What type of wood is best for firewood?

[Woodworks]

1 hour ago, Big J said:

 

Possibly for some homes. I do so often see huge rooms with minute stoves in them (that trend has become apparent as we've looked at hundreds and hundreds of house listings around Devon over the past few months). You'll see a 20-40 square metre room, often open plan to another room or a staircase and they've put a 5kw stove in. It serves no purpose other than as a decoration. 

 

 

Our home fits that description perfectly and double hight. We have an 8kw stove in it and it's way to big most of the time. I retro fitted some stove bricks to make the firebox smaller and enable clean burning with a less fuel and output. In hindsight a 5kw stove would have been spot on. Yes some are heating a large uninsulated home where a big stove may work well but this a minority  IME.

[Will C]

1 hour ago, Woodworks said:

Our home fits that description perfectly and double hight. We have an 8kw stove in it and it's way to big most of the time. I retro fitted some stove bricks to make the firebox smaller and enable clean burning with a less fuel and output. In hindsight a 5kw stove would have been spot on. Yes some are heating a large uninsulated home where a big stove may work well but this a minority  IME.

One of you on the south coast and one in Scotland, the size of stove needed will differ as much as the climate ?

[Big J]

9 minutes ago, Will C said:

One of you on the south coast and one in Scotland, the size of stove needed will differ as much as the climate ?

 

That sums it up I think! 

 

Our average temperature from the 1st of November to the 31st of March was 2.58 celsius. You need a lot of heat!

[Mark Bolam]

35 minutes ago, EdwardC said:

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's only good they say,
If for logs 'tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold

Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter's cold
But ash wet or ash dry
a king shall warm his slippers by.

What a load of old shite that poem is.

I detest it on a molecular level.

[Stubby]

8 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

What a load of old shite that poem is.

I detest it on a molecular level.

I think you did ask that no put it up , but alas .............

[Woodworks]

1 hour ago, Will C said:

One of you on the south coast and one in Scotland, the size of stove needed will differ as much as the climate ?

There is an element of that but our 8kw stove warmed the whole house in 2010 when it -7c outside and 20c inside. Big J appears to be advocating a large stove run well below it's max for convenience and I am saying this is dirty polluting way to run a stove. No problem with a big stove worked hard but I might suggest if you need that whack some insulation into your house for our woods sake 

 

And yes "What a load of old shite that poem is.

I detest it on a molecular level."

Edited April 15, 2018 by Woodworks

[Big J]

19 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

There is an element of that but our 8kw stove warmed the whole house in 2010 when it -7c outside and 20c inside. Big J appears to be advocating a large stove run well below it's max for convenience and I am saying this is dirty polluting way to run a stove. No problem with a big stove worked hard but I might suggest if you need that whack some insulation into your house for our woods sake 

 

And yes "What a load of old shite that poem is.

I detest it on a molecular level."

All I'm saying is that a larger stove offers flexibility. The transitional time between needing the stove constantly (up here in Scotland) and very infrequently isn't usually too long so the time that it's running at a lower efficiency rating is small. However, we still managed to use less than 500l of oil over what was a very long and cold winter and that's with the boiler doing our hot water. Surely it's more environmentally friendly to use wood with a small degree of inefficiency for a limited time than be reliant on oil? You must also have a very well insulated house! A friend of ours did a quick thermographic survey on ours a few years back and said for it's age (circa 200 years) it was surprisingly good. But we still need 20kw through winter.

[Woodworks]

1 minute ago, Big J said:

All I'm saying is that a larger stove offers flexibility.

Not doubting it and I have done the same in the past but with smoke nuisance becoming an increasing issue should we not be promoting what's currently considered best practice? From a particulates point of view it would be much better to use the oil but being "green" is a pretty complicated matter where the goalposts keep moving.

 

Yes our old barn is relatively well insulated. You are more than welcome to visit as the kettle is always at the ready 

[Gary Prentice]

42 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

There is an element of that but our 8kw stove warmed the whole house in 2010 when it -7c outside

-7c! That's every winter up here and I'm outside of Manchester, not Scotland.

[Big J]

7 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

Not doubting it and I have done the same in the past but with smoke nuisance becoming an increasing issue should we not be promoting what's currently considered best practice? From a particulates point of view it would be much better to use the oil but being "green" is a pretty complicated matter where the goalposts keep moving.

 

Yes our old barn is relatively well insulated. You are more than welcome to visit as the kettle is always at the ready 

I look forward to it!

 

The issue is mainly one of insulation. I don't especially enjoy burning 40 odd cube of wood a year. It's a lot of work, but it's still better than the alternative of buying 5500 litres of oil a year. 

 

I'm no fan of old buildings and it's our intention to look for land to build a straw bale house as soon as we're down in Devon. My wife is an architect and I'll still be able to use my sawmill for our house build when it comes to it. 

 

I see your point about particulates too. We've not had any neighbours for the 5 years we've been in our house, so it's easy to forget about the issues of air quality in conurbations.