************************16
2.03***********************1.75***********************14************************20
4.7*********************** *4.61***********************2*************************16
As expected, the smaller splits (more surface area) lost more moisture than large splits, but overall I was happy with 3-5% reduction in moisture content just by pre-staging my wood in the stove room for half a week.
While I was re-splitting, I grabbed a couple outdoor splits that still felt wet, and measured 22-23% MC.
I'm considering building a couple tall racks out of iron pipe and staging 3-4 days worth of wood in each one. That way I would be burning wood that has had 4-8 days in the stove room, potential reducing MC by 5% percent from its initial value. Any reason not to do this? Any risk of a 15% split getting "too dry" at 10%?
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