Identifying Good Firewood

With gas prices going up each year and homeowners becoming more concerned about environmentally friendly energy, it is no wonder more and more people are investing in wood burning stoves.

However, it is important that you are able to identify good quality firewood to use in your wood burning stove, as this helps you to use it effectively and efficiently.

Seasoned Wood

The term seasoned wood, or seasoned timber, refers to wood that has been left to dry for at least 12-18 months in storage, allowing its moisture content to fall below 20%.

When using a wood burning stove, it is recommended that you only use seasoned wood. If you burn wet or green wood, a lot of the heat energy produced by the fire will be used to burn off the excess water, and not to heat the room. Using seasoned wood maximises the efficiency of combustion and will work to reduce your running costs.

You should also avoid burning construction timber, painted or treated or pallet wood on your wood burning stove.

Drying Wet Wood Logs

Wet logs can be dried at home ready for burning providing you follow the correct process.

If you are drying wet logs, first split them into smaller pieces, as this helps them to dry more evenly over time. You should then store them in a purpose-made wood store to continue the drying process.

You should not store wood in the house, as this will inhibit the drying process and could also lead to a pest infestation in the home.

Identifying if Wood is Seasoned

There are several ways to check if wood is well-seasoned or not, and the easiest way is to check the ends of the wood – if they are dark in colour and cracked then they are seasoned. Dry wood is also lighter than wet wood, and will make a hollow sound if two pieces are hit against one another.

It is highly recommended that you purchase a wood moisture meter from your local hardware shop. By using a wood moisture meter, it will be easier to determine whether or not wood is ready to be burned. If it measures 20% moisture or below, you will know it is ready for use.

At Real Flame, we pride ourselves in providing our customers with England’s finest fires, and can offer you assistance with any of your queries. If you are looking for wood burning stoves in London, contact us today on 0207 731 5025.