wow ... very dry and very hot

I think my wood is a little bit too dry, the moisture on the outside is about 1% and in the middle about 5% to 10%

Last year I had an issue with too much moisture in it (i created this thread quantity of creosote removed from chimney?) so this year I made sure to have dry wood by having a face cord in the house drying while using another one. The basement is too dry too, about 28% right now, it fluctuate between 27% to 33% each day.

now these dry log burn hot like hell, one thing i noticed is when the log is near completely burn, the heat from it raise a lot. The flue can go from 500f to 630-650f when the log reach it end of life and that with the air intake completely closed (temperature taken from a digital probe)

when that happen, not all log does that, it's kind of crazy looking, the whole inside of the stove look like a fireball, i should take a video next time it happen!

for reference this is the stove: Wood stoves : XVR-II

 

What type of wood are you burning, how long has it seasoned and are you taking your moisture readings in a fresh split?

 

We should all be blessed with such a problem!

 

No offense, but I think your meter needs to be replaced. Unless your in the middle of the Sonora desert, the relative humidity of the air wouldnt even allow such low figures.

 

Is it Balsa?

 

mix of Yellow Birch / Sugar Maple / Beech and yes, I did a fresh split and too the moisture in the middle

that specific wood was cut/split last May but have been sitting in the basement since september, while outsite it was under the sun most of the time

 

I have 3 meter in the house, all showing around 30% +/- 1% of each other, the house is too dry

looking online for graphic about equilibrium moisture content, it seem that it's normal to get that low % in the wood in my current environment, i have a cheap meter for the wood, it use pin, but i could maybe assume a margin of error of about 2-3% so even with that figure, exterior would be 4-5%, interior 8-13%, still very dry stuff!

The area where the wood is can reach nearly 26 to 30 celcius for hours when i do a fire

 

I think his moisture meter is calibrated in Celsius....

 

there's no such thing.

 

ummm...

 

i guess these would help ;-)

 

i have plenty of dry wood like that right now for at least a whole month, today i'm planing to bring another face cord in the basement to get it dryer, it's time to renew the cycle.

i got a bowl of water on the stove to increase the humidity level but it doesnt work well, i might need to look for a humidifier ... this is weird since during summer i must run a dehumidifier 24/7 (trying to keep it at 50-55%)

this is a finished basement

 

I use a 2 gallon double broiler on the wood stove. It can put out about 1.5 gallons a day when I'm running it hard.
and its still not enough...

Miss July brought me home some old ones from work. I use the top one and the neighbor uses the bottom one...

 

I have no doubt that given the conditions you have that the meter is accurate, I agree that no fuel wood is "too" dry, the secret is a controllable stove/draft. I think you have come very close to extracting the full amount of usable btu's from the fuel when almost none is lost to moisture.
Adding humidity is very difficult due to the amount of water needed. I can have two or three snow covered cars melt & drip dry in 1600 sq feet overnight & in the morning the floor is dry & the RH has gone from 22% to 35%. That's a lot of evaporation. 10-15 gal I would guess.

 

Yup, about the only way I can think of that wood could be too dry, is with a stove that did not have good air control...and I think there are plenty of those out there...with wood that dry you need to be able to almost cut primary air completely off.

Can you add some of your outside wood to each load to average out the MC in the load?

 

How much do you put in at once? If I load mine up with many pieces I have the same issue. Generally I use three large pieces, but I have an indoor wood furnace not a wood stove. My father has that exact wood stove and with the damper properly set he sits right around 400-500 through the burn. If he loads it up, it will get very hot once the entire volume is burning. Good luck

 

I micro manage the stove which mean I only put one log at a time, it make me add a new log every 40-60 minutes but I prefer doing this until I change the stove and redo the area surrounding it. This might be next winter or the one after?

I got the wireless Auber digital probe which make it easier to know when it's time to add a new one or when it need attention (getting a little bit too hot for me or too cold)

Depending on the log, the flue can stay stable at 490 or 540 or 575 or ... or could vary between 500 and 600 a few time. The odd log are difficult to keep above 475 and some reach 640+.

Anything above 700 will make me actively do stuff to reduce the heat, that happened maybe 3-5 time this year so far. Mostly because the air intake was left open(easy fix, close it) or the log was a big fireball, in that case I open the stove and try to bury the log in the ash to reduce the surface that burn which seem to work well.

 

My moisture meter has a wood and a building material function. The building setting shows lower numbers then my wood setting when sticked in. But either way the lower the better for wood. No one wants to burn wet wood unless you live in my neighborhood where everyone seems to have a smoke out competition.

 

One thing for sure, I can't wait to clean the pipe. I expect way less creosote this year and also I think I will burn less than last year, so far it's looking that way.

On a side note; fresh face cord in the basement, humidity level raised to 40%, this feel better but it wont last.