Choosing the right firewood for your needs is not always easy so here are a few useful tips, although you can always ring us at to discuss your requirements.
How To Chose The Right Firewood – Firewood for a Wood Burning Stove
It is essential that you use dry firewood in your stove. Manufacturers often recommend a maximum of 20% moisture content; At bestlogs all our logs have a moisture content of less than 20%, This quality will ensure a clean burn with no blackening of the stove glass or build-up of soot or tar in the chimney or flue. It also means that in an efficient stove, you will actually use far less firewood, so more cost effective.
Our kiln dried logs are ‘Ready to burn’ so all you need to do is just ensure they are stored in a cool dry place, either in a log store or shed.
How To Chose The Right Firewood – Firewood for Open Fires
Firewood for Open Fires
When burning firewood logs on an open appliance, it’s impossible to control the air flow.
Never be tempted to go for wet firewood – Yes, they will burn slower, but you won’t get the heat output and you will actually end up using up to twice as much firewood to generate the same heat AND you will get the soot and tar build up in your chimney.
How much firewood do I need?
A tricky question to answer as it will depend on so many factors:
- The efficiency of your stove
- The size of your property
- How well insulated your property is.
- How often you use the stove
- How cold it is
- How you use your stove burning on full airflow all the time or on low heat.
However, this is a common question we get asked so to give you some idea. Assuming you are using the most efficient fuel – kiln dried firewood, then in an average year you are likely to use 3-4 cubic metres of firewood. Remember that you will use significantly more wood if it is not dry because it provides far less heat energy therefore you need a lot more wood – up to twice as much.
Chimney Cleaning
Even though you are going to be using high quality fuel which provides a clean burn, you should still ensure your flue or chimney is swept a minimum of once a year and we recommend you use an approved chimney sweep. We recommend http://dublinchimneysweep.com
Moisture Content
The best way to dry wood is to cook it in a kiln. Kilns provide the nice, even roasting that hardwood logs need to truly dry well. The kiln dried logs for sale by BESTLOGS have been cooked until they hold less than 20% moisture content. Since we are careful and consistent in the drying process, we avoid case hardening. Case hardening occurs when hardwood logs are dried too quickly. The outside layers of the log shrink too quickly under these circumstances, and crush the heartwood and the moisture in it under remarkable pressures. If case hardened logs are cut or burnt, the release of tension can be dramatic or even dangerous. That is why we bake firewood gently and evenly at appropriate temperatures. There is no reason to cook the wood too hot. After all, it makes no sense to waste firewood making firewood. So long as the kiln is designed well and maintained well then the logs will dry out well.