Burning unseasoned Wood

highrisklowreturn

How much coal then in kg would a 5kw get through say over 14hrs?

hethmar

We are in the trade too and we do burn ash after 6 months. (this is ash which has been chopped up, not just left in a trunk) We have some oak in the open sheds (NEVER enclose the wood) which we have had out there, chopped up for 2 years and OH still wont use it.

You can buy a damp meter for wood, quite cheaply on ebay. If you burn wet wood it will only give a miserable smouldering heat and you will end up smelling smoke all over the house.

As mucky has said, in one case, OH went out to a job where they had been burning willow for 4 weeks and had managed to totally block the top section of flueway - in fact he took a photo of it for a trade magazine, as he could just stand a biro in the tar at the top.

As mucky also says, this stuff cannot be brushed away, the brushes just go past the shiny hardened residue and its waiting to catch light and send the chimney up, possibly causing real structural damage to your house. (and burning unseasoned wood would nullify any guarantee for your stove/liner)

hethmar

highrisklowreturn wrote: »

I also think if you shave the bark off wood before doing this your results jump massively as the bark holds the moisture in tight and reduces surface exposure by the wood to the oven heat.

My goodness, you will be spending a lot of time doing this wont you? If you havent got a big garden/area to keep the wood for a year or more in the open, then I would think a wood burner would not be the best form of heating for you.

Have you worked out how much using the oven to dry the wood will cost?

highrisklowreturn

hethmar wrote: »

My goodness, you will be spending a lot of time doing this wont you? If you havent got a big garden/area to keep the wood for a year or more in the open, then I would think a wood burner would not be the best form of heating for you.

Don't talk crap, have a standard back yard, I could easily pack a huge amount of logs against the back wall and stick a lay-to over it.

You people make this out like it's some exclusive club. Ultimately if I'm taking wood down in say April next year and oven drying the wood, 5 logs at a time, I'll be able to dry around 15 logs per week, or say 60 a month, over 6 months. Not bad eh? And that's without paying for someone to do all this for me and talk sh 1t about "2 year drying processes." I've got a moisture metre and I've dried ash in an oven in 4 hours, yet you're on here talking balls about 6 month drying times.

Mojisola

highrisklowreturn wrote: »

Am looking to get a woodburner and the wood I could get is free, but unseasoned. I've nowhere to store it so cannot season it personally but am attracted to getting a woodburner because of free heat.

highrisklowreturn wrote: »

Don't talk crap, have a standard back yard, I could easily pack a huge amount of logs against the back wall and stick a lay-to over it.

A bit inconsistant.

mysterons

No good cutting down in April, you need to cut in Jan/Feb when the tree is dormant. In April sap will be rising and so the wood remains wet for many months.
Ash cut in Jan will be perfect to burn come Oct.

highrisklowreturn

Thanks for the advice....

New question:

Say one had a stove only, 5kw, and was relying it on to heat one room, say 3 x 6.5 x 2.5m, throughout October-April, how many bags of coal would one get through if only burning coal for six hours a day on average?

muckybutt

Our old stove was 7kw which heated a room 4m x 4m, a 20kg bag of coal would normally last us a good 4 -5 days. Depends how you burn it as well though - have it on full and you could probably burn through it all in a couple of days.

highrisklowreturn

Burning all day or evenings just?

muckybutt

5 - 6 hrs a use a day