Robert Wilton

Nancy Reading wrote:

Robert Wilton wrote:Like digging into a mulch pile in the sun, it gets Hot! In the middle and that updraft is the biggest benefit of this stacking

That's interesting, I wouldn't have thought there was much increased heat from wood drying (until they start rottin perhaps). I wonder if that is dependent on the wood. Usually evaporation cools.

(OT - I'm thinking now about hollow compost heaps...)

That's true and maybe the example of a compost heap wasn't a good choice. Perhaps a barn loft or empty attic in August would have been a better way.  If it is all closed up, out in the wide open with the sun beating down it..it gets hot.  Stacking the innards like a chimney encourages airflow though and the draft greatly increases drying.  A hot day that gets moisture out of the wood doesn't do as much good if that moisture just hangs there in the trapped air.  Not that it is fully enclosed but lower airflow = lower efficiency

In regards to rain going in...  you place the logs in that fashion until about 2/3 up your pile height for stability then stop using scraps/rings and allow it to level out.  Then you stop adding rows but put continue to build up the center to provide your pitch while making sure last few rows are bark side up to shed rain.  The little bit of water that gets on your wood won't matter, even in a down pour, that surface moisture has little effect compared to the internal moisture of green wood and is still 'dry'.  I wouldn't put rounds in middle though, rounds do not dry well and I feel they wouldn't get the chimney effect that upright, split would does.  Unless, like OP, you're stacking it for 2 years in which case it matters fairly little. Like digging into a mulch pile in the sun, it gets Hot! In the middle and that updraft is the biggest benefit of this stacking