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When you build up a store of firewood, remember that the wood may start
to deteriorate after 4 to 5 years, although this is of course variable and
depending on storage conditions and species involved.
What Type of Wood is Best?
The difference between 'hard' and 'soft' woods is the density of their cells or
fibres.
As a general rule, the deciduous trees (those that lose their leaves in the
autumn) are usually thought of as hardwoods and the evergreen trees (such
as pines, firs and larches) as the softwoods. But generalisations are of course
always subject to many exceptions. Some evergreens may well be harder
than some deciduous trees. Birch, for example, is not very hard at all. So we
should understand that there is a whole range of densities amongst our tree
species, including medium dense woods, which cannot be satisfactorily
classed as hard or soft.
Firewood tends to be sold by volume rather than weight. Assuming that the
wood is reasonably dry, the weight of a square metre of good hardwood may
be double of that of a square metre of softwood. This means that the same
volume of hardwood will provide you with more fuel to burn than an equal
amount of softwood, simply because it contains more substance.
(N.B. The price of hardwood will normally not be double that of softwood,
because it took the same amount of labour to prepare. So, if a trailer full of
hardwood costs more than the same size trailer full of softwood, the more
expensive option may well be the most economical.)
The other advantage of good hard firewood’s are that the cooker does not
need to be fed as often and the charcoal-beds made by the glowing wood
may burn more easily overnight.
However, the ideal situation would be to have a store of both hard and soft
woods, because the softer woods also have distinct advantages. They light
more easily than the slower burning hardwoods and if the softwoods are dry,
they create a hotter, more intense fire. The draught created by the hotter
fire moves the air up the chimney faster.
After reading the notes opposite about the burning process, you will
understand that means less pollution in the form of smoke and less creosote
condensation in your chimney.