A Tonne of Firewood

[bonniethomas06]

Oh dear, I have had to sack the woodchopper. My boyf has failed to match demand. It has gotten to the stage where we were having to go out to the garage, to saw up some logs before we could have a fire in the evenings after work! And it is fffffrrreeezing here at the moment.

It is not very self sufficient I know, but I have given up and am plannig to order a tonne for Saturday, for £75. No idea whether this is good value or not - it is seasoned hardwood. There were other ads in the paper for £40 a tonne, but this seems a little too good to be true to me? Anyway, I know that there was a thread last year about the price of logs (but everyone orders in different quantities and currencies) so that is not what I am asking.

I just wondered what a tonne of logs looks like? I don't really have a concept of what they weigh so don't know what I am buying. Is a tonne enough to get us through a couple of months of having a fire for 2-3 hours a night, most nights? Is it a pile say, 1m high and 3m wide?

Anything more than this and I think we will have to investigate storage heaters...it breaks my heart to pay for something we could get for free, but being the wage slaves that we are, we just don't have time to chop our own. Well, not if we want anything resembling a normal quality of life at the weekends

[TheGoodEarth]

Here is a photo of a tonne of logs. We buy our logs from a local estate. Estates employ proper woodsmen who will ensure logs are seasoned before they are sold. They also have a reputation to think about. Try the estates around you before resorting to an ad in the paper - you don't know where they come from and how well seasoned they are.

[kit-e-kate]

Hiya, we just bought half a transit tipper trailer full (does this make sense?) for 80pounds, that included delivery, and its seasoned beech. I'm not sure how much it is in weight, i think maybe about a ton and a half, but it's more than filled our log shed (which is about the same dimensions as a phone box). That should do us all winter, but we don't have fire every day. HTH!
Kate : )

[Millymollymandy]

Bonnie are the logs split and cut to the right length for your fire/woodburner? I hope so....

For £75 I can't see it being more than a stere or two, depending on what kind of wood it is (a stere is 1m3 for uncut 1 metre long logs, slightly less cubic space when cut to 50cm - but again that's in this part of France so might be different elsewhere).

I don't think that is going to last even if you only have a small fire (open or woodburner?) just in the evenings. We use about 6 cordes a year which is 18 steres (18 x 1m3), but our woodburner is a powerful one and come real winter it will be on in the mornings not just evenings.

[boboff]

Agreed a "load" is generally a 1m3, which is a dumpy bag size.


If you can get a load for £40 why not try it out? I used to do a trailer full for £40, and there was nothing wrong with the wood. People get overly fussy about having "seasoned" wood. If it's been cut 3 months and kept in the dry it will burn fine, and if its a bit green then when you get the first load get another one in a week, then within a couple of weeks it will all be lovely, and you will probably end up with 3 times the wood for the same money, and I would guess that this would last you pretty much the winter. If it's a bit green when you get it, just use a bag of house coal to start the fire then your logs will burn.

[Millymollymandy]

Our firewood doesn't dry out before 2 years here! If it is green it just won't burn and sits there like a damp squib. So up to now we have tried to order in enough for burning the following year but to store 2 year's worth of wood is very difficult. Thankfully the dead trees we had cut down last winter were already seasoned , they just needed drying so they are burning merrily away right now. But previous orders from our previous and very naughty wood supplier resulted in wood that wouldn't burn cos although he said it was 2 year old seasoned it was only 1 year old. Have now found a new guy whose wood is dry and 2 year old so is fine for burning this year, but we don't need it till next year anyway.

Cheap wood is so dependant on what it is and the kind of fire that Bonnie has - if it is open then poplar won't be great, nor chestnut. If it's a wood burner or insert then smokey or spitty wood won't matter.

[bonniethomas06]

Thanks guys, that gives me a good idea of what to expect. I agree - it probably won't last us through to christmas - but oh the joy that a brimming full logstore brings!

I am sure the wood is fine - it is 8" so will fit our burner, and is fully seasoned etc. It comes for a local smallholder, who looks very reputable and proper, so I am satisfied in that respect. It is sycamore and birch wood.

Maybe we will give the cheaper lot a go - I don't think we could afford £75 a month, although I like the idea of paying producers what they deserve, and £75 to chop, season and deliver that much wood seems fair to me.

Thanks again,
Bonnie x

[Goatwhisperer]

Be carefull with the birch wood, it burns very hot very fast. when we first used it in our wood burner the hotplates were glowing cherry red within 20 minutes of lighting it.
Re buying wood the local national trust estate here is selling seasoned hardwood for £45 a pickup load.

[Big Al]

http://www.nef.org.uk/logpile/fuelsuppliers/index.htm

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wood+l ... GB___GB366

http://www.carbonneutralfuel.com/logs.html

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/stovesonl ... toves.html

Here are 4 sites which might help give you an idea. The latter one goes into why you should buy seasoned wood but basically the less water content the better as you get more heat out of each log and thus saves money.

HTH

[boboff]

I think that buying wood is frought with issues, when I did logs I offered a £10 a load discount if I was taking it straight off the field, I suspect that this is what some people might call 1 season wood. From personal, and from my Gran's 50 or so years experience, wood taken in Oct / Nov is wettest of all and takes longest to dry out, wood in March will dry quicker, but with a decent bed of coal most wood will burn, and kept dry for 3 months it will all burn unassisted.

When you think about it, to cut wood, move it to store, then reload it is extra labour, if it can be avoided, I imagine it would be.