Steel
Steel is a hard, strong, durable, malleable alloy of iron and carbon, usually containing between 0.2 and 1.5 percent carbon, usually with other constituents such as manganese, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, copper, tungsten, cobalt, or silicon, depending on the desired properties. Steel is widely used as a structural material.
Thousands of products having various chemical composition, forms, and sizes are made of steel. They are made by casting, forging, and rolling processes. Iron and steel comprise about 95 percent of all the tonnage of metal produced annually in the United States and the world. On the average, iron and steel are by far the least expensive of the world's metals. In some applications no other materials are suitable, such as steel framing for large buildings, because of strength requirements.
Steel is probably the best material for a firewood rack. Commercial steel is typically stronger than most other reasonably priced and available materials. The paint on a steel wood rack should be baked on or otherwise applied to last. If the paint is damaged the rack should be repainted or it may rust. Most commercially available wood racks are made of steel.
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Firewood
Firewood, one of nature's most common methods of storing solar energy, is a renewable energy source. It is a relatively clean, efficient, safe energy source having low sulfur content and is generally found throughout the country. Its primary products of combustion are carbon dioxide, water vapor and ash. The ash content is low (only one to two percent by weight) and that which does remain can be used as a worthwhile soil conditioner.
A wood fire is easy to start and produces a large quantity of heat in a short time. An ample air supply to the wood fire is important to ensure complete burning of combustible gases. Wood fires are ideal where heat is required only occasionally, for warming a living area on cool days or for supplying extra heat in extremely cold weather. When considering firewood as a primary heat source, several factors must be carefully weighed to ensure satisfactory results and acceptable deficiencies.
The heat content of a wood fire depends on firewood density, resin, ash and moisture. A rule of thumb often used for estimating heat value of firewood is that one cord of well-seasoned hardwood (weighing about two tons) burned in an airtight, draft-controlled wood stove with a 55-65% efficiency is equivalent to approximately 175 gallons of #2 fuel oil or 225 therms of natural gas consumed in normal furnaces having 65-75% efficiencies. Generally, hardwoods which provide long-burning fires contain the greatest total heating value per unit of volume. Softwoods which give a fast burning, cracking blaze are less dense and contain less total heating value per unit of volume.
All firewoods dried to the same moisture content contain approximately the same heat value per pound; from 8,000 to 9,500 BTU for fully dried wood and 5,500 to 8,500 BTU for air-seasoned wood.