Imported Hardwood Firewood

[gilmour mckellar]

Has any body come across it anywhere? I saw an advert in a fencing magazine from a company called Westbank. They seem to be using wooden cradles to transport it.

[Alycidon]

Yes, lots of it about, kiln dried to around 20/22% ( alledgedly).

 

Coming mainly from Baltic countries, Scandinavia and the Ukraine. If you are looking to buy you will need to be buying at least one big lorry load, this varies between 20 and 30 2 cu m pallets. ( Is also available in 1 cu m pallets). It makes sense to opt for the biggest load as haulage costs are about the same irrespective of load size. If you are looking for a smaller volume then you can buy it in the UK, carriage though from the importer to you may make it very expensive.

 

However there is no real benifit in buying this product that I can see other than the kilning process should kill any insect infestations. When I did the excercise a few months ago most were charging around £230 + VAT for a 2 cu m pallet of Ash/Birch/Alder delivered to Northants. Ok that is a stacked 2 cu m pallet which would equate to a loose 2.4m roughly but it is still an expensive product and with all the carbon emissions caused by the haulage not exactly as 'green' as it could be.

 

Hope that helps.

 

A

[gilmour mckellar]

Many thanks - Very informative.

Even though as you say it is an expensive product they must have customers who are willing to take it. Could it only be selling when or where there are shortages in the market?

Agreed on the poorer green credentials!

 

G

[Michael C]

I would have thought 2 stacked m3 would give you over 3 'loose' m3?

[Alycidon]

I would have thought 2 stacked m3 would give you over 3 'loose' m3?

 

Not actually been there myself but I cant see it. Maybe 2.5, thing is to get that you have to tip it out and handle it, surely its better to sell it by the crate and advise the customer what he is getting for his money, ie stacked and not loose.

 

A

[Michael C]

Not actually been there myself but I cant see it. Maybe 2.5, thing is to get that you have to tip it out and handle it, surely its better to sell it by the crate and advise the customer what he is getting for his money, ie stacked and not loose.

 

A

 

I was going by the reply Jayvee gave here, but have yet to try it out..

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/393890-post5.html

[Alycidon]

Sounds like he has done the job properly, I bow to his greater knowledge. That would imply that 2 cum stacked equates to 3.3 cu m loose. Maybe costs above are making more sense if you sell it loose.

 

Interesting, thanks for the link.

 

A

[gensetsteve]

The following I think is wrong from my experience

 

'1 SOLID m3 = 1.54 STACKED m3 = 2.5 THROWN m3

1 STACKED m3 = 0.65 SOLID m3 = 1.63 THROWN m3

1 THROWN m3 = 0.62 STACKED m3 = 0.4 SOLID m3

 

If you start calculating your profits on this it will be a shock.

From experience this is more like it

 

1 solid cubic metre of beech weighs 1 tonne when green

 

1 solid cubic metre turns into 1.6 cubic metres when thrown

 

1 solid cubic metre turns into 1.2 cubic metres when cut and stacked.

 

If I could get 2.5 cubic metres out of a tonne of beech I would be a rich happy man:biggrin:

[Michael C]

Scroll down to the bottom page here...

 

http://www.seai.ie/Renewables/Bioenergy/Wood_Energy/Coford_wood_energy_information_notes/Firewood.pdf

 

'For example, in Figure 4 the pieces of

wood are placed loosely in the box, so the box contains only

45% wood and the rest is air. If the wood was stacked neatly

in rows, the pile would contain between 75 and 80% wood,

as shown in Figure 5.'

[gensetsteve]

Scroll down to the bottom page here...

 

http://www.seai.ie/Renewables/Bioenergy/Wood_Energy/Coford_wood_energy_information_notes/Firewood.pdf

 

'For example, in Figure 4 the pieces of

wood are placed loosely in the box, so the box contains only

45% wood and the rest is air. If the wood was stacked neatly

in rows, the pile would contain between 75 and 80% wood,

as shown in Figure 5.'

 

If I am wrong I would be glad to hear it. But I dont get 42 cubic metres out of 17 tonnes. Does anyone get 65 tonne bags out of an arctic ? . I notice the document almost condones burning peat or coal to help wet logs which I thought produced sulphur.