Any experience with "BioBricks, Envi-Blocks or SmartLogs? Getting cold here.

So it's cold here in Maine and we bought 2 cords of "dry" firewood this fall....... well bastard said it was dry - it seemed OK on stacking it but it's pretty wet.

Anyway - nobody has any dry wood around us. Has anyone ever used any of the compressed wood "logs" such as the ones I listed in the title bar there?

We bought a package of "SmartLogs" from the local small lumber yard and they are actually pretty nice but seem to burn too fast. Nice and hot though. In looking on the web it seems they are the lowest rated compared to the others such as the "BioBricks" and Envi-Blocks"

Any input?

Thanks all - off to bed. atriot:

Doug

Thanks - I know all the tricks and to be honest I wasn't that worried about it at the time. I was busy and the wood at least looked nice and clean so I didn't bother with much testing. The price was such that we got a decent deal even if it's wet. So next year we'll be good to go.

I *thought* we had a supply of TRUELY dry wood that a friend had stored in his garage - he ended up having to move and forgot to tell me to come pick up the wood so the landlord now owns it. In his defense it was a messy divorce thing and I can see why he forgot about it.

It's not a big deal really as our house only used $300 worth of propane and 3/4 cord of wood from september to april last year. And that includes the hot water and cook stove. Yes we have a VERY efficient house.

1500 sq/ft 1.5 story (cape style) timber frame with 20 plus inch thick "Straw-Bale" walls. About an R-50 wall - passive solar all day long and insulated shades at night.

Radiant heat (96+% efficient condensing water heater operating a direct in floor tube system) set at 60-62 deg. or so. Use the fire to take the chill off.

It's 11 degrees outside right now and been snowing all day - was about 4 degrees last night and our heat has not kicked on once in over 24 hours. Burned about 8 16 inch split logs.