HH queastion

[mfglickman]

Met a guy this week in town who's been heating with wood only for 5 years. We get into a chat about wood and scrounging and seasoning and I'm happy that we are on the same page then he says,

You know if you wan your wood to season in 6 weeks you just have to make a circular stack with an open space in the middle and that middle chimney will suck all the wet right out - 6 weeks to seasoned wood.

Once I picked up my jaw off he floor I resolved to ask y'all if a HH actually shortens seasoning time?


Thanks
Mary

 

[stejus]

No, not that I have experienced. I have one HH and I season it for 1.5 to 2 years. It's nice and dry, but so are my other row piles.

 

[swagler85]

Copied the below from woodheat.org comments on firewood follies

I read the story of building a Holz Hausen and got nosy about this Holz Hausen thing. Being German myself, I never heard about it. I searched in the net for a while and wanted to share the real info, so that not so many people believe they can dry firewood in three months!

The name Holz Hausen doesn't exist! A Holz Haus would be a house built out of wood. A Holz Haufen is just wood thrown into a pile. The right word for this structure is Holz Miete and they don't have a center pole. They are not drying the wood faster either. The web site www.holzmiete.de recommends, that the wood has to dry like this for a minimum of two years! It's just a space saving way to store wood that looks good!

I hope you can post this message somewhere on your site and save the people a lot of hassle and wondering!

Thanks,

Silke

 

[Wood Duck]

I have all my wood in holz hausen, but I don't make the central chimney with splits stacked vertically so I guess that is why the water doesn't seem to be sucked out of the firewood in six weeks.

 

[firefighterjake]

Holz mietes look very cool . . . and I think you get a premium membership here at hearth.com if you build one and take a picture of it and post it here . . . but I do not believe they season any faster than traditional stacks . . . if anything any wood you put in the middle will season a bit slower.

 

[stejus]

Holz mietes look very cool . . . and I think you get a premium membership here at hearth.com if you build one and take a picture of it and post it here . . . but I do not believe they season any faster than traditional stacks . . . if anything any wood you put in the middle will season a bit slower.

Ok, I am an official Premium Member now! Here's one a built in the spring of 2011. It's still there, albeit a little greyer in color now. I agree with it doesn't season any faster than a traditional stack. To me, they are an interesting pile to look at and visitors always ask "how did you make a round woodpile, I've never seen anything like that." ;-)

 

[Gary_602z]

An HH or just a big ole pile would dry about the same,Stacks are better.

Gary

 

[n3pro]

I stink at building a HH. Tried twice and both times one side fell over. I would love to build one just to say "been there done that" but can't seem to get mine to stay vertical. Maybe my wood is too tired from me disturbing it all the time.

 

[Got Wood]

I found it takes longer to season in HH vs double row stacks. 6 weeks makes for a nice story to tell after a dozen or so beers....