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I’m not an expert either but I have experience with getting fires to burn. Starting a fire in the cold is quite a bit harder. Mostly because if it’s cold, the
by fallingfrog 6y ago
I’m not an expert either but I have experience with getting fires to burn. Starting a fire in the cold is quite a bit harder. Mostly because if it’s cold, then it’s the middle of winter, and that means the kindling is covered with ice and snow, which has to be melted and evaporated off. A dry log has a lot of potential energy in it. A frozen log full of water and snow has zero or even negative potential energy, as in, even if you get it to burn it might take more heat out of the fire because of the ice than it adds back by burning.
But, that might not apply to peat fires because 1) larger, hotter fires make more efficient use of fuel, especially if they are in some insulated space where all the heat is not going straight into the atmosphere and 2) the peat might be dry.
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoScouts learn to start a fire in any weather - even cold rain. You split the log and use the dry wood inside for kindling. Wood takes a season to dry in the first place, and isn't going to get wet (inside) just because it's raining. FWIW
- chczdc 6y agoYou still have to reach the fuel’s ignition T and to do that you’re going to have to heat it above 100C, which means you’ll have to spend heat drying it out. Even if the peat moss is “dry” it still has water and if the T is -50, you also have to melt it
- ashtonkem 6y agoAnd peat is nowhere near as dense or insulating as wood. Wood doesn’t really want to change temperatures easily, which is partially why we make floors out of it.