We’ve got a 5 kW and an 8 kW stove and currently pretty much rely on these for heat along with a bit of electric. The gas CH needs a revamp but has been out of commission for a while, I just hope the pipes aren’t blocked - long story.
I’ve already suggested this year we may gravitate as a family to the AV room with the 5 kW stove plus heat from the projector!
My stove is 10-12kw and I get through most of this in a winter with the stove lighting every evening for a few hours at least, it’s 4 tipper loads of softwood whatever that is in tonnage I’m not sure, decent hardwood such as beech or ash has got very dear here. I discovered recently that laurel burns really well, as good as hardwood, so if you have any big hedges that need pruning be sure to keep the big stuff.
This is true if you but small batches of logs (under 2 cubic metres) but for bulk deliveries it does not apply.
Moisture meters are useful as a rough guide, but the readings need to be interpreted with care. The surface of a log can be very dry if it had been in a kiln or strong sunlight even if the inside has hardly dried at all. Conversely, a quick rain shower can give a very high moisture reading on a log which is bone dry in the middle.
I have had numerous trees felled in the past 2-3 years, many pine and a few leylandii, plus some ash, poplar, laurel and apple. I have so much wood split and stacked in 2 stores that I am struggling to keep track of the ‘vintage’ of everything I have. I really need a moisture meter but there are so many to choose from, ranging in price from about £15 upwards on Amazon. Are the cheap ones any good? What should be avoided and what are the ‘must have’ attributes, if any? Any suggestions most welcome.
You need to check the ends of the logs… preferably freshly cut.
ISTR mine was c. twenty quid from the usual outlet 
Moisture meters come with spikes that should be inserted as far as possible in to the end of the log
Of course, but that will never tell you what’s going on right in the middle where the moisture content can be very different.
yes true but if your logs are not too large it’s usually fairly indictative ime.
That’s true on the whole, and you are right that endgrain is the best place to test. Occasions when I’ve found big dircrepancies are when someone has tried to (kiln) dry very quickly so that the timber gives a very dry reading but is still very wet inside. Our neighbours bought some allegedly kiln dried softwood a few years ago and were surprised to find that it was about as heavy as oak. I checked it with a meter and it seemed dry, so I cut one in half, and found that the inside was sodden.
Yes indeed, the weight of the log is always a give away regarding to how dry it is, particularly noticeable with softwoods
Chopping block delivered yesterday … I had promised myself one some time ago. My local wood fuel supplier normally delivers me wood three times a year, which lasts a winter. Except last winter I only burnt half of my store.
I have two 5kW stoves, one for each end of the cottage. Against the advice of the chimneysweep I stack logs either side of the stoves just to ensure that they are dry enough. If they are not they go into the bottom oven of my Everhot for an overnight dry out (50 degrees C).
Hardly any flesh on these birds - at least they have feathers now!
Funnily enough I was going to ask if anyone has lit their burner yet this autumn.
I stuck one of those naff self lighting artificial logs in ours the other day, gave a nice little boost to the room on Saturday evening.
Fired up the main stove in the living room last night. Mostly logs from last winter’s last batch, supplemented with a bucket of wood offcuts form ongoing joinery work.
Willy.
It was raining this morning so i lit the burner to get rid of some twigs etc that were in there, then a few logs, then i put one of those flue cleaning logs on to give it a clean.
I try to hold off until 1st October each year, I find once you start you cant stop although I did succumb on saturday night. It’s a bit parky here at the mo so I may not last until the 1st. I swept the flue a few weeks ago and removed all the firebricks and gave the whole thing a good clean down so it’s ready to go. Is anyone running a back boiler on a Clearview?
