two year cycle?

[lentil]

Last year was our first full winter burning and it went fairly well. Except for the tarps. It's windy where we are (a river valley) and the damn things kept blowing off and water would get trapped and we even had mold starting on some of the wood. Bah.

This year my husband, who has never done anything like this before, built two attractive and airy wood sheds that hold a little over 2.5 cords each. I'm very excited that we will have dry wood this year and won't have to muck about with tarps.

We have about 2 cords left over from last year and it is so much lighter and drier than this years wood. I would like to store two years of wood at once so we can only burn wood like this in the future.

So my question is this: how much less wood did you burn when you switched to a two (or three) year burn cycle?

We burned somewhere between 4.5 and 5 cords last year. How much can we reasonably expect to trim that if we only use older wood? The wood we bought wasn't green... but it wasn't very old either. Most of it had only been down for 9-12 months and just had one summer outside.

Thanks!

 

[bag of hammers]

I'm not sure if this is of any help, but when I tarp the top of a stack of wood, I put some old scrap plywood or chipboard or something down on the top of the splits, then tarp over that. Tarp the top only, sides open to the air. A few years back I lost a bunch of splits that went rotten under the tarps, as there was no airflow once the tarp had settled into the top of the stack under the weight of the rain / snow. I toss an ugly or 2, or a couple boulders on top of the plywood / tarp and it pretty much stays put. Shoreline of Lake Superior so we get some interesting winds here too. But it's good for drying the stacks.

Some folks leave the stacks open year round, others throw a tarp on just as the snow hits. Some have some nice woodsheds, but still leave their stacks out in the open air for a year or 2 (or more) before moving the current year's supply into the shed. I think once I get to building a decent wood shed that's the approach I'll probably take.

I know when I get the odd sizzler in the stove, I will eat up some cedar / pine etc. mixing it in with the hardwood to coax the not-so-dry splits to burn up hot. Not sure if that's a significant amount though, as my wood supply is pretty good.

 

[Jags]

Lentil - the real answer to "how much less" depends on what you were burning and the moisture content of it. There are some hard math "facts" that could be provided with additional info. Unfortunately - it was destroyed by fire.

I would hazard a guess at 5-10% less, but that is just a swag (scientificwildazzguess).

Just revel in the knowledge that you are one of the folks that gets it. Good on ya.

 

[lentil]

We had the ends of the tarps secured with rocks weights (part of the tarp, sort of, thanks to bungee cords) as I had heard some people say they did with success but it didn't work well for me. It wouldn't blow off every day or anything, but it was too often and the wood would get rained on. It was on asphalt so it wasn't too wet and it didn't rot properly... but there were a lot of pieces that were too heavy. It doesn't snow much here but the rain was causing problems. I'm sure some people make it work, but it didn't work well for us and while I got pretty good at finding the lightest pieces, the wood was too wet.

jags -- the first batch of wood we burned was only about half a cord but it had been sitting in someone's woodshed for 5 years so it was beautifully dry. It made the wet stuff feel like rocks in comparison. I think the main reason I kind of get it is that I read up a lot here before we got our stove.

Thank you for the estimate. I was hoping it would save something like 40% (which I knew was very optimistic) b/c that's how much it would need to be in order to use our porch and existing sheds. He just finished building and loading the sheds today... I don't think I'll tell him we need a third one just yet. I think he will keel over if I do.

 

[Jags]

Thank you for the estimate. I was hoping it would save something like 40% (which I knew was very optimistic)

Realistically - 40% would be very difficult to achieve. If you were burning high 20's to low 30 moisture content wood, then compared it to the ~ 18% of two or three year old wood, there would not be enough energy consumed in burning off the excess water to yield the 40% gain.

 

[lentil]

Good point.

40% does seem unrealistic but maybe we can get down to 4 cords this year. If we build one more shed than with the shed and the covered porch storage we could store two years of wood. It will still be better than last year as I won't have to wrestle with tarps, the wood will be dry, and about 40-50% of the wood we burn will be well seasoned. If we burn that first, well, maybe the wood we just bought will be acceptable by burn time. Hopefully next year we will be in even better shape.

Thanks for the help, Jags.

 

[Jags]

Thanks for the help, Jags.

No prob. More than likely you WILL use less wood your second and maybe even the third year just because of the learning curve. Add on top of that better fuel and you might just obtain your goal.

 

[bag of hammers]

Just to add - wasn't trying to suggest you did anything wrong - every situation is different - sounds like you got the right attitude and spirit to get it all dialed in. Good luck....

 

[velvetfoot]

But....maybe it'll burn easier and you'll use more wood that way. I know it shrinks, some, but I can't see why you'd be burning less wood with drier wood.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Last year was our first full winter burning and it went fairly well. Except for the tarps. It's windy where we are (a river valley) and the damn things kept blowing off and water would get trapped and we even had mold starting on some of the wood. Bah.

This year my husband, who has never done anything like this before, built two attractive and airy wood sheds that hold a little over 2.5 cords each. I'm very excited that we will have dry wood this year and won't have to muck about with tarps.

We have about 2 cords left over from last year and it is so much lighter and drier than this years wood. I would like to store two years of wood at once so we can only burn wood like this in the future.

So my question is this: how much less wood did you burn when you switched to a two (or three) year burn cycle?

We burned somewhere between 4.5 and 5 cords last year. How much can we reasonably expect to trim that if we only use older wood? The wood we bought wasn't green... but it wasn't very old either. Most of it had only been down for 9-12 months and just had one summer outside.

Thanks!

Lentil, for certain in your area having a wood shed will be like a dream come true. Yet, do not confuse the terms. When we talk about dry wood, it could mean the wood is dry although it just got rained on. That is because once the wood is dry, rain pretty much runs off the wood. Of course you have a climate much different than most on this forum so the constant rains definitely will have some effect on the actual drying or seasoning of the wood. It also will matter a lot what type of wood you have and we know you burn different wood there than most folks in the midwest or east. Anyway, when we talk about dry wood, we are talking about the interior of the log and not the exterior. In our area, we can leave a wood stack uncovered if we wish (and I do have some that way now) and when it rains, usually within 24 hours or less the exterior of the wood is dry again.

So how much less wood might you burn? As Jags stated, that is difficult to determine. A SWAG, I'd say 25% give or take.

I'll add that even with the wood shed, it would really help if you could have it outdoors in the wind for at least one summer before putting it in the shed. Yes, that does cause a bit more work but it is worth it.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

But....maybe it'll burn easier and you'll use more wood that way. I know it shrinks, some, but I can't see why you'd be burning less wood with drier wood.

Yes, it will burn better and yes, it will shrink. However, it is because it takes so much energy to get the moisture evaporated before you get usable heat. That means a lot of the heat simply goes up the chimney and is no benefit to warming your home or body. You definitely will use less wood when it is dry. I usually state that you'll get more heat from the wood when it is dry but it means the same thing.

 

[velvetfoot]

Hmmmm, interesting.
Not like I'll ever be testing the theory though.