Burning fuels and
the environment

Benefits of burning wood

Even though most people have to buy ready prepared wood (i.e. cut and seasoned), it should leave you financially better off compared to oil, electricity or gas.

Burning wood requires re-filling your stove more often compared to other fuels, but you will experience quicker and more comfortable heating.

Wood burns in three phases:

1. Water evaporates
2. Wood turns into charcoal and gases
3. The charcoal burns

RED - DO NOT BURN!

• Driftwood

  it has a high salt content, which damages both the stove and the chimney.

• Impregnated Wood

  Can emit poisonous smoke and fumes.

• Painted Wood

  Can emit poisonous smoke and fumes.

• Chipboard

  Can emit poisonous smoke and fumes.

• Larch / Pines / Poplar / Spruce

  Have the least calorific value of any wood and a very high water/sap content and so will spit resulting in blackened glass and a clogged up flue.

ORANGE – DECENT BURNING BUT
WITH CAUTION!

• Alder / Cedar / Cherry / Elm / Eucalyptus / Horse Chesnut / Lime

  All have quite high levels of water content so take a long time to season

GREEN – GO FOR IT!
THE BEST BURNING TYPES!

• Apple / Ash / Beech / Birch / Hawthorn / Hazel / Holly / Hornbeam / Oak / Pear / Plane / Rowan

  Good heavy hard woods with low water levels and the highest calorific value which will burn better for longer.

You can check yourself whether the firewood is dry enough to burn by using a Moisture Meter - which we sell - see our Pimp Your Stove page for more details. Wood reaches optimum burning quality when it’s 20% OR LESS moisture content. The easiest way to tell whether the wood is dry is by the noticeable cracks in it.

If you are intending to chop up the wood yourself, you should do it early in the spring. You can then cut the wood up into short lengths before you split it and stack it outside over the summer. Wood should be chopped as soon as possible after felling so it dries quickly. It should then be stored under a roof for at least 1 year, and preferably 2 years, with free access to wind.

In our experience Oven/Kiln-dried wood can often burn too quickly. It looks great for interior design style log piles/stacks (as the process removes unsightly bark and kills any bugs!) but can be costly for bulk purchases due to the sheer volume you’ll find yourself using. It’s better suited to open-fires that require extra dry wood because of draught problems.

Remember we sell only very dry Scottish seasoned hardwood and can arrange bulk deliveries direct to your door.

Wood pellets can only be used on specially designed stoves. Pellets are typically made from timber waste from sawmills. The wood goes through a fairly lengthy process of transformation before it is finally extruded as hard pellets. In spite of the processing, the fuel is still carbon neutral and so is less harmful to the environment than other fossil fuels.

Grants for wood pellet stoves

Under the Government Low Carbon Buildings Programme, selective grants are available for the installation of renewable energy equipment in both domestic and commercial properties. The amount available is limited and capped each month. The grants are available for the installation of wood pellet roomheaters and boilers and for the larger wood chip systems.

Visit: www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk

These products are manufactured from sawdust and bound or pressed together into a log shape. They incorporate a flammable substance that makes the product easy to light. Some brands are authorised for use in Smoke Control
Areas. They are also suitable for use on open fires.

They are relatively expensive but will give a fire lasting for two or three hours. They are clean and handy to use and are ideal for a quick fire on a cold night. We sell Certainly Wood Blazeaway logs in bags - see our Aftercare section

When trees grow they absorb carbon dioxide and generate oxygen that is essential for our planet’s survival. Whether wood is burned as fuel or left to decay in the forest, it will release the same amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Healthy trees absorb three times as much CO2 than will be released during burning.

A forest is a huge battery of stored solar energy and large areas of low grade land are ideally suited to forestation. Forests are able to absorb much of the Earth’s CO2 imbalance reducing global warming. Organised forestation can moderate our need to burn precious reserves of oil and gas, conserving them for more valuable uses, limiting oil spills and minimising our need for increased nuclear power.

Smoke restricted areas

If you live in a smoke-restricted area please see the separate section for more advice and information.