Stove questions.....

What do you think of the price for the dry wood? Is it worth it or should I be able to get it much cheaper?

Any wood you get needs to be well seasoned, so you can't just buy anything. Here's a good list of the various types of wood to consider.

Look for a a local company that uses wood in it's manufacture, and see if they give out the offcuts. I have a local stair manufacturer, and they have to pay for disposal of the offcuts, so loads of freebies there. You can also keep an eye out for any wood being thrown out, but you'll need a wood store to let you season anything you get, even some of the hardwoods you buy in bulk will very likely need seasoning as well. If there is more than about 18% moisture in the wood, then it can generate steam that will overheat the stove and put out a hot stove burning smell. Get yourself a wood moisture meter.
 
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Any wood you get needs to be well seasoned, so you can't just buy anything. Here's . If there is more than about 18% moisture in the wood, then it can generate steam that will overheat the stove and put out a hot stove burning smell.
Well I have to say that's a new one in me, have you any links to enlighten me please? In my nearly 50 years of wood burning I have found that burning damp wood produces little heat but the resulting steam and tar that is produced can cause a horrible smell and possibly a stove or chimney fire or blockage
litl
 
It's possible that the horrible smell you get, is the same as the hot burning smell that I'm talking about. Obviously it'll affect stove differently due to their composition (steel, cast iron, thickness etc) I find it happens more with oak as well. No links I'm afraid; it was explained to me by a stove company, and it seemed to fit the bill for the problems I was having.
 
Any wood you get needs to be well seasoned, so you can't just buy anything. Here's a good list of the various types of wood to consider.

Look for a a local company that uses wood in it's manufacture, and see if they give out the offcuts. I have a local stair manufacturer, and they have to pay for disposal of the offcuts, so loads of freebies there. You can also keep an eye out for any wood being thrown out, but you'll need a wood store to let you season anything you get, even some of the hardwoods you buy in bulk will very likely need seasoning as well. If there is more than about 18% moisture in the wood, then it can generate steam that will overheat the stove and put out a hot stove burning smell. Get yourself a wood moisture meter.

I agree - offcuts are great, (pallets also don't usually need seasoning), and a moisture meter can radically reduce your wood consumption.
I wouldn't trust that list, from my experience. As a general rule of thumb, pretty much any wood properly seasoned will burn well. There's a much greater variation between species if you burn green wood - but that would be a silly thing to do - you'd never soak dry wood in water before burning it, any more than you'd pour water in your woodburner to make it work better. Seasoned willow sticks make great kindling - it wouldn't be grown for biomass boilers if it didn't burn well, seasoned laburnum burns well in my woodburners, and the eucalyptus doesn't spit. For a better understanding - I'd recommend reading a copy of The Log Book - it certainly reduced my fuel use, without reducing heat output.
 
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As stated, logs are usually sold by volume, not weight. A cubic metre of seasoned hardwood logs round our way starts at around 90 quid, less if you buy greater quantities. You can certainly burn pallets and any other kind of scrap wood, and anything that has already been used as timber is, per se, already seasoned. Scrap softwood burns extremely quickly, however, so expect to be up and down loading the stove several times in an hour.

We've had out stove for six winters come this year, and use it as our main form of heating, with the central heating as backup. The first year I used mainly pallets (Travis Perkins are keen to get rid of them - cut up with a circular saw and remove the nails from the grate after burning). Most years the neighbour and I have managed to hunt a tree or two from a local farmer. If you're cutting your own wood you need to season it for at least a year before using (two years if it's someone's Leylandii hedge). Last year I was relaint entirely on someone's scrap timber. This year I'll well down on supplies, and may have to bite the bullet and buy some.

You need a lot of volume of wood, compared with a more concentrated fuel like coal. In a normal winter I get through the entire contents of my wood shed, which I estimate at 3-4 cubic metres.
 
Hi guys. Really sorry for not replying sooner. I've been very poorly, so haven't been on the computer.

Thanks for all your replies.

I don't know if you've heard, but today's news is that Sadiq Khan is proposing a total ban on wood burning stoves...starting with London of course, but I assume if this went ahead, then all councils would eventually follow.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4573185/open-fireplaces-face-uk-ban-in-bid-to-tackle-air-pollution/

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-demands-11257900

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41439268
 
I think they have a point with open fires. They produce very little heat, aren't very efficient and can't be easily controlled. A modern wood burner is much better at extracting energy from the smoke and it is cycled round and round to before going up the chimney.
 
yes - a typical room will air change once an hour with an open chimney.
 
The worry now is that in the near future they may totally ban wood-burning stoves or at least force owners to upgrade to a more efficient version.
 
Typical Sadiq Kahn knee jerk reaction. If he made taxis turn off their engines whilst waiting for a new fare, and made trafic lights change quicker, then he wouldn't have to grab the cheap headlines going after stoves.

He's only stopping wood from being burned in open fires, and for it to be enforced in the heavily polluted areas, and he's only banning the sales of the non Defra approved stoves, so this shouldn't really be an issue.
 
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today's news is that Sadiq Khan is proposing a total ban on wood burning stoves

No he isn't

"Under the mayor's proposals only low-emission versions of wood-burning stoves would be allowed to remain on the market."

Perhaps we should have a discussion about whether smoky fires should be allowed in a densely-populated city that sits in a large basin. Or what was the reason the Clean Air Acts were introduced.

Sadly this false report has fired up people who have an innate hatred of the current mayor.
 
I'm becoming heartily sick and tired of this trendy London mayor and, for that matter, all eco-warriors.

Just a personal opinion.
 
I'm not sure what to believe right now, to be honest.

Some news articles state he's asking for a total ban,

but Guardian in THIS article, states:

"Sadiq Khan’s proposed ban on wood-burning stoves in the most-polluted areas of London will not be enforced against householders and will only be in operation at certain times of the year.

Under the mayor of London’s plans, the stoves would be occasionally banned from use in zones in the capital from 2025 and UK-wide laws blocking the sale of all but the newest, cleanest stoves from 2022 would be brought in earlier.

In an attempt to reassure the thousands of Londoners who bought the stoves in good faith, the focus will be on educating owners not to burn wood during bad air quality episodes. Authorities will reserve enforcement for commercial users such as hotels."
 

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