What are you charging for your logs this season

[Alycidon]

In my experience softwood burns hotter than hardwood. There's also less ash left over. If you have plenty I'd burn softwood over hardwood.

 

FC figures do confirm that soft is hotter given the same MC but not by a lot.

There was a bit on JAS Wilsons site about that some year or so ago.

 

A

[Joy Yeomans]

Nothing wrong with softwood too much snobbery where wood burning is concerned

[Alycidon]

Nothing wrong with softwood too much snobbery where wood burning is concerned

 

Agreed totally, burns hotter ( slightly), better flame patterns, just less dense and contains less KW but at a lower cost.

 

A

[Logdaft]

Nothing wrong with softwood too much snobbery where wood burning is concerned

 

Absolutely!

[neiln]

I agree wood is wood, the quality comes from being properly seasoned. Soft has advantages even.

[ThrustSSC]

It's horses for courses. For me softwood has two significant drawbacks:

 

1) many of my customers lack storage space in their terraced house plots, so hardwood allows them to store more overall heat capability at one go

2) it reduces the delivered value from a full trailer, and my market is generally further from my base than for most folks - which makes this a factor that doesn't affect them but hurts me badly

 

But it's good wood. Just not good for me/my customers!

[rovers90]

Nothing wrong with softwood too much snobbery where wood burning is concerned

 

Exactly Joy but I think the stove retailers must take a lot of the blame as they inform new stove owners they must burn hardwood under 20%.

[Alycidon]

Exactly Joy but I think the stove retailers must take a lot of the blame as they inform new stove owners they must burn hardwood under 20%.

 

As a stove retailer myself who visits other showrooms fairly often then I would agree that there is some poor advice given. Usually this is due to poorly trained showroom staff.

 

I advise customers of the pros and cons of both, and the importance of a low MC is nailed firmly home. I have samples of Ash, Birch and larch in the showroom to show them. Most have a preconceived idea that hard is best and as a result most of my sales are for hard. Some though will take a mixed load, so a cube of each but its not often a cust will take soft only.

 

I know have so much soft building up in cord that I am toying with offering mixed bags for 17-18 winter.

 

A

[MonsterMonster]

Agreed. I bought over 30cubes of soft kiln last year at £48 per cube. Saw very little usage difference over the hardwood at £65 per cube. I burn in a 40KW gasifier so load and forget. Softwood definitely burns hotter but probably in shorter period. I burn in a log gasifier one heaped wheelbarrow load a night, load and forget. If I was burning in a small log burner I might notice the difference in having to load in more frequently.

[MonsterMonster]

What surprises me when someone says only burn hardwood and talk down softwood. What do the Scandinavians burn mostly ... softwood as they are drowning in the stuff. Apparently it's the same in Scotland; way more softwood than hardwood trees apparently. A few million Scandinavians that have been log burning far longer than us can't be wrong.