Have you ever had trouble getting a fire going? Have you ever sat around a campfire that puts off an unrelenting amount of smoke? Both of these common experiences are the result of burning (or trying to burn) wet, uncured firewood.
It may be hard to believe, but freshly cut firewood can have a moisture content of 100%, meaning half the weight of the log is water. And burning wood with a high moisture content carries several risks, some of which are obvious, and some of which are subtle (but just as dangerous).
At HY-C, we know wood burning. In fact, we’ve been manufacturing chimney and hearth products in the USA since 1947. And in this guide, we’re going to cover some of the many dangers associated with burning uncured, unseasoned firewood.
By the time you’re finished here, you’ll understand why you should only use dry, properly seasoned fuel in your wood heating appliance. We’ll even provide you with an in-depth guide on how to season your firewood correctly.
Why Should You Avoid Burning Uncured Firewood?
1. Uncured Firewood Leads to Increased Smoke
A campfire may smell nice, but if your wood isn’t properly seasoned, that smell may actually be a bad sign. Uncured firewood contains not only water but other oils and combustible organic chemicals like:
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
- Acrolein
- Acetaldehyde
- Benzene
- Formaldehyde
As the wood burns, these materials burn along with it, releasing as smoke. These smoke particles (which are about 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair) contain toxic substances that can remain in your lungs for months.
Besides the stinging eyes and irritated skin smoke is known to cause, it can also result in reduced lung function, lung swelling, and lung inflammation.
If you breathe enough of this smoke over a long enough period, you can even develop bronchitis, emphysema, and even cancer.
These health problems caused by wood smoke can be especially tough on children or people with asthma. But you can easily avoid these problems by not burning green firewood.
2. Uncured Firewood Can Lead to Creosote
If you’re burning unseasoned firewood in a fireplace, a wood stove, a wood furnace, or any other wood heating appliance that utilizes a chimney, you’ll quickly wind up with creosote buildup in the appliance’s flue. And if you know anything about creosote, you know the problems it brings.
Creosote forms due to the release of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. It starts as a sticky, tar-like substance that clings to the walls of the chimney flue. Over time, it hardens into a thick, sooty material that coats the inside of the chimney.
Cresotoe causes several problems. For one, as it forms, it blocks up the chimney flue, causing a poor draft. When a chimney can’t draft properly, the smoke can’t rise. This causes it to roll back into the home, exposing occupants to the risks listed above.
Creosote is also corrosive to masonry flues. It will cause the clay flue tiles to crack and the flue joints to disintegrate, which can necessitate expensive repairs (or even make the chimney and its appliance completely unusable).
Perhaps worst of all, though, creosote is highly flammable. Too much heat from the appliance or one badly placed stray spark can lead to a chimney fire that can quickly spread to the rest of the home.
There are several ways to mitigate creosote buildup, but one of the easiest is to avoid burning wet, uncured firewood.
3. Uncured Firewood Causes Inefficient and Incomplete Combustion
Here’s an obvious issue with wet, green firewood: it doesn’t burn well. This can cause immediate frustration when trying to light the wood. It can be very difficult to get a fire going, which is the last thing you want on a blistering cold winter day.
Aside from being tough to light, wet firewood can also affect the efficiency of your heating appliance. Wood stoves, pellet stoves, and furnaces all have an efficiency rating. It’s the ratio of the total heat energy in the firewood to the actual amount of heat energy delivered to the living space (efficiencies between 70% and 80% are common in wood heating appliances).
Manufacturers work hard to ensure that as much heat energy as possible gets from their appliance to the living space (rather than being radiated away or lost up the flue). Uncured wood, though, lowers that efficiency rating, resulting in wasted heat energy.
4. Uncured Firewood Wastes Your Money
You pay a lot for your firewood. That’s why it’s wise to get as much energy out of it as you can. But when you burn wet, unseasoned firewood, you may as well be literally burning your money.
Let’s say your firewood has a moisture content of 100% (i.e., 50% of the log is water). Even if you manage to get that wood to burn, the fire has to work to boil off the water in the wood. Every bit of heat energy being used to boil away that water is heat energy not being delivered to your living quarters.
And even if you chop your own firewood, burning it without seasoning it can still cost you money. For one, as we mentioned, unseasoned firewood can cause creosote, which is damaging to chimneys. You’ll have to pay a chimney sweep to remove the creosote and ensure your chimney stays operational.
On the extreme end of this spectrum is a chimney fire which, at best, can result in thousands of dollars in repairs, and at worst, may cost you your entire home.
There’s no getting around it: burning wet wood is costly. And this cost can be easily mitigated by seasoning your firewood.
How to Tell if Your Firewood is Seasoned
As you can tell, there are plenty of risks involved with burning uncured wood. The next logical question that follows is, “How can I tell whether or not my firewood is seasoned?”
For one, green firewood is heavy. In fact, a cord of wet, green firewood can weigh as much as 2,400 pounds more than the same cord of firewood after it’s been seasoned. Look out for significant weight differences — they can be a clue as to whether or not your wood is seasoned.
Dry firewood also has clear characteristics. Try knocking two pieces of your firewood together. If they’re uncured, they’ll make a dull thudding sound. If they’re seasoned, they’ll make a high-pitched cracking sound.
Sometimes, you can tell when your firewood is dry just by looking at it. Dry wood tends to be cracked at the end. Its bark may also be cracked, flaking off easily when you handle the wood.
The easiest way to tell if your wood is seasoned, though, is by using a moisture meter. Firewood is ready to burn when its moisture level is between 15% and 20%.
To get the very best out of your firewood, be sure to check out our guide on how to season firewood. It can help you avoid creosote, smoke, and all the other risks of uncured wood to create an efficient, appliance-friendly burn.
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