My personal worry is about the chimney. I have a friend who burns fresh wood and needs the chimney cleaned twice a winter. I think it is worse because they bank the fire at night and let the green wood smolder.
Our chimney guy says small, hot fires, with mass near the stove to keep the heat, is the way to go. His advise is, if we have to use fresh wood, chop it small, bring it inside a few days before, and the day before, bring it near enough to the stove to get heat, but outside the...can't remember the technical name, but there is a safety zone the city requires around all live flame where the house and stuff are hard to burn. It's usually rock or brick on top if fireproof plywood or something. Mostly, i suspect it's about sparks. Drying fresh wood needs to be beyond that, he says.
The rocks also help hold the heat which is nice.
He also suggested to start burning the green wood BEFORE running out of the aged wood. That way we can mix aged wood at least 20% to help keep the fire smaller and hotter.
We get the chimney cleaned at least every other year and the guy always complains it's too clean. We should be going 4 years between sweeping at the way we burn our woodstove. We burn most days in the winter.
an insomniac misanthrope who enjoys cooking, textile arts, farming and eating delicious food.
