An Indoor Wood Burning Furnace May Mean a New Career
Are you looking for an immensely cheap way to heat your home? Every year, you get that bite cutting into your pocket book every year when the mercury on the thermometer dips low. This article is really to give you some information on the indoor wood furnace and the outside wood furnace. First of all, it may sound elementary but it’s useful to learn a bit about wood and some of its burning characteristics. A cord of wood stands 4 feet wide and 4 feet high and 8 feet long. In this measurement, there is an allowance made for air pockets, so you’re going to get about 85 ft.³ out of a cord of wood. One pound of wood on the average produces 7500 BTU’s of heat, regardless of the species.
One important consideration to remember is that dense heavy wood will deliver more heat per cord. You’ll want to take this into consideration when comparing prices for different kinds of wood. Each log contains moisture, and it takes about 1,000 BTU’s to evaporate the moisture from each pound. Dry wood produces 10 to 30% less creosote and is more usable to heat your home. It’s a good idea to burn drier wood for an indoor wood burning furnace. A good practice to get into is to cut or buy green wood in the early spring or late winter, dry it as quickly as you can by cutting it to length and stack it so the air can circulate through the pile. If you stack the wood outside, make sure you cover it from the weather and hold it for 18 months, or if you can, indoor storage is certainly more preferable. Here is a very interesting tip for you! If you fell your own trees for your furnace, cut them in the spring or summer and leave them “unlimbed” until the leaves wither, as they will draw moisture out of the wood. Cut the wood to the longest length possible to fit in your firebox, as the longer it is, the longer the fire will hold. Seasoned wood carries about 20% moisture content.
