Artic load of timber

kingbhome

Looking to buy an artic load of timber for my large stove 30kw. As of know, I know nothing of where to buy, what type to buy and best way to store so this is my first post on it. What price would an artic load be and how long would it last mixed with Abit of coal.

shootermcgee

OK from what I know, if your in or around Tipperary try seanie o gradeys Mill, it would probably be your best bet. I would rather like hardwoods over softwood but price is rather expensive. You could get softwood for around €1200 and hardwood for around €2200,not including delivery which is around €500 alone and you need a yard big enough to unload as most won't unload off the side of the road. Softwood would need at least a year or two to dry properly but you could burn ash nearly straight away

wayoutwest

Hi kingbhome - if you were burning wood only, then i would say that you would need about one cubic metre of logs (loose thrown, not stacked) per 10 days . My 25 kilowatt stove uses such an amount during the cold days of winter if i wanted all day + evening heat. I would suggest that you work out what volume you need for your particular stove/level of building insulation. You could do this by creating a one metre cube (a few pallets or pieces of ply up against wall) and loose fill it with DRY logs, leave top slightly heaped, and see how long that lasts you. I think that you should get about 35 M3 out of an artic load - can anyone in the trade verify this?

Check out previous threaďs on how to store and season firewood - just hope you got a LOT of space.

Spruce - absolute minimum of two summers air drying after being chopped and split from fresh felled timber.
Ash - two years air drying (you can reduce this to one if you chop logs small + have exceptional ventilation + good summer. The moisture content of Ash is about 35% when felled , so it would be pointless burning it 'straight away' because it will -
1) provide you with considerably less kilowatts/kilo
2) create more soot in chimney and rot steel chimney liners because of inefficient combustion in firebox.
3) cause completely unnecessary pollution (which can piss-off neighbours living downwind from you + give domestic woodburning a bad name).

accidental forester

We heat almost exclusively with Sitka in a 20kW Boru boiler stove. There's no doubt there are better woods but it's what we have in quantity. We go through about 15 cubic meters from October to April when the stove is lit for about 16 hours a day. The logs are split fresh and stacked tightly into tree crates (pallet crates). We store and season in an open, south east facing lean-to off the side of the barn. For Sitka, we've found one year to be plenty of time to season. In fact, due to heavy consumption (and generosity to family members) we're running very short. Two weeks ago I tested (re-split and checked internally) wood laid up in the middle of last December and the samples checked were down to 19% to 23%.

Sitka does burn very quickly and would be better if mixed with some hardwood. That's the Catch 22; trying to get two years ahead with hardwood is difficult. We've acquired a good bit of oak and ash thanks to Ophelia and this will be nice to add in but it will be 2020 before it's ready.

Something to be cautious of it being sold "dozey" timber. Usually only problem when one asks for "seasoned" logs. I've seen several examples of people being sold timber that's gone off. Conifer timber, in particular, needs to be stored carefully or it will develop a type of mold that will inhibit it from ever seasoning properly. My father-in-law fell victim to this and now I'm watching a neighbour try to get through a mountain of timber that will never dry out. If a lorry arrives with any type of conifer and the bark is falling off and crumbly, I'd reject it. I would recommend asking for fresh cut timber and would think anything cut in the last six months would be safe enough.

There is a lot of work processing all of your own firewood and, as WOW above states, you need a lot of space, preferably under cover. BUT, it is very satisfying in the dead of winter to know you're staying nice and warm due to the fruits of your own efforts.

wayoutwest

Hi A.F - it sounds like we are consuming about the same amount of fuel for roughly the same size stove. October to April is 210 days - I would use 21 M3 of loosethrown, where as you are using 15 M3 of tightly stacked. The ratio of loosethrown/tightly stacked is about 1:1.4 so your 15 M3 x 1.4 = 21 M3 of my loosethrown.
Surprised that you are drying spruce in one year - fair play, you must be doing something right. Love pic of your organised set-up.
Spruce does burn fast, and so is sometimes hard to establish a heat core in the stove - i found the solution to this was to add 25% blackstone (very black and hard) turf to the mix. Turf on its own can be a bit of a smokey, stinky business - especially during the firing up BUT if added here and there to an already established wood fire it massively helps make and maintain a heat core.
I've got 7 cube willow, 4 thorn, 4 douglas fir, 5 ash, 2 alder that will be ready for this Autumn........and 11 sitka, 11 ash, 5 thorn and 5 birch/alder that will be ready for Autumn 2019.

80sDiesel

Great bit of information. Only recently bought a homestead and storm ophelia has made me get quickly up to date re seasoning/storing of wood.
Mine are mostly spruce but ( waiting for the leaves to identify) some synamore i think. 
I just need to hold off the immediate family from assuming that although the wood is cut and chopped, that it is ready to collect and burn ! Come back in 2 years and take all you want!