Tips on burning wood in a stove

highrisklowreturn

I've got a 6.4kw waterford stanley oisin, with only one bottom air vent. I've hitherto only burnt coal, with the occassional log, as I've never found great heat from logs.

However, as I'm tightening mny belt and can get wood free from various sources, like up the mountain, I'm wondering what time it should take to dry out when left beside my stove?

I left wood there on monday and checked today with the moisture reader and it read 2% at one end and 30% at another - the bark however was totally crisp.

I've taken the grate out now and almost have a layer of ash up to wear it used to be. My question is I suppose will the wood burn a lot better when in contact with the ash if it's fairly dry? My stove is a bit of a pain in that not a great number of logs can be put in at once. However between free logs and the occasional pallet I'd liked to keep a wood only operation now and see if I can run the stove that way.

muckybutt

Good luck !

First and foremost it HAS TO BE DRY, burn it wet or burn it cool and you'll have another chimney fire.

You want good hard wood ideally, burn soft wood and you'll be burning a tree every night just to try and keep warm as the stove will devour it like theres no tomorrow.

Burning temp above 300 F but keep it below 450 F, under 250 F and it will produce too much creosote and you WILL have a chimney fire.

If its too wet stick it in the oven like you used to.

Ectophile

Firewood is normally kept in a dry, ventilated, place for at least a year before it's ready to burn. Two years is better, and some heavier woods, such as oak, may be difficult to burn after only one year.

The moisture content should be around 20% maximum throughout the wood. If in doubt, split a log and check the middle.

suki1964

I burn that pesky mountain soft wood, spring and autumn and I will tell you for free, what you buy this year right now, may only just be ready for burning this time next year

Mum took from the wrong end of the stack and her stove is covered in sap

I'm now ordering for next spring. It is stacked outside, under cover with a through wind to dry it

Any less prep, then you will be throwing logs on all day and blocking your chimney with resins and soot

suisidevw

Agree, split to your desired size, make a shelter which allows the wind to whip through but also keeps the rain off. Give it at least a year, then split some wood and take a meter reading..... I'm burning between 15-19percent at present, all from own seasoning

wrightk

i gave it a go the other night. was a disaster. I closed up my riddle grate and filled with about 2 inches of ash. turned the side vent off, opened the flap on the top vent. Wood would not burn with just top vent running, opened side vent and still with the riddle grate closed and ash built up the draft was still getting through the bottom and eating the logs and couldnt control the temperature, so either blazing out of control or not burning at all.

muckybutt

Practice makes perfect, alot of stoves only need minute adjustments to the air intakes. Our Charnwood only needs tweaking every now and then to get the wood burning or glowing. Riddle closed - plenty of ash - bottom vent open whilst you get the wood going - then tweak it down till the flames die but the embers still glow red hot - front airwash nearly shut but just enough to stop the glass getting smokey.

We can also control the burn with the front airwash as well.

As I say though practice practice, takes a while to master but once you are there its a doddle.

A._Badger

Mucky is right but I'd add that the burn varies from wood type to wood type and size/thickness. Sometimes a new load seems to need tweaks to a method that worked for the previous one.

Makes you understand why some people are taking to the consistency of wood briquettes!

Ectophile

A._Badger wrote: »

Mucky is right but I'd add that the burn varies from wood type to wood type and size/thickness. Sometimes a new load seems to need tweaks to a method that worked for the previous one.

Makes you understand why some people are taking to the consistency of wood briquettes!

I haven't always found them that easy to control. It's surprising how a lump of compressed sawdust can go from "doesn't want to burn" to "blazing out of control" in a few minutes. The ones with a glossy surface seem to the the worst for that.