Monday 5 December 2011

Storing Wood for the wood burner

We've just been asked how and where we store our logs. We built these ourselves after much debating on what would work best. I suspect you could also make them cheaper/free by using old pallets and curtains/sheets! We just happened to have some of this stuff around from other projects so I can't even work out what they cost. However, I think if you adapt and use what you already have, you should be okay.

We try to buy our wood in late summer when it is cheaper and up until now have always bought dry, seasoned wood and paid a premium for it. Really though, with hindsight, we should just buy seasoned wood or if we could store it somewhere else, just wood as you also pay for it being seasoned. If you are buying seasoned wood in summer, it should dry out in time for winter use. If buying just wood, it might be 18 months or so before it will be dry enough, you just have to experiment (this time also includes wood you are chopping down yourself). I would suggest just buy or chop and store as soon as possible for a better burn.

Both sides and front of our log stores are 'open'. That means just enough wood to keep it from fall out at the sides, then hessian (or other open weave material) to keep it reasonably dry but allow the wind to pass through. It is the wind that dries it and our storage is down what we call 'windy alley'. The front is just hessian which can be lifted to access the logs. All our stores butt against fence panels.The roof should overhang sides and back, the more the merrier I think. Again, we just had to use what we had but our stores are protected by the sides of the house.

 

This large store (about 6' x 6' x 2 1/2 ') currently contains scrap wood to cut and burn or for kindling although we hope to fill it next year with logs.




The wood we bought for this year completely fills the half size store and one half of the other larger one.










We have a Charnwood 4 burner, the smallest you can buy and starting at mid/late afternoon through to bedtime, burns around 8 - 10 logs. In the morning the room is still warm enough (if we keep the door closed) to go without heating at all until we light the burner again mid afternoon which I am just about to do as soon as hubby cuts some kindling (he's busy sorting out our front door light at the moment).
We have avoided having the central heating on constantly as per normal. Maybe 1 hour in the morning, only if very cold, to stop the rooms getting damp.

As this is the first year we have tried this, don't yet know how long the wood will last.

2 comments:

  1. You have made a good job of your wood store. I dont blame you for having the central heating on less than normal, I think we will be too because Tony has just told me our direct debit has now gone up £30 a month!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That`s a very tidy wood store! It`s a amazing what one can build with odd things that one has hanging around the house. Improvisation often finds you a great but cheap solution.

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from you, will read all your comments and try and answer any questions you leave. Please leave comments in English. Don't forget to come back and read my reply! All comments are moderated so if you try to link it to a commercial web site, it will not be published.