Newbie help

[Pclarke82]

Hi all,  I've just brought a new house and I'm the lounge it has a 5w aga stretton inset stove.  I've never used a stove before so I'm researching as much as possible. In terms of use,  this will not be the main source of heat,  will just be a novelty on occasion unless we really like itthen we may use more.  I need to gauge how much wood I'm going to need so to start with,  how much wood would one use for 1 fire,  say lighting at 6pm till 10pm maximum.  I see these 10kg bags in wickes for 6.50 or 3 for 15. How many of this type of fire would I get for 10kg? 

[Paul in the woods]

It's a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. Anyway, the instructions say typical refuelling is every hour with 31cm long logs. So, you should be able to work out how many logs from a bag you'll get it. I'd guess about 3-4 refuellings a bag, so one bag an evening?

 

This depends on the draw, when it's windy my fire will burn through more wood. It'll also depend greatly on the quality of the wood in the bags.

 

Make sure the bags aren't wet and I'd also recommend a Carbon Monoxide (CO) alarm if you don't already have one.

 

If you like it I'd track down a reliable bulk firewood supplier.

Edited November 20, 2020 by Paul in the woods

[Stubby]

18 hours ago, Pclarke82 said:

Hi all,  I've just brought a new house and I'm the lounge it has a 5w aga stretton inset stove.  I've never used a stove before so I'm researching as much as possible. In terms of use,  this will not be the main source of heat,  will just be a novelty on occasion unless we really like itthen we may use more.  I need to gauge how much wood I'm going to need so to start with,  how much wood would one use for 1 fire,  say lighting at 6pm till 10pm maximum.  I see these 10kg bags in wickes for 6.50 or 3 for 15. How many of this type of fire would I get for 10kg? 

Forget 10kg bags ( tooo expensive and dubiouse quality ) . Build your self a proper log store ( rain off but plenty of air flow ) and get the local log merchant to deliver .

[neiln]

Those bags are basically intended too be an evening fire.

 

If you got a couple of m³ delivered, you'd use it over a winter doing fires like that a couple of evenings a week and a little more at weekends.

[Lowestoft Firewood]

Those bags are generally wet and ridiculously expensive. Do as Stubby says and you won't regret it. 

 

With these blinking Lockdowns we keep getting we are sure using a lot more logs than last year. 

[Steven P]

I'll agree with Stubby here about getting a bulk load of logs.

 

I don't however know your set up, your new house might be a small city centre terrace with a yard, it might be detached house and acres of land. You migh have a log store outside at the moment, there might not be.

 

But to answer your question, 1 bag will last about a night. They are priced for the occasional fire, such as a few over Christmas week and the odd weekend and where buyng a bulk load would be more expensive or inconveniant to having to store half a load till the next winter.

 

If you had a fire on each night, £6.50 a night it soon becomes an expensive thing. These bags are bulky in a retail shelf and have to pay their way... so the pice is high. Bulk delivery, comes from an out of town yard generally, with much smaller overheads, and so are a lot cheaper... but you need to store them and keep them dry.. which is where Stubby comes in with building a log store.

 

You might also consider getting a hatchet or small axe, again a money saving thing that pre cut kindling is another process, adding a cost to log.. which you have anyway it soon pays for tself.

 

There are a lot of log suppliers out there, and you can look on places like Gumtree where there will be the occasioal advert for logs but these generally need splitting, however can be free too. It also might be that a local log supplier if asked nicely could deliver smaller amounts if you don't have space to store them - probably at a premium but not as much as Wicks

[Rob_the_Sparky]

When I first had my fire I did something similar - got a few net bags from Tesco just to light it and have a play.  Was not that impressed TBH but later I realised that putting a dry log on the fire does not put it out (like the Tesco logs did) and when you put a log on the fire you should not see water coming from the ends of the logs!  I.e. these very small nets of logs can be terrible and I suspect a lot of reason the new rules came in about only burning dry logs.

 

For next year, if you are up for it, I'd recommend splitting and drying your own wood.  You can build a first log rack with a few nails and some pallets for next to nothing.  If you are not fussy about the wood then you can get hold of it for small amounts of cash or if you are lucky free.  You then just need an axe, a chainsaw (mains powered ones are not expensive) and a bit of time.  You get firewood and exercise.

 

For now though, by all means try a small bag or two but just realise that the wood may be damp/wet and it is very expensive buying wood like this but it does get you started.  Another option is as above to find a good local supplier and buy a cube or two.  If you have a shed of garage you can stack it in there for now.  If not then just somewhere undercover.  At worst just a pallet or two on the ground and a tarp over the top.  Then decide how it goes for next year.

 

By the way, 1 x 31cm log per hour s going to be very approximate but in the right ball park.  31cm is a long log for a 5kW (I'd barely get that in to mine) but a dense log will burn longer than a light one (mostly down to wood type).  Wood is pretty much all equal (give or take) in weight per kWh so it is all about density rather than wood type.  Weight for weight dry softwoods and hardwoods are more or less equal.  It takes time to learn your fire and judge the wood types so don;t expect to get it right first time.

 

Try these for info:

The Science of Fire (orionn49.com) - it is easier when you understand how you need to control the heat in a fire to keep it going.  Once it drops too cool then it will tend to do out but keep it above a key temperature and it will burn well (one of the reasons wet logs are a pain is they cool the fire).

 

Very good book: Norwegian Wood by Lars Mytting

[neiln]

Norwegian wood +1