These piles of Red Oak in my basement were cut, split and piled into the woodshed in Sept of 2017. One year later they were stacked in the basement in late Aug. of 2018. Once in there, I put the dehumidifier on beside the stacks for a few weeks until the burning season started. Once the burning starts the humidity inside drops pretty quickly. The inside humidity right now is 24%. So today I picked the biggest split I could find off the top of the pile. It was about 6" from point to point on the bark edge. It was a solid piece with full bark and no rot at all. Took it outside and split it right down the middle. It was at 16% on the MM on the inside of both splits. I do have creosote problems when I first start burning in the Fall because the moisture content is too high at that point, but once the furnace is running steady from about mid Nov. on, it sucks the moisture right out of the wood. I have no creosote now after cleaning the chimney in Nov. and still won't at the end of the heating season this Spring. The point I'm trying to make is that I've gotten the moisture content down to a perfectly acceptable level using the dehumidifier and the heated basement in a little over a year. One year outside in a covered woodshed and four months inside with heat and low inside humidity. With Red Oak. This is the first time I've actually taken a reading from the wood inside mid way through the heating season but I've been expecting a similar reading because in my experience over the years of doing this I have a creosote problem early on but it goes away quickly and doesn't come back, even with the Springtime smoldering fires. I don't mind having to do the chimney once or twice at the beginning of the heating season if I know I'll be good for the rest of the year. Just letting everyone know how my one year plan is working and why.
I believe you, wood dries fast in my basement, with the dehumidifier running in the summer, and the basement stove burning all winter.
I like having my wood inside and up to room temp for a while even though it is three years seasoned. The fires light faster and come up to temp faster if the wood has been inside.
The dehumidifier is a new wrinkle. If it works to kick start dry burning then I would certainly run with it! Good Idea!
We brought in over a cord this afternoon. Should last us 6 weeks. One thing is for sure though, the basement stove room is not warming up very fast with 2 tons of cold firewood in it. Six hours later some of the wood at the bottom of the stacks is still only 37* the stove was 600* when I came down a bit ago. And there are a few gnats flying around...I had a couple hundred the last time we restocked... so I hung up a bug light this time
I have a garden hose hooked up to it and it runs over to the sump hole. When I first start using it after stacking the wood inside, it drips more than one drop per second. I also fashioned a cover over the hole so the moisture doesn't just come back out into the basement air. Did I mention before that I'm anal about some things?
As a clinical psychologist with almost 30 years of experience, I have already diagnosed myself. To be more precise, we are talking about obsessive compulsive personality traits, not necessarily the OCD anxiety disorder...but in mild cases, or under good control, not bad either. We should keep in mind that there is defiantly a continuum of behavior in every so-called psychiatric disorder that ranges from: severe to "shades of normal." Who wants to be normal anyways!! I don't like the word "disorder" to explain most diagnoses, save for things like cases involving the most severe psychoses/schizophrenia, bi-polar, personalty, depressive, anxiety, chemical dependency and developmental issues/delays. However, there are now good treatments for all but the most severe personality disorders. The developmental disorder diagnoses allow the individual to qualify for interventions such as individual education programs in schools, as well as other federal and state services such as vocational rehabilitation, case management and SSDI. Almost every condition has an equally important adaptive component at various stages of development. For example, ADHD is really an active learner, and someone who is often distracted by details that other people probably don't notice, which means that the individual has the ability to think outside the box. For school-aged children (my own experience included), their natural learning style does not always match the demands in a classroom setting unless said person is engaged in an intrinsically interesting topic. In my day we used to call that a "late bloomer." Man of us can relate, or we all know the type of child/adolescent that often has grades that range from A - to barely passing, only to excel beyond many of their peers in a specialty, job, their business, or even graduate school later in life. Interestingly OCD tendencies, learning differences such as dyslexia, and ADHD often cluster together. Simply put, some people are wired to be specialists, not generalists. Sorry if too long and tedious, but it just flowed from my own OCD/ADHD brain, and might be of interest to some here...just sayin
I can definitely tell the difference as well. I end up stalling my cat sometimes because of it. I always bring in a weeks worth of wood at a time. I load it through an outside window into a rollable bin in the basement that I can put near the stove.
I have a similar set up that works equally as well. Actually raises humidity in house in winter for a week after a wood room reload.
I comply with nearly all of the above posts and I'm totally normal... LOL basement wood warming, gnat catching, and twitches included...
How much does it cost to operate the dehumidifier? Just wondering about the cost benefit ratio. I'm fortunate because I have about 3 years of seasoned wood and 5 years of almost ready wood, and the space to store it, that will be more than ready by the time I get to it. I understand that not everyone has the space or access to wood to get and stay 3 years ahead. We all gotta do what we gotta do to stay ahead of the curve. Well done. Low moisture equals efficient burn, great heat and added safety.
I have to run a de-humidifier in our basement anyway to keep the workshop and storage areas from getting "musty" smelling anyway so drying out the pre-season wood in preparation for the heating season is not a cost factor for me. During the heating season, my wood is usually in the basement racks for at least 15-30 days prior to becoming ash. I don't have a moisture meter, but with most of it getting into the high 90s temp wise, it is plenty dry going into the stove. Most of my wood is two year plan prior to it coming into the basement. I'm working on another open sided woodshed that I can get a two or three years worth in as green to season. My shed by the house is only used for already mostly dry wood and it holds enough for a whole heating season. With almost 60 acres of woods, I need more storage under roof with raised pallet floor for storing the cull wood that will be used for firewood. I hate cutting it and stacking it out in the woods to be forgotten about and just go to waste. This wood got brought in from outside 7 days ago With it this dry, it typically lights off very quickly, even with just a small pile of coals in the stove, I haven't needed kindling in years. This batch has a lot of ash in it. We burn Ash, Beech, Ironwood, Honey Locust, Maple (various), some oak that is tossed off the sawmill, and small amounts of whatever is found dead and not punky. We have some standing dead Red Pine that I may try at some point if it is too knotty to get some boards out of for shed siding. Hate to see hard wood go to waste. I'm with Chris F with using the basement wood room to finish the drying process. Even if it was really dry from outside, I still like the idea of getting in in and warmed up. As long as there are no termites involved, I can deal with the few bugs that hitch hike in. I definitely like walking down to the wood room to load the stove with out having to bundle up to go out to grab an armload of wood, specially at night in my PJ's... Most of my time indoors during heating season is spent in shorts, T-shirt, and flip-flops. My wife likes the house toasty.
