woodrascal

My Mother In Law had a 4 oven Aga, our friends have a Stanley and my Brother has a Rayburn. And by far the best tasting food that any of us have ever had, has been cooked in our own wood fired Esse W23:biggrin:

Another good reason to ignore that flippin poem! As most have said, Elm burns fine if dry. Works well for us when mixed with very dry softwood.

Spotted this link on Ebay SEASONED FIREWOOD / LOGS WOOD BURNER STOVE CHEAP on eBay (end time 02-Nov-09 21:07:45 GMT) One of the comments from the ad is this - "The moisture content has been tested and is between 9%-12%." Does he need a new moisture meter or is Billericay like the Sahara at this time of year?

You're right log supplier. Wood if kiln dried, will always re-absorb moisture till it gets to the ambient MC of the atmosphere. In many parts of the UK this is around 20%.This obviously varies depending on where you are - if you're near the coast for example, the air is going to be damper. However kiln drying is a good way of speeding up the drying process but only to a point. If you keep your kiln dried wood inside it will probably stay below 20% if your house is warm and fairly dry(!) but there's no point in kiln drying 50 cubic metres of oak or whatever to 10% and storing it outside in an open store...

Priceless - but unfortunately a lot of the 'new woodburner brigade' will be just like this. They read 'lifestyle' magazines, see that woodburning is 'carbon neutral' "ooh yes - I'm sooo green!" , go and buy a stove that's slightly more expensive than their neighbours and then wonder why it involves more work than simply turning the gas fire on. However, if the learned members of this forum want to make some more money out of firewood by selling to these numpties, you're going to have to put up with this sort of attitude, or ignore them and simply stick to your regulars.

What type of burner is it Dave?

You're quite right Mr Ed - burnt in a hot firebox with plenty of air, the business! Dry softwood is a much better fuel than wet ash or any other wet wood. A lot of people seem to forget that in Scandinavian countries and parts of North America/Cananda, softwood is the only thing that can grow properly and as a consequence is their only source of fuel wood. They survive winters of -25 deg C burning only softwood. So it can't be all that bad...

Give me dry, virtually anything rather than wet ash.

This is no use on a commercial scale, but we dry green wood off in the low oven of our Esse W23 woodfired cooker. You can cram a good days worth of hardwood in there. If you leave it in for 16-20 hours or so it usually comes out fairly dry. We're currently drying some nice greenish oak in there (barked, split logs). It's going in at over 40%MC and coming out at around 18%MC. Burns a treat:001_smile:

I'm afraid this council guy's attitude is not a typical response. I know of many situations where councils have forced un-approved wood stove users to remove their appliances or face severe penalties. If you live in a smoke controlled area, get an approved stove - it really isn't worth the risk.

What are you burning 25 cubes a year on/in Tom?

If you live in a smoke control area - yes:001_smile: Mind you, even if you're not, you'll be more popular with your non woodburning neighbours.

I'm afraid they're not in the same league as most of the stoves already mentioned and that's why they're a lot cheaper. If you think Esse's castings are'nt as good as they used to be...

Cut it into finished firewood lengths now. Wood looses most of its moisture through the end grain. If you leave timber in cordwood lengths it will take much longer to dry.

What %MC do you think it will be by Christmas? We've had several tons/cubes of Beech over the years, generally winter felled, cut into 12-16" lengths, split and stacked in open sided, south facing, covered stores over Spring/Summer/Autumn. We're in mid-ish Wales and it has taken a minimumof 10 months to reduce the %MC to around 20-25%

Dean I think whoever wrote that has got it wrong. CERTAIN cleanburning wood stoves are approved for use in smokeless areas due to low emissions - not because they're 'Carbon Neutral' (DEFRA approved stoves) Full listing of appliances here (it's going to be updated in October so there may be more stoves/etc to be added) Exempt Appliances Some of the manufacturers listed include Morso, Clearview, Esse, Jotul, Dunsley, Euroheat, Stovax, etc

Kindlett - where are you in North Wales?

What's wrong with including a dealer who provides good quality, dry softwood?

I'd go for the chainsaw option too. Out on a job, you can usually sort out a dull/damaged chain whereas you'd have to carry an extra, potentially very expensive saw blade with you as an emergency spare if you hit a stone/wire/whatever. Good luck!

Yeah, keep the rings/logs off the ground and if you cover them, allow plenty of air to circulate - don't cover the sides.

We use quite a few of the compacted sawdust briquettes. They're manufactured locally and we get a good deal direct from the firm. The retail price is expensive in my view. They burn very well - throw out a lot of heat in a very short space of time. They seem to work best for us (in our stoves and Esse cooker) when you give them plenty of air. They do produce a fair amount of fine, grey ash, probably more than when using dry wood as a fuel.

Yeah Dean, it could be a complete con. You've got to put a deposit down first which sounds a bit worrying. Does anyone do processed birch in large quantities in the UK?

Have a look at the the British manufactured, Dunsley Yorkshire. I've seen a couple on demo and they look really nice and solidly made. They've got the water boiler in a seperate chamber from the firebox (as opposed to a water jacket) so they burn wood much more efficiently and cleaner - which means less smoke and cleaner flueways.

That's a fair point Firewoodman, but the 2 bricks are designed for slightly different applications. Both, to some extent, protect the stove interior from direct contact with the flames. However, heavy (dense) 'clay' firebricks while being mechanicly stronger also soak up the fires heat. They take a while to initially heat up so the stove gives out less heat to the room on initial fireup. The plus side is they hold on to the heat when the fire dies down (making it easier to re-kindle) and it still throws out heat even when the fire goes out (acting like a storage heater). Vermiculite (light, fragile) firebricks are designed to insulate the firebox. This raises the firebox temperature quickly, which promotes a cleaner burn and more heat to the room in a faster time. On the down side, once your fire has died, the stove will soon cool as the vermiculite bricks don't hold onto the heat. It's interesting to note that an increasing number of top rated stoves (including some mentioned on this forum) have vermiculite bricks fitted.

I went to see one of these at a dealers. It looked like a really badly cast, iron lump. As far as I know these are made in China and re-badged over here. The dealer didn't think a lot to it either, not very good build quality or controllability. Beware - the Btu output is not based on burning wood. After having had your Franco Belge, I think you'll be dissapointed with a Hercules.