Firewood / Woodburning Tips

[Moorf]

As winter is definitely upon us I thought we could all share our woodburning / firewood tips. Even after quite a few winters we're still learning so it might be handy to share...

1. Woodburners run best at maximum capacity. Running a woodburner "damped down" or at low heats (with smoke out chimney) will quickly block your flue.

2. Wood burns best placed north/south in the firebox. It burns longer east/west.

3. Top down is, imho, the easiest and fastest way to start a fire. I was skeptical until I tried it and now it's the only way we do it... easy peasy.

4. Knotted newspaper makes excellent firelighters.

5. Never, ever burn wet wood - that includes rain-wet. It's the fast-track way to a chimney fire.

6. If your woodburner glass goes black, you're not burning the fire hot enough. The fire should clear the glass at the optimum temperature.

7. The easiest and cheapest way to keep your woodburner glass clean is to use the cold grey ashes on a piece of dampened tissue - dip damp tissue in the ashes in the firebox and rub glass with it - wipe off - voila!

8. Clean the flue/chimney regularly - especially if you haven't been using totally dry/seasoned firewood or have been damping it down. Before you use it and after are best times, and if the draw lessens on the fire you should also have it checked. Get a receipt from the sweep - this helps for any insurance claims you may need to make in the case of a chimney fire.

There must be heaps more!

Moorf

[Familyofmonkeys]

Paying lots of attention......woodburners are a different kettle of fish to the open fireplaces I grew up with

[Kanga]

WRT point 1 Moorf- what about getting a fire to keep in? Do you have any magic tips for this- I know it's discouraged for environmental reasons but, otoh, it makes such a difference if you can wake to some warmth and getting the fire going only requires a handful of pine cones and a log. Tricky one isn't it?

[Moorf]

It is a tricky one for a couple of reasons.

The newer woodburners are built so that they can't be damped down, this is to address smoke emission problems. In some South Island towns, during winter, smoke pollution can be a problem, hence the changes. There are ways of *cough* modifying them, I know many rural folk who do this but I wouldn't recommend it - it will make any building consent you had done void, as well as your insurance if you have a problem with flue fires.

You also have the problem of creosote build up during damping down sessions - flue fire danger unless cleaned v. regularly. We've just been ripped off with some wet wood and in just THREE WEEKS the flue was starting to clog - enough to interrupt the draw... be warned.

But, if you want to keep a fire in, then it's a case of loading up the firebox and shutting off the airflow and hoping there are coals left to rebuild from in the morning. And yes, pine cones are brill

We've just replaced our faithful coal stove with a Pyroclassic - it's a woodburner but with a ceramic "kiln" design and it has amazing heat-store abilities so that the place is still warm in the morning. It's also very low emission and a wetback.

[Sam B]

We have a Masport Grand View, with a rural slide (because we live on a property with over a certain number of hectares we are allowed this) so we can keep it going over night. like Moorf says, we build it up, mainly with one GIANT log, then cut off the air flow. in the morning it is warm with glowing embers and fairly easy to start again. it is a brilliant log burner, we are roasted most nights, and it is heating a very large area, including lounge, dining room and kitchen.

Wood needs to be managed very carefully. We are starting a gum plantation. You need 25 trees per year if you let them grow to 7 years old apparently. once cut, they need splitting immediately, otherwise it's like splitting concrete 9we are discovering to our cost) and they also dry quicker. They should then be left in the sun until the end of summer, then stored somewhere dry until they are seasoned (2 years). Dry wood is so important.

Don't overclean the burner, leave a layer of ash in the bottom about an inch deep.

[benandclare]

The fire in our new build is a multi fuel and termed a "dirty Fire " , as we're over the 2 ha's easily

Back in the UK with the woodburners/multifuels, 3 different houses over 20 years, I had I used to give the flue a good razz every week ,i.e let the fire roar for 20 mins, to burn off the tar.

Not so sure I'll do this in NZ as we're timber framed as opposed to brick built, so will be watching carefully when the flue goes in to see how close it is to any framing, trusses.

But as mentioned above DRY wood is the key, Will be building large wood shed

[aberdian]

We are starting a gum plantation. You need 25 trees per year if you let them grow to 7 years old apparently.

We have about 800 trees on our property, around 8 years old (pines, not gums) and they appear to have been pretty well managed so far, about 30cm diameter and so tall they block the view. The shame is that we have a diesel boiler and no wood burner, something which will have to be remedied soon methinks

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[Moorf]

We are starting a gum plantation. You need 25 trees per year if you let them grow to 7 years old apparently.

Interesting - we are slowly having the pines in our paddock felled - about 25-30 20yr old pines and we want to replace them with gum. What spacing have you used? And did you get a cut and come again gum - we're just looking into what to plant for firewood stocks.

Also, are there any size restrictions to what you can plant for your own use? And what about the carbon credit stuff - I haven't had a chance to look into that yet... does that affect those growing their own firewood?

[Sam B]

Here's a link to one of the sites we got info from -
http://www.southernwoods.co.nz/docum...lantations.pdf

I can't imagine there are any size restrictions where we are, we have just taken down 80 huge gums, that were approximately 13 years old, and the new plantation is going in roughly the same place. Our local tree nursery which suppleas trees for plantations mainly was able to advise on the specific gums best suited for firewood, but I can't remember the one we're going with. All gums burn well I think. The ones we took down are all growing back again, we may try to coppice them. (If that's the right term). Gum twigs and leaves make scarily good kindling - like throwing petrol on a fire.

[aberdian]

Scarily, my wife's been looking at Southerwoods nurserys for other trees, so that's a good coincidence. What a great little guide - I think we'll cut down the runts and the non-straight trees in the forest this winter, get them drying out for next year. Hopefully that'll free up some planting space that we can infill with eucalpts (I collected seeds down in Te Anau in the summer and will try and grow them once they've had some coolness over the winter). As to the rest of the forest, I think it was planted as a combo shelter/timber belt as the trees have mostly been managed pretty well, all with the bottom branches taken off and nice straight trunks........we'll see, they may turn in to firewood in the fullness of time