Month: December 2010

Should Firewood Be Stored In a Garage?

A garage can be a great place to store firewood as far as keeping the wood dry and clean. Many people do store their firewood in the garage, but there are some reasons why you might want to think twice about it.

Disadvantages to Storing Firewood In a Garage

One of the biggest problems with firewood storage is the mess it creates. Firewood is inherently messy with dirt, sawdust, bark, moss, lichen and all the other debris that accumulate in the woods. It can also have insects, spiders and other small crawling critters. Even if the wood is clean and free of such things, it will make great habitat for them in your garage and they will likely move in on their own. Debris from wood always seem to find their way around the garage.

Wood piles can also attract mice, snakes, lizards, scorpions and other small critters that you may not want living and breeding in your garage. But if your garage door is kept closed and there are no openings for these animals to get in, then this may not be a problem for you.

Another thing to consider is the value of your garage space. Unless you just have a few pieces, firewood can take up a lot of space. Since firewood can be stored outside just fine, you may have more valuable uses for the garage space.

Firewood is meant to be burned so obviously it can be a fire hazard. If your wood pile is close to any ignition source it could catch fire. Keep it away from work areas where there may be sparks or open flames from things like welders, grinders, torches, car, motorcycle or other engines and exhaust pipes, etc. If you commonly have ignition sources in your garage, it is probably best to store your wood somewhere else.

Advantages of Storing Firewood in a Garage

Storing firewood in a garage does have advantages that can outweigh the disadvantages for some people. A garage is great for keeping your wood dry. Not only because the wood will have a roof over it, a garage is usually a drier climate than outside and will have drier air in cold weather. Especially if connected to your home where it will be warmer inside.

Bringing wood in from the garage is convenient, especially if the garage is attached to the home. No covering and uncovering the pile as you might have to do with a tarp covered outdoor pile. You can bring in the wood without going out in the rain and cold. No putting on a jacket and boots.

Firewood stored in a garage will also tend to be cleaner. It will be off the ground and out of the weather, away from falling leaves and other outside debris. And even though it may attract pests like insects and rodents, as mentioned above, it will probably attract fewer in the garage than if it was stored outside.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to storing firewood in a garage. Where you store yours all comes down to your preferences and what you value most.

Is Burning Firewood Bad For The Environment?

The question of whether or not burning firewood is bad for the environment, depends on how it is done. People can burn responsibly and minimize the pollution their fire creates, or they can choose to disregard good burning practices and burn fires that make a lot of smoke for their neighbors to breathe. Firewood can also be harvested in a responsible way that enhances forest health, or it can be done in ways that can harm the health of the forest.

Wood smoke is a natural part of the Earth’s environment. Lightning sparked fires have been regularly burning long before humans ever invented fire. Since we started suppressing wildfires, some would argue that there is less wood smoke in the atmosphere now than there was back when wildfires were left to roam free. There is also debate about whether this is a good or a bad thing. But the main point is the smoke from wood burning is a natural component of the atmosphere that the Earth has adapted to long ago.

But on the other hand, burning wet wood or otherwise having an inefficient fire that smokes your neighbors out is just not a nice thing to do, and can contribute to local air pollution and possible health problems. On a worldwide scale, the atmosphere can handle wood smoke just fine, but concentrated levels in poorly ventilated areas can be a problem. There are modern wood stoves that can burn very clean with dry wood and good burning techniques. It all depends on you the operator.

The other environmental concern with firewood is with deforestation and damaging the forests to produce firewood. In some parts of the world, deforestation from cutting fuel wood is a problem. This is mostly in third world countries where people are more concerned about survival than they are about the forest health. But here in North America, Europe, Australia and the rest of the industrialized world, deforestation for firewood is not so much of a problem. But this is not to say there are not problems here.

In most cases, modern forest harvesting in industrialized countries does not lead to deforestation. Even though trees are cut, new trees usually grow to take their place. In many areas, reforestation is required by law. But at the same time, harvesting trees can be done in ways that enhance forest health, and can also be done in ways that are not the best for the forests. It all comes down to who you buy your firewood from and what their harvest practices are.

If you but firewood from people who are cutting down the larger, healthiest, vigorously growing climax species of trees to make firewood, that is probably not the best choice for forest health. But if you choose to buy firewood from people who are cutting it from trees that are being thinned to allow the healthiest and most vigorous trees to grow better, your wood burning can help fund the enhancement forest health.

There are many forest enhancement projects that produce wood that is not suitable for making lumber that is cut into firewood. Much of this would otherwise be left on the ground to rot or burned, which releases CO2 into the atmosphere anyway. So burning this wood for heating your home can be a great way to utilize this biofuel energy source that would otherwise go to waste.

Burning firewood can either be damaging to the environment or it can be helpful. It all comes down to your choices as a consumer and the way you burn your wood and the source you choose to get it from.

Wood Fired Water Heater

A wood fired water heater can be good for off grid applications. We have one in a remote cabin and it produces all the free hot water we want to use. It’s similar in shape and size to a small gas water heater but has a small wood firebox at the bottom.

This type of water heater can be plumbed into your home’s hot water line, just the same and just as easy as any traditional gas or electric water heater. We actually have both a propane and the wood fired water heater hooked up parallel next to each other.  A valve between the two allows us to simply direct which one the water will flow through.

The only problem with the wood fired water heater is there is some inconvenience. In order to have hot water we have to plan ahead and build a fire ahead of time.

The firebox is small and the door is even smaller so it can only handle small pieces. It does draft very well and is easy to get a fire started. We mostly use small flakes and wood chips that accumulate around our wood splitters for fuel. Just a few of these is all it takes to heat the whole tank of water.

It can take up to 20 minutes to a half hour for the water to get over 120 degrees. At that point there is enough hot water for two hot showers. And I don’t mean just quick showers, there is actually enough to enjoy a good shower, plus enough left over to wash the dishes.

For a remote vacation home, the wood fired hot water heater works great. For every day use, building a fire every time you want hot water is probably too much of an inconvenience for most. But for someone who has no other choice, or for someone who just wants to heat their water with free renewable energy, a wood fired water heater like this one can be very practical.

Our water heater was bought 10 years ago or more and unfortunately the manufacturer is no longer building them, otherwise I would include their contact information. If you know of anything similar or have had any experience with wood fired water heaters that you can share please post a comment below.

I recently found a new wood fired water heater made by an Australian company. I have not tried it but it looks promising. It is a simple and clever way to use heat from your wood stove to heat your water. Check out the Axeman Fire Flue wood fired hot water heater.

Wood Fired Hot Water Heater – Axeman Fire Flue