Fahrenheit

We're getting £130 per 1.2 cube no probs at all. Stacked out.

What a beauty........i'm a bit worried though as i reckon i must have burned around £20 worth of logs in my stove today!

I had a Hilux. Great workhorse.....check out: knackerednavara.co.uk before buying a second hand Nissan! We've got a Cabstar....gonna get rid and get a Toyota Dyna Tipper. Kit the back out to take 3 loads at a time and to be able to tip 1,2 or 3 loads as required.

I have the more expensive version of the Testo moisture meter mentioned above. The build quality is appalling. The £15 one I got from RS had a much sturdier feel and a look about it and like I say.....barely any difference in readings. I didn't test through it's entire range though. Only tested several pieces of wood with the two meters and both gave the same readings.

When I was first looking at moisture meters I bought two. I bought one for around £15 and I bought another for around £150. The expensive one you could calibrate and it also took outside temperature and humidity into consideration when calculating the moisture content of something. Basically though both moisture meters gave roughly the same reading when stabbed into a log so the moral of the story is don't waste your money and buy and expensive one!

I had a customers stove explode once. It was a Franco Belge Montfort and he was burning softwood but had it smouldering with no flames. It ignited suddenly and blew the lid off the stove. It was so powerful that it actually stripped the M5 threads out of the lid of the stove. It didn't break the glass though which was a surprise. I re-tapped the threads and inserted bigger bolts and bolted the lid back down. Swept the flue which was full of tar. Think it frightened the customer a bit so I advised that they never burn it without flames visible. What your describing could have been a minor explosion due to the wood gas suddenly igniting.

I understand your thinking and i myself are HETAS Registered but only because it saves me money. HETAS do nothing to help you and are generally pretty useless other than taking money. It's just a legality. I'd never bother with the scheme for firewood as you, like me, sell stoves. These customers have probably never bought firewood before. Therefore if they want some (which they will as they've just spent 3k getting a stove) and if your prices are pretty average then they'll buy it from you. That's what i'm finding. I'm selling a load of wood with every stove i'm installing at the mo. If your wood is good they'll keep coming back. No scheme needed and happy customers.

Doing about 7.5 cube every Saturday morning. Although we're fitting around 5 stoves a week so they all want wood:-)

I reckon a lot of these 'schemes' are dreamt up by HMRC to keep an eye on people and cash sales. I looked into NACS and it's a load of rubbish. Makes life very easy for the tax man.

Do you have to provide a certificate with every delivery of wood as with all of the other schemes?

Nah didn't bother with a tipper. There wasn't any point really as i wanted to take 3 loads at a time so a tipper would have been no use. I also spoke to a few firewood guys and they said customers didn't like all the bark and crap they end up with when people tip them so i handball them off. Only takes 5 mins or so.

The thing is that the majority of people aren't running their central heating on wood. Most are on mains gas. Gas is cheaper and always will be if your having to pay the going rate for firewood. My customer have wood burners generally because they look pretty. They are happy to pay £110 a load. There is a guy local to me charging £140 for the same size load and he's very busy! So busy he wont travel further than a 10 mins drive from his yard now. At the end of the day it isn't the fault of the firewood supplier that someone would run their central heating on wood. Fair do's if your not on mains gas but if oil or LPG is cheaper then change to them. I get my wood at £55 for 1.2 cube but still use my mains gas central heating for the majority of the time. I use my wood burner as i like the look and cosy feel of it.

The guy i buy mine from leaves it stacked in rounds around 15 foot long. He leaves them for a year or so and then processes them into a pile in a barn......he then scoops them up with a bucket and drops them in your truck. They range between 15% and 25% moisture content. I have a Nissan Cabstar with the back split in 3 with mesh sides which will take 3.6 cubic metres at a time. Can do 6 loads before 12:00 on a Saturday. Works a treat and fits down narrow drives. Only problem is that your talking 60mph all the way. Once we're properly sorted and processing our own firewood i'd look at a VW Transporter with a dropside back. Still nice and narrow and will do 120mph!

Softwood is absolutely perfect for a stove. Like you say....Villager stove aren't the most airtight and draw like hell even when shut down. Make sure you burn it with nice bright flames and your flue will be fine. Thinking of moving to softwood exclusively. Will leave it till next year after i see how this winter goes with my supplier. If they can't keep up with demand ill get a processor and a stack of softwood. The other nice thing about softwood is it's easy on the processor so no mega money needs spending. It seasons quick and it's fairly light so no expensive machinery needed to feed it into the processor.

If your having issues with a certain stove retailer in your area giving bad info why not pop along and see them. give them a free load of softwood. Tell them to use it and see what they think. Educate them. If it burns nice they'll want more. Give them some cards. My mother in law runs our stove shop and loves softwood. We keep the display cooker going on pallets.

There are a lot of stove retailers giving out duff info. I like softwood best for my stove. gives a nice flame and easy to get burning and burns cleaner faster thus keeping the glass cleaner.

As a stove installer i can say that the percentage of my customers that heat their entire house with wood is very very small......it's not even 1% of the wood burner market. Most of my customers bought a wood burner because they like the look of a real fire. They're a toy. They'll maybe use between 1 & 3 loads of wood a year. £360 a year for something they'll enjoy on the cold winter evenings is not a lot of money. If your running central heating then yes you need free or cheap firewood. I had a customer the other week wanting to change from oil to wood for her heating. She was going to need 40kW to heat her house. I told her to stick with the oil and just get a stand alone stove in the room she uses the most. That's what she did and she is very happy. To be honest though if someone is spending 6 or 7k on a solid fuel central heating setup and don't check out fuel prices prior to doing so then maybe they shouldn't be left in charge of a fire:)

It wouldn't void the insurance if he installed stoves that are too big an output but he obviously didn't want to fit them. I'm HETAS registered and to be honest I walk away from jobs when the customer wants me to install something that's way too big. I've come accross many people who become unhappy with a stove when it's too big and start bad mouthing the installer as they don't admit to their friends and family that it was their fault. It's easier to blame the installer than look a fool for choosing a stove thats too big. Not worth the hassle of getting involved usually so better to walk away. Did he say whether the stove was too big an output for the room or too big for the fireplace? If it was too big for the fireplace and he couldn't have achieved the required clearances then it would go against building regs. This wouldn't void the insurance but it would mean that the insurance company could come after the installer to cover the costs if he hasn't installed it in line with building regs and manufacturers guidelines. In all fairness It's the sign of a good installer if they're willing to walk away from a job rather than take your money and leave you with a poor installation. Alycidon- You been or going to hearth and homes? Heading down tomorrow morning with my mate from Aston Chimneys if your about?

I must say i'd rather have some tightly packed stuff like yours. What you knocking them out at say for 100 bags?

Ah right, hehe. Please can someone supply me with 1000 tonns of hawthorn then?

Hawthorn? Gensetsteve - i totally understand what your saying and it would be great if everyone bought a year or two in advance but they're not going to so the folk selling dry wood will be busier. I've seen the effects of burning wet wood and it's a nightmare. A decent modern stove will keep it's glass clean providing the wood is dry. Wood more than 20% will tar the glass and cause excessive tarring of flue.

Just been out and taken a photo. It's loosely stacked and not making full use of the space in the bag but having no trouble shifting them. Also buying the tubs of Burner oderless firelighters. £5.00 to buy, sell for £10.

Definitely misinformation is a nightmare. Same with any trade or product. likeitorlumpit - Why is my first statement untrue? Okay maybe 25% is a bit high. 20% would be ideal but 25% is the absolute max.

I looked into it but it seemed a lot of messing for not much money. There's an old guy near us who sells it wholesale. I buy it at £1.20 a net and sell at £4.00 a net. I can't see how i could make any more money doing it myself.

It is absolutely essential that wood burnt on a stove is less than 25% moisture. The best stove in the world with the best clean burn technology will not keep it's glass clean if the wood is wet. With regards to softwood.......i've been burning a lot of softwood lately on my stove and actually prefer it. The fussier the better i reckon......if your wood is good then the fussy ones will stick with you. If other suppliers wood is rubbish then they'll go out of business which can only be a good thing?