Firewood + fuel efficiency

Getting fuel is a real pain in the neck, but I like to keep a fire burning all day in my shelter while I’m in, to keep morale up, provide light for crafting and to avoid using battery power.

Now, I’ve discovered that a two by four can be butchered to make splintered wood. Equally, at survival 3, you can make a stone axe and chop trees down into logs or planks. Does anyone have any formula for how long these will burn?

Realistically, the logs should burn longest and slowest, with the other types of wood acting as kindling but the game may not model this, meaning it might be most efficient to use loads of splintered wood rather than one log.

Logs burn for much longer than planks, but there are fewer of them.

For crafting, it’s most efficient to use loads of splintered wood than 1 log, because no matter how small the fire is (1 string), you can cook 20 cooked meats. Each individual splintered wood lasts way shorter than a log, but if you have 50 splintered woods vs. 1 log, you can use 1 splintered wood for every time you need fire, giving you the ability to. With the log, you have to use the entire thing if you want a fire. If you do a long crafting project (grinding flour with mortar and pestle which takes 1hr15mins), the log will burn up around I think 50%+. 50 splintered woods can do 1 project each meaning 50 projects, but 1 log can only do at most 5 projects.

If you’re talking about just light, then single logs are the way to go. They burn the slowest and provide consistent light. If you set multiple splintered woods on fire at once, they will give a more violent fire than the log (more fuel), but for shorter (they don’t last long).

That’s ace. Thanks for the detailed reply!

I think I’ll go with logs, then, for the rp value of having an ongoing fire.

For me, I tend to fill a cargo carrier with two by fours, then after that add a couple of logs. The fire can then last for weeks.

How do you get moral from a fire? Does it give you a comfort bonus or what?

If you need a fire for a crafting process it doesn’t matter how long the fire lasts. If you craft a large batch of items and it takes 6 hours the fire only needs to last until the crafting starts.

True, but I like having a long-lasting fire so I don’t need to be bothered re-lighting things again.

crafting an ember carrier is a good way to deal with constant relight needs. Especially if you are running low on lighter, or are having to fall back on fire drills. (I think you might need More survival tools mod or something for these though…)

yes you do. although personally I never found the ember carrier that useful.

it is usually unnecesary if you have any decent lighting method.

From the same mod before I either got a working mobile base or the integrated toolset. From the same mod I found the hobo stove EXTREMELY useful as it was literally a junk powered hotplate.

You don’t have to re-light now if the fire is in a fire container, like braziers, wood stoves and such.

Oh, so fire holding stuff holds the embers allowing for quick relight? Cool

Doesn’t hold the ember, but will burn its fuel without the constant going out every 10 minutes.

I found it very useful on a previous winter innawoods character. Fire drills take forever to light, while an ember carrier is virtually instantaneous, so there was no time or charges wasted on constantly relighting the logs to keep warm. All I had to do to maintain the ember carrier was turn a splintered wood into tinder and feed it in twice a day – usually once before bedtime and once when I got up.
Now that fire is fixed I suppose I’m more likely to use a fire drill in those situations since the logs stay lit for hours.

Fire drills take forever to light, while an ember carrier is virtually instantaneous, so there was no time or charges wasted on constantly relighting the logs to keep warm. All I had to do to maintain the ember carrier was turn a splintered wood into tinder and feed it in twice a day – usually once before bedtime and once when I got up.[/quote]

Fire still goes out constantly during rainstorms, so having 5-6 different things you want to craft, ember carrier can be VERY useful.

Cover the fire? I mean one of the great things of firecontainers is that they don’t spread smoke, so it lets you having them indoors.

Also kinda off-topic but I was thinking of a “covered” firecontainer to use in a storm.

Speaking of covered containers do fires inside ovens get put out if in rain?

one of the great things of firecontainers is that they don't spread smoke, so it lets you having them indoors.

Wait so a brazier indoors gives off no smoke? That makes no sense but good to know.

I think so, never test it. But it has the FIRE_CONTAINER flag, so I guess it will go out in rain.

Braziers and everything with the FIRE_CONTAINER flag, like wood stoves and whatever else has that flag.