A Brief Guide to Firewood for Home Use

Whether one uses it for heating for the home, fun time in the back yard or camping outdoors, firewood has a valuable role to play in one’s life. Understanding the nature of firewood is important as one can save effort and money when one uses ready to burn firewood.

Firewood is associated with the experience of comfort, fun and convenience. However, firewood of poor quality will ruin this experience. Therefore, it is good to know some facts about firewood.

Best time to source firewood

To get the best quality firewood, one must purchase it at the right time since freshly cut wood is not good for burning. The wood must not be green when one uses it for starting a campfire, stove, furnace or fireplace. What is required is seasoned wood with minimal moisture content. If one finds it tough to source seasoned firewood at some point in the year, get prepared by sourcing fresh wood in the spring. This way, one can season the wood through six or more months of summer and fall and get it ready to burn in winter. But in the case of green logs of wood like oak, it may take nearly two years to dry. So, take care to purchase green wood early and put it to dry, which will work to be more cost-effective than buying seasoned wood.

Kinds of wood

There is a great variety of choices for firewood, but only some will burn well. This depends mostly on the budget and preference of customers. Following are the major kinds of firewood:

· Hardwood

It is sourced from deciduous, slow-growing trees. It is the preferred choice for almost all outdoor and indoor fireplaces and other purposes of wood heating. Some of the kinds of hardwood include birch, ash and oak. Birch is a highly popular material for long-lasting fires.

· Softwood

It is sourced from coniferous trees that stay green all through the year. These trees that grow fast are the ones that are commonly harvested by the timber industry. They are not good for indoor fires, but they are used in tiny amounts for kindling or starting fires because they are quick to catch fire.

· Seasoned wood

Almost all wood bought from suppliers of wood will be the seasoned kind. This refers to wood that has been subject to the process of drying. It can take anywhere from six months to two years, based on the kind of wood.

· Kiln-dried wood

This wood is dried in a huge kiln or stove that speeds up the process of seasoning tremendously. In comparison to regular seasoned wood, kiln-dried wood will burn longer and hotter while costing a bit more.

· Un-split/ Split wood

Firewood that is harvested commercially is highly likely to be split. The reason is that split wood seasons at a quicker pace catch fire quickly and is easier to manage. So, for the same reason, in case one is felling the wood on one’s own, one must know how to split the logs.

Why is green wood unpopular?

Though greenwood is the cheapest kind, fresh logs contain lots of moisture which begin to vaporize. The combination of heat and other gases and condensation impact will create a harmful and ugly substance called creosote. The latter will harden and coat the chimney with tar, making cleaning much more difficult. It is also not good to inhale this substance.

Wood that is not seasoned is excessively fresh and so does not have many cracks. This makes them sizzle during burning. So, it is good to use seasoned firewood from species of hardwood to build up an efficient and safe fire, using minimal effort.

In sum, these are the top facts about ready to burn firewood. One must not be like persons who make the mistake of selecting the wrong kind of firewood, which can ruin their experience with the same.