acer saccharum
ArboristSite Member
I've been been doing an experiment tracking the weight of a couple pieces of wood over the past year and here are the results. I do not have a moisture meter, I figured out the relative moisture content by weight alone. I used grams because it is easy to convert from grams to liters. 1000grams of water is a liter.
Piece 1, White Oak. This piece was cut green, split and stacked during the fall or winter of 2007/2008. The stack was covered on top, but was not in the full sun. I brought it inside and first weighed it on 1/31/2009. It has been on the hearth next to my insert ever since. (except to take it outside for a photo today.)
Date...........Weight....Loss
1/31/2009....5027g
2/14/2009....4557......470g..9%
12/6/2009....4109......918...18.2%
Loss of 918 grams, .918l or .97 of a quart of water.
(5027-4109)/5027 = 18.2%
I do not know the absolute moisture content, nor do I know the original as I started this a year after it was cut. However it had nearly a quart of water in it. It is also interesting to note that 1/2 of that water dried out of the wood in the first 14 days when it was adjacent to a burning stove.
Piece 2 is pin oak. Cut green and split in June 2009. It was immediately weighed and then placed in my cluttered garage where is has been kept since.
Date..........Weight.....Loss
7/1/2009....2214
12/6/2009..1477........737g..33%
Photo has this piece with a beer bottle next to it. 737g or .737l is more than 2 beers, a beer being .33l
I didn't realize how much water was in wood. Seeing that there was a quart of water in that block of wood was an eye opener for me. No way would I throw a quart of water on the fire when adding a piece of wood. But had I burned it that would have been what I was doing. And beer is for my belly, not the stove.
I'm going to continue this project by putting some pieces back outside to see how fast and how much water they reabsorb. I have a few more. So I can put one on top of the tarp, one under and one directly on the ground.
Piece 1, White Oak. This piece was cut green, split and stacked during the fall or winter of 2007/2008. The stack was covered on top, but was not in the full sun. I brought it inside and first weighed it on 1/31/2009. It has been on the hearth next to my insert ever since. (except to take it outside for a photo today.)
Date...........Weight....Loss
1/31/2009....5027g
2/14/2009....4557......470g..9%
12/6/2009....4109......918...18.2%
Loss of 918 grams, .918l or .97 of a quart of water.
(5027-4109)/5027 = 18.2%
I do not know the absolute moisture content, nor do I know the original as I started this a year after it was cut. However it had nearly a quart of water in it. It is also interesting to note that 1/2 of that water dried out of the wood in the first 14 days when it was adjacent to a burning stove.
Piece 2 is pin oak. Cut green and split in June 2009. It was immediately weighed and then placed in my cluttered garage where is has been kept since.
Date..........Weight.....Loss
7/1/2009....2214
12/6/2009..1477........737g..33%
Photo has this piece with a beer bottle next to it. 737g or .737l is more than 2 beers, a beer being .33l
I didn't realize how much water was in wood. Seeing that there was a quart of water in that block of wood was an eye opener for me. No way would I throw a quart of water on the fire when adding a piece of wood. But had I burned it that would have been what I was doing. And beer is for my belly, not the stove.
I'm going to continue this project by putting some pieces back outside to see how fast and how much water they reabsorb. I have a few more. So I can put one on top of the tarp, one under and one directly on the ground.
