Keeping Wood Dry For Fuel Efficient Fireplaces And Home Heating

Using dry, well-seasoned wood is essential to a fire that burns safely and efficiently. By setting aside firewood at least a year in advance, you can not only ensure a suitably seasoned supply of fuel, but can also theoretically reduce the amount of cord wood you need by half.

Keep Wood Dry

Above all, keep it dry. This means allowing as much air as possible to circulate when you stack and store wood. The first rule of thumb is to keep logs off the ground to allow air to flow under them. The portable pallets that manufacturers use for warehousing products make great platforms; these are often discarded, so check with a local warehouse to see if any are available.

To create additional air pockets in a wood pile, alternate the direction of the layers lengthwise and crosswise. When storing the wood outdoors, orient your stack to catch the sun and prevailing breezes. Keep wood away from roof eaves or overhanging tree branches that might funnel rain water and snow onto the pile. While the temptation is to cover the stack with a tarp, be aware that a tarpaulin that is too tight can be just as detrimental as too much snow or moisture. Use your old worn-out tarps to cover a new one to protect it from moisture and damaging ultraviolet sun rays.

Storing Wood Indoors

One good solution for keeping wood dry is to store it indoors in a garage or basement. This has the obvious advantage of making it possible to take logs off the pile without having to uncover and recover it each time you need a supply for your fireplace. But storing wood inside also raises the risk of bringing carpenter ants, powder-post beetles and burrowing rodents into your house. If the wood was already dead when cut, you will definitely not want to store it indoors because it probably is harboring some sort of critter.

Build a Woodshed

The ideal option is a woodshed, where you can store and season your wood, or rotate it in from a seasoning pile elsewhere on your property. As shed roof extending over a side or back door to your house allows you to retrieve a load for the firebox while staying dry yourself. However stacking wood against the house can also invite rodents that may be living in the walls to expand their living quarters into the wood pile.

For this reason it is a good idea to consider a free-standing woodshed. Such a structure doesn't have to be complicated, but it should be located close to the house and sized to accommodate a season's supply of fuel. The rule-of-thumb measurement for one cord of wood(4'x4'x8' or 128 cubic feet) is a good starting point; determine your shed size accordingly, depending on how many cords you tend to burn in a heating season. Load the driest logs in front and on top of the pile so that you use those first. If there are any logs remaining at the end of the heating season, rotate them forward and load the newer wood in back.