Drying your fire wood
1. Cut the wood to length
The wood you have purchased or cut yourself should be the right length for your stove, fireplace or furnace. This is usually about three inches shorter than the firebox width or length, depending on how you load the wood.
2. Split it to the right size
Next, split the wood to the proper size for your burner. For most efficient wood stoves, this is usually no more than six inches measured at the largest cross sectional dimension. A range of piece sizes is best so that when kindling a fire or reloading on a coal bed you have some smallish pieces that will help you achieve the desirable instant ignition. A selection of sizes from three to six inches in diameter for wood stoves will probably serve you well.
Keep in mind that firewood only begins to dry seriously once it is cut and split to the right size because in log form the moisture is held in by the bark. So, when buying wood, ask when the wood was cut split and properly stacked to get an idea of how ready it is for burning. For this reason, experienced woodburners like to get their wood in the early spring so they can manage the drying process themselves.
3. Pile in a single row exposed to the sun and wind.
If wood is to be below 20% moisture content when you burn it in the winter, it must have the moisture removed. The only practical way homeowners can do this is to allow the sun and wind to dry the wood for them.
With this in mind, the wood should be piled in a place where the sun can warm it and the wind can blow through it. As the sun heats and evaporates the water from the wood pile the wind whisks it away.
4. Let the wood dry all summer
Most folks who split their wood and stack it in well-spaced rows find that they can dry their wood in four or five months. If you have your wood stacked in May or June it should be ready to put away for winter’s use by October. There should be no need to dry it longer than that, unless you live in a damp maritime climate and/or use very dense wood like Oak, which is notorious for taking a long time to dry.
Tips on lighting a fire
Be careful about what you put in your stove. Never use painted or pressure impregnated wood or plastics containing chlorine, such as PVC. This gives off highly poisonous gases. Don’t use driftwood from the sea as fuel. This contains salt which converts to chlorine when it is burned. You can wash the salt out of driftwood by leaving it outside in the elements for at least a couple of years.
When lighting a fire, it is a good idea to place two thick wooden logs at either side in the stove. Place some crumpled up paper between them and create a stack of thin split-up logs on top. You can then add more paper, if you need to.
Add fuel to the stove often, but only a little amount at a time. If the fire is too strong, the thermal stress in the chimney may be unnecessarily high. Make a moderate fire. Prevent the fire from smouldering as this produces the most pollution. The ideal is when the fire is burning well and the smoke from the chimney is almost invisible.