Was wondering what everyone's thoughts are on firewood seasoning during the cooler months. For example, if I have a stack of red maple at 35% mc now, in 6 months could it be ready at or near 20% mc?
Yeah, it will dry, especially if the air is less humid than the summer air, which it typically is. Now, if it's 35% now, that means it's pretty much cut green recently. I highly doubt it would be 20% for end of burning season/ shoulder season wood this year. If you give it until next fall, I'm sure it will be good as red maple does season quickly.
We have winters that are below freezing almost the entire winter and often into the spring along with plenty of dry air so my firewood continues to dry but by how much its hard to say. I dont have any hard data to support this theory but Ive noticed it in real world experience. I had some doug fir that was a bit over 20% mc by a few points and didnt burn very well in the fall but by the time spring came around it was burning nicely so I kept feeding the stove with it. My experience has been that drying is at a minimal during the frozen periods but with how dry our air is and how much wind we get I know it happens on some level.
Yep, since it's very wet now, it should blow off the initial moisture pretty quickly even though it's not hot. In your neck of the woods I imagine there should be a good deal of moderate temps and good wind before winter sets in. When higher temps arrive in the spring, the wood should be finished drying in short order. If you haven't burned Red Maple, I think you'll like it. It burns well, if not all that long. I like it a bit better than Silver...seems to start better, be a little harder, last a little longer etc.
Water can move by sublimation even when it is frozen into ice. To me that means that drying will continue regardless of the temperature but certainly it will slow down in winter.
I tested a piece of unseasoned poplar last winter to see if winter drying was anything useful. I'm pretty sure it's colder in Saskatchewan than Va , but sublimation below freezing is real. And really slow! I took a round and split it, and put one piece inside , while the other piece stayed outside. After 104 days, the outside piece (which started at 7.75 lbs) had lost a half lb. So I'd say as long as the temps are above freezing, it will just season slower than normal. And a couple weeks of early summer weather will do more for seasoning wood than 3 months below freezing.
kimberly I worked for a railroad crosstie supplier for five years and putting the crossties under a vacuum was how moisture was removed. It was actually really impressive the amount of water that was removed so creosote could then be pressure injected. For Jack and Jill firewood hoarders like us, I'm not sure it would work though without lots of $
Probably. Need an airtight container and a vacuum pump. However, we do spend money on processing our wood from cutting it to splitting it to building storage facilities.
Yes, the three year plan is cheap, just cut and stack and let nature do the work of removing moisture.
+1 For the parts of seasoning you can control Optimum: CSS, Off the ground, single row, open windy area, ( most areas,top covered helps ) Our local climates are a big variable Of course, stored in the 3 summer months in Arizona ( sunny, 100 deg, 12% humidity ) it will season much faster than a year or 2 in Alaska, (especially with the wet summer we've had this year) ( 40 deg, 91% humidity today )
Right. Temperature is huge, but can only help if it's dry. This summer it was hot here, but it seemed like it rained almost every day. I would look at the relative humidity when it got to its lowest point in the afternoons, and it was usually in the upper 50% range. Nights were often pushing 100%. Hard to dry wood much in those condition, wind or no wind.
If you could stack it in your house in the dry heat, maybe....good luck and let us know how it works.
