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I was told in Winter when very cold burn hard wood and when not so cold burn softwood however when I look on the Forrestry Commission website I note there is very little in the heat outputs of soft and hard woods when measured by the kWh/tonne or GJ/tonne (divide or times by 360 to change between the two).
However when we fill a stove we fill a set volume not a set weight so with the old idea of banking down stoves and burning 24/7 then clearly soft and hard woods would make a difference.
However because of particular emissions stoves need to be run hot and excess stored in a heat store Megaflow, Gledhill and Willis for example and then called upon when the stove is not lit so no longer should we run stoves 24/7 at least not if we are trying to be eco-friendly.
Some stoves are very good at controlling the flue temperature where others are not so I would consider much will depend on the make and type of stove but where the flue becomes hotter with hard wood than it is with soft wood then it would seem more heat is leaving the house up the flue so hard woods may in fact not be as good as soft woods assuming bought by weight and it would be silly to buy by volume.
However the guy who asked me to look into wood burner efficiency only has very old wood burners so there is no way for me to test a modern eco-friendly system to show if using hard or soft wood matters.
I am sure there must be people with these modern systems which will comply with HETAS (Heating Equipment Testing and Approval Scheme) and DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) rules plus all the Part L, J etc building regulations who can report what in real life does using hard or soft woods mean when using a wood stove. Theory is great but what about in the real world?
Clearly at £11,000 to fit a system ( Which guide) without knowing what to really expect is not something I would want to do and the guy already has the woodland and he is not allowed to change type of tree grown as it is a SSSI site.
Any input would be appreciated.
Eric
However when we fill a stove we fill a set volume not a set weight so with the old idea of banking down stoves and burning 24/7 then clearly soft and hard woods would make a difference.
However because of particular emissions stoves need to be run hot and excess stored in a heat store Megaflow, Gledhill and Willis for example and then called upon when the stove is not lit so no longer should we run stoves 24/7 at least not if we are trying to be eco-friendly.
Some stoves are very good at controlling the flue temperature where others are not so I would consider much will depend on the make and type of stove but where the flue becomes hotter with hard wood than it is with soft wood then it would seem more heat is leaving the house up the flue so hard woods may in fact not be as good as soft woods assuming bought by weight and it would be silly to buy by volume.
However the guy who asked me to look into wood burner efficiency only has very old wood burners so there is no way for me to test a modern eco-friendly system to show if using hard or soft wood matters.
I am sure there must be people with these modern systems which will comply with HETAS (Heating Equipment Testing and Approval Scheme) and DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) rules plus all the Part L, J etc building regulations who can report what in real life does using hard or soft woods mean when using a wood stove. Theory is great but what about in the real world?
Clearly at £11,000 to fit a system ( Which guide) without knowing what to really expect is not something I would want to do and the guy already has the woodland and he is not allowed to change type of tree grown as it is a SSSI site.
Any input would be appreciated.
Eric