We have just had a Morso Badger installed and it turns out that the wood we have had delivered a month ago is pretty damp still. The installer was strugling to get it to draw well and is returning tomorrow with some properly seasoned wood.

I doubt we can get another load of properly dry wood delivered before christmas so was wondering about burning coal or smoakless fuel. Anybody any experience it is a multifuel stove. There seems a huge range of different coals and smoakless fuels.

Last winter we burnt a mixture of coal and logs – just basic coal in a plastic bag from the garden centre. Worked fine, really warm but dusty and the chimney needed a really good sweep at the end of the season.

Cheap coal is shit.

We have Taybright in at the moment. Supertherm is good too.

SolarCoke is hilariously hot and burns very clean, but knackers your grate up.

Favourite of everything are some things called “Hotblocks” which are – well – have a look here – http://hotblocks.co.uk/

Hotblocks are currently, apparently “totally sold out all, non left, all over the UK” which is a bit of a shame as we just found them, and they’re great.

once you get fire going move a couple of bags of wood indoors next to the fire to dry it as you go should get you started

I burn any thing that does not move by itself ! if it fits inside and burns its in !!!!!!!!!!!!

i burn all typpes of wood

doenst seem to matter how wet it is, once burner gets some heat up and I start it off with some dry kindling

I have 2 large log baskets in the house, even fresh wood once its been inside for 2-3 days burns loads better

It’s not very green I suppose but you can get stacks of old videos from charity shops everywhere for next to nothing.
They don’t last that long but are really hot while they do.

you cannot season wood quickly.
Make sure you get stuff suitable for use in a wood burne r
one is it coke or pet coke???? – burns too hot warps and melts – it does trust me 😳
I use supertherm
http://www.jharrison-fuel.co.uk/super.htm

about £8 per 25 kg not super hot but burns for ever and low ash

You can probably burn any sort of coal though I would if I was desperate

Unseasoned wood will have sap which clogs flues over time – so they say – and as it seasons it increases in thermal value. Bringing it in will help but not much if it s too wet /green dont bother IMHO- can you hear /see the sap fizzing evaporating whilst burning??

go to a devent coalmerchant and just ask – my local oneI use has about 2 different kinds and really knows his stuff

you could also try these
http://www.ecowoodfuels.co.uk/
never tried myself as I have storage issues

Clearly any wet wood will burn if you want to make it hot enough but not the best heat IME

We cut firewood for plenty of businesses and homes around Brecon and burn at home as well, we use a mixture of woods depending on what has fallen/been thinned out from hedges etc on the farm (it’s usually not too green as it can be left for a few months before it’s brought back and cut). I don’t season any wood but just split and stack for a few weeks, bringing several day’s worth inside to dry next to the fire before using it. It can be a little smokey but is generally fine.

Neil

As mikewsmith says. My local has a woodburner with a table and rocking chairs next to it, along with two wicker baskets of wood, mostly big offcuts from the local sawmill, so there’s oak, ash and godknows what in one, and smaller bits for kindling in the other. Keeps the wood nice and dry, and those who sit there do so on the understanding that they keep the fire fed. Not a chore. You could try looking for a sawmill or somewhere that works with seasoned timber to see if they’d let you have some scrap offcuts to get you started and get the other stuff dried out.

We’ve got a Morso Badger, great little stove. We have found that it can take a bit to get going but once it’s hot it will burn anything. If our logs are not super dry I keep some really dry wood to hand, cut up pallets or old window frames work well. Once the flue is hot it’ll start to draw really well.

Water

Been lazy & only used coal in the stove for ages, just ask for ‘house coal’ at one Coal merchants but they call it ‘premium’ at another 😕
Both charge £8.00 a sack.

Personally if I aint got proper seasoned wood (or as I have at the moment, kiln dried) I get the “ecologs” or similar – basically compressed sawdust in sticks. It looks a little like giant kittylitter but is very dry and puts out some serious heat. Since it is so dry it is also very, very clean burning and produces little ash or nasty stuff to clog up your chimney.

It got me right through last winter infact… planning to build a proper wood store soon and get a couple of trailer loads of logs delivered ready for winter 2011!

I burn a mixture of hard and softwood – where possible I try and get it down below 30% moisture content.

A good source of firewood info and suppliers can be found on the forum arbtalk.co.uk (firewood forum – obviously)

TS

Anthracite

Morso badger here too it’s brilliant and can’t say it has problems getting going even the icy kindling lit this am. We use well seasoned logs and a mixture of coal, the coal as a good ember base. I’ve used the five star bricks until laterly as I changed merchants to a local one. The dont do fsb so been using ovals and theyre excellent too.

But yeah if there just damp then put them I inside stack near the stove. If you need a couple in a hurry put them on top of the stove keep rotating now and then but don’t forget about them as they start to smolder.

we burn a mix of coal (anthracite) and seasoned wood – some we get free from a friend or pay for from a neighbour who happens to run a wood supply company. The coal will burn hotter and longer but would cost more if we ran it solely on solid fuels – I think we pay about £8.50 for 25kg bag. It’d be cheaper if we had a coal-store and bought it by the half-ton, something we’re thinking about for next year. Wood is a mix of ash, chesnut and oak with the occasional bit of apple in there.

We’ve just started stacking some wood in an alcove next to the stove. Some of the free stuff isn’t as dry as we’d like but stacked at the back it’ll dry within the time it takes to clear the front of the stack (the logs are two deep).

We’re actually using coals2u (sp?) – a national company with local distributors; I know they supply our local garages for example. They usually deliver within 5 working days and their rates are actually cheaper than the local coal merchant by a couple of ££ a bag. They’ve got a decent website that gives you a bit of a bewildering array of fuels but there’s enough detail on there that you can work out what’s most suitable.

(our stove does our central heating so we’ve spent a while studying the options)

This is a useful site for everything stove related. This link lists the various woods and their merits.

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/woodburning_chart.html

If you can get hold of some ash logs they can be burnt green due to the very low moisture content (I picked up 2 loads yesterday that have only been split a few days ago after being sat in a pile for a few month. The moisture content is 30%) Less than 20% is the recommended. Fortunately I won’t need these for a few months yet but they would burn ok with a smokeless fuel bed.

Seriously?
no on?
this forum has grown up far too much for my liking.
OK…. if i must…

Logburner – What do you burn

LOGS!

Peats – but you need a croft in the Highlands for that,so that really buggers that one up for most folk. Smells nice too!

We’re actually using coals2u (sp?)

is a company called CPL Distribution. My dad supplies logs, and fuels all over the UK, he is probably the largest supplier of netted logs in the UK now, supplying CPL et al with most of their logs.

If you think you are buying seasoned logs now, your not, they have all gone (most anyway). If you buy Ash, that will burn pretty well from near fresh.

He buys a lot of timber from FSC sites and tells me we are in for a big shock the next few years, as timber, especially hardwood is in very short supply. This season alone some people are paying double what they were at the start of the season for hardwood, even fresh cut stuff.

Taybrite is a good fuel, as is Stoveheat for closed stoves. House coal is very dirty and too expensive at £8 per bag 🙂

btw according to a friend who temps on their telesales, CPL are now taking orders for stock that they cannot quickly supply, as their coal bagging robots seized in the cold weather.

We burn a mixture of seasoned wood and http://www.logs2u.co.uk/heat-logs

It is recommended that you “house-dry” seasoned logs for a week or more before burning. I wasn’t aware of this to start with & was quite disappointed at the temperature we were achieving from seasoned (but not house-dried) logs. The temperature from those heat logs is awesome & when combined with properly dried logs makes the house nice & toasty.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/eng-woodfuel-woodasfuelguide.pdf/$FILE/eng-woodfuel-woodasfuelguide.pdf

Is he called Johnny, Si?

Is he called Johnny, Si?

My dad? No, not that i know anyway! though i think you mean Johnny from lakeland logs?