Best Practices: Firewood

Our Firewood = Sawmill Scraps

There are a few things we (mostly Josh, who is heading up our wood-heat effort) have learned it is important to know before choosing firewood:

• How much Wood is in a Cord
  If you purchase a cord of wood it stack to fill an area that is 4x4x8 (128 cubic feet). It is easy to under-estimate the amount and thus pay more for less. This webpage has more information and advice about know how much is enough. Josh built a platform to stack our wood on that is 4′ x 8′ — once we stacked the wood four feet high we knew we had reached a cord.
• How to tell if Wood is Seasoned
  “One fresh-cut cord of oak may contain enough water to nearly fill six, 55 gallon drums.” (mastersweep). Burning new wood is inefficient and leads to creosote build-up in your chimney (hazardous!). Seasoned wood is firewood that has been split for at least a year. Our neighbor taught Josh to recognize seasoned wood by color — new wood is light-colored. Wood that is ready to burn should be grayish and cracked/splintery.
• What kind of Wood Burns Hottest
  Wisdom shared by our fire-expert neighbor: burn wood from trees that lose their leaves in the winter. In other woods, avoid pine and other conifers. Burn hardwood. Locust is great (we have lots of it behind our house), oak, hickory, etc. Know what you are buying if you buy firewood…if you are gathering, be able to differentiate between conifer and deciduous logs.
• Where you will Store Wood
  You’ll need to keep it covered and protected from winter weather. Josh built a simple platform, 8′x4′x4′, that is covered with a tin roof. Don’t store wood too close to your house unless you want to attract termites, roaches, snakes, etc. into your home. Likewise, don’t store wood IN your home–wood can mildew or grow mold.

Heating our 1250 square foot house exclusively with wood for 3 1/2 months of winter:

1 Jotul F3CB woodstove

1 Cord of well-seasoned firewood

1 Lumberjack-ready husband

More efficient stoves use less firewood; good firewood burns longer and hotter. Make sure you have both of these things to save yourself lots of hauling, chopping and kindling splitting (my least favorite part of the job).

After