kiln dry wood

puddles59

Hi has anybody any experience in using the kil n dry wood and if there is sufficient heat out of it to have a back boiler off it ..I'm thinking of buying a stove ..Thanks in advance for any advice.

Calahonda52

Yes it will work, if stove output matches heat demand and you are prepared to stoke it in accordance with the stove suppliers guidelines: e.g. very 45 minutes but it is very expensive here in Ireland and does not make euro/energy output sense.

Likewise, I would question the idea of a bb in a stove.

I have,as have others, written about this elsewhere on boards.ie

OwenM

Kiln dried wood doesn't make sense in Ireland unless you use it up quickly, the ambient relative humidity levels here add mositure back to the wood over time. I burn hardwood in a boiler stove that has been air dried for 2 years and the mositure content is approx 17-19%. I don't understand the need to stoke the fire any more than usual (Whenever I'm arsed) as mentioned above. It's a Henly Achill 17Kw boiler stove heating a 120m2 house with 8 rads and an immersion cylinder. I have an oil boiler as backup but I reckon I used 100L of fuel in this last year.

Jack180570

puddles59 wrote: »

Hi has anybody any experience in using the kil n dry wood and if there is sufficient heat out of it to have a back boiler off it ..I'm thinking of buying a stove ..Thanks in advance for any advice.

We have a Boru 20kw boiler stove which adequately heats a (poorly insulated) old farmhouse without any oil backup or other heat source.

I don't think that you need to buy kiln dried firewood but the firewood does need to be dry, under 25% moisture content and ideally as close to 20% as possible.
Also, whether it is hardwood or softwood is not the most relevant consideration (this will only affect the number of times you have to fill the stove and the cost of the firewood), the main consideration is the moisture content.
Also keep in mind that the moisture content for kiln dried firewood is under 20% so it is questionable whether its worth paying up to twice the price for kiln dried hardwood when you should be able to get WFQA (Wood Fuel Quality Assured) certified firewood which will be under 25% (www.wfqa.org). If you log on to the website you will get a list of certified suppliers throughout the country selling both hardwood and softwood, both air and kiln dried.

We modified our Boru Stove because we only burn firewood in it and therefore, not only does it not need a grate, it burns far better without a grate.
Hopefully the moderators will not mind me posting the link below showing the modifications we did because we are involved in the firewood business but this is not advertising, we think it is interesting information.
https://business.facebook.com/cotterbrosfirewood.ie/photos/a.403424226473715.1073741841.254379584711514/403424753140329/?type=3&permPage=1

It is important to size your stove properly, not too big or not too small. Some people question the idea of installing a boiler stove and to be honest we did too initially. However after 3 years running a boiler stove in the old house and a dry stove in the new house we are happy with both. With the dry stove we do have oil backup but do not need to use it too often because when we were fitting the dry stove we adjusted the amount of insulation on the dry stove so that some of the heat is stored in the chimney breast which acts as a thermal store that emits heat long after the stove has gone out.

The most important factor in both cases is dry firewood. Dry firewood will mean lots of heat, easy to start the fire, very little ash to remove and you will rarely need to clean the chimney... and along with all that you get the pleasure of seeing a real fire through the clean glass of the stove :-)

Joe1919

Jack180570 wrote: »

We modified our Boru Stove because we only burn firewood in it and therefore, not only does it not need a grate, it burns far better without a grate.

I have an evergreen woodburner/ multifuel 7kw non boiler stove that I bought secondhand. I have burned wood but for later winter have optional grate fitted and burn coal. I got good dry timber locally earlier in the winter but had difficulty later in the winter and changed to coal for a while.
Just some observations. I remove grate and burn wood directly on the floor of stove as recommended. The floor is not lined nor is necessary in my case as I leave about an three quarter to an inch of ash that acts as an insulator. A shovel or two of sand can be put on floor initially if no ashes at beginning of season etc. but this is not necessary if ash is left in stove. Some ash needs to be removed every week or so. The stove has a retainer about 3 inches high which is basically a decorated bar with top half only slotted that holds in ash and prevents logs from falling against glass.
I also notice that woodburning stove has a bigger firebox (13 X 12.5 inches) than other multifuel stoves of same wattage. I presume this is because wood is bulkier.

Jack180570

Joe1919 wrote: »

I have an evergreen woodburner/ multifuel 7kw non boiler stove that I bought secondhand. I have burned wood but for later winter have optional grate fitted and burn coal. I got good dry timber locally earlier in the winter but had difficulty later in the winter and changed to coal for a while.
Just some observations. I remove grate and burn wood directly on the floor of stove as recommended. The floor is not lined nor is necessary in my case as I leave about an three quarter to an inch of ash that acts as an insulator. A shovel or two of sand can be put on floor initially if no ashes at beginning of season etc. but this is not necessary if ash is left in stove. Some ash needs to be removed every week or so. The stove has a retainer about 3 inches high which is basically a decorated bar with top half only slotted that holds in ash and prevents logs from falling against glass.
I also notice that woodburning stove has a bigger firebox (13 X 12.5 inches) than other multifuel stoves of same wattage. I presume this is because wood is bulkier.

Your spot on Joe...

The reason we lined the base and sides with firebrick after removing the grate is that we didnt want to take any chances with it melting the bottom of the stove... for 3 reasons..
1. we were putting up the post for everyone to see and it was a bit too risky to just say to keep some ash in the base (your sand idea is good).
2. we found that after removing the grate and leaving some ash over the firebrick for extra insulation, the fire burned very very hot (to the extent that it began melting the ash which would fuse together and we used to have to get the poker to break up the ash to remove it. As far as I remember the melting point of ash is around 13/1400 d C so im guessing we were getting over 1000 degrees in the firebox and we wouldnt like to have a fire this hot without having the firebricks.
3. Also our firebricks are only laid on to the floor of the stove so it is an easy job to pick out and put the grate back in for whatever reason.

Regarding ash removal.
We added a piece of flat iron (inch and a half or two inches wide) to block the gap between the base and the decorative fence. This again is just laid in to the stove and, along with the bottom part of the fence that is solid it gives us around 2 inches of height in the base of the stove that can fill up with ash before the ash needs to be removed. Because of where the bottom air vent is on the door of our stove, the flat iron does not affect the air flow when lighting. It will be different on other stoves.

I think you are right about the size of the firebox and that it is larger on wood burning stoves.

I think overall that the firewood industry is improving and that the quality of the firewood available now is a good bit better than 4-5 years ago. Once producers put in the Quality Control procedures and the infrastructure to produce good firewood it then causes other producers to up their game to maintain their market share and bit by bit the quality improves and the customer gets better value and he/she uses more firewood. Its a win win for everyone.

I guess the only sad part is to see so much imported firewood being used and sold when there is loads of irish wood there only for it to be produced to a good standard and sold competitively. Then again I think the market is developing and we are seeing better quality and also with the introduction of the Wood Fuel Quality Assurance Scheme (www.wfqa.org), a move to minimum quality standards (all firewood under 25% MC) and also selling in standard recognisable units (Kg's, cubic metres, kWh'rs). This is positive for everyone.

Calahonda52

OwenM wrote: »

... I don't understand the need to stoke the fire any more than usual...

All stoves are rated for a specific output based on the burning of a certain amount of fuel of a certain calorific content over a specific time period,any other expectations are dreams, kiln dried or not.

On the cost benefit side of purchased kiln dried timber: it is overpriced here by about a factor of 10 vs what it cost in mainland Europe. It is one of the most profitable fuels around, and fails the euro per kW output value test miserably.