With the huge increase in homes fitting woodburning stoves, along with thousands of households using firewood as their main source of heat, the reasons to use kiln dried firewood are overwhelming. From fuel efficiency to taking care of your stove here are some of the most important reasons kiln dried firewood is the way to go:
Fuel efficiency
In simple terms, Kiln dried wood is better because you produce more heat. For instance a kilgroam of 20% moisture content timber would need 3 times that wood at 60% moisture content.
Seasoned wood covers a wide spectrum from fully seasoned which is below 25% or part seasoned which is between 40-50%. Some softwoods can take up to 2 years to be seasoned while some dense hardwood can take up to 4 years to be fully seasoned and will never achive the low moisture content of kiln dried log of the same cut and species.
With a moisture content achieved through the kiln process you are guaranteeing, if your stove is set correctly, the maximum heat output and burn time on our stove. All of this means you should burn less logs for longer.
Good to your stove
A high moisture content timber means your flame is wasting energy burning off water rather than producing heat.
Wet fuel causes unwanted and unessaecry amount of soot and tar in your stove. Drying kiln dried logs (as most stove suppliers will agree) produces less dirty black smoke and as a result fewer chimney cleans. The kiln dried wood is so dry it lights very easily and will achieve an optimum temperature quicker.
No mess,no fuss
Because we aim to have the log in the kiln within 4 weeks of being harvested we are minimilsing the amount of mould and slime that gathers on logs in log piles. In doing this we also are working maintain the vibrant colour and character of the timber. When the log is left the left in a log pile seasoning you end up losing the calorific value. We try our best to put our timber through a cleaning process to try and knock off excess bark, sawdust and smaller logs below 1.5 inches.
But it's very expensive
What customers should be looking for is the price per energy kilowatt. Local firewood may on the face of it seem a cheaper fuel, however is can be damp and difficult to burn and with that your output of heat is so much lower you need to burn more of it and buy more of it.
Our customers reguarly feedback that the bag of logs while seeming more expensive work out to be a more economic purchase as the logs last loger on the fire so not as many are required to achieve the temperature you want.
For local weekend deliveries, please have your order with us by Fridays.