Wood Burner Stoves – Heating with Wood – Logs
Wood burner stoves come in a myriad of designs. It isn’t just what they look like that’s important, it’s what fuel they will burn too. If you are considering using multiple fuel types, such as primarily coal, with wood burning as a supplement when you have logs available, ensure the wood burner you’re considering will burn both types of fuel to your satisfaction.
As coal produces more ash than wood, it is essential your stove be fitted with a grate. This allows the coal ash to fall away from the fire plate, to keep your fire burning efficiently in the long term. Wood for burning comes in many different guises. As we’ll assume you’re looking to provide heating with wood, let’s forget about the coal for a moment, and have a look at the types of wood you may consider using.
Logs, chips, pellets and heat logs are all suitable, ways of heating with wood. Prices, efficiency and availability of each vary according to location and the type of wood stove you are using. Whenever purchasing a new wood burning stove make sure it is suitable for the type of wood you have most readily available in your area. In this post we’ll be looking at heating with logs.
Heating with Wood – Logs
Perhaps the most obvious choice are logs when considering heating your home with wood. Logs should be available from farmers, tree surgeons and coal merchants. You will need to buy in bulk if you’re hoping to provide your main form of heating via a wood burning stove. So as well as deciding which wood burner to go for, you’ll need to consider wood storage too.
Seasoned Logs for the Woodburning Stove
Logs contain varying amounts of water content when freshly cut, but 65% moisture is not uncommon. As a general rule all wood should be air-dried for one or two summers prior to use on a wood burning stove. Burning ‘wet’ wood is inefficient and produces a large volume of soot which can build up in the chimney or flue.
Whether you buy ready seasoned (air dried) wood or fresh timber, you will need to store it in the same manner. The wood should be outside, in a well ventilated area, but protected from the rain. Ideally all logs should be brought into the home a few days before use, to allow them to dry out even further before they go into the wood burner.
It is sometimes possible to purchase kiln dried logs for use in your wood burning stove. This guarantees the suitability of the timber for heating your home. But, it always comes at a cost. This is a more expensive and less energy efficient way of heating with wood and is best avoided when possible.
Types of Log for the Wood Burning Stove
All types of wood burn differently, some provide more energy than others. But as a general rule we only need to think in terms of softwood and hardwood.
Softwood comes from quick growing conifers and pines. It is relatively light for its size, which makes it an inefficient form of heat. Being of a low density, softwoods burn quickly, making them more difficult to use in a manual wood burning stove, particularly if you’re hoping to keep the fire in overnight.
Much preferred as a form of heating, are hardwoods. These are more heavy and dense than softwood, and so burn much more slowly. It is far easier to keep a fire in overnight if using hardwood logs.
But, hardwoods generally are more slow growing trees and so much more difficult to manage sustainably than soft wood. In any case, heating with wood which is local and readily available is perhaps the most important part of keeping your home warm in an economical and environmentally friendly fashion.
