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Green (ie. recently felled or cut) firewood will actually burn, but so much energy is taken to evaporate the moisture inside the wood, that very little heat is produced to warm your home. |
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Green firewood burns at such a low temperature that much of the combustible (burnable) part does not burn but is deposited as tar in your chimney. |
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Prolonged burning of green timber could deposit enough tar into your chimney stack to produce a chimney fire that could cause structural damage to your home. |
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Seasoned (dried out) firewood will produce far fewer jumping sparks (spit less) than green firewood. |
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Wood from the Common Ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) has such a low moisture content, it counts as dry firewood on the day it is felled. Even when seasoned (very dry,) Ash still burns steadily for a long time with a small flame and will put out a lot of heat. |
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Hence the saying “Ash burned green is firewood for the Queen, Ash burned dry is firewood for you and I.” |
What's Best? Wood Burning Stoves or Open Fires?
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An open fire looks very attractive and is very welcoming on a cold winter's evening. |
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Burning firewood on an open fire produces a lot of heat however 75% is immediately wasted going straight up the chimney and out of your home. |
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With a roaring open fire on the go, there is no need for television! |
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Burning firewood in an enclosed wood burning stove enables 75% of the heat to warm your home and only 25% escapes up the chimney. |
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By controlling the air flow, a stove will allow your firewood to burn for much longer than on an open fire. |
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A good stove will allow the fire to stay burning all the time on wood alone. No need to use any dirty, smelly coal! |
How To Best Store Your Firewood: |
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Where most people go wrong in burning wood is in how they process and store it before it is burned. |
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Many different people will tell you many different (so called) “rules” about leaving certain types of wood on the ground for 12 months before cutting and splitting; In my experience, all firewood should be cut to length and split as soon as possible after felling. |
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After splitting, firewood should be seasoned. To season wood properly, it needs to be stored undercover and with a through draught for at least a summer. |
Top Tips For Using Firewood In The Home: |
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Unless you are buying dry firewood, you need to have proper woodsheds with a roof and at least one open side, a lean-to may suffice. A tarpaulin over a pile of logs on the ground will only result in the wood rotting rather than drying properly as desired. |
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If possible you should have three compartments to your woodshed; 1) Green / freshly cut wood, 2) Drying wood, 3) Fully seasoned wood or Ash. Always feeding your fire directly from compartment 3. |
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If you only have enclosed storage space then you need to buy 100% Ash firewood, or firewood that is already dry (seasoned.) |
