I'll echo the good advice here except to add don't over think it. 20% and below is the standard on a freshly split, split. Another thing on the topic of creosote. Get yourself a good system for cleaning your stove pipe and clean it regularly. We've got a lot of pine where I live. When I first started heating with wood the veterans scared the living daylights out of me about pine. "You'll burn your house down dummy!" "Don't you know that stuff puts off creosote?" "Creosote is from the devil himself! RUUUUNNNN!" "I only burn cedar or oak in my stove!" Got to the point where I was waking up in cold sweats dreaming about my stove burning my house down. Ok a little exaggeration there (a little). The thing is when I went scrounging or wood cutting in the forest I spent all my time trying to find cedar or oak. HOURS and HOURS looking for the Holy Grail. Passing up cords of the devil pine. While I like looking for wood I've got other things to do. Well I then I decided to do some research and find out if there was really something to this. Well as it turns (and as everyone here knows) all wood puts off creosote and the way you avoid it that is dry your wood properly and clean your stove regularly. THAT'S IT? I actually like pine better than cedar now. Cedar "barks" a lot when it burns and as it turns out has a slightly lower BTU rating than the pine I burn. While I have a pretty easy setup to clean I have cleaning down to 10 minutes and I don't have to get the roof. Anywhoo happy burning!
All I know is that I know nothing- Socrates. When I first read this(and it's meaning) from Socrates it was enlightening and refreshing. It seems philosophy and wisdom are hard to find in any era. The only thing worse than a young know it all is an old know it all.
Sorry about that, you’re in the Uk Agreed. I think today’s stoves account for very dry wood very well.
Well I won’t argue about cut and split and air dried wood but kiln dried can outgas the heck out of your stove. Option is to just open the air a bit and let it go. Seem almost a waste of energy as it mostly goes up the flue if pieces that dry are put in. Almost to the point where control becomes difficult at air shutdown. Good thing it didn’t happen often for me but definitively wood being too dry would likely be from extra drying controls outside of nature. Slightly off point but the other day I tested a fresh split of white birch and this was done in much warmer weather and deeper down in the stack. I’m unaware if what higher temps affect the moisture content but let’s leave that alone. The split test was at 12.5. Wood had been through 2 summers and last time a substantial rain was quite some time ago. Im in Washington so our moisture goes back into the wood a bit via hygroscopically. Not a crazy amount but wetter months in the last part of the year can game check wood if not stored right. Suffice to say im done stacking wood with tarps, but wood being so dry from a kiln source would likely have a serious ramifications list if caution isn’t used. I’d be ok with it being rained on a bit to balance it out...
One also has to keep in mind that sometimes kiln dried wood is not as dry as most people think. We once compared some of the wood from our stacks to freshly bought kiln dried and although I don't remember the moisture readout, our wood was drier than the kiln dried.
That’s pretty interesting, most of our kiln dried wood used for building or dunnage is pine, hemlock and fir so when it’s going in the fire it’s definitely going up fast. Great for getting the fire going of course but caution if anyone wanted to start and keep a fire going with that stuff. Easily overdone. I love how I found oak dunnage. It’s hot but it’s not going up in a furious fire.
I cut down a green doug fir in april. 43% in first 12 feet or so. Today that cord is sitting at 12% fresh split/check. No way is it too dry. My lodgepole is not reading on any moisture meter mostly. My select hem/fir studs I get for building homes has a higher MC on average than all my firewood. No problems. Control the air...control the fire. Fire needs oxygen. Simple really. Having said that, I wouldn't get ballsy on a poorly setup and loose stove though.
