The MC of partially dried wood can be measured with a resistance meter. In this method two pins are inserted into the wood and the measured resistance can be converted to a MC value. This technique works, however, only for MC values below fibre saturation point (around 30 % MC), on large enough samples and is generally not very accurate.

For bioenergy purposes the MC is typically determined with the ovendry method (ASTM D1762). For this a small sample is cut, weighed when wet, dried at 103 ± 2 °C for at least 24 h and weighed again when dry. MC can then be calculated according to Eqs. 8.1 or 8.2.