Help to estimate firewood quantity..

[AHPP]

Two summers outside and then finish inside has worked for me beautifully this year. That did involve a head height stack of logs against the hallway wall though.

Recently single again. I mentioned that.

 

 

[Andrew L]

I am going to confess, right now, that I am relatively new to this, so I will happily bow to more experienced operators: will try and upload pics of wood store tomorrow and take moisture measurements of logs of differing seasonings.

Our Scandinavian colleagues seem to be making their wood piles about now for use in the following winter,,,

I am also going to stick my neck out and suggest that maybe, those of us in southern, windier climes might be at a slight advantage?

A

[Mark lanark]

2 hours ago, Andrew L said:

I am going to confess, right now, that I am relatively new to this, so I will happily bow to more experienced operators: will try and upload pics of wood store tomorrow and take moisture measurements of logs of differing seasonings.

Our Scandinavian colleagues seem to be making their wood piles about now for use in the following winter,,,

I am also going to stick my neck out and suggest that maybe, those of us in southern, windier climes might be at a slight advantage?

A

I appreciate all the advice, I have today gone out and set up about 6x3m area of 2 pallets thick to get up off ground and will now pile the logs out on this to season, we have really high wind flow (800 above sea level) though this area so hopefully will speed up/ help season quicker. Il keep the pile covered from rain with a tarp and uncover on days when weather has to be good to help. When I get them seasoned il put them into ton bags ready to be used and then this will free up space for next logs to be piled ready. Try and keep a rolling rota going. Can anyone advise what 25m3 should look like ? I’m finding it hard to visualise how much I have/ still require. I should add I probably won’t have all the burners on constantly , more likely to be 2 at a time differing times. Also looking to install a wood gasification boiler (32kw ) in the near future so need to start planning a separate pile for that! Cheers again. 

[Steven P]

Yup, get what you think you will need, then add some more and a little bit extra or good measure is where I aim for. According to what I read 5m3 should do my house, with a single 5kw stove heatng the house. I also am on good terms with the coal man too (multi-fuel stove), which gets to my first piece of advice, know where you can go to to get more if you run out - nothing like a 6:00 trip to B&Q for overpriced logs or coal after work when it has all gone.

 

So if you are using all 4 stoves and based on my use 25m3 -might- be OK (not knowing your location, it is windy? and colder but maybe better insulated?)

 

25m3 looks like a line 25m long 1m high and 1m wide?....Noting here that if you make a bit 25m3 pile(gong with this number for now) the outside will dry nicely, the inside can stay wet - no airflow to the inside, no direct sun. I'll go 2 ways for my logs, either a stack, maybe 60cm wide (2 log lengths) along the walls, head height (I have kids, don't want it much higher), or I'll buld them a tower of logs, hollow centre (look in the log book), and a log roof, same size thickness walls, but I am not so keen to just lump them into a pile. Making a stack gives more surface area to the wind (location as well - get sun and wind?). It is a bit more work but mostly I am happy to burn wood seasoned for 8 months - so what I split now, I'll burn in the winter. Oh, split it as soon as you can.

 

Pallets on the floor are great (I also have them on the garage floor when I take the dry logs in there), if not couple of bricks and sme long logs on top to make a base off the ground. I don't bother with a tarp in the summer, I shoul get one for the winter - the summer rain wn't affect it too much, winter rain does because that is constant here, 2 or 3 dry days drys out sumer rain easy enough, and of course i am not chasing tarps ll over the place in any heavy wnd

[roys]

I store and season in pallet forms as well, one on the floor then 3 sides and a wee bracer across the front.

Use about 6 cubes a year and leave them to season for about a year. So got 6 of these forms on the go. 

[Mark lanark]

Made these up to get started, il keep adding as I get pallets and cover the tops, as I mentioned, it’s an exposed area so hopefully won’t face any issue with airflow. Hopefully season quicker then the way I had them piled in before! 

[Wonky]

The only thing I can see is a pile of logs which can have a load of empty spaces. As to which your never really know how much wood you have. 
 

if you think about it you’ve also created a baffle, so the air flow will be defused and reduced.

where as if they were stacked in a regularish way the airflow would not be as restricted and more moisture could be wicked away. And probably produce a dryer log pile a bit quicker 

 

I know that most if not all trade logs sellers couldn’t afford the man-time for this, but they have machinery to move etc. 
 

my guess is to spend a bit of time and experimenting with stacked and lose piles 

 

i,m sure everyone’s mwv thou.😉👍

[Mark lanark]

Cheers, I’d happily stack if they were more regularised sizes, but it’s arb waste I’ve acquired and the rings I got are all different thicknesses etc and don’t stack very well, very unstable. Trying to reduce the handling too but don’t want to take double the time to season just to benefit one less handling process.  Happy to try different options. 

[Gav73]

All of this is arb waste, The trick is to put the “unstable” and odd shaped bits at the back and use the more uniform pieces at the front to stabilise the stack. It doesn’t take long to do

[Andrew L]

31 minutes ago, Gav73 said:

All of this is arb waste, The trick is to put the “unstable” and odd shaped bits at the back and use the more uniform pieces at the front to stabilise the stack. It doesn’t take long to do

Very nice : looks like this lot was stacked "05/20" from chalk on log on extreme left hand bay?  I keep meaning to date mine, get distracted and then cannot remember when I got them under cover.  Chalk on log is a great idea.

A