How do you make the perfect fire?

[JoceAndChris]

We're now very busy harvesting wood for next winter. Please don't get upset, we're aren't felling but giving a much-needed pruning, keeping a close eye out for nests and angry robins. The trees have never been pruned and have reached extraordinary heights and widths. I guess we have around 100 if you count the "hedge" which has become a spinney.

This is very sad but I want to colour code my logs. What is the perfect blend of wood?

Apple for fragrance, beech for longevity- is that right? And go steady with holly because it puts a coating on the chimney? How about yew, elder, lilac and birch? All flammable?

Tips much appreciated!

 

[Flyfisher]

This poem might be helpful.

Also, if you're supersitious you might not want to burn elder.

I've also read that weight for weight, dry woods all have more-or-less the same calorific value, so it's the weight of the wood rather than the species that's the important thing.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks so much, that's really all I need to know. That poem is adorable- it's ash fires for me then!

Plus it's sorted out my lunch. Blossom fritters with elderflower champagne.

 

[AMc]

Not sure that wood collected this spring will be ready to burn this autumn - I guess a lot depends on the weather and your location. I was lead to believe that 2 years seasoning was optimal and 1 more or less essential.
If the wood is underseasoned it will be a beggar to light and won't give out much heat as energy is wasted boiling off excess moisture. There are few things as disappointing as spending the evening trying to get soggy logs to burn, instead of the nice warm fire you want you stay cold and busy fiddling.

All I really know for sure is you want to stack it so there is plenty of air movement around and through the pile and cover the top to prevent too much rain water dropping into it.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks AMc, you are right. We don't have much choice though-it's damp wood or nothing. We need to harvest enough for 2 or 3 winters now really. I reckon one tree=one winter.

I bring the logs in the house; they're all over the place. This speeds drying out, and adds variety to my insect populations.

 

[AMc]

Wood isn't (usually) that expensive. I get mine from a local landscape gardener at £50 for a flat bed transit load of mixed seasoned wood. That sees us through a winter with a fire almost every Friday-Sunday night and all day over Christmas and New Year. We use a wood burner which is much more frugal than an open fire though.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Interesting... we have 5 fires here and there's at least one going all the time, 2/3 on cold days. It's a full time job in itself!

There's so much fallen wood lying about, I couldn't bring myself to buy it.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

In my experience almost any wood will burn so long as it's properly dry - but some burn better than others as the poem suggests.

Drying can be accelerated if you stack your woodpile off the ground (on a pallet is ideal) in a place where it can get lots of sun. Cover the stack with heavy clear polythene sheet, ideally held off the logs with a simple frame - this could be knocked up from battens, or even plastic pipe. Allow a bit of air gap at the bottom for ventilation. You have now created a solar kiln. Once the sun gets on it the internal temperature will soar, just like in a greenhouse. The heat will drive the water out of your logs, and you will see it condensing on the inside of the plastic. If you've rigged it up right the water will drain away down the plastic sheet and drip off at the bottom. A couple of holes higher up can increase airflow and speed things up even more. In this way you can get your current harvest of wood ready for Autumn burning.

At the moment I'm burning loads of laurel prunings which do ok in our stove. If you've an open fire you'll become more aware of which species spit / burn reluctantly. Next winter you can produce a definitive guide for us - in poetic form of course!

 

[worms]

The article "Tunnel your way to success" on drying woodfuel on page 25 of this http://www.croftingfoundation.co.uk/uploads/crofter_journal/Crofter-75.pdf might give you ideas on getting the moisture levels down on time for good fires next winter.

Andrew & I must have been posting at about the same time and I see that his suggestion is based on the same principle as the article (only his might be cheaper!)

 

[JoceAndChris]

A solar kiln? How wonderful!

I had better not use my woodshed then...could put husband's bedroom here instead:

Thanks for more great advice worms and Andrew!

 

[another_richard]

Am I the only one still using coal?

we do not have a fancy woodburner, just a Victorian half moon insert fireplace.

 

[Flyfisher]

Joce, I wouldn't use your woodshed if you can help it unless the wood is already throroughly seasoned - not enough ventilation to dry the wood and prevent mould. I store our logs exactly as Andrew has described; covered to protect from rain but without the tarpaulin touching the logs and open to the drying effect of the wind. Perfect. It also helps a lot if you split the larger logs.

Another_Richard, I confess to joining you in still burning coal on our open fire.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thankyou Flyfisher!

Yes, I also burn coal when I get frustrated with burning dampish wood.

which is every day

 

[Penners]

We're now very busy harvesting wood for next winter. Please don't get upset, we're aren't felling

Uh oh... my hobby-horse!

There's nothing wrong in principle with felling trees. They're a crop, like any other. The important thing is to replace any that you've felled, by replanting - ideally with more than one sapling per felled tree. This is an insurance against sapling losses, and in the event of zero losses it ensures an increase in the tree population.

As a bonus, young, vigorously-growing trees absorb more carbon dioxide than old, mature trees.

Of course, pruning and pollarding are also a method of generating fuel without actually felling.

 

[Moo]

I bring the logs in the house; they're all over the place. This speeds drying out,

Of course, if you have a four-oven Aga you can stack them in the left-hand half (dividing plate removed, if necessary) and they'll dry out really quickly.

 

[skier-hughes]

We have a two oven rayburn adn do this anyway, cos we aren't cooking all day long Well not everyday!!

 

[Penners]

I always try to bring our woodburner fuel in from the log store a few days before we burn it, and stack it inside the fireplace, near the stove. That completes its drying process very effectively.

 

[Moo]

All this talk of log stores and fireplaces is making me feel very nostalgic and rather jealous.

Please desist.

xx M

 

[Penners]

Ass yor fault fer livin in the big city, bor.

 

[skier-hughes]

I was thinking of converting a rather ramshackle open fronted open sided corrugated roof on 4 posts item to one with bricks on 3 sides and a proper roof, to use as a log store. It'd look nicer as it's in the front garden, but would I be making matters worse. Recently we've used this as a log store reasonably sucesfuly, unless it rains heavily with strong winds, hence the idea to brick up the sides.