So, I have Firefox classic 5 DEFRA approved and fitted and starting to play with a bit but…really struggling to get the benefit and performance I had expected.
I need to source a regular (and cheaper) supplier of wood but have been trying with B&Q bags of kiln dried hardwood and seasoned wood thrown into a good strong fire burning from paper and kindling. Bottom vent is set closed and the secondary vent (airwash) really not open much more than the minimum. Each log seems to disappear in half an hour though. Is this right? I was advised to try really filing the fire box, almost smothering the kindling flame as that would reduce how much air each flame got and slow it down. That didn’t work too well as there was no nice flame licking around inside the firebox and what there was could barely be seen as the glass had been badly blackened. Have also used some logs that I was assured were ready to burn but once in, they gave off a bit of steam and were spitting water from the end. Only a bit mind but presumably if they are doing this they are too wet.

I have only had 4 or 5 fires so far but I am already a little disillusioned with the whole set-up. It appears that to have a nice fire going on a cold winters day, all day, I will consume around two sacks of logs. That can’t be right can it?

Any tips would be very gratefully received….

Oh, and with regard to my other post on the subject of log burners, I am definitely keeping a radiator in the room. The stove, at the moment, is far too much of a faff, and probably too costly in wood, to use for anything other than “show heating”.

I’ve a similar sized burner and tbh am finding the same. I use half a basket in an average evening, so that’d be two baskets over a full day.

they way I do it is to get a the fire *raging* at the start, then once burning I close the top vent to half or even a quarter, and top up with new logs occasionally. However it does get to a point where it’s mad hot in the room (it’s only small) and it’s hard getting the balance right between the output and the fire dying.

A larger stove is much easier to manage – I have tried using a bed of coals on mine and while I can do that and top up wqith logs during the daya, couldn’t keep a fire in overnight. Growing up with a coal fire, I had no problems keeping the fire going all week, but it was a much larger fire.

if your buying them from bnq then it will seem expensive of course.

ours uses maybe 6-8 logs on a winters night from 6pm-10 – but then we need no other heating on to heat the house.

the trick is to get a good bed of embers glowing on the ash bed then load it up.

if you load it up too early then it youll get as you describe- no flame and sooting and no heat.

you wont keep a normal sub 5kw household log fire going overnight.

youll be needing to use coal for that.

it took me a long time to get my head round that having grown up with coal fires (open and stove)

Wouldnt go near b&q wood personally. Tried once IMO hardly seasoned at all and very expensive. Tried peat or recycled wood (called hotties!) bricks? We use to get going then add wood of varying qualities afterward. 1 ‘hottie’ plus some wood or maybe 2 gives enough heat for 3-4 hrs each evening. And ours is an old poorly insulated house. these bricks take up less space than wood are more consistent and IMO cheaper than buying good seasoned wood.

FWIW I had similar disillusionment to start when we bought b&q or garage forecourt wood. Just need to get some decent fuel sourced.

thanks so far for the words…I am toying with trying the coal route as a comparison.

As above = B&Q / any sort of forecourt bought ‘kiln dried’ wood has, in my experience been far from dry.

As a (very expensive) rule we use logs supplied by there guys
(had a log store built this summer with a plan to source our own but, we’re moving / downsizing = store stays here…anyways….) logs linked too are very dry indeed + burn well = a starter for 10.

It took me a good while to get used to controlling the air on ours but now it’s top + bottom open to get a good start. Slowly close them down, top air closed about half way, bottom air closed 3/4 of the way. Good bed of embers is key, topped off with the occasional log which last I don’t know how long – never monitored it tbh. Have never tried to run it overnight – we generally just let it burn out the last our before we hit they hay…

I use probably 8-10 logs a night.. Once it’s going well with sticks I fill it choca then leave it till it burns right down to a few embers. Then I fill it again.

This two or three times will usually see us through the whole evening.

Two or three buckets of logs a night here. I get a delivery at about £150 a tonne. I wouldn’t like to think what you’d pay by the bag.

Just had ours (finally!) installed the weekend before last. It’s a Morso 5kw. Still experimenting, initially we had the issue of it raging away, then put logs on and it would die right down and then try to go out. These were garden centre logs. Now I’ve had a small delivery of seasoned logs and they are much better, but there’s clearly still a delicate control technique to it in the opening rounds. Once settled in it’s fantastic, chucks the heat out. I reckon from say 6pm (I was home early last night!) to say 10pm we’ll get through 5 or 6 small logs.

Does that help?

We have a Morso Badger 5Kw. By controlling the ventilation we can moderate the burn times. A half open vent keeps the give enough flame and heat to keep the room warm & glass clean.

We buy 1 cubic metre of seasoned logs for £55. Its has lasted 8 months, supplemented by random offcuts. Occasionally, we add coal if we want have a warm fire in the morning.

My opinion dry(20% humidity) logs and practice. You’ll get it wired.

We removed the radiator thinking stove would make up for it, but we have now got he rad back on. Its just handy to have.

eGn

I don’t know where you’re based… FWIW – if you in West York we get logs here http://www.anchorlogs.co.uk/

Try Opening the bottom vent just a little and open up the top vent all the way once the kindling is going well close the bottom vent off

Add logs which are well seasoned once the stove is good and hot and the kinderling has peaked close down the top vent to control the burn of the log/logs

I get through 12 small split logs a night, tend to burn one at a time on a good bed of owing embers

Still experimenting here too.

I had my stove installed in the summer and only really started using it in the last few weeks (5kW Yeoman multifuel).

With properly seasoned wood and coal it will produce a ferocious amount of heat (think of me in my underpants with the windows open, if it pleases you to do so…) but I’m not supposed to burn coal in it (smoke-control zone) so I have to use smokeless fuel which is a bit dour – takes a while to get a good glowing bed – but will burn steadily all night with a moderate heat.

On top of this, properly seasoned softwood (pine) is a good combination: the wood burns quite quickly but gives off lots of heat. I got a cubic metre of hard/softwood mix delivered which cost £75 but I’m not too impressed. The hardwood isn’t all that well seasoned so it needs further drying beside the fire before I can burn it. £75 for a cubic M seems too pricey to me as well so my plan is to build another 3 or 4 cubic Ms of wood storage over the winter and source cheap/free wood to lay down for next winter. Bit of a long term plan which inevitably means buying a chainsaw…

Oh, and if you want to get it REALLY hot, burn compressed sawdust logs. Very expensive and not very long-lasting but underpants time again! Might explore a DIY source of these in the next wee while.

That’s an idea of how much my 5kw will be burning tonight 😉

Untitled by scotiedog, on Flickr

I should have said that I paid £53 for a cubic metre of nice seasoned wood (delivered). The chap turned out to be our builder’s brother!

Ecologs (the giant kitty litter stuff) is fantastic. It isn’t the cheapest per burn, but the heat they give out is astonishing! I tend to use 1 – 2 sticks (of the 5 in a bag type) over a night in my 5kW stove. Split each stick into 3 pieces. Also good to mix with less good wood to make it burn longer and better.

Whatever you use – make sure you leave a good bed of ash in the bottom of the stove. Don’t empty it all out every time (about 1″ deep). Helps control the burn.

Also – get a log store, and fill it. The wood this year is pretty rubbish in general, so look at it more as seasoning for winter 2013 😉 I have some of last years and some of the year before still to work through which should see me well through this winter!

I would recommend the ‘upside down’ method of fire building. Put two or three big logs on the bottom (you should still have at least an inch of ah in there), then put half a firefighter or screwed up paper on top of these followed by sticks and maybe a small log/couple of big sticks on the top.
Open all the vents, light the firefighter/paper and almost, but not quite, close the door. Within a minute or two you should have a raging fire at which point you close the door but leave the vents open. The red hot bits of burning sticks will drop down and light the big logs on the bottom, so you don’t have to open the door at a less than ideal time – I.e. when the fire is still getting going.
This method is preferred by Morso and I’ve found it to be pretty much infallible.
Once the thermometer (if you havent got one you really should) gets to about 100 degs start closing the bottom vent until its fully closed at 300 degs. Keep the upper vent open until 400 degs then close it until you get nice lazy flames.
Add more logs/ coal once the temp is over 300.
Wood needs air from above to burn, not below (unless you want all your wood gone in minutes), so try keeping the bottom vent shut tight once the fire is going properly.
You really need to plan ahead with wood as the ‘seasoned’ wood you buy in now will in reality still be damp and should be kept for next winter. So buy lots of wood in your first year and let it dry properly.

skis about right for a full evenings ‘burn’
Frankly seasoned logs ie a year old kept indoors/ dry are expensive to the point where i cant afford to keep them .
Firewood is our no 1 best seller, natural logs kept indoors. we do budget firewood ( the square blocks from pallets that we get as seconds from a pallet manufacturer) and kindling tonnes of kindling.. got a lad spending two days a week splitting the stuff at the mo.
we sell door to door/ delivered by the builders bag, wheelie bin and bag for life..
most folks use the stuff to supplement thier own road kill style firewood, but tonne for tonne kindling is no.1

Try using oak once the fire is going not as much heat but burn slower

Ski – do you rate the EcoFan? Keep wanting one but can’t justify the cost if it isn’t effective.
Free wood here. Burn 10-12 logs a night but it never stays in over night.

RE Kindling:
Get yourself a saw and a hand axe.
Drive down to your local industrial estate and speak to the owners who have stuff delivered, they will have spare pallets that they have to pay to get them taken away.

Pull the planks off.
The square/cube blocks of wood are great for general burning.
Use the hand axe/saw to chop the planks up into kindling size sticks.
= free wood.

For Logs phone up any local tree surgeon’s / gardeners. In the winter their second business is often selling the wood from the trees they have chopped down in the summer.

timbur – Member

Ski – do you rate the EcoFan? Keep wanting one but can’t justify the cost if it isn’t effective.
Free wood here. Burn 10-12 logs a night but it never stays in over night.

Yes, they are expensive!

I had one for a demo for a week, I think this was a good sales ploy looking back 😉 as I found they help give your room a far more even spread of heat, tend to get less of a hot spot in front of the burner and with my build less heat going straight up, they are also silent and after a while you forget you have one going on top of your stove.

So for me, yes, its worth it.

http://www.caframo.com/hearth/hearth_products_woodstove_ecofanairmax812.php

It is all trial and error . We have a morso squirrel . Ours seems to use relatively little wood . Kindling and two thickish bits of wood to get going with bottom and top vents open (and door not fully shut if crankgirl is doing the fire). Once the fire has taken close the bottom vent which acts like a choke on a car engine . Then add thicker logs as the embers form as the fire heats up close the top vent bit by bit to slow the burn and produce the Aurora boliaris effect .

Dry wood is key we paid 50 quid per qubic meter delivered last year so far this year we are still burning pallets and family tree prunings saved up over the year .

The hardwood isn’t all that well seasoned so it needs further drying beside the fire before I can burn it.

tbh Why wouldn’t you do this anyway?

WIth our last open fire we’d always have tonights and tomorrows logs either side of the fire, and then replace each day.

For the poster, you need to buy in bulk and have somewhere you can dry-ish store them.

wow..thanks all for the advice.
Seems like I need to persist and source some decent wood.
I am in calderdale and there are a few places around but I might check out marsdenman’s suggestion as they have a supplier in Shibden, close to me.

I do think this could become a bit of an obsession though. I brought a large branch home from holiday last week in pickering to start off my store and but for the incoming tide, a very chunky piece of driftwood was almost recovered from the sea in whitby!!!

Reading the OP post, he seems to have logs at 2 opposites, the kiln dried burning up fast and the green stuff fobbed off as ready that hisses away. Regular decent wood is all that’s needed, takes a while to find a good supplier.

I am my supplier, our loads are mixed, will have been down 1-4 years depending on species and spent a year in a dry shed. Only complaints we get are that the logs are sometimes too big for piddly burners. Our biggest issue is people not keeping the stuff under cover, there is no point us drying it, for you to just leave it out in the corner of the garden.

As mentioned above, close bottom vent, leave top vent ajar for steady hot burning.

For stove rocket fuel, try some dry Lawsons Cypress, nearly took the door off the boss’s rayburn.

can you keep wood in a garage or is that not “breezy” enough?

My opinion dry(20% humidity) logs and practice. You’ll get it wired.

el Gato said it much more succinctly than me!

just realised – forgot to mention (think it’s kind of covered above but, to be sure..)
don’t clear ash off the grate between fires (unless it is really deep….) that also helps

Depends on your garage.
If you leave wet riding kit in there does it dry/stay the same/go mouldy?

To give air flow all aound the stack in a garage I would probably stack on pallets to get it off the floor, and pallets against the walls to keep it off them.
Some of our big stacks (20 tonne) have had sweat issues in their centres before, now we just stack and vent differently to avoid it.

We’re 10 months into owning a Stovax burner, 5kW. Suffered B&Q prices while we sourced a good wood supplier. We have a decent large stove supplier & they recommended our wood supplier, a landscape gardener & nbsp tree surgeon. £75 gets a pickup load,approx 13 wheelbarrow loads, of 2.5yr old barn stored logs.

We get through 4 or 6 logs in an evening depending on what time we start the fire, but ould easily get through a bag of B&Q logs. Expensive!

We forage for kindling in a nearby wood & stash it all in a large shed to keep it dry.
Haven’t tried the upside down method yet, tend to start it like a camp fire: paper ball surrounded by kindling & 2 log all standing upright. Gets it going really fast.

Tried the Morso upside down method at the weekend. Seemed better at getting a good fire going quickly.

Not sure if anyone else has said but, get a moisture meter. And only burn stuff that is less than 20%, preferably less than 15%.

hopefully the garage should be dry as there is a new roof going on it soon. Its still breezy because it a sectional conrete construction and the door isnt a tight seal.
I think wet gear would stay wet, might dry a bit but I wouldnt expect it to go mouldy.

Still trying to perfect the perfect burn. But FWIW I have been using some soft wood off cuts from my father-in-law (building trade) split down as kindling, about half a heat log (the compressed saw dust ones, these are made locally, as in 4 miles away, and they offer a deal for collection of a 500kg bag for £100) to generate lots of heat, and then the year old oak for the long burn.

The oak was sweating under a tarp so have now opened the ends and it is dry enough if brought in to the house the day before use. Really need to get the proper log stores built and stacked up with wood now I’ve found a good supplier.

I’ve just added a Valiant Stove Fan. Not much difference in the room but it certainly moves the warm air upstairs. We haven’t needed the C/H on since using it. Recommended.

Drive down to your local industrial estate and speak to the owners who have stuff delivered, they will have spare pallets that they have to pay to get them taken away.

Be wary of pallets. Most of them have been sprayed will all sorts of nasty chemicals to stop creepy crawlies living in them – you don’t want to be burning this stuff.

r 70 – if kit wouldn’t go mouldy, you’ve probably got enough ventilation

Also, working out the stack in tonnes was wrong, bad maths and bad buying method, correct maths and measure, the shed that sweated was 42 cubic m. So it has to be very damp or quite a big stack to not dry/mould. Not worked out the big shed as it still isn’t full for next year yet.

Don’t strangle your wood burner, it’s less efficient and more polluting. If you want the most heat out of the wood you put in then fill the thing up with kindling and a couple of logs, light it on max air then turn it down to half or a third air when it’s roaring and let it burn out, which will take between an 45 mins and a couple of hours depending on the stove and type of wood. When there’s only a bed of red embers left fill it again (if your house is so badly insulated one burn isn’t enough 😉 ).

Shock! Our parents generation moved away from open fires because they were hard work, not particularly cheap and didn’t provide instant heat.

They were/are are a bunch of eco-terrorists prepared to squander 2K or more a year on gas and electricty rather than insulate the house, Poly. My parent’s house is still hot in Summer, cold in Winter and stuffy all year round.

Edukator – insulation is relevant regardless of the fuel unless perhaps you have an unlimited free supply. Interestingly when we’ve rented holiday houses with solid fuel fires the modern / well-insulated properties have very quickly got too hot. I’m not sure it was eco-terrorism to move from smog producing coal fires to something ‘cleaner’ but I’m also pretty sure that most of the people I know who claim to be ‘eco’ with their wood burner are really not.