Firewood - water content

[firewoodman]

I've read heaps of studies on firewood from FC , Canada and the US

 

They all say the same , all wood burns well as long as its dry [low moisture%]

 

the length of time to get to that Moisture% varies

 

and

 

wet wood is crap

 

 

I think people are trying to complicate a subject which is basicaly quite simple, with a couple of simple rules, follow them and there will be very little problems.

 

well said my man

 

i burn wet wood in my stove when it is kicking out some fierce heat to help cool it down a bit, otherwise we have to leave the room and thats when the dampers are closed too

[Nick B]

Thanks for that Firewoodman

I will keep all the Lime & get it split to dy it out quicker

[Highland Forestry]

Can anyone explain to me why green ash burns so well?

I know it's a brittle wood when cutting.. and so the moisture content must be quite naturally low, but I've got some ash on the fire tonight that is just in the round, not split and was only cut on Friday afternoon..

 

It burns a treat!! Never burned ash before, will be singling out as many ash trees as possible from now on!!

[log supplier]

because ash has the lowest water content of wood 39 percent green/18percent brown

[firewoodman]

because ash has the lowest water content of wood 39 percent green/18percent brown

 

actually it is not.

 

the ash is of the same genus as the olive tree and both contain oil within the wood which helps the wood to burn.

 

same principal as resin within conifers

 

if you put another species of wood with a moisture content similar to fresh ash (which can be higher than 39% by the way) there will be a noticeable difference in burn

[woodrascal]

Over the years I've burnt many cubes of ash. It burns great when dry but burns like wet wood when wet. It'll knacker up your flue system as well, if you burn it green, whatever anyone tells you. Wet wood is wet wood wether it's ash or not. You wouldn't advise people to burn birch with 39% MC, would you?

 

Give me virtually any type of DRY firewood rather than wet ash.

[log supplier]

Over the years I've burnt many cubes of ash. It burns great when dry but burns like wet wood when wet. It'll knacker up your flue system as well, if you burn it green, whatever anyone tells you. Wet wood is wet wood wether it's ash or not. You wouldn't advise people to burn birch with 39% MC, would you?

 

Give me virtually any type of DRY firewood rather than wet ash.

 

i burn green ash and mine burns a treat

(doubt theres any difference between my ash and yours?)

plus my flues ok

[firewoodman]

have a customer who only uses me now for his f/wood (dry) as was sold wet ash on 2 previous occasions by a.n.other and suffered a serious chimney fire.

[log supplier]

have a customer who only uses me now for his f/wood (dry) as was sold wet ash on 2 previous occasions by a.n.other and suffered a serious chimney fire.

 

 

but what had he burnt before using the ash???? wet birch-wet pine-wet conifer? doubt it was the 2 loads of fresh ash that caused the chimney fire

[firewoodman]

i burn green ash and mine burns a treat

(doubt theres any difference between my ash and yours?)

plus my flues ok

 

i may beg to differ that answer.

have found that branch wood will contain a lower mc than the trunk in the winter and more water in the trunk again when the sap begins to rise.

 

also the state of health of the tree has an affect on the mc and the ease of splitting ability especially if cankered.