Choosing and Storing Firewood for your Wood Burning Stove

How to store wood for your wood burning stoveChoosing and Storing Firewood

This post will tell you everything you need to know when it comes to choosing and storing firewood for your wood burning stove.

There are the organised among us that have prepared their log pile 5 years in advance of when they intend to burn them! The result being perfectly dry logs that burn well, give out great heat and leave little ash and deposit.

Then there are those people that snaffle a bag of logs from the garage on the way home and wonder why these logs give out no heat and burn poorly.

The general consensus is that logs should be cut and stored for a minimum of 2 years and have a moisture content less than 20%. The preparation of the fuel for your woodburning stove is something often overlooked but is actually an essential component in successfully using your stove. Fresh cut wood has a high moisture content of 60-70%. Allow logs to dry until the moisture content is below 20%

Care should be taken to choose good hardwoods such as oak, ash and beech. They should be converted into either rings and cord wood or even better be cut and split into logs. These logs are then best kept stacked with a tarp covering or stored in a dry shed.

Resources for choosing and storing firewood for your Wood Burner

This Which Guide has a good article about choosing and storing wood for your wood burner.

The Forestry Commission has a great downloadable PDF guide “Wood as fuel a guide to choosing and drying logs” that is a useful guide

The Good Firewood Website has a great page on choosing and using wood for your wood burning stove. In fact the website has some great information on wood for your stove

Summary

  • Choose good hardwoods
  • Cut and store for a minimum of 2 years
  • Moisture content should be ideally less than 20%
  • Use woods such as Oak, Ash and Beech
  • Convert into rings or cord wood
  • Split into logs if possible
  • Stack with a tarp or in a dry shed

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Our Hobbit Stove Has Been Fitted!

"We had a Hobbit stove fitted this week by Alex Reay from Flues and Fires, and I just wanted to get in touch to say it is AMAZING and we love it! We have a lovely cast iron tiled fireplace which I was desperate not to lose when we installed a small wood burning stove, but until I found the Hobbit on Google, everyone told me it would be impossible to keep the fire surround. The Hobbit is perfect - not only does it fit very snugly, but it looks fantastic and the blue door complements the tiles very nicely. We are sitting enjoying a fire now and absolutely loving it! Thanks for creating such an amazing product."

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Was looking for a small stove for my first self-install. Found Mark very helpful. Knowledgeable, friendly service. Stove burns well and generates lots more heat than the previous open fire. What is not to like?

Sam

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A Huge Thank You!

"Dear Mark and Gill, a huge thank you for designing and making the Hobbit stove! We had two different London-based fireplace companies tell us that we simply had to knock out the old cast iron and tile fireplace to fit in a woodburning stove, and that there was no other option! Then we found you online. We are delighted with our little Hobbit, which swallows up logs and kicks out a good amount of heat. Perfect for the winter! I will also be writing to the London-based fireplace companies to put the Hobbit on their radar. Best wishes."

Nat

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Alan

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Roger T

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Derrick

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The Little Hobbit Has Stepped Up To The Challenge!

"We just wanted to say how impressed and how much of a life saver our little Hobbit has been! It was fitted a few months ago in our holiday home in Rhu, Scotland, which is a large open plan conversion in a Victorian house. This weekend our boiler decided it was not going to play ball. The little Hobbit has stepped up to the challenge, providing heat to a very large area, about twenty eight foot by twenty four foot with a high ceiling of about eighteen foot, keeping the room reasonably warm, warm enough for us not to use cardigans!”

Alan W

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Neil

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Andy

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"What a fantastic fireplace with the beautiful Hobbit stove. It fits perfectly into the small space and throws out a lot of heat. Here's a photo of our little stove, now our pride and joy and much admired by all who see and feel the warmth."

Chris and C

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Fantastic!

"Just to bid you all a Happy New Year and to say how much we’re enjoying having our Hobbit stove! It was easy to fit with the help of your excellent ‘how to’ videos and we’re just awaiting our inspection by building control for the certification. The Hobbit has fitted neatly into the hearth vacated by the old gas back boiler (with a little cosmetic rendering) and never ceases to surprise us how much heat it can deliver to the point that the new condenser boiler is having an easy life, thereby saving us on gas bills too! Everyone loves having a ‘real fire’ in the living room."

Philip Baird

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"Just wanted to share a picture of our newly installed Hobbit. Absolutely delighted with it, and so pleased we were able to retain our existing fireplace as well. Brilliant product, thank you!"

Marion

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