Tips on buying logs for your wood burning stove
Expert advice on buying logs for your wood burning stove. Management of woodlands for fuel is good for wildlife, biodiversity and the trees themselves. Even better, by carefully choosing the type of wood you burn in your wood burning stove or fire, you can get the best possible heating value for your home.
Buy seasoned wood
Between 35% and 60% of the weight of freshly felled wood comes from water, and trees felled in the spring/summer have a higher moisture content than those felled in the autumn/winter.
Seasoning, which is the storage of timber to ‘air dry’ it, reduces the moisture content of the wood. We recommend that you purchase logs which have been seasoned for at least two years so that the moisture content is below 20%. You can tell if a log is dry because the bark will come away in your hand relatively easily and there will be splits across the grain.