Gabriel82

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)

Forgot to mention: this oak will be stored outside for the next 18-19 months. Have no other choice or place... What I managed to split so far is stored next to the shed ,right near the lateral wall you see in the last picture of the shed. What is left(quite a lot...) will be stored/stacked outsids in the back wall of the shed. And wherever I can find free place. Covered with plastic sheet UV resistant and that's it... Some free space under the stack and lateral one side for some ventilation and easier drying. Will see next 18-19 months if there is any improvement! I'll try to prolonge starting to burn this oak as long as possible,mixing the allready dried wood with wood briquettes(a mix of beech+oak sawdust) but very dry stuff! It worked so far, that's why the shed is still full 😁 I know I'm cheating using hardwood briquettes ,even drier than any well seasoned firewood

@Rob_the_Sparky I agree, it should be more "airy" but I never thought about that about 10 years ago when I built it... Good thing is the temperature inside at the slightest clear sky and sun... Very hot and dry. Unbearable if the door is closed... I couldn't stay 10 minutes in there on a july day,around 11:00 AM... clear sky 😁 Problem is, around here in winter time, we sometime get blizzards with lots of snow that gets in EVERYWHERE. Even in the attic after a night of sustained winds ,heavy snow I found snow... So I built it with that "issue" in my mind. Even so ,I got snow inside it... And in 2012 winter I barely got out of the house... It was THAT much snow... It was around that time I decided a reliable energy source and heating system was needed! I lost electrical power for about 16-18 hours while outside were minus 11-16 Celcius... Was heating with natural gas central heating... Only thing that actually saved me from freezing was an old ceramic stove still present in the kitchen plus some construction wood leftover forgotten in the attic... Nobody could get out of house, electrical team service/maintenance guys couldn't be in all places at once. Even if I had this shed full of driest oak+hornbeam possible back then ,I must have shovled my way to it. Around 15 meters... Since then I keep in house about 1-2 days worth of wood for heating and in a big hall that exits straight into the public street the wood briquettes(1 europalet,960 kg) . As is the shed has hold up well all these years and the firewood is dry enough! Nothing to clean in chimney although I get up there with the brass round broom every spring/summer. Si far so good 😁 If it were up to me I'd store the firewood in a solarium using clear plastic sheet with solar panel artificial ventilation. But ,believe me, these things don't survive a normal/proper winter around here... Even the roof of a historic political prison wich is 30 meters from my shed got completely ripped off years ago... Almost demolished a few walls too in a winter night... I just got the shed door ripped off from its hinges plus some small damage to the roof of my house... I can take pictures with the destroyed ex-prison's roof if you don't believe me... It was in a rehabilitation process ,and after that winter storm it got abandoned like that... Except a solid build as you see in the shed ,nothing survives a winter or summer storm here... Was thinking if painting it all black 😎 for the 50-70 degrees Celcius temperature gains. But am worried it might burst into flames in full summer sun day...

the shed full of 1 year old wood. was even fuller, 2 meters tall stack and up to the door 😂 made me think twice: why not double the storage capacity and just fill it with oak or hornbeam?! that way the split wood will definitely stay in place for 2 years for seasoning/drying

@Steven P I didn't bothered to count rings... Hope it will stay as is/split for at least 1 year or preferably 1 year and about 6-7 months. Basically, 2 summers+ 1 winter to dry up and then into fire with it 😁 It's my first ever contact with oak ,be it by chainsaw or axe. Even acacia was more difficult to cut , by chainsaw from standing tree(have cut about 10 acacia from a friend, about 25 years old and 10-15 meters tall). Splitting that acacia freshly cut was also more difficult that this oak. Hell, I struggled more splitting that 70 year old tilia tormentosa tree wich a neighbour basically helped me load in a van and unloaded it in front of my house 😂 it was very twisty,grabby, nasty wood logs. Made me more tired in a whole day than this oak did in 3 hours! Nevermind few birch and hornbeam "log slices" forgotten in sun because I didn't had time to split them.and at night I like to sleep,not split logs... Those birch and hornbeam slices needed a 10 kg hammer plus "other steel things" to get them to split... Will not repeat that again in future... Even so, these oak slices have been sitting for two weeks until today... Last week I wasn't even in town,but in Constanta port... Yes it can be split by one hand but my axe weighs around 10-15 kgs... I'm out to split as many and as easy logs I can with as little effort . If I had 5 cubic meters of hardwood split and stacked allready , I would try to fool around too. But I'm running out of time, next week might rain, and I'll be away again for some time too... So it all must be split quick and now! Saw some condensation drops under the plastic sheet when I got home. And nobody touched the 5x6 meters plastic sheet covering the logs... Except some curios cat from neighbours... But this wood is THAT wet and freshly cut... Even with the dry climate and hot summers around here, I doubt it will dry good enough in 1 year! Although I had in one year some birch that fresh and wet that water will gather around the axe when stuck in some big log slice... It dried up well enough in 1 year. But it was birch not oak... Good thing I didn't told the man delivering me the wood logs "yeah ,bring me a truck full of hornbeam logs,no rotten pieces please!"... Those things don't want to split easy at all... But are good for cold winter nights! And leave little ash too. Will see how this oak burns. If not good as hornbeam, I'll have to switch back to big hornbeam logs... With all the downsides and work included 🤔 🙄 even the chainsaw burns about 1 liter more gasoline when cutting about same 4-4,5 cubic meters of hornbeam... These oak logs took exactly 3 liters to cut/slice. First time cutting hornbeam I thought the chainsaw had broken 😂 but it didn't... Just drinks up more gasoline...

@sime42 yes ,it smells weird. maybe it is oak. it was easy to split. decided to call it a day. 3-4 hours of continous splitting wood is the limit for me. there are new days to come for sure. Unless Putin throws a few nukes around here 🙄 I want a hot shower and a warm sleep in my comfy bed (1-2 hours at least). I"ll carry/arrange in stacks what I split today and cover the wood with plastic sheet ,just as much to stop most of the rain. forgot to take a photo of the shed full of dry wood(1 year and counting 😂 ) but I'll be in there or around it tommorow! one last photo

oh boy, I "switched into high gear" and now the yard is a mess 😂 this oak is either too soft or I'm too fit ,plus the axe is too much of a steel beast. I thought it would be a nightmare to split but so far it's more like one hit one split. Is this really oak?! or what is going on here? can anyone with more experience tell me from pictures if these logs are indeed oak? It's my first time "around oak" and so far is easier to prepare than hornbeam or birch that had sit too much in the sun while still beeing a slice if a log.(dried up). if weather is good I'll have it all 4 cubic meters split and arranged in the yard ready for the hellish hot sunny romanian summer(35-40 degrees celcius...).

after some busy time ,I managed to find a day to "try" to split this oak. so far is easy for me. feels more like birch. but softer than hornbeam. I'll try to split it fast before any hint of drying up. as for seasoning... only time will have the answer to that! cheers

I got the 4-4,5 cubic meters of oak today around 12:00. Driver unloaded in front of my house and from there is my job to slice the logs in manageable pieces and carry them inside the yard.Since its a narrow property I had to wheelbarrow 1-2 slices because this thing /OAK is heavy,kind of like hornbeam.And hard to cut. But it's done ,cleaning the public domain in front of my house included. As for seasoning I'll split the whole lot in about 1 month. The split oak will stay in the open covered barely with a transparent plastic sheet ,just to keep the rain off(if ANY...) I'll post more but now it's about 23:00 around here in Romania. I'm so tired but still tommorow morning I have to wake up around 4:30-5:00 AM.So if you all will excuse me I'll go sleep for few hours and I promise I will chat more in week-end(saturday, sunday). As is romanian are obliged by unwritten rules to work almost non stop. So good night, cheers and thank you all for answers!

@openspaceman No, not close the lid when fire is still burning. After it's all done, of course. I start with dry small birch, add some hornbeam, let it develop a good thick coals then continue with wood briquettes that burn hot and relatively fast. After all is done burning ,I pull what's left on the cast iron grate so the draft can go through it(those blue flames are there because of this) ,and just empty everything from the burning chamber and the ash chamber(2 separate things). While I take that semicoals stuff out in a steel bucket ,I air out the room (5 minutes) and then close the connection between main chimney and stove. Since draft is powerfull all the time there is no chance of CO to remain in the room. The result is a warm to hot stove(around the top and main burning chamber is hotter). Next 1-2 hours after the chimney connection is closed the whole stove gets even hotter uniformly everywhere ,even the corners. Stays like this for 10 hours or more! I couldn't find a decent experienced man/builder at the moment this ceramic tile stove was built, but I wanted a russian type masonry refractory stove. Money for work or materials was not an issue 10-11 years ago ,when this stove was built. Until then whole house was heated with natural gas central heating. Still is in place but new radiator and a new Motan KPlus 24 installed about 5 years ago. Wich hasn't been used for heating at all, only instant hot water. But heating with dry birch ,hornbeam is much cheaper (about half compared to natural gas for a whole heating season) and by God a lot hotter in house... Like underwear environment when outside is minus 5-10 Celcius... Not even a match or close compared to gas central heating... To heat the house like that with natural gas I think I would have to pay 3 times more than with dry wood... And it's an insulated house with 10 cm insulation... With good windows 3 layers of glass, etc... Can't complain or say a bad word about heating with wood 😁 Next best thing to try would be coal, think I still have a 20kg bag of coals somewhere in the shed... Read this for more info on masonry stoves ,of course if you're interested 😁 Tiled Stove Renovation: Revival of the Masonry Heater | Vitcas SHOP.VITCAS.COM

@sime42 looks more or less 1 cubic meter . If it is 1 m3 oak you paid half what it costs even here in Romania 😁 No splitting or stacking included 🙄

@openspaceman there you go: you allready got half of a traditional ceramic tile stove! 😁 All you need now is an experienced guy ,mud,sand,ceramic tiles,refractory bricks(thin ones) and some steel wires( 3-4 mm thick ). Jokes aside, it's cold in there... P.s. now that I think well ,if you can plug/put a lid on that chimney after the burning ends ,you could keep it warm for longer since no convection air gets moved around it anymore!

A cast iron stove burning wood doesn't has long burn times. From what I know. And generates intense heat for some time then you have to refuel it before you get cold... I don't need that. Constant gentle warm temperatures are for me! "Regulations/regulated"?! God damn it if I will ever bow to uk laws. In Romania if you own the house you can do whatever you want in it. Unless we're talking electricity or natural gas pipe line, anything is do-able. Unless you burn the house down with you inside it or blow it up "unexpectadly" nobody will EVER get in your house to check a thing. And we romanians are No.1 in Europe at house ownership. Few pay rent. I don't know anyone paying rent... Of course dry hard wood (or ANY dry wood) is best and cheap fuel. At least around here. I would gladly use bituminous coal or anthracite but regardless how I look at prices ,dry wood bought in logs is the cheapest. And I have tried coal briquettes, coal raw bituminous ,even got coal from Ukraine(the good HIGH heat stuff). Compared to very dried wood is not much difference and from my point of view not worth the hassle. That's why I'm here: after a lot of birch ,hornbeam and anything lower in kwh than that, I decided to try some oak dried for at least one spring/summer/ and one winter. Maybe even two sprin/summers. Might extend that if I buy some more birch wood briquettes, to burn first mixed with whatever dry wood I have. From my view UK is full of regulations, rules,laws, etc that seriously restrict your rights, lower your quality if life to the point you just hop in your car and get a hell out to a country that lets you LIVE too, besides imposing "rules". It's the same in almost all western europe from what I've experienced and heard from friends. Highly debatable subject wich I won't get into. But here in Romania if you own the house you can build a ceramic tile stove of ANY size and unless you don't burn heavy oil fuel like in ocean ships(black sooty smoke) or plastics, nobody will tell you anything. This is when you own a house IN a town. In the country side ,you can do whatever you want. The ONLY "problem" might be your closest neighbour. If you have good relations with him/them you're free like a bird in Antarctica 😁 😎 Hell, you can do very illegal stuff in the country side/ villages and unless you bother anyone or get turned in to authorities ,nobody will bother you with a word! Uk for me was a shock. Weather, rules/laws, discrimination because I'm romanian,etc... Now with Brexit all those white women with kids are probably a lot happier not seeing us romanians(damn license plates always gave us away) and give ugly looks to whoever is left there 🙄 P.S. I just remembered a "chat" with some old german dudes in a parking area while I was waiting for two friends ,and I was sharing 50/50% my food with some pigeons: they first told me something in german, I don't speak that hellish language besides "nicht sprachen sie deutch", then he told me in english that if I keep feeding the pigeons I will get turned in to cops(by him probably) and fined with 6000 euros for feeding pigeons!!! I thought it's a joke, where's the hidden camera, what is this?! Turns out it is a law adressing THIS "issue" ,found out from the cop in person. He understood me/us ,after all we're "romanian savages" , I talked VERY politely since I was in Nurnberg for first time heading to HOME/Romania. And I planned to get home, without fines, after I picked those friends too. Shocking experience...

@openspaceman it's the same exact principle like in the stove I showed in photo but using ceramic bricks with much bigger thermal mass. They need longer burn times 5-6 hours but will stay hott-warm much longer 20-24 hours! Good for very cold zones or constant burn times(light it in begining of winter shut it down in spring). Logical move if outside is always cold under 0 celcius most of time! And more efficient since keeping that big mass of bricks/masonry hot is easier than heating up from cold(say 10 celcius) to 70 degrees celcius!

@Stere masonry/ceramic tile stove give up their heat as if you were staying in the sun,that's why is called "radiant heat", the hot mass of ceramic, masonry or ceramic bricks(as in russian stoves) will heat your body by infrared radiation. You can experience this in a thermal treatment plant when big loads of steel 7-8 tons get heated to 800-900 Celcius and get moved in air or polymer bath. There's one around here. You can feel the radiant heat from 10 meters away on your skin but it's an extreme example since we're talking about 7-8tons of steel at 800-900 degrees celcius. A ceramic tile stove work on same principle but lower temperature. Russian brick stoves have even bigger mass thus work at even lower temperature. Store energy released by chemical oxidation of carbon molecules in wood and release it slowly by infrared radiation. Same natural principle you see in nature when rocks get hot in day time then all night they release radiant heat. Metal stoves heat up air around by convection. Not very efficient. Open the door hot air is out ,you're left in cold... Not the case with ceramic tile stove. I can open windows doors while it's minus 10 celcius outside keep them so for 5 minutes, close them and in 20 minutes temperature is back to warm in that room if the stove is hot! Just for that I love these stoves!