Gabriel82

got the oak in logs ,average size/diameter. I split them all in february/march ,average split 5-6 cm by 30 cm length .there's a photo a page back. stored outside in the air/sun ,covered by transparent plastic sheet. don't wanna talk $!@# about oak wood but for f...s sake in the years before this I always had beech and hornbeam logs cut and split the same time february/march and in one year they were dry as f... ready to burn. nevermind 18-20 months of dry 40 degrees celcius Romania heat summers( yes they stay for 2 summers in the air under plastic transparent sheet to dry...). All I can say ,maybe next 2025 november this oak will be dry enough good to burn... Or else it's not for me for sure... I can manage do just fine heating a ceramic tile stove with beech ,hornbeam and wood briquettes in 3-4 hours of burn time. After all that's the purpose and what I've been doing for years(many have done this for decades here in Romania). The only new thing in this are the wood briquettes wich them alone can heat the ceramic tile stove in 3-4 hours ,with some wood(ANY type) thrown in there just to have a good fire maintained). I just got oak because the guy that sells me firewood can bring me at home ANY type of hardwood in logs freshly cut. So far hornbeam was amazing in dry time or how it maintained in time while im storage or how much heat it released and burn time in the stove. Beech burns faster but still heats up the stove just the same as other wood mentioned or briquettes. bottom line : if in november 2025 this split oak doesn't perform as beech or hornbeam (nevermind wood briquettes that are drier than anything and readily available by 40 ton truck if I need them) ,I see no reason to mess around with oak. Not for me!

update 2 december 2024 tried to burn a whole bucket of oak that "looked" dry. not even close to the heating power of even wood briquettes... or birch... after the usual 3-4 hours of burn time the ceramic tile stove wasn't half hot as I was expecting... makes me wonder if this wood will be good to burn in about 1 year from now... I know for sure the tree was green when cut ,+/- a week until it got to me! tricky firewood for sure!

a screenshot of temperatures in july, and another heatwave is coming ,36 celcius in shade... hot august too...

Well,hello everyone.update from july-august ; things are hot,unbearable hot around here... All summer so far has been at 35-40 celcius with 30-40 percent humidity in air... Didn't took a picture yet,but bigger split oak chunks are starting to develop small visible cracks at some ends... And they will still sit for another 14-15 months starting now... If the damn thing/oak is not VERY dry 15 months from now ( another summer like this in the open in full sun aired up and under transparent plastic sheet) then I'm willing to switch to No.2 fuel oil heating and forget about any wood 😁🙄

24 march and even at 17:24 there were still about 16-17 degrees Celcius and 62% relative humidity in the air... I am curios what july and august months will be like this year... 🤔 no doubt the seasoning will be ok in 17-18 months from now if the weather keeps it up like this... And at noon I was sweating in sun today if no wind was blowing...

@Peasgood Probably. I never seen wood briquettes doing that. Romania is not Uk 😁 But if that would happen or have to season wood for 3-4 years and still be damp, I would surely quit burning wood or briquettes. Natural gas, LPG or heating oil are the obvious logical choice in a permanently humid climate! I actually was looking for an oil stove to buy and "study" beeing a curios "bloke" by nature! But the weight of these things alone is discouraging.. I would surely not be able to even move one by myself.. Nestor Martin Efel and Deville Cléo C09424 are nice. Although Deville stopped manufacturing oil stoves some years ago.

@Stere I never burned oak logs. So , despite a shed full of birch and hornbeam ,I need an "insurance" if next winter is a classical one with prolonged cold and lots of snow! Nevermind prices for anything flamable that have varied wildly since these russians invaded our neighbour,Ukraine. You may be right, I will tell you for sure in a few months (18 or more 😁 ). As of today I finally finnished for good stacking this load of oak. As for kindling, I use softwood and some diesel fuel. In a full heating season I use about 20 liters. Now I'm still looking at a 20 liter steel canister full to the brim with diesel and about 15 liters "spread out" in 2-2,5 liters plastic bottles! As usual hydrocarbons make life easier for us humans! 😎

@Peasgood Probably. I never experienced it. They sit in a dry hallway,maybe I'll leave it all 960kg just there as in photo... Was thinking of carry all or at least half in the attic where in summer is constantly 45 degrees Celcius or more. But in this area there are also earthquakes, so is risky... Despite a house of steel reinforced concrete... I often get woken by a shaky bed at night if there's an earthquake bigger than 5 Richter 😂🙄 960kg over my head doesn't sound good to me 😁 They do expand while burning in the stove. First time I used these type(before these ,I got only RUF ones), one expanded that much that almost fell out of the stove when I checked the fire... RUF type don't do this. Since then I break them in 2-3 pieces as the manufacturer says... They burn faster than wood logs but it doesn't matter, the stove heats up the same. If I put too many at a time, the main fire box area heats faster but after some time it all evens out! At most a complete cold to hot burn lasts 3-4 hours! And stays hot 10-12 hours. Only problem I experienced is with coal briquettes(not even anthracite...) ,they glow and last a lot longer than any dry wood I ever had and burned. Just sit there on the cast iron grate almost in the same shape I threw them in with glowing red cherry hot while full fresh air goes through them... I think after about 5 hours they start to become smaller. They give off a lot of heat while doing this ,and only after 6-7 hours they gradually "lose power". Good for a whole night of burning if you ask me. Only thing to be carefull is the amount you throw in and how much fresh air they get... I destroyed many cast iron grates because of coal briquettes and air forgotten wide open... They warp until they break in few smaller pieces... 🙄 🤔 This high power density and safe storage made me think twice before buying... I still have a sack of coal briquettes stored somewhere... Wood briquettes don't do this. They're a lot more civilized 😁

Meanwhile... I filled up the entrance/hallway with 1 pallet/960kg of wood briquettes... not sure where they will get stored long term, but for now I'm ready for the next winter 😁 😎 Almost... was thinking about some coal briquettes too ,but I'll have to find a safe place for those ,if I decide to get some of those too... highly dangerous if ever gets on fire by chance...

almost there... 😂🤔 didn't look carefully under the plastic sheet and bench... forgot about a few "slices" to split... but whatever I did split found its way somewhere in the yard 🥳 don't know WHERE I'll store the rest of this oak but hope dies last 😂

@5thelement For fencing steel poles dipped in molten zinc/aluminium alloy are ideal. Or concrete fencing 😎 Built it once and well. But I'm happy about chopping every wood "stuff" available and turning that into briquettes or pellets. They burn just as good as seasoned wood. Hell, around here in Romania we get wood briquettes with just 8 to 10 % humidity for about 300 euros 1 ton. Plus no chainsaw or axe needed. Just start the fire with some dry small left overs from a wood timber factory, then add these wood briquettes! Same "effect" ,hot ceramic tile stove for about 10-12 hours. 😁👍 P.s. I've finnished splitting the oak. Yesterday got the wood/timber needed for the "storing rack" ,with some effort I'll clear up the yard "a bit"... Wood wood everywhere 🙄

@Stere I'm a bit confused about the name of these trees... Maybe I'll find them by latin name. This black locust seems to be some acacia type of tree... There's a hilly mountain area 30-40 km long ,where I cycle sundays and last I remember it's full of flowers like the black locust has! One thing is for sure: in hilly mountaineous area here ,where young people left for western europe and old people died, it's full of acacia trees. Grows very fast and nobody touches them(lately people got in jail because of theft from secular forests). So now you think twice about cutting anything... Acacia is used here as live fence too. And goats love them leaves 😁 I have a wood supplier for firewood and a supplier for construction wood products. It's 1,2km from me. I just call her(a very nice lady that also drives forestry trucks) ,tell her what I want and next day or whenever has the requested 4x4 or wood lumber ,I get it home! It's a trust thing, been buying from her since 2008 ,couldn't be more happy 😁 I'll have the wood for the storing "rack" monday , will be keep spliting oak until then. Building it should be easy ,I'll post some pictures when I'm done. So far I'm happy it splits easy and not like hornbeam... What is sweet chesnut coppice?!

@Rob_the_Sparky yes, I find winter in UK very confusing. It's more like autumn in Romania. Nice to not freeze up but so damp... This is one reason I didn't liked UK ,besides others more important... Maybe diesel/ heating oil stove is more suited for heating in UK?! Or coal stoves... Although I have no clue what prices are now in UK for heating oil/diesel or coal... Compared to firewood...

@Rob_the_Sparky yes, around here is either too cold(minus 15-20 Celcius+blizzards/snow) or too hot(35-40 celcius) with weeks/months of no rain... Last I remember was 3 months of no rain but full sun clear sky and 38-40 celcius in the shade 😂🙄🤔 hard to believe everything won't dry up fast... Oak included 😁 Only way I see it, the ideal firewood shed must be built like this: 1.Clear walls and roof but able to stand up in summer or winter storms. 2.Ventilators blowing air non stop underneath the wood stacks.(hot air rises so with a little help so will humidity/water). One fan smaller in size ,to evacuate air from inside in the upper side of the shed(on the side to be protected from rain). 3. Solar powered heating elements under the wood stacks running non-stop. Risk of setting the whole shed+firewood on fire is high. But I'm willing to bet my life ,after 12 months of this kind of "seasoning+shed" the firewood will be like out of the gas oven 😁 Especially here in Romania ,where I wouldn't force anyone to stay in the sun for more than 1 hour without water(not even my worse enemy 😁 ) . Except if you're at Vama Veche beach ,Black Sea resort and your behind is in water(risky stuff these days with some ukrainian mines reaching Constanta shore and exploding in full summer season...). But anyway: a firewood seasoning shed must be designed well and built carefully. Benefits are kiln like dried wood. If you really want or need such dry firewood. I think I'll have to build some things like these to store the rest of firewood(A LOT) since today I ran out of space to store it... Near the shed... And I"m not even done splitting all the log slices... 🤕

@Alycidon I have only recently got oak logs for firewood. So little knowledge there. But for years I have been burning hornbeam and wood briquettes. I can confirm both heat up almost as fast the ceramic tile stove. But hornbeam lasts longer inside the stove. The wood briquettes have a label saying they have around 15% humidity and 5 kwh per kg. They are made using a mix of beech and oak wood dust from wood manufacturing factories. Hornbeam or oak firewood with a humidity percentage of at most 15% in them(so at least 1-2 years of drying time) will most likely have about 4 to 5 kwh of energy in them per kg. As usual,it's all about the humidity percentage at the moment of burning. The drier the wood the better. But I will be honest ,there's nothing like diesel or gasoline when it comes to energy content+ burning 😎 Maybe only anthracite, but here in Romania it's impossible to find. P.s. I love my CCCP Shmel 2 gasoline stove 😎 lots of heat from barely 700ml of gasoline(a full tank)