All about Firewood: Kiln Dried, Seasoned, Off-cuts and Briquettes

What are the benefits of hardwood over softwood?

What does it all mean?

If you are a well seasoned (forgive the pun) stove owner, then you will probably have been purchasing or sourcing different types of firewood and know your preference.

However, for the new stove owner, there will be lots of places to purchase and source firewood; all of varying types, qualities and prices. It can be daungting as you want to get the best out of your wood burning stove.

This blog will explain the difference between various types of firewood, from Kiln Dried to Seasoned and also what briquettes and off-cuts are.

Kiln Dried Firewood

Kiln dried firewood is firewood that has been fully dried in a purpose built oven or kiln. What this means is that the firewood will be full dried and perfect for a wood burning stove.

As with all firewood, it should have a moisture content of below 25%. When firewood is kiln dried, the producer will set their kiln to ensure the firewood has the correct moisture content. For a stove owner, they do not have to worry about ensuring their firewood is well seasoned.

The downside of kiln dried is that it is more expensive than seasoning your own firewood. Also, some producers use a considerable amount of energy to produce kiln dried firewood; an additional consideration for the environmentally conscious. 

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Seasoned Firewood

Seasoned firewood has usually been air dried and allowed to dry naturally. The essential note is that it must have a moisture content of lower than 25%.

The main advantage of seasoned firewood is that it is considerably cheaper than kiln dried and will have not used energy to dry it out. However, it won't always have a consistent moisture level content for all the logs as with kiln dried. But if you are embracing the stove life style, you will probably be seasoning your own firewood as well as also purchasing seasoned firewood for immediate use. But you will be needing a moisture content meter.

http://www.bowlandstoves.co.uk/acatalog/Seasoned-Hardwood.html

Hardwood Briquettes

Hardwood briquettes are produced by taking compressing shredded wood and sawdust. They are nearly 100% natural; only containing lignin molecules in the wood for binding purposes.

There are several advantages for hardwood briquettes. The first is that they consistently have a moisture content of less than 10%. This means they will produce less issues for flues and chimneys. They also burn for longer and produce 50% more heat than logs. And finally they are easier to store, stacking nicely. 

However, few wood burning stove owners are using hardwood briquettes, mainly because they do not know much about them. But this isn't the cause in Europe, where most stove owners use them regularly. At Bowland Stoves, we sell Premium Hardwood Briquettes in either 5 packs or by the pallet.

 

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Off-cuts as Firewood

A lot of stove owners will use and burn off-cuts in their wood burning stoves. Off-cuts are wood that has left off over by a timber producer; the waste.

Off-cuts are popular as a firewood type for wood burning stove owners. They are cheap and it is also useful to burn rather than it going to waste. Their main draw-back is that they will not have the same consistent low levels of moisture content as with kiln dried or hardwood briquettes. However, they are a cheap form of firewood and useful for storing and seasoning.

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