How much do you pay for your stove wood?

[gdh]

We sell firewood but if I had to buy in with my own best price it would be £75 a cube including delivery so at most £2250 a year. We have an 18kw woodburner in our front room which, apart from an oil Rayburn for hot water, is the only heat in our 4-500 year old farmhouse.

 

In reality we mostly burn the rubbish odds and ends that we can't sell so it only costs a little bit of time and a bit of heat for the kiln.

[neiln]

My downstairs is also in the 40s RH and like others I actively dry clothes around the stove to add a bit of moisture back to the house, and it saves a few pence Vs running the tumble drier.

 

And yes, any logs that are as bit damp can dry a bit on the hearth.

[openspaceman]

3 hours ago, neiln said:

And yes, any logs that are as bit damp can dry a bit on the hearth.

I was a bit surprised at how much moisture a log would lose in a day on the hearth.

[sandspider]

I bought some "seasoned" logs a couple of years ago. They didn't look very seasoned to me, so I stacked them, grain vertical, in front of the stove for a couple of hours, only to find them sitting in puddles of water. Never used that supplier again, and am now seasoning my own instead, which are much better.

[timbernut]

We've only just had a stove installed so needed some seasoned wood and paid £185 for what I think (but not sure) was
4 cu m (is that about what a truck full would be????).
I'd love to find somewhere I could get some for free (or a bottle of wine / few packs of beer), would happily pick it up and cut / split it myself and leave it to season for next year.
It'd be the whole difference between using the burner at weekends only because it's nice or using it to substitute gas central heating and using it everyday of the week when it's cold.

Sounds more like 2 cube at that price, most ‘standard’ transit type tippers hold between 1.8 and 2.5 depending on dimensions of buck
I sell for £85 for a single m3 loose in Norfolk

I use about 7 cube loose to central heat home
a year on Aarrow Stratford stove running 9 rads

[Steven P]

On 19/12/2019 at 16:31, Witterings said:

 

I'd be interested to see people's answers as well ... we only had ours installed on 24th Oct, I ordered £185  worth and am close to half way through it already and Christmas will make another big ish dent in it.

I think there's obviously the novelty value as we lit it every night for the 1st 10 days but now weekends and the occasional weekday.

I also wish I knew if it was more or less economical than gas central heating although I'm guessing if you're buying in logs it'd be less but at least you have some offset as we're in a bungalow and have turned the heating off every night we've had it on.

The finances of a wood burning stove don't really add up to the promises you might hear. It is probably not cheaper than gas, or coal (If you have a multi-fuel stove), but it is cheaper than electric heating to buy in seasoned logs ready to go.

 

Like everything you can rduce your costs by doing more yourself. Buy green split logs (ie a tree that was cut down this week, split and dumped on your drive) - this is cheaer than kiln dried logs since there is less work, and storage sace required by your suplier. Get a full unprocessed tree dumped on the drive - cut and split yourself and that is cheaer again (how cheao depends on the tree surgeon).. but you ned tosoend  few hundred ££ on saws and axes. Scavage wood and you are likel to get it free but you are adding time and effort to your fuel (plus Christas beers if you scavange from the same land owners all year).

 

Like time and effort you are going to see differences in costs depending on the wood type, everyone wants well seasoned kiln dried oak - and that is a premium. Get air dried leylandi and your cost is massivly reduced (even considering the heat output of each)

 

And somewhere in all of this is where we are happy to be - paying cash to get the wood and the offeort we are adding to process and dry it. Personaly I quite enjoy splitting logs so am hapy to get the cheaest - scavanged logs colected through the year in the back if a Fiesta - takes time but it keps me out f trouble