To clarify: the oak he has from us is not green. we sometimes bring green wood right from the cut, but generally I pull shorts from my piles for him. This fall all we brought him was fresh cut Ash. I separate wood out, but I think he grabs whatever off whatever stack, less whatever he brings in on his own. I'm hoping to get the 'Boat Ash" from the Ash score we had this fall. That should set him up for a year or better. I wasn't planning on doing 100% of his wood, but 'the aircraft' retirement leaves room for improvement. High oil prices hurt this year. As he threw wood in his truck bed yesterday, rust was falling off underneath. I'm seeing another bed build in my future.
I am not trying to trouble-shoot the red oak or the low heat for anyone else's unit but here are other than moisture reasons when we get low heat output: - Weak draft and can indicate a need to clean our chimney - Too many ashes restricting air near the wood and so slowing the burn - "Clinkers" (hardened ashes) restricting air flow - The wood arrangement preventing air flow within the pile Basically, for us, if the wood is dry and does not burn hot then the air flow to the wood is not high enough...
IME BL thats been down with bark off for a few years. Noticeably denser and heavier than fresh cut green. Maybe Eric VW can chime in as i think he coined the phrase.
It must be above 20% . I wouldn't even try burning one year CSS oak unless it was some kind of emergency. The BTU's are being used to change the physical state of water and it is an endothermic reaction.
That's good stuff, but not like shagbark hickory. Yes yes it is. Yeah, you can tell when locust is petrified. I brought up a few chunks of 3 yr dried HL tonight. It's already only 5 degrees out. I've burnt petrified locust before, it's good. But I'll take 3 year dried shagbark hickory any day.
First guess is wet wood, next is air leak. But, I've experienced something similar this winter. I had a row of oak 30 ft long, 5ft tall aged 2-3 years a majority of the wood in that row was from one giant tree so it was all aged the same within a week of splitting it all. No shade until very late evening. I got to one section in the stack that would burn great but not burn as hot. I had to keep the draft door open a lot more to get it to burn at my normal chimney flue temps. Same furnace, chimney, gaskets, house....but about a 6 ft section in the middle of the row burned colder. All I could figure was one limb out of the tree was stressed different in the past or was pulling different minerals from the ground on one side. I burned it during the -10 artic blast earlier this winter. A bit of ash and hedge helped it keep the temps up.
I hope you can get him sorted out. That's a good thing you are doing! You got all the answers already, just wanted to give you an attaboy!
