I’ve been warned...

[Sprinter]

Plan B, get a couple pallets of bio bricks, envi blocks or something similar and burn 50-50.

Not a bad plan B. There are ways to help burning wood that is not quite ready for prime time in a pinch. I had to make such measures my first season.

 

[mcstatz5829]

Lots of ash in those stacks...if not ready this year it will be next for sure...what kind of stove are you running? How big is your home? Just trying to get a idea of what you are trying to heat...BTW....I am 1hour and 15 minutes north west of you...

Alderlea T6 in a 1300 sqft 1948 ranch. No insulation in the walls, but it’s a full brick wrap so that should help at least. Also going to blow in more insulation in the attic.

 

[mcstatz5829]

My 2c. If the MC is really 21 then it's fine right now. A few percent here and there is okay. Call me a skeptic (because I am) but make sure you are reading the MC correctly by splitting a few new pieces and apply the meter probes in the middle of the fresh splits. You probably already know all that, but it's just so rare for new delivery to be already properly seasoned that it's worth another look. Unless it's kiln dried or something like mentioned on another post.

In my area, your cost would be considered quite expensive, so that may account for the unusual dry state if they took some extra steps to do it. If the cost is average, take another look and even check the meter.

In any case, carefully watch the burning when you do it. If you see blackened window, sizzling from the ends, poor starting, etc. stop and figure out why.

Hope it works out well for you. It's just so unusual to get truly seasoned wood delivered, but some dealers do.

My initial sample was too small. Call it more like 30%, some splits as high as 40%.

 

[edyit]

If thats the case then I would definitely look into getting something like this.

(broken link removed)

 

[Tar12]

Alderlea T6 in a 1300 sqft 1948 ranch. No insulation in the walls, but it’s a full brick wrap so that should help at least. Also going to blow in more insulation in the attic.

You should not have any trouble at all heating that place! The extra insulation is a plus! Keep on stock piling that firewood....it will not hurt anything to get 2 years ahead...by then you will now approx. how much you will go through in a heating season....staying ahead is key.

 

[mcstatz5829]

If thats the case then I would definitely look into getting something like this.

(broken link removed)

Yep definitely not going to burn moist wood. Going to have to decide if the bricks or the gas boiler is more cost effective.

The house has ceiling radiant heat from a gas boiler. Which concerns me that half of my gas costs will probably go towards heating the attic.
Bricks + cordwood might be the better choice.

 

[Tar12]

Yep definitely not going to burn moist wood. Going to have to decide if the bricks or the gas boiler is more cost effective.

The house has ceiling radiant heat from a gas boiler. Which concerns me that half of my gas costs will probably go towards heating the attic.
Bricks + cordwood might be the better choice.

Your stove should be up to the task...be interesting to learn of your burn times with it this winter...

 

[mcstatz5829]

Thanks! I will definitely make a thread after I’ve had a chance to run her!

 

[Sprinter]

Yep definitely not going to burn moist wood.

Good choice. I'd bet that most of us here have gone through the same agony the first year. FWIW, what I did is get my fire going well using the best fuel I had, say, 24 or less, plus maybe some manufactured material (NOT anything with wax), then when burning good and hot with secondaries going, I would put some of the 30 percent stuff on top as long as it didn't cool the secondaries. If you can keep the secondaries aflame, you should be okay. Use whatever variation of this that works for you.

That first year will be the challenge, but you will learn a lot about how these stoves work meanwhile and that can work for you long term. Your Alderlea is similar to my Super 27. Don't get discouraged. It's a great stove once you get nice food to feed it. Kind of like my cats and my dog!

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Like so?

View attachment 228688

Lookin' good, even the dog is happy lol!

 

[Dug8498]

Yep definitely not going to burn moist wood. Going to have to decide if the bricks or the gas boiler is more cost effective.

The house has ceiling radiant heat from a gas boiler. Which concerns me that half of my gas costs will probably go towards heating the attic.
Bricks + cordwood might be the better choice.

Our house has electric ceiling radiant heat. Never knew that was even a feasible type of heat until we bought our house. Surprisingly, the heat does not rise to the floor above. In fact, the ceiling doesn’t even get hot when we turn it on; everything in the room just gets warm about 1-2 hours after we turn it on. I’m wondering if we’re getting microwaved or something. It’s a very nice heat, it’s just incredibly expensive. Not sure if yours works like ours though. We have electrical coils in the ceiling above each room.

Anyway, we exclusively ran our wood stove for the first winter. We did burn a lot of wet wood which sucked and I’ve been obsessively stockpiling since this spring. Hope you find what works for you! Would be curious to know how your radiant ceiling heat works by the way. We have it in a lot of the houses near us that we’re built in the 80’s when electricity was cheap, but they’re all electric ceiling radiant heat.

 

[blades]

ah yes electric infrared panels, they wipe a wallet clean in no time. When I was selling my house a realtor/ or prospective buyer left a pair on ( 2'x4' panels) in the basement- I did not catch it for a few days next billing cycle was quite pricy -happened in June of last year. back when those panels were installed electric was cheaper than NG - the whole house was electric back then. Changed all to NG except the built in oven ( my goodness those things are pricy now)

 

[Dug8498]

ah yes electric infrared panels, they wipe a wallet clean in no time. When I was selling my house a realtor/ or prospective buyer left a pair on ( 2'x4' panels) in the basement- I did not catch it for a few days next billing cycle was quite pricy -happened in June of last year. back when those panels were installed electric was cheaper than NG - the whole house was electric back then. Changed all to NG except the built in oven ( my goodness those things are pricy now)

Pricey mistake by the realtor! We used them a bit the first month we were there. Never again. All of the houses on our street were built with them and nobody uses them. Everyone uses the original wood stove that came with the house, or they’ve installed propane/oil/natural gas heating systems.

 

[Woody5506]

You'll be good to go in the fall, in my opinion. My first year's wood wasn't as prime as most would suggest, probably mostly around 25% or a little less. It kept me quite warm all winter, but another 5 or 10% less moisture would definitely have been ideal. I scored some 5+ year old split mixed wood that year and what a difference in burn time.

 

[EPS]

You seem to be better off than me. Very little wood in my stacks reach anywhere close to 20% moisture content. I would guess most of the wood I use is at least 40%. I can clearly see sap running out, and hear the steam hiss. This is not the ideal way to burn wood, but Its all I have. It takes me all year to cut and split enough to heat my home. I heat exclusively with wood as I don't have any electric stoves for heat. If I ran out of wood, my family would freeze. I use an older stove (non epa) It don't like wet wood, but it burns it. I also check and clean out my flu every couple months as there is a lot of creosote built up at times. I use pretty much whatever I can get. I have about 1/2 cord of Tulip Popular for the shoulder months when you don't need a fire all day, but enough to run the cold out of the house. The rest is Oak, Hickory, and Beech. Beech seems to dry out better than Oak, and I got lucky this year to find a couple dead hickory trees blown over last year. I hate to burn wet wood, but most of the time I have to. Sounds to me you will be just fine.

I feel like you and I have a lot in common when it comes to our firewood. Your family is lucky to have such a hardworking person taking care of them.

 

[zig]

Bio brick and pallets should be enough to keep it going IF it's too wet but it looks good. Guess I'm spoiled since that wood would be about half the price where I'm at.