Longer vs shorter wood.....this will sound stupid!!

[dtabor]

OK, Dont laugh too hard, my mind may not be working this equation right....

My stove will take up to 24" wood. Before I purchased it I had already done this years wood at 16" so here goes....

NOW: I load up my stove with the 16" wood and it does its burn cycle in X hours.

NEXT TIME: If I start cutting my wood at 22" or so, I will be putting more wood physically into the stove as Im getting an extra 6" on the split but wont it basically burn down in about the same amount of time?

I guess my question is, will I actually be wasting wood by going longer. Will I get more or longer heat with the longer splits?

Maybe Im not describing well enough how my train of thought is going on this, if so, just tell me to go lay in the corner and shut up!

D

 

[Eric Johnson]

Go lay down!

More fuel = more heat, last time I checked.

There are issues with airspace in the firebox, but I don't know what they are. I spent most of my woodburning career trying to figure out how to get a little more wood in the stove so that I could sleep in on cold mornings.

 

[Henz]

YES, I thought the same thing. However, loading our splits in a N/S direction you will get hotter fires. In the E/W direction you can load those longer splits in and maybe get a longer burn time..MY stove (Olympic) will take 24" splits, but I still cut 16"..That way I have the option of loading..90% of the time, I like loading in the N/S direction. I can staill get 6-8 splits in the firebox and that will pump out heat for 10 hours for me

 

[Moose]

[quote author="Adirondackwoodburner" date="1199138113"]Y loading our splits in a N/S direction you will get hotter fires. In the E/W direction you can load those longer splits in and maybe get a longer burn time..MY stove (Olympic) will take 24" splits, but I still cut 16"..That way I have the option of loading..90% of the time,

I totally agree, I always try to make my lengths so they with fit in the E/W direction with little effort. no matter how long your fire box is.

 

[billb3]

I'd be more concerned with the amount of sawdust I'm making with the chainsaw cutting shorter lengths.

 

[homebrewz]

I thought about this too when I started burning with my VC Defiant Encore.
It may take up to 22"-24", but if you're loading from the top, you may not be able to easily cram 22" logs in there.
You might wind up loading from the front with pieces that are close to the maximum length.

Also, this might not be that significant, but how many 22" logs do you want to carry in from the wood pile at one time?
Maybe 18" to 20" logs would be a good compromise.

 

[crazy_dan]

OK so slide your wood to one side of the firebox loaded in the E/W direction and put a line of wood in the N/S direction in the space between the e/s and the side of the fire box may be helpful to decide if the longer splits are worth it or not. at the very least you should get a little more heat and time out of your burn.

 

[johnsopi]

The bigger the piece of wood is the less # of cut you have to make and the less pieces to split,less to stack
Bigger = less work because less # of pieces of wood in a cord. That's what I think, but if the tree is big you might have to cut it short to make easy work with.

 

[dtabor]

Thats what I was kind of thinking that if I did them longer, it would mean less cutting, splitting and stacking. I had a longer piece earlier in the season that I didnt think would fit in and it slid right in just fine so I measured it and it was 21 or 22". Thats what I was thinking of cutting to. I guess once spring is here and heating is over, I can cut one load at longer length and then fill up the firebox and see how it works.

Thanks for all the replies!

D

 

[eernest4]

Longer wood burns longer! Thicker wood burns longer. Longer & thicker wood burns longest.

Boy ,is this deep!

Longer & thicker wood means less cutting & less splitting.

Sometimes I throw in 2- 12 inch diameter x 30 inch long rounds, & whatever else will fit in the firebox with them, as kindling. They always give me a 12 hr fire.

That's whats nice about a 24 in x 24in door with a 34 inch deep firebox. If I run low on splits ,I just throw in rounds.