Partially seasoned wood in a catalytic stove

Canadian Border when you burned your almost dry wood the first year were you able to get 8 hr burns?

 

Yes, but I got less Heat then I did the next year with very dry wood.

My house is odd it's a split-level post n beam 2200 square feet with 17 ft ceilings on over half of it..

IS carries about 90% of the heat load unless I'm on vacation. It could probably quite easily do all of it..
But the location of the stove is not on the lowest level and the water lines in the basement are 40 feet away and 6 foot below stove..

 

rfogg .. more than happy to show you the stove and the house if it's convenient for you in the future. PM me

 

I have an Ideal Steel and everyone here has given great advice. Wood in the basement does not tend to dry out too well. Even in winter I find it better to keep it outside and top covered. Another species is cherry. It dries really quickly

 

I used Chip Drop for firewood last summer. They delivered the wood rounds within a day but they delivered mostly cottonwood rounds, all which were 3.5 feet in diameter and 25 inches long. I'm still chopping and splitting these rounds which have been dropped over a year ago. Some of the small splits I got out of them I tested with my moisture meter, and it tops out at 50% then flashes "high" after its above that.... Well the splits from the chip drop a year later from the cottonwood is still above 50%... so if your in a hurry for dry wood, I'd pass up on Chip Drop. I don't think you can ask for specific types of wood either...

My Ideal Steel will burn anything but it's a fight with wood less seasoned that's for sure.

Good luck and you're getting a great stove.

 

Thanks again for all the info guys. I'm really feeling like this transition won't be as hard as I originally anticipated.
Again thanks for all the suggestions and help.

 

You may be right as i’ve Only used chipdrop for chips so far, however there is a place for comments where you could say: “pine or cedar only please.”

I don’t know for a fact that they will honor your request. But, the company I worked with was pretty careful that they could actually deliver to my location. I would think they would have moved on to the next drop location if the instructions didn’t line up with what they had.

I’m half tempted to request a a load of locust. It would likely never get filled, but a boy can dream, right?

 

I am going to be a dissident on the Woodstock.
Not real satisfied with my AS. I do believe I may have draft problems. We are working on it for this year.
Everyone said it was my wood. Just about all the pieces I checked, and there were many, fresh split and brought to room temp. were in the 19% range with a couple in the low 20%. So I don't believe 20% to be a magical number. I also burnt some of that kiln dried $800/cord supermarket wood to put the wood issue to rest. Not any difference.
I did burn 30% less wood with the stove going 24/7, but didn't get the drive you out heat I got from my Non-EPA stove. If the burn doesn't get better the Non-EPA stove will go back in.
Just my thought.

 

Marshel54 that's interesting, I believe 20% wood should heat you and dry should bake you!
It could be a draft issue. My only other question would be what is the Max BTU difference between the AS and the EPA stove??
In old Motors.. a 6 cylinder got better gas mileage but an 8 had more power!! Do you follow my analogy?

 

rfogg .. I can anticipate your weather. What is the style of your house? How well is it insulated? And what is the location of your stove in comparison to central use area of the home??

 

It's a raised ranch with 2x4 construction insulation is ok for the wall dimensions. Newer windows but not the best. Stove is in the basement pretty much center of the house. We will be moving it towards an outside wall but utilize the same chimney.

 

The AS would be the 8 cylinder and the Rebel the 6. Rebel wasn't that big. Couldn't find max BTU on it. It is old.

 

To the OP, the IS has a steel cat so is very tolerant of wet wood. Get the cat hot and keep it hot, the cat won't care about some steam passing through but that steam will condense in your chimney and make more creosote than a noncat.

I would also consider the manufactured firewood. NIELs or other.

 

I second the NIELS (Northern Idaho Energy Logs ).Those things burn hotter than any of the compressed wood products that I've seen.Semi dried wood doesn't stand a chance of not burning well when mix with a couple of the NEIL's.You might even get a better deal than me since your closer to where they are made.

 

Well I ordered my stove and I should be able to pick it up in about 3 weeks.
I looked into NIELS and they don't have a distibutor in my area. I found some Bio Blocks but they want almost $600 a ton. So anyway I have a cord of kiln dried coming for $450 and we will see how that works mixing it with the wetter wood.

 

Geez ow they run $2-250 a ton around here!

 

Vermont brenndy.. over 20% of the people in this state burn wood!!