Some handy hints & tips

(See right for links for more information…)

It is very important to only burn dry wood. Who wants to buy water? It puts fires out. Ignore the bags of wood you sometimes see for sale at petrol stations and stores that are packed in plastic and with condensation dripping off the bag. Some unscrupulous firewood producers simply chop up fresh unseasoned timber, bag it and sell it, knowing that they will probably never meet the purchaser.

Good firewood producers source their logs and then stack them to air dry for at least a full year. They then process them in to logs and in to a shed where they can dry further. Only then are they fit for bagging and selling to the public.

The Advantages of Using Air Dried Logs Over Kiln Dried Logs

There is a misconception that kiln dried firewood is better to burn than naturally air dried firewood.

Essentially kiln dried firewood is firewood that has been baked in an oven to speed up the drying of the wood. By drying the wood this way valuable energy is lost as volatile esters from the wood evaporate. Whereas if you burn air dried firewood that has been left outside to naturally dry by the sun and wind you will get more energy from the wood as these lost volatile esters are retained.

Did you know oil is burnt in many kilns to dry the wood? This really takes away from the good of burning wood in the first place. Who wants to pay extra for firewood that has been dried by burning oil.

All timber has the same calorific value provided it is of equal moisture content. Conifer logs are less dense and of greater bulk than hardwoods of similar weight but because they are substantially cheaper to purchase, they provide great value for home heating, provided they are dry and have been seasoned correctly. All Log On Firewood fuel is air dried for up to two years to ensure a cheery blaze in the hearth.

Contrary to some common misconceptions, properly seasoned Conifer logs make excellent fuel and are perfectly safe to burn. The notion that Pine or Spruce might be dangerous or create more creosote than other wood types is an old wives’ tale. Tar and creosote building up in chimney linings is generally the result of burning wet timber. When seasoned properly, Conifer logs burn hotter and faster than denser hardwoods and are ideal for wood burning stoves. All open fires should have a fire guard in front of them for safety and all sources of flame should be guarded sensibly.

How to light an open fire or stove

The simplest and most environmentally friendly way to light a fire is to first crumple up a few sheets of an old newspaper on the grate or use a cube or two of our Eco-Friendly firelighters. Then spread a handful of Logon kindling over the paper/firelighter. On top of these, place smaller sticks and logs and then light the fire at the base. When lighting a stove, make sure the vents are fully open and the doors closed once the fire is lit. In a few minutes after lighting, the kindling and small logs will be blazing. Then add a few standard Logon Logs and once they are burning the vents on the stove can be turned down to provide long lasting and cheerful warmth. If you have an open fire the same applies but always take care with an open fire to have a fire guard in place if leaving a room unattended. Paper and kindling and logs come from sustainably managed woodland. Far cleaner and kinder to the environment than oil based firelighters or firelogs.

If you burn wet or green wood, the heat produced by combustion must dry the wood before it will burn, using up a large percentage of the available energy in the process. This results in less heat delivered to your home, and gallons of acidic water in the form of creosote deposited in your chimney. This can eat through the chimney lining and cause significant damage. Don’t forget, this will also increase the risk of a chimney fire, which can be dangerous, and is an expensive operation if the fire service has to be called out.

The problem is that as wet wood burns slowly, with little heat, the chimney flue does not get a chance to warm up. There is little draw (air moving up the chimney) which doesn’t help the combustion, and the flue remains a cold surface on which the creosote condenses. Dry wood will burn hot – heating up the flue, creating a fast draw, and shooting the smaller amount of vapours out of the chimney before they get a chance to condense.