wood age before burning?

[chirpy]

I had a chestnut tree cut down which appeared to be dying in febuary.

Will the wood be dry enough to use in my stove this year in october??

[gosub]

You may get some more info HERE

[Clair]

Doubtful.

The wood we burn is 2 to 3 years old at least.

http://www.nef.org.uk/logpile/woodfuel/buyingwood.htm

http://www.woodburnerwarehouse.co.uk/useful_information/what_fuel_is_best.phtml

[BIG MAC]

I insist all trees I burn are at least 16yrs old and have had a good life..............

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course I dont!

[Clair]

well, ours is dried for 2 to 3 years... [:D]

[tinabee]

[quote user="Ab"]

Will the wood be dry enough to use in my stove this year in october??

[/quote]

I would recommend having a look at the instructions that came with your stove - they usually say how dry the wood needs to be, if you use wood that is too green you can cause damage. I would agree with the previous poster that 2 - 3 years is needed.

 

[Matt]

Am I right in thinking that Chestnut can be treated like Ash and be burnt green? If that is correct, be careful as green Ash burns extremely hot.

[Clair]

[quote user="Matt "]Am I right in thinking that Chestnut can be treated like Ash and be burnt green? If that is correct, be careful as green Ash burns extremely hot.[/quote]

from the website quoted above:

"Chestnut: A mediocre fuel that produces a small flame and weak heat output. It also shoots out ambers."

"Some species like spruce and horse chestnut spit badly making them a hazard in an open fire."

From http://www.aie.org.uk/aie_data/aie_firewood.html

Horse Chestnut

Aesculus

A low quality firewood.   Grade: 2

Sweet Chestnut

Castanea

Burns  when seasoned but spits continuously and excessively. Not for use on an open fire and make sure wood-burning stoves have a good door catch!   Grade: 1-2

[friend of stouby]

 

Have just been reading about someone in the UK who dries his felled firewood inside a polytunnel which is open at both ends, he stands the logs on pallets and estimates that 2 years worth of outdoor drying takes around 6 weeks to bring the moisture content down to 15% !

We burn our logs when they reach 15%. however long they are stored for. We buy ready cut oak and hornbeam from a couple of differing sources and although properly dried and stored outdoors do arrive with differing moisture content, so with a little forward planning we always have enough to wait until the new batch(es) reach 15%.

 

 

[AnOther]

And you measure 15% by.........................?

[friend of stouby]

 

... with a moisture meter or damp detector you can find at many tool stores or sometimes bricos. Here's a simple one from Screwfix   http://www.screwfix.com/search.do;jsessionid=GUUTS24QZMBFOCSTHZOSFFQ?_dyncharset=UTF-8&fh_search=moisture+meter&x=9&y=7

Hope that helps Ernie

 

[AnOther]

Yes thanks.

Will be starting off with our new wood burner this winter so a lot to learn [blink]

[Gardian]

[quote user="friend of stouby"]We burn our logs when they reach 15%. [/quote]

No sophisticated measures like that down here.  When the Oak logs (cut in the Spring) have had a Summers-worth of 30C+, then they're ready to burn come Oct / Nov.  

[friend of stouby]

 

"No sophisticated measures like that down here.  When the Oak logs (cut in the Spring) have had a Summers-worth of 30C+, then they're ready to burn come Oct / Nov."

... sounds more like kiln dried !

[hoverfrog]

we cut down a large sweet chestnut last spring. The wood was outside for a couple of months then under cover. It was definitely not ready to burn last winter (but we had to burn some as we ran out of older stuff!)

Here in the Limousin they reckon 2-3 years - preferably 3.

The oak I cut in February is destined for next winter but one...