Firewood – What to Use?

We are now supplying seasoned logs! You can find out more information about our seasoned logs and how to purchase them on our ‘Seasoned Logs’ page of our website. This news article is to inform you on how to choose the right firewood for your needs as well as giving hints and tips on how to store your seasoned logs and the practicalities of log burning.

Wood Burning Stove or Pizza Oven

For a wood burning stove or pizza oven it is very important that you use dry firewood with less than 20-25% water content. This level of water content will ensure a clean burn which is very important to avoid blackening of the stove glass or a build up of soot and tar in the chimney.

Good quality dry firewood will also ensure that you use less firewood and therefore make the practice far more cost effective.

Open Fire, Chimenea or Firepit

Most people find it impossible to control the air flow on open fireplaces such as open fires, chimeneas or firepits. Due to not being able to control the air flow it means that very dry firewood can sometimes burn too quickly and not produce a high enough heat.

The best type of wood to burn on these open fires are dried logs which are chunkier in size so that there is more log to burn through. Having a thicker type of log to burn through means that the centre of the log has a naturally higher water content and therefore takes longer to burn.

We would advise that you never use wet firewood in your open fires, chimeneas or firepits as you will not get the heat output and you will require twice as much wood to generate the same heat. Very inefficient and can lead to a build up of soot and tar in your chimney.

Storing your Firewood

You must ensure that you have a covered and well ventilated area to store your firewood and seasoned logs in your home. If you have ordered a bulk bag of wood then you ideally need to decanter the logs if you can due to the fact that water can collect in the bulk bags and spoil some of the wood.

How much Firewood do I need?

This question depends on how you intend to burn the wood and how efficient said method is. Don’t forget that you will most likely need kindling to help light the fire initially; most people like to use firelighters as well for ease.

An important thing to mention when burning wood is that you will need to ensure that your flue or chimney is swept at least once a year by a qualified chimney sweep.

What about Moisture Content?

Seasoned logs for use in burning should have a water content of less than 20-25%. Ideally they should be lower than 20%. You can test the moisture content of seasoned logs by using a moisture meter, just remember that these tools are not always 100% accurate. A more telling method is to simply look at the log ends and seeing if any cracks are appearing in the log. If it is well cracked then it is well dried and good to use.