How to Maximize Your Firewood’s Burn Time

When you place logs in your wood-burning stove, fireplace or firepit, you want it to last as long as possible before adding more to the fire and relighting it. There’s a name for the total amount of time it takes your logs to go from ignition through smoldering: burn time.

This post will teach you more about firewood burn time in Seattle, WA and how you can prolong it for each of your fires.

How burn times work

While burn time refers to the maximum amount of time a wood unit will burn from a single load, it’s not actually that simple. The burn time is greatly impacted by the fireplace’s settings.

If the fireplace is set to burn on high (HHV), you’ll get more heat output (measured in BTUs); however, the wood will burn up faster, resulting in a shorter burn time. To maximize your burn time, set the fireplace to burn on low (LHV). You won’t get as warm of a fire, but it will burn for a much longer time.

It takes some trial and error to master, but you’ll eventually find the perfect combination to give you a warm fire that lasts for the perfect amount of time before it needs more wood.

Other factors that affect burn time

Besides the fireplace’s settings, there are several variables that affect fireplace burn time in Seattle, WA. These are a few of the most important ones:

• Wood species: The type of wood you buy or chop for your fire plays a big role in your burn time. Hardwoods, including oak, walnut and cherry, typically burn much longer than softwoods like pine and fir; however, hardwoods also need to be dried for longer to get the best results.
• Moisture content: Damp wood doesn’t burn as well as wood that’s been thoroughly dried out, which is also known as seasoned wood. To get the best burn time, the wood’s moisture content should be below 20 percent. It’s also important to note that wood with high moisture content can cause damage to fire features.
• Climate conditions: High humidity and higher altitudes may also affect your firewood burn time in Seattle, WA. When it’s humid outside, the moisture in the air lowers the expected burn time. Additionally, the thinner air at higher altitudes means less oxygen for the fire and a shorter burn time.
• Installation: Whether or not you get the best burn time starts with whom you choose to install your fire feature. An inexperienced team might install the unit incorrectly, which results in poor performance. To ensure you get the most out of your fire feature, always hire a reputable team to install it.

Maximize your burn time by hiring Custom Fire Art

Set yourself up for success by having your fire feature installed by our pros at Custom Fire Art. We only work with the top brands and products, so you’ll get the most out of your fireplace burn time in Seattle, WA when you let our team install your fireplace, firepit or wood-burning stove.

Categorised in: Wood Stoves

This post was written by Writer