Woodstack with Central Heating

Could this be the World's first centrally heated firewood stack?No I've not gone mad. At least I don't think I'm any worse than usual. But my firewood is a lot worse. It's still quite damp. Partly due to the consistently damp weather but also because I don't have anywhere under cover for a large stack of firewood.


At this time of year its too late to build a firewood stack outdoors - especially with birch - it won't dry out and will quickly go mouldy.

We use firewood to heat our house during the winter so we can get through a lot of firewood. There is an open fire in the lounge although we only use it occasionally and a wood burner (hunter herald) in the front room which I light every morning and every evening.


I want the firewood to be as dry as possible before I burn it to limit the amount of tar deposited in the chimney. So as an experiment I decided to stack some damp firewood around an old oil drum too full of holes to be used as a charcoal bin. Then I lit a fire in the bin as I normally would do to make charcoal.




This seemed to work quite well and I left the wood to dry whilst getting on with other things. Then it occurred to me that I could probably complete the stack and cover over the top. This worked surprisingly well and although I didn't leave it for long enough it was driving off all of the moisture in the wood, as well as in my gloves, strops and ropes that I piled on top for good measure.



The only disadvantage I've discovered so far is a slight smokey smell to the wood for a couple of days following the drying process. I piled beech and oak over the top as birch is much lighter and would have smouldered and probably caught fire.

By the time I had loaded the landrover with smokey but warm firewood it was dark. The full moon came out briefly just as it rose through the trees.