Wood Pool Heater

A wood pool heater will heat the water in your pool from a wood burning fire. This can be a great way to heat your pool if you have an abundant supply of firewood. With a wood fired pool heater you can save money since you won’t have to buy electricity or gas. It is also a relatively carbon neutral way to heat your pool.

Solar pool heaters are also a great and inexpensive way to heat a pool. But in many parts of the world, solar energy can be greatly limited in the colder times of the year, when more heat is actually needed.

A wood burning pool heater can be used as a supplement to your solar heater or as the only source of pool heating.

I am still looking for a good wood fired pool heater manufacturer. There are many videos on the net for home made pool heaters. Below is a video I found of a pool heater available in the UK. I am not sure if they are available in the US. The sound volume is poor so you will have to turn your sound up.

If you know a good source for wood burning pool heaters please post a comment below.

How to Get Seasoned Firewood – There is Still Time

Here in late August of 2010, of I am sold out of dry firewood. Now many people are scrambling at the last minute trying to find dry firewood as the cold days of winter will soon be arriving. Hopefully you are not one of them, but if you are, I know it can sometimes be hard to find dry wood this time of year.

Many firewood dealers advertise seasoned wood and sometimes you can get lucky and what they deliver will be dry. But it’s all too common that what is delivered will be other than dry. Not all wood cutters are trying to rip you off when they bring you wood that is not fully seasoned. Many of them may not know that it is still wet. Many wood cutters are just someone with access to some wood, a pickup and a chainsaw. They may not even burn wood themselves or know much about burning wood. They are just someone who has found a way to make a buck and are in no way firewood burning savvy.

Depending on some of these guys to bring you dry wood right before it is time to burn, can be a big gamble. I hear tons of stories from customers about how they had a hard time all winter trying to burn wet wood that someone told them was dry. This is a very common problem with firewood dealers and will not likely go away any time soon. And sometimes, like in my case this year, I just don’t have dry firewood available to sell.

How to Have Seasoned Firewood Every Year

There is a simple solution to this problem that many of my customers have learned. They have learned how to get seasoned firewood every year regardless of what a wood cutter brings them. Many actually prefer to buy green firewood since it often makes better quality wood and usually costs less to buy. Green firewood is usually cleaner, has less decay, insects, mold and other types of fungus.

The key they have discovered is to buy it a year ahead of the time when they plan to burn it. Now in the fall or earlier in the summer they buy green wood when everyone else is trying to find dry wood. They are not buying it for this winter, but for the following winter. This way it has a full year to season and dry.

You may be having a hard time finding dry wood for this winter, but you can ensure you will not have that problem next year if you buy green wood this fall. That may not help you out this year but once you get in the habit of buying your firewood a year in advance, you will no longer have to worry about whether or not your winter supply of firewood will be dry or not.

Buy Green Humboldt County Firewood

Is it Better to Burn Hardwood or Softwood?

A common question that people ask is whether to burn hardwood or softwood. Hardwood is typically known for being the best firewood but that does not mean it is the best for you. Softwood also has qualities that makes it better than hardwood in some circumstances.

When it comes to firewood, the major differences between hardwood and softwood is density. Hardwoods are usually more dense than softwood. More density means more actual wood mass in any given size of wood. More wood means the wood will burn longer and produce more total heat.

But not all hardwoods are more dense than all softwoods. The terms hardwood and softwood are not determined by the hardness or softness of the wood. Hardwood is any wood that comes form broadleaf trees, like oak, hickory, ash, maple, walnut, madrone, aspen and cottonwood.

Softwoods come from conifers, which have needles or scale leaves, like pine, fir, spruce, cedar, hemlock and redwood. The differences between hardwood and softwood come from the difference in cellular structure between the two. Hardwoods do tend to be harder than softwoods but not always. Cottonwood, aspen, and alder come from trees with broad leaves, so they are hardwoods, but these woods are as soft as many softwoods.

The density of the wood will give you a general idea of how it will burn. You can tell if dry wood is more dense because it will be heavier than a similar size of less dense wood.

More dense wood will burn longer and produce more heat over a longer period. Lower density wood will ignite easier, burn faster, often with more intense flames. But it will burn faster and with less total heat.

Dense hardwoods are great for wood stoves to maintain the heat in your home. But for quick heat or for starting fires softwood can be a better choice. It ignites easily and puts off hot flames more quickly. It can also be good for campfires or fireplaces if you want more flames than coals. If you want good long lasting coals you will be better with dense hardwood.

What will be best for you will depend on what you are wanting out of the wood. Both types of firewood have their advantages and disadvantages. I like to have a mixture of both. Hardwood is usually more expensive  but that is because you get more heat out of it. Softwood will burn up faster but that is fine since it usually costs less.

How to Get a Full Cord of Wood

When ordering a cord of wood, you are usually at the mercy of the firewood seller to bring you a full cord. There are many honest firewood dealers but there are also many who may not bring you what they promise you. How do you protect yourself and make sure you get what you order?

When delivering firewood, I often hear a lot of stories from customers about their experiences with firewood dealers, many of them are not good. A firewood business is something that anyone with a strong back, a pickup and a chainsaw can get into. But a lot of intelligence is not always required. So sometimes firewood dealers are not always the most business savvy people. This is of course not all of them. There are many reputable firewood businesses that have had happy customers for many years or decades.

One of the best ways to make sure you get a full cord of wood is to know what the dimensions of a cord of wood is before it gets unloaded at your home. Don’t be afraid to ask the dealer what the dimensions of their delivery vehicle is before they deliver. Also let them know that you will be measuring the load before it is unloaded at your home. If they will not give you those measurements and do not allow you to measure the wood, you may be better to find a different dealer.

Measuring a cord of wood is easy, but most people are just unaware of what a cord is or how to measure it. And many might be afraid of offending the dealer by questioning their product. But there is no need to worry about that. Most reasonable dealers will likely just see you as being a savvy consumer and will be more likely to bring you a full cord of wood if they know you will be measuring it.

Most consumers will take the wood once it is delivered no matter what. But it is ok to inspect the wood before it is unloaded and decide if you want it or not. If the load of wood does not measure up to a full cord or is otherwise not acceptable, you are not obligated to buy it. Just make sure you make the decision before it is unloaded.

Learn about firewood measurements and cord of wood dimensions. Knowing how to measure firewood can help to make sure you get a full cord and know when to reject a load of wood if it is not the full amount.

Why Smart Consumers Buy Firewood in the Spring

For most people, thinking about firewood is the last thing on their mind in the spring. They are just finishing their burning season and in their minds, winter is a long way away. But the smartest, most experienced firewood users know that right now, before summer, is the time when they should be stocking up on firewood.

Most people wait until the last minute and buy their firewood in the fall. Some may even think they are buying their wood ahead of time by buying it in the late summer. Buy I hear a lot of stories from people who buy their winter supply of firewood late in the season and then commonly end up spending the whole winter struggling to stay warm trying to burn wood that is not dry or seasoned.

Firewood can appear to be dry on the outside and may even have cracks but may still be full of water or sap on the inside. The sap inside green wood can take a whole summer to dry depending on the drying conditions.

The best way to ensure you have fully seasoned firewood is to buy your wood before the summer and dry it yourself. When you buy your wood ahead of time you can buy it green, usually for a lower price than that of seasoned firewood. Late in the season is when everyone else is buying their wood and that is when firewood prices are more likely to increase. Early in the year demand for firewood is lower and you can usually find better prices.

What the Really Experienced Firewood Users Do

The really experienced firewood users buy their wood a year in advance. They already have their wood for next winter that they got last year. Now this spring they are stocking up for the winter after next. This way their wood has over a year to dry and they always have a year supply of wood on hand.

This may not work so well for people who do not have the space for two years supply of firewood but for those who do, they always know they will have dry wood and they are a full year ahead of price increases. This method can also be good for consumers who have a hard time paying for a full year supply all at once. Since you are buying your wood so far ahead of time you can buy a little at a time throughout the year as your budget allows.

Advertise Your Firewood Business Online

Services and Advertising for Firewood Dealers

advertise firewoodIf you are a firewood dealer, or have a product or service that you are interested in advertising on the internet, I offer both free and paid services. I can post a page on this website for select businesses and get it to rank in the search engines. This way your business will come up close to the top of the page when people search for firewood in your area.

If you click on the picture to the left you can see where this website shows up on google when people search for firewood in my area.

For the moment I am offering this service free. Most of the firewood I sell comes from this website so I know a little about selling firewood online. I can also build, promote and continually maintain for you your own dynamic website with all kinds of nice bells and whistles fairly quickly. That service would be not quite as free.

You can also post a free ad free in the forum now as long as you keep it at least remotely related to firewood or forest products.

Learn more about these advertising services.

How to Burn Firewood More Efficiently in a Wood Stove

How to Burn Firewood More Efficiently in a Wood Stove or Fireplace

Learning to burn firewood more efficiently can help you get more heat and save money by burning less wood. This also gives the benefit of cleaner air for you and your neighbors to breath, both inside and outside your home. A cleaner burning fire will produce less creosote buildup in your chimney and on the glass on your wood stove. Smoke not only causes pollution, it is a wasted energy since smoke is unburned fuel that wasn’t converted to heat.

If you don’t have a modern certified wood stove, you might want to look into one since they are usually cleaner burning and produce more heat from less wood. But with some practice and the right knowledge you can make a clean burning and more efficient fire with both older non certified and certified stoves that will produce little or no visible smoke.

Here are Six Steps to A Cleaner Burning More Efficient Fire

Burn Seasoned Dry Firewood

It is very important to burn firewood that is seasoned and dry. Burning green or wet firewood will significantly reduce the heat output of your wood stove and increase smoke an creosote buildup in your chimney. Firewood should be seasoned for at least 6 months or up to a full year in some conditions. Learn how to season firewood.

Start Your Fire Right

Start a small hot fire using small pieces of firewood and kindling. Starting a fire with small dry pieces will give you a hot cleaner burning fire more quickly. It is good to keep your wood stove door slightly open for about a minute to allow extra air flow to get the fire going quickly before latching the door. Just make sure you latch it after the fire gets going. You don’t want an unattended fire to escape and burn your house down.

Get Your Stove Hot

Get your stove hot enough that it will re-burn the smoke the way it was designed. Start with a small hot fire and load more in one at a time as they are needed. Loading up your stove with several large pieces at once can cool the fire and create an inefficient burn and even a smoldering situation.

Maintain Your Fire

In older stoves especially, don’t close off the air flow too much since this makes the fire smolder and smoke. Don’t overload any stove since this also causes it to smolder and smoke. This wastes your fuel and money, causes creosote to build up and pollutes the air.

Keep the Wood Stove Doors Closed

Once the fire is going you shouldn’t open the doors unless you are putting in more wood. Wood stoves are designed to operate with the doors closed. When the door is opened, much of the heat will go out the chimney.

Never Burn Garbage

Garbage, newspaper or junk mail should never be burned in a wood stove. In some areas it is illegal. Paper can be used for starting fires but other than that the only things that should be burned in a wood stove are firewood, fire starter and manufactured fire logs approved for burning in a wood stove.

If all these steps are working properly you should be able to go outside and see no visible smoke coming from your chimney. There should be only hot air and water vapor.

How to Make Lumber out of Firewood

This is a video I found of a guy showing you how to make lumber out of firewood. I have not tried this but if you wanted some small pieces of lumber I can see that it would work. This might be good if you had some firewood made from a good quality hardwood and wanted it to make a small project.

This guy uses a jointer and a bandsaw but there are other cutting tools you could use to cut a piece of firewood into lumber. After you have some flat edges a table saw would probably work well to rip it into boards.

With any of this be very careful. Working with these irregular shaped pieces can be dangerous with power cutting tools so I suggest you not try this if you are not experienced and qualified. Actually I should take my liability disclaimer a step further and say don’t ever do this, ever, it’s too dangerous.

How to Start a Fire Quickly Even With Wet Wood

As a kid growing up in Oregon, my grandfather used to take me fishing and camping and one wise thing he taught me was how to start a fire quickly even when everything is wet. He used to take me hiking to a remote place at the river to catch winter steelhead and in the winter it was cold and sometimes rainy and he knew that making sure I could start a fire if I got lost or in trouble was very important.

At a young age he taught me to always have a road flare in my backpack when going out in the wild like that. A road flare lights like a match and will burn with a hot flame for a long time. Once it is lit you can start putting dead branches or other dead wood into and around the flame. With a 15 minute flare even if the wood is soaked there is enough time for the hot flames to dry the wood and get it to burn.

If you don’t have dead wood available live wood can work too. It is more difficult to get green wood to burn but if you start putting small twigs in and around the hot flame from the flare they will eventually burn. Leaving the leaves and needles on the twigs can help since they dry out and ignite faster. It is much more difficult with green wood so always go for the dead wood if available.

Keep plenty of wood accumulated around the flame from the flare to make a hot core of burning wood as soon as possible and that will be hot enough to support the fire after the flare goes out. Place the wood so it holds in heat but can still get good air circulation to supply the fire with plenty oxygen. The tee pee shape can work good for this. Once you get a good hot core of burning wood with a bed of coals you can throw just about any kind of wood on it and it will burn.

It have heard stories of people going out in the snow and kids going on family outings and a kid or even an adult gets separated and lost and freezes to death. If they had a flare and were taught how to use it, it may have saved their lives.

Any time I am out in the wild in cold weather I always have at least one flare in my pack or at least in my vehicle if I know I am not going far away from it. It is a good habit to get into and something that is good to teach your kids. A road flare is very inexpensive and having one on hand may save your life.

How to Split Firewood Using Only a Small Folding Handsaw

In this video you will learn how to split firewood using only a small folding handsaw. This technique could be useful for backpacking or survival situations. The man in this video claims that he would rather pack a light saw than an ax. An ax is heavy and dangerous but a saw is safer to use and more versatile. He will also show you at the end of the video the proper way to use a hand saw so you can cut for a long time without getting tired.

To split firewood with a handsaw, make a cross cut in the middle of the log about half way through. Then hit the cut area of the log against a hard surface like a tree, rock,stump, log etc. The cut spot makes a weak spot where the log will split down the middle since it is easier for the log to split than break across the grain.

In the video he explains that if you are in a survival situation and you are tired, dehydrated or otherwise not performing at your best, an ax is especially dangerous and difficult to use. In a situation where you were injured and unable to swing an ax, the saw technique would probably be easier if you needed to split your firewood into kindling to get a fire stated.