Wood for wood burners
So you have your new stone fireplace installed, and now you want that traditional fire. In most cases an open fire is the first choice, but of course these are far from efficient as most of the heat disappears straight up the chimney! A wood stove is a far better option if you want the primary purpose of your fire to be heating rather than just appearance.
There are hundreds of wood stoves available these days, and all have their good and bad points. Most these days employ some sort of ‘clean burn’ technology which keeps the glass clear, so that you can see your fire, and goes some way to getting the ‘look’ that you would have had, if you’d chosen to have a fully traditional ‘open’ fire.
‘Clean burn’ does not however necessarily mean ‘efficient burn’ There are no two ways about it: The only way to get maximum heat and the most efficient use of your stove is to burn DRY wood. Wet wood will burn in your stove, but all the energy is used up in evaporating the moisture in the logs, and the efficiency is there fore very poor, and the heat emitted is low.
Dry wood burns much more efficiently, and needs very little air from your wood-burners vents. It will give off much more heat; last longer, and leave very little ash. Good logs of ideally ash or oak, that have been dried for a couple of years (stack them against a south facing wall with a tin sheet over them to keep the rain off) will produce very efficient heating.
Log supplies are of course harder these days, as more and more people have stoves and are searching for fuel. Keep a eye open for council workers trimming trees on the road side, or thinning communal woodlands, but you’ll have to be quick, as others will be looking too!