A Connoisseur's Guide to Fuelwood

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Efficiency

Because not all of the heat produced by burning wood is recovered, to convert your theoretical number into a more accurate measure, factor in the efficiency of your heating appliance. If you heat with a modern wood stove (or a fireplace with a catalytic combustor) that recovers 70% of the heat, divide 1.73 by 0.7 and you find that 2 1/2 cords should get you through the winter. If you use an older wood stove with a heating efficiency of 50%, you'll need closer to 3 1/2 cords (1.73/0.5). And if you rely on a fireplace that sends 90% of its heat up the chimney, you had better stockpile a whopping 17 cords.

You can save some of that wood for next winter by closing the damper after a fire dies down and by improving the fireplace's heating efficiency with commercial glass doors.

Whether you use an old or new stove or fireplace, you'll surely be inspired to improve its efficiency when you discover that every time you cart in a cord of seasoned hardwood, you tote 2 tons of fuel.

Seasoning

Seasoning firewood merely means getting the water out. A quarter to half of the weight of freshly cut (green) firewood is water. Green wood is hard to light, burns poorly, and tends to smoke and hiss when it does burn. The white smoke produced is largely steam and the hissing sound indicates that much of the fire's heat is being used to produce the steam. For each pound of water evaporated from green wood you lose 1,050 BTUs.

Whether you buy your fuelwood or cut your own, expect to season it yourself. You'll need two things: sun and air. Fortunately, both are free. The sun's heat provides the BTUs needed to evaporate the moisture and moving air carries the moisture away. All you have to do is stack the wood and leave it in the sun and wind to dry.

Stacking wood off the ground on a rack or platform improves air circulation, retards moisture absorption from the soil, and keeps the bottom row of wood from rotting. Ideal for this purpose are disposable pallets picked up from a farm store or building supplier. If you can't get pallets, stack the wood on a parallel row of straight limbs that are smaller in diameter.

To shed rain, stack pieces with the bark side up and cover the top of the stack but not the sides. You want to keep rain from falling directly on the wood, but you don't want to prevent evaporating moisture from readily escaping. We top our wood with sheets of metal roofing weighed down with a few heavy sticks of wood to keep the sheets from blowing away.

Since drying can take anywhere from 6 to 18 months, it's best to lay in your firewood supply no later than spring for the following winter. Exact drying time depends on a number of variables, including the type of wood you have and how small it's been cut and split. Drying occurs from the outside inward, which is why split wood seasons faster than unsplit wood.

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