Moisture meters and temperature

[carbs for arbs]

Hi

 

As per the post in my other thread, I thought best to start a new thread for this rather than bury it in that one.  

 

I can't remember exactly where I read it - might have even been within this forum - but I think more than once temperature has come up as something to consider when measuring moisture content.  In fact, I'm sure I read that this can cause far more variance than wood species selection.  I've had to send the first meter I bought back as it stopped working properly.  But when I get a replacement, I'll have a play about with measuring the same log outdoors and indoors and seeing how much of a difference it makes, then report back. 

 

I the meantime though I wondered if anyone here has found that temperature makes a big difference in readings, and/or has any thoughts on whetehr logs should be measured outdoors, indoors, etc.? 

 

Cheers    

[daltontrees]

Meters don't meassure moisture content, they measure electrical conmductivity, and the display convertts this to a moisture content.

Conductivity increases with moisture content and temperature. So strictly speaking all moisture statements should be followed by "(measured at X degrees)" or should be normalised to some standard temperature.. My old Protimeter had a chart for adjusting values for temperature.

[Rough Hewn]

Hi
 
As per the post in my other thread, I thought best to start a new thread for this rather than bury it in that one.  
 
I can't remember exactly where I read it - might have even been within this forum - but I think more than once temperature has come up as something to consider when measuring moisture content.  In fact, I'm sure I read that this can cause far more variance than wood species selection.  I've had to send the first meter I bought back as it stopped working properly.  But when I get a replacement, I'll have a play about with measuring the same log outdoors and indoors and seeing how much of a difference it makes, then report back. 
 
I the meantime though I wondered if anyone here has found that temperature makes a big difference in readings, and/or has any thoughts on whetehr logs should be measured outdoors, indoors, etc.? 
 
Cheers    

How precise do you need to be?
And why?
I’ve found up to 10% mc difference in the same board.
Ie: one part is 10% other bits 14,16 and 20.
This is for your firewood I presume?
[emoji106]

[difflock]

21 minutes ago, Rough Hewn said:

How precise do you need to be?
And why?
I’ve found up to 10% mc difference in the same board.
Ie: one part is 10% other bits 14,16 and 20.
This is for your firewood I presume?

This was a significent issue when I attempted to test my meter, this despite fossicking into the firewood pile to extract a suitable regular shaped piece, that had been protected from partial(1 end in, 1 end out) exposure to the vageries of daily and diurnal humidity changes.

Being somewhat differing readings for the 2 different ends in particular.

I suppose I should have sealed it in a plastic bag in the kitchen to stabalize for both temp and surface/sub-surface humidity.

Anyway as near as I could judge my meter was reading 20% instead of 21%, insofar as I was able to measure.

So near-nuff for firewood.

And if I remember, the wee instruction booklet says ad/subtract .5deg C for every 5 Deg C below or above their normalized 20 Deg C.

Which I did.

Edited February 16, 2021 by difflock

[Vedhoggar]

13 hours ago, carbs for arbs said:

Hi

 

As per the post in my other thread, I thought best to start a new thread for this rather than bury it in that one.  

 

I can't remember exactly where I read it - might have even been within this forum - but I think more than once temperature has come up as something to consider when measuring moisture content.  In fact, I'm sure I read that this can cause far more variance than wood species selection.  I've had to send the first meter I bought back as it stopped working properly.  But when I get a replacement, I'll have a play about with measuring the same log outdoors and indoors and seeing how much of a difference it makes, then report back. 

 

I the meantime though I wondered if anyone here has found that temperature makes a big difference in readings, and/or has any thoughts on whetehr logs should be measured outdoors, indoors, etc.? 

 

Cheers    

Metres have an operational temperature and RH range, one meter we are currently using for example has an operation temperature of 0C to 40C and operation RH is 0 to 70%. It is worth noting also that precision is affected by moisture level, example one meter we have between 5 - 20% precision is +/- 2% and between 21-40% it’s +/- 1%, it’s doesn’t seem so much about whether logs should be measured indoors or outdoors but rather that the technical data for a particular device is given consideration.

 

On 29/01/2021 at 15:39, openspaceman said:

A more recent one

 

https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/124043-how-does-one-keep-logs-at-20-at-this-time-of-year/?do=findComment&comment=1856466