Log Storage and Seasoning Fire Wood

No fire will burn wet wood. 

Something that several of my friends and I discovered, when on Christmas Eve we attempted to use a chimenea to have a slightly different sort of Christmas Eve dinner. Unfortunately our handmade gourmet burgers stuffed with scotch bonnet chilies and mozzarella, came out rather more smoked than cooked. It turns out the actual act of setting fire to the wood doesn't dry it out either.

The science

Hinton Log Store

When wood is burned you get two things, carbon dioxide and water. Of these it is the water that is avoidable by having stored your firewood in a log store to season and dry. Burning wet wood results in a decreased efficiency of your fire and incidentally means that burgers take an hour to slowly cook as you all stand out in the cold on a Christmas Eve. The loss of efficiency is because the fire is having to boil the water out of the wood before it can then burn effectively. As it burns away one layer of wet wood, like an onion it meets a new layer of wet wood which must once again be burned away so your fire slowly but surely loses heat.

Which is why it is so important to have somewhere to dry and season your logs ready for a fire. Dorset Log Stores are all built with a 19mm gap in between each board giving superior air flow from all sides. It is this air flow that will dry your logs out and get them ready to give you a towering inferno of warmth. When buying logs to go into your log store you should make sure that the moisture content is less than 20% and ideally 10%.

Sometimes it can take a year for wood to be properly dry and seasoned

Regardless of the quantity and quality of wood that you buy and burn, it must always be properly dried. Drying the wood in your own log store will mean you know that the wood will be burning at its most productive giving you the desired effect of a cosy living room, a roaring log burner or in the case of my friends and myself a properly cooked burger. A Dorset Log Store, designed for grace of beauty and for drying the maximum amount of wood in the smallest space of time is an absolute must for any roaring fire.

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Thanks for Reading
James