A lot of people still thing that they can use just about any kind of wood when they want to light a fire in their stove or fireplace. They probably know, that if you use wood that isn't quite dry enough, you will get more smoke, and maybe a little bit less heat. According to Brænde and Briketter, this is not the only problem with using wet firewood. The biggest problem, especially if you use it indoor, are that you don't reach quite the same high temperature as with dried wood. Any why is that a problem you may ask? Well on Brænde and Briketter, they have tested a lot of different types of firewood, and found that if your firewood isn't dry enough, it doesn't generate enough heat, to burn away the toxic particles called Dioxin. Dioxin is very toxic to humans, and can cause cancer and several other bad things in the human body. It's a product that get's release when you burn wood and several other things. But if the temperature is high enough, like when using dried wood with less than 20% water. Then you will burn away those dangerous particles, and have a good clean fire. But this isn't the only problem with using firewood that is still wet. If there is a lot of water particles in the air, a lot of the smoke contains tar particles, and they will bind to the water in the and get stuck on the inside of your chimney. They pollutes your chimney pretty badly, and if there is enough tar on the inside of it, you can risk that it catches fire when you start a fire in your fireplace or stove. This is actually the number one reason we see so many chimney fires these days, 99% of them are due to heating with firewood that simply isn't dry enough. Another problem with wet firewood is that you don't get enough heat from your wood. Maybe you can save 50$ when buying non seasoned wood, compared to dry wood. But remember that if it contains 25% water, then you have 15% less wood to burn to create energi, and in additition to this,you will need to spend additional energi to remove that water before the wood burns. That means that it's close to being 30% less useful compared to seasoned wood. So in order to be more cost effective, it would have to cost less than 30% of seasoned wood. Still, if you manage to find it cheaper than this, remember that it's still dangerous for the environment and your chimney.
For more tips on how you can keep your firewood dry, and what you should consider when buying firewood or wooden briketter, please visit applied.dk, an information site on firewood and safety.
Source: Applid.dk
For more tips on how you can keep your firewood dry, and what you should consider when buying firewood or wooden briketter, please visit applied.dk, an information site on firewood and safety.
Source: Applid.dk