What are the real dangers of burning green/wet firewood? I had a good hot
bed of coals going in my wood stove, and I stuck in what turned out to be a
couple of green chunks of wood (was not intentional). They quickly burst
into flame and burned fairly well, though a bit slower then the dry stuff.
Are there conditions, such as a hot established fire, where you can burn
green/wet wood, if it burns quickly and well?

"Ook" Ook Don't send me any freakin' spam at zootal dot com delete the
Don't send me any freakin' spam wrote in message
...
What are the real dangers of burning green/wet firewood? I had a good hot
bed of coals going in my wood stove, and I stuck in what turned out to be
a couple of green chunks of wood (was not intentional). They quickly burst
into flame and burned fairly well, though a bit slower then the dry stuff.
Are there conditions, such as a hot established fire, where you can burn
green/wet wood, if it burns quickly and well?

Smoldering fires generate more creosote:
http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/for/for35/for35.htm

Ook wrote:
What are the real dangers of burning green/wet firewood? I had a good
hot bed of coals going in my wood stove, and I stuck in what turned
out to be a couple of green chunks of wood (was not intentional).
They quickly burst into flame and burned fairly well, though a bit
slower then the dry stuff. Are there conditions, such as a hot
established fire, where you can burn green/wet wood, if it burns
quickly and well?



Wet or unseasoned wood greatly increases the accumulation of creosote.
The large amount of moisture from burning wet wood condenses in the
chimney and adds to creosote formation as well as the acrid odor. The
periodic use of a good liquid or powder chimney cleaner which is sprayed
on the burning wood is essential to the wood burner. This type of
product will not elminiate the need to clean your chimney or the
formation of creosote, but it will make the cleaning task much easier.

Creosote - Creosote can be defined as a combustible deposit in the
venting system which begins as condensed wood smoke including tar fogs
and vapors. Creosote is a by-product of incomplete combustion. If a fuel
is fully burned there will be no smoke and, therefore, no creosote.
Creosote will be hard brown or black and form either curly, flaky
deposits or bubbly deposits in the venting system. Creosote is flammable.


The reply is quoted from both http://hearth.com/what/guidelines.html and
http://www.rutland.com/info/creoedit.htm

Creosote is flammable.

As anyone who has ever had a chimney fire will attest to ;)

I did nearly 30 years ago. The little box stove was very hot. Then
I started hearing the airflow. It got loud and I cut the air intake
totally although I wasn't totally sure that I was having a chimney fire.
After a few minutes it stopped. I didn't call the Fire Dept but
probably should have. [Neighbors told me flames were shooting up 30
feet and airplanes were avoiding the area. :-)]

Charles Schuler wrote:
Creosote is flammable.

As anyone who has ever had a chimney fire will attest to ;)

"Stubby" wrote in message
...
I did nearly 30 years ago. The little box stove was very hot. Then I
started hearing the airflow. It got loud and I cut the air intake totally
although I wasn't totally sure that I was having a chimney fire. After a
few minutes it stopped. I didn't call the Fire Dept but probably should
have. [Neighbors told me flames were shooting up 30 feet and airplanes
were avoiding the area. :-)]

Laughing ... that's pretty much what I experienced ... saw it myself ... it
was like 4th of July above my roof. The roaring sound tipped me off, so I
went outside to look. Luckily, it was raining that night so I didn't need
to worry about secondary fires.

The bad news was that my ceramic flu liner cracked :(

I've heard different ways to extinguish chimney fires. Dry chem powder
extinguishers seem to be the most reccomended. Leaves an incredible
mess, though. Better than losing the entire house.

I've wondered if a water mist (garden sprayer) would fill the chimney
with steam, while not severely cooling the chimney.

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
..

"Charles Schuler" wrote in message
. ..

"Stubby" wrote in message
...
I did nearly 30 years ago. The little box stove was very hot.
Then I
started hearing the airflow. It got loud and I cut the air intake
totally
although I wasn't totally sure that I was having a chimney fire.
After a
few minutes it stopped. I didn't call the Fire Dept but probably
should
have. [Neighbors told me flames were shooting up 30 feet and
airplanes
were avoiding the area. :-)]

Laughing ... that's pretty much what I experienced ... saw it myself
.... it
was like 4th of July above my roof. The roaring sound tipped me off,
so I
went outside to look. Luckily, it was raining that night so I didn't
need
to worry about secondary fires.

The bad news was that my ceramic flu liner cracked :(

"Stubby" wrote in message
...

I did nearly 30 years ago. The little box stove was very hot. Then
I started hearing the airflow. It got loud and I cut the air intake
totally although I wasn't totally sure that I was having a chimney fire.
After a few minutes it stopped. I didn't call the Fire Dept but
probably should have. [Neighbors told me flames were shooting up 30
feet and airplanes were avoiding the area. :-)]

Modern building codes for woodstove steel chimneys
require that they withstand temperatures of 2000 Fahr.
Normal burning is in the range 200-500 and creosote
fires in chimneys commonly exceed 1000 Fahr. If you
are sure your chimney is OK, some firemen recommend
a chimney fire as the fastest way to clean it. The sound
is terrifying but seldom lasts more than 10 minutes. The
main danger is more probably sparks on the roof than
overheating interior structures -- but only if you are sure
your chimney is in good condition, double-walled, etc.

We had two such fires in 12 years and this is what
the firemen told us. They did not mind being called out
although both times they arrived long after the chimney
fire had exhausted itself.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

"Don Phillipson" wrote in message
...
"Stubby" wrote in message
...

I did nearly 30 years ago. The little box stove was very hot. Then
I started hearing the airflow. It got loud and I cut the air intake
totally although I wasn't totally sure that I was having a chimney fire.
After a few minutes it stopped. I didn't call the Fire Dept but
probably should have. [Neighbors told me flames were shooting up 30
feet and airplanes were avoiding the area. :-)]

Modern building codes for woodstove steel chimneys
require that they withstand temperatures of 2000 Fahr.
Normal burning is in the range 200-500 and creosote
fires in chimneys commonly exceed 1000 Fahr. If you
are sure your chimney is OK, some firemen recommend
a chimney fire as the fastest way to clean it. The sound
is terrifying but seldom lasts more than 10 minutes. The
main danger is more probably sparks on the roof than
overheating interior structures -- but only if you are sure
your chimney is in good condition, double-walled, etc.


Some firemen recommend a chimney fire to clean it? I don't think that's a
good idea.

On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:40:17 -0500, "Don Phillipson"
wrote:

"Stubby" wrote in message
...

I did nearly 30 years ago. The little box stove was very hot. Then
I started hearing the airflow. It got loud and I cut the air intake
totally although I wasn't totally sure that I was having a chimney fire.
After a few minutes it stopped. I didn't call the Fire Dept but
probably should have. [Neighbors told me flames were shooting up 30
feet and airplanes were avoiding the area. :-)]

Modern building codes for woodstove steel chimneys
require that they withstand temperatures of 2000 Fahr.
Normal burning is in the range 200-500 and creosote
fires in chimneys commonly exceed 1000 Fahr. If you
are sure your chimney is OK, some firemen recommend
a chimney fire as the fastest way to clean it. The sound
is terrifying but seldom lasts more than 10 minutes. The
main danger is more probably sparks on the roof than
overheating interior structures -- but only if you are sure
your chimney is in good condition, double-walled, etc.

We had two such fires in 12 years and this is what
the firemen told us. They did not mind being called out
although both times they arrived long after the chimney
fire had exhausted itself.

If you *DO* have a chimney fire, you shouldn't
burn in that stove/fireplace again until
someone inspects the chimney.

And no, you shouldn't ever start a chimney
fire on purpose.

Are you the mean man who burned Santa a couple years back? You should
be ashamed.

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
..

"Stubby" wrote in message
...
I did nearly 30 years ago. The little box stove was very hot.
Then
I started hearing the airflow. It got loud and I cut the air intake
totally although I wasn't totally sure that I was having a chimney
fire.
After a few minutes it stopped. I didn't call the Fire Dept but
probably should have. [Neighbors told me flames were shooting up 30
feet and airplanes were avoiding the area. :-)]

Charles Schuler wrote:
Creosote is flammable.

As anyone who has ever had a chimney fire will attest to ;)

"Ook" Ook Don't send me any freakin' spam at zootal dot com delete the
Don't send me any freakin' spam wrote in message
...
What are the real dangers of burning green/wet firewood? I had a good hot
bed of coals going in my wood stove, and I stuck in what turned out to be
a
couple of green chunks of wood (was not intentional). They quickly burst
into flame and burned fairly well, though a bit slower then the dry stuff.
Are there conditions, such as a hot established fire, where you can burn
green/wet wood, if it burns quickly and well?


The wet wood takes a lot of the energy of the fire to evaporate the
water in the wood before it will burn. The result is much less heat
from burning it. Let it dry first. As others said, creosote problems
will be higher also.

Bob