This winter seems a good time to check on the value of a woodshed in keeping firewood dry. I’ve made it in far enough that I can sample wood that has been in the shed since last April, and I still have some firewood stacked out to dry from late fall – tarped, but not so well protected from the elements.
Now the half-dozen blocks that I’ve moved inside the house might as well have done their time in a dry kiln – my harbor freight moisture meter checks them out at 5 or 6% moisture.
The wood that is half-way back in the woodshed, protected from rain since April, is checking out at 11 or 12% moisture – the data suggests that a woodshed with three walls does a lot to keep the firewood dry – atmospheric humidity doesn’t seem to be causing much change inside the wood as rain does. All this wood did have the benefit of being undercover through a hot, dry summer, and having a couple rows of wood between it and the outside during the rains we did get.
In stacks outside – all set up between October and the end of November, things aren’t quite so dry.
The books say that firewood moisture should be between 15 and 20%. From that perspective, the outside stacks are still pretty good . . . but it is kind of a luxury to start the fire with the really dry wood that comes from the woodshed.
Trego's Mountain Ear 