Burning wet logs / woods

[spader]

I have piles of wood logs in the garden, but they are soaked in the rain water.
I gathered them, and put them in the bins to dry them out.
My plan is to open the bin lids when it is dry and sunny during the days, and close the covers when it rains and nights.

My question is, would it be possible to burn wet logs / woods in wood burning stoves or even in the open fire?
I was thinking that in the field and hills most of the woods and logs are socked in rain at this time of the year especially in UK.

Trying to burn wet logs or woods would be very difficult if not impossible, and it would be very smokey.
So how do they burn wet woods or logs if that is all that available in the fields and hills when bushcrafting?

My wet piles of logs and woods are drying now, but the process seem very slow. A few days past, and they still look wet, and maybe it would be spring time when they are fully dry. But will try to burn them in next 2-3 weeks just to see how they burn in the wood stove.

 

[punkrockcaveman]

You might be able to burn them, but they won't kick out anywhere near as much heat, you'll have to use high airflow to keep them going (which will burn through them much quicker) and they will soot everything up very quickly.

What about filling the bins then placing them on there side with the lids off. With a closed lid the wood is more likely to rot and lose calorific content. Airflow is key for drying logs. If you can get hold of a pallet, chuck the split logs on it then loosely cover with a tarp and rope.

BTW my logs get 2 years under cover with lots of airflow the difference between 1 and 2 years of seasoning is very noticeable, it's more about the moisture content in the centre of the log at that stage.

 

[MikeeMiracle]

Once you have enough heat into a open fire it will burn wet wood though it would produce a fair amount of smoke so you need dry wood to get the heat up first. You can split wet wood to get to the inner wood which should be dry if it's not too thin and if no dry wood is available.

A good tip is to place the wet wood close to the fire to help dry it out and pre-heat it as cold wood is hard / harder to light. I hear of the same trick being performed with home wood stoves if your wood pile lives outside, bring in the cold wood from outside and lay it next to the stove to pre-heat it before it goes into the stove, cold wood will just suck heat out of the fire / stove if you put it in while cold.

 

[Dogoak]

Ideally they need ventilation all round.
Depending on the space you have, a quick and fairly cheap solution is to get some used rylock fencing. Make a container shape out of the rylock and secure the ends together. Chuck the logs inside, don’t stack neatly as your trying to get the air to circulate, and then cover, use something that covers the top with a large overhang all round.

Always difficult to dry stuff this time of the year due to the amount of moisture in the air.
Besides the lack of heat output with damp wood it will also create a lot of build up in the flue.

 

[British Red]

Our primary heat source for heating the cottage and cooking is wood



We cut split and stack a lot of wood... currently sitting at around 60 cubic metres. We've been doing this for a long time.

I have to echo the advice given. Cut it, split it, stack it off the ground so the air gets through and then cover it. It will burn much better next year and better still the year after. The only shortcut is a kiln to dry the wood. Otherwise its going to be useless this year

Red

 

[Robson Valley]

Any loose waterproof cover for 24/7 will allow good ventilation for drying. Wood carvers estimate that wood dries 1" thickness per year (outdoors under cover and not cooked in a shed.)

You have a tall problem trying to dry your wood. Never close it in.

To make matters worse, no other common liquid on earth needs as much energy to evaporate as water does. That's why hypothermia is such a shock = your body cannot keep up.
540 calories per gram, in fact. Out of a log or out of your skin, no difference except the times change.

 

[spader]

Our primary heat source for heating the cottage and cooking is wood

View attachment 77092

We cut split and stack a lot of wood... currently sitting at around 60 cubic metres. We've been doing this for a long time.

View attachment 77093I have to echo the advice given. Cut it, split it, stack it off the ground so the air gets through and then cover it. It will burn much better next year and better still the year after. The only shortcut is a kiln to dry the wood. Otherwise its going to be useless this yearView attachment 77094

Red

Great set up for the cozy fireplace. Very classy too.
And tonnes of firewoods well equipped supply. Impressive. Thanks for sharing the lovely photos.

 

[spader]

It seems raining every other day here recently, and everything is wet in the garden.
Maybe I will have to look into making a firewood drying hut - with a few wooden poles and corrugated plastic sheets for the roof.

But if the fire is burning very hot in the stove, and a bit damp woods and logs are placed next to it, then it might speed dry them for burning. It sounds workable.

 

[British Red]

It seems raining every other day here recently, and everything is wet in the garden.
Maybe I will have to look into making a firewood drying hut - with a few wooden poles and corrugated plastic sheets for the roof.

But if the fire is burning very hot in the stove, and a bit damp woods and logs are placed next to it, then it might speed dry them for burning. It sounds workable.

Easiest way is to get an old pallet and stack cut logs on top (they absorb most moisture from the ground). Cover with anything - split feed sacks, compost bags, tarpaulin, plywood - whatever is to hand. If you surround the pallet with wire fencing you can just toss logs in - but you have to have offcuts of stock fence or chicken wire!

 

[Robson Valley]

You don't need a "firewood drying hut." Just some sort of waterproof tarp tired down over the pile. Standing dead wood is as dry as you will find it, provided you can take it. Even at your campsite, gotta cover the wood for heat/light/cooking.
Splitting helps to increase the surface area for water loss.

Wet wood will heat up to +100C and the wood water starts to boil off. This will cost you 540 cal/g heat energy and the fire can't get much hotter until that water is gone. Then, the wood can heat up to +273C, a common ignition temperature for many wood species.
Now you see much more efficient burns with heat for cooking.

On camping trips, my Dad used to "help" the local wood pile in the fire pit with a few squirts of kero.

 

[spader]

Thank you all for great advice and information. Much appreciated.

 

[Ystranc]

Most of the heat generated by burning wood is at the point of gasification, that heat would be spent in converting the water in the logs to steam which reduces the heat that you get from the burn due to the latent heat capacity of water before the change of state from water to steam. Steam then reduces the efficiency of your flue and will mean that you get a greater build up of creosote which in turn increases the risk of chimney fires. The best course of action is to stack the wood off the ground, in the open with a cover over it and give it time to dry (as several wise members have already said)

 

[Paul_B]

Don't forget that burning wet wood results in higher particulates. Wood burners amount for a highly significant amount via this method.

 

[spader]

It seems will take some time drying the wet woods in the bins. I guess they will be fully dry by next summer and with heatwave weather.

 

[Ystranc]

They may dry better with some breeze, as long as they’re covered from rain and off the ground they benefit from ventilation. We have built log stacks which have a roof and a back that shields logs from the prevailing weather but the other three sides are open. In some parts of Europe they simply stack logs under the eaves, against the walls of the house and rest a plank over the top to deflect rain or snow.

 

[FerlasDave]

Too much pub knowledge on this subject and conflicting advice from different researchers.

Main thing that everyone agrees on is dry wood burns better… The rest is open to interpretation.

 

[Ystranc]

Too much pub knowledge on this subject and conflicting advice from different researchers.

Main thing that everyone agrees on is dry wood burns better… The rest is open to interpretation.

Meaning?

 

[TLM]

As @Robson Valley said splitting the wood to smaller pieces lets it dry faster, quite a lot so. There is a so called water gas reaction between water vapour and glowing carbon, it splits the water molecule and oxidizes the carbon. It actually burns cleaner if particulates are the concern. It does require sufficiently high temp though.

I remember reading some old studies on burning wood and considering several parameters it ended up concluding that a moisture content of about 10% was some kind of optimum.

 

[Mesquite]

But if the fire is burning very hot in the stove, and a bit damp woods and logs are placed next to it, then it might speed dry them for burning. It sounds workable.

It might speed it up slightly however on thicker logs the outside can feel dry but the centre can still be very damp.

If you want to dry wood by your stove split it down thinner and only dry bits with no bark on them so it can dry faster

 

[FerlasDave]

Meaning?

Everyone will give you their own two pence on how they personally deal with their firewood and none of them are incorrect.