Ready to Burn from HETAS

[Rough Hewn]

So if I understand this right,
I dry outdoors to 20-25%mc
Put it in a "kiln" for 15 minutes.
Et voila "kiln dried" firewood ready to burn.
[emoji12][emoji106]

[Gary Prentice]

9 hours ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

 

(Like a 3 legged man claiming disability benefit....  Whereas he actually has MORE ability than a 2 legged man ?

Todays award for hyperbole

[richardwale]

1 hour ago, Rough Hewn said:

So if I understand this right,
I dry outdoors to 20-25%mc
Put it in a "kiln" for 15 minutes.
Et voila "kiln dried" firewood ready to burn.

Yup, probably 5 minutes would do it

[rich crowther]

More red tape,fees and licensing bollocks, if it burns ok burn it ffs

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

4 hours ago, Gary Prentice said:

Todays award for hyperbole

I’m bagging that as a compliment Gary (wether it was intended as such or not!) ???

[Alycidon]

On 27/05/2018 at 16:52, Rough Hewn said:

So if I understand this right,
I dry outdoors to 20-25%mc
Put it in a "kiln" for 15 minutes.
Et voila "kiln dried" firewood ready to burn.

That I have seen quite often,  customers complain of poor performance using kilned logs,  dry on the outside but wet in the middle.

 

In 10 years I have never seen a stove where the customer complains of poor heat output to be caused by anything other than wet and sometimes  also oversized wood.

 

A

[Chalgravesteve]

On 26/05/2018 at 20:59, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

No offence Steve, but for me, burning wood, to dry wood for burning is as close to "defies logic" as it is possible to get...

 

And the proof of that - would you do it iffum you weren't being paid to do it?  

That's taking my comment out of context. I agree with Woodworks in his calculations as to what can be achieved in MC for seasoned wood. If a benchmark of sub 20% is established, I can't see how any seasoned wood supplier can guarantee to be under that ALL OF THE TIME because the humidity levels change through the year and simply don't make it possible unless you can introduce another factor into drying it (such as polytunnels which increase the heat for example). 

 

Kiln drying does not defy logic in itself. We have plenty of "scrap" wood which is either surplus or really difficult to split and process, so we save ourselves a heap of time and chuck it in the boiler and burn it. The easy stuff, we process into firewood and dry it in the kiln. So we maximise the use of the wood that we have to create the best return for the business.

 

Kiln drying means I don't need vast amounts of storage space to store stock for sale in 2 years time in barn A, stock for sale in 1 years time in Barn B and stock I'm currently splitting in Barn C. I don't have stuff that has lichen and creepy crawlies on it from 2 years outside. I just have the processors out, split the stuff, put it into the kiln, dry it in 7/10 days and store it for a short period (6 month max - but usually closer to 1 month in the season) before selling it, clean and dry and clean smart bags.  

 

You do not have a successful business because you have loads of stock. Stock is money tied up doing nothing. The faster you can turn over your stock and replace it with new and sell that, the more you will make.

 

Yes, I would still do this if I didn't get RHI income from my boiler. I accept that that's just a nice bonus really and I'm not embarrassed to say that I saw an opportunity to expand my business and took the chance and had a go. I had to come up with £50,000 worth of investment first before I got the RHI but ultimately, the business would stand on its own two feet without it anyway. 

 

If burning wood to dry wood defies logic, from a self sufficiency or environmental perspective, then presumably there are no diesel lorries/transits delivering wood to customers, its all done with a pony and trap. 

 

RHI is always going to polarise opinions and I think the HETAS/Ready to Burn stuff does the seasoned log suppliers absolutely no favours at all. Somebody, in humour, mentioned it earlier. We can establish our own standard. I already use "ready to burn" as a phrase in promoting my wood in our local social media advertising and our website and will continue to do so. I've got no worries, I know I will have plenty of customers who want clean and dry wood at a sensible price.

 

    

[Chalgravesteve]

On 27/05/2018 at 09:20, ash_smith123 said:

I just don't get how they are going to police this "READY TO BURN" sh**e.
So they come and test your product, I show them a batch of crates that are all under 20% and I get the accreditation. The next week when they have left I knock out a load of firewood at 30% under the ready to burn scheme? The badge becomes pointless.
I've been going for 6 years selling thousands of cubic metres and not once been asked if I have any accreditation.
Just another tax and paperwork time cost that will have to be passed on to the end customer.

Yup!! 

 

And they are only policing the people who PAY them to be policed......

[Chalgravesteve]

On 27/05/2018 at 16:52, Rough Hewn said:

So if I understand this right,
I dry outdoors to 20-25%mc
Put it in a "kiln" for 15 minutes.
Et voila "kiln dried" firewood ready to burn.

Yup there is nothing stopping anyone from doing that.

 

Tree surgeon cuts a tree down today, puts salt and pepper on it and calls it seasoned..... still not lying.

 

Wet wood at 40%, split and stacked for a day. Well its been seasoned for a day and there is nothing to stop anyone saying its seasoned. 

 

We have an entirely unregulated industry, so the only effective regulation is ourselves. 

 

I sell my stuff as stovemix, a random mix of hard and softwood of all species. There is one consistency. Its all dry. 85% of my customers buy from me again. The other 15% might try someone else but over time, about 50% of the 15% will come back to me as well. I don't need HETAS/Ready to Burn to help/hinder me. 

[BARNSLEY BOB]

I have said before but I think you need to check your moisture meter. Totally impossible to obtain the percentage level you are talking about here. Wooden furniture in centrally heated homes is rarely below 10%.
 
The billets in the pictures below are oak and douglas fir. Both 3 or 4 years old on pallets with a rain cover
 
Current temp here is 17C and RH is 89% so by this table the driest a log could be is 19% https://www.woodworkerssource.com/shop/mois.html
 
You say you are east midlands so if we take a weather station up there https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=IENGLAND1344  which had an average temp of 16.4C and average humidity of 86% today you end up with wood at 18.4%. Below 20% just but we are in a fabulous spell of summer like weather not exactly representative of winter. If you are all for kilned dried only then yes bang on about 10-15% wood for fires but if want air dried to be on the market please dont encourage unachievable targets. 
 

Dry your logs in the summer months..