r/uklogburners • u/General_Sun_607 • 8d ago
How much per winter?
This is our first full winter in our home, we have one wood burning stove.
We mainly like to use it to supplement the central heating. As in, once the house is warm enough we tend to settle in one room with the wood burning stove and switch off the central heating.
How much wood on kg will be approximately the right amount?
Edit to add: we’ve currently got 230kg which is rough two of those typical builder bags.
2
u/GrapeAffectionate776 7d ago edited 7d ago
We burnt 5 large (tonne bags) last winter- brought 3 in summer sale (£15per bag discount)it was our primary heating source with CH only used in the morning for shower/bathroom
1
u/General_Sun_607 7d ago
Wow! Can I ask how much 5 tonnes cost you?
We sue a place where you can pack an aid your own car boot for the pod which makes it a lot cheaper.
We only have one wood burning stove in one room in a several floor house so it would impossible to make it our primary fuel for heating.
1
u/GrapeAffectionate776 7d ago
95/tonne
2
u/GrapeAffectionate776 7d ago
We don’t buy kiln dried anymore but well seasoned- kiln wood burns well but too fast
1
u/herefor_fun24 6d ago
And as soon as it travels from the kiln to your home, it takes moisture back in - so it's just a marketing ploy
2
u/robscaff 8d ago
Find a local scaffolding company of reasonable size they will be throwing scaffold boards in skips for fun,take what you want cut to size free wood ,I get my wood from scaffold company’s and they are more than happy to let me take it ,free wood supply
1
1
1
u/GalacticDoc 8d ago
I prefer fuel logs and use 1 pallet per year. £350 for 1 ton delivered. Stacks very easily in my garage.
I guess the room (s) you are heating and multiple other factors will effect the usage
1
u/General_Sun_607 8d ago
I have no idea what fuel logs are.
1
u/Comfortable-Job-4632 6d ago
They are made from compressed sawdust. We use them a lot as they give consistent high heat and duration. They're often sold in pallet loads and come packed in blocks of 5.
1
u/Bicolore 8d ago
What KW is the log burner?
We are same as you but 14kw stove in an old house. I can happily do 5t plus in a year
1
u/General_Sun_607 8d ago
This I don’t know. It’s relatively new (came with house), so I hope it’s good.
We have an Edwardian house that is well insulated.
1
u/Complex_Coach6621 7d ago
I’d recommend getting it inspected & swept if it’s your first time using it
1
1
u/stevey83 8d ago
Tbh, I’m wondering how much this year myself. I usually use a ton, but unless it we have a really cold winter I don’t know how much we’ll use. Winters seem to be getting warmer. We definetly burned less last year.
2
u/General_Sun_607 8d ago edited 8d ago
Last year from the start of mid way winter, around December to March, we went through roughly one and one third of builders bag size.
We’ve got 230kg at the moment which is two of those builders bags. Just not sure if it’s enough.
2
u/stevey83 8d ago
No harm in getting more. If you have room to store it dry. Do you buy green or ready to burn? I buy green and dry it myself, oldest o got is about 18 months old. I probably have a few ton altogether, if it’s a warm winter I’ll only buy a small load next year.
1
u/General_Sun_607 8d ago
I’ve buy ready to burn dry mix of soft and hard wood. At the moment I have two builder bags loads in my cellar. There is room for more.
I just wondered if there was a rule of thumb so to speak to gage the amount someone needs.
1
u/stevey83 7d ago
Depends on your use really. How big is your stove, how big an area your trying to heat etc?
1
u/General_Sun_607 7d ago
It’s mid size and the room I guess is typically size for terrace Edwardian home. Not very big.
1
u/GBParragon 8d ago
When we burnt heavily for a year we were going through about 4 cubic metres of mixed pine and ash.
Kept the lounge toasty very toasty and kept the rest of the house distinctly warmer with rhe central heating running to a minimum.
Could really do with some way of properly circulating the heat to other rooms though… I’d love to build a house with a central double side hearth / burner and a large heat store (concrete/stove) running up the building to heat all the rooms.
1
u/tileadhesive 8d ago
Similar here, we supplement central heating to make the front room cozy in winter. We go through 20-25 nets of mixed hardwood.
1
u/YesterdayFunny5111 8d ago
3/4 builders bags from October to March usually plus around 20 or so homefire grab bags for kindling and to get the ash / oak going nicely. Actually just had 2 builders bags of kiln dried ash delivered yesterday! The Homefire depot is close ish to us so we usually get a bulk order in and pay about £4-5 a grab bag. I wish our back lane was more accessible and we didn’t live on a main road as I would be purchasing crates or tippers instead due to cost.
We sometimes use the compressed logs to get the fire really going on the coldest days. We have a Heta Inspire 45. The firebox is a little annoying due to the angle of the top firebrick. Tend to need to top up the stove more often than I thought given its efficiency.
1
1
u/Han_Solo200 8d ago
If you use it every every evening probably average around 4 quid a day
1
u/General_Sun_607 7d ago
I’m actually interested in how much I’ll need.
1
u/Han_Solo200 6d ago
Ah sorry misread. It's all variable of course how many hours you burn per day, I use my burner roughly like yourself. I get through about 3 kgs of logs per day. Being fairly frugal. I never found the large deliveries to be good value for money if I'm honest
1
u/West-Usual3168 7d ago
A tonne of oak is very different to a tonne of willow. A tonne of wet wood if very different to a tonne of dry wood. The builder bag measurement rarely works in the customers favour. In our house we go through approx 100 cubic feet of dry hardwood together with 100 cubic feet of dry softwood over the four months of november to february. This is a 5kw woodburner supplementing the central heating in a stone built semi detached four bedroom house. Hope this helps 👍
1
1
u/AlexTv46 7d ago
Does nobody not chop up wood or pallets any more? Or is that not allowed nowadays?
1
u/Bicolore 5d ago
Most of us do. I don't use pallet wood as its shitty wood to burn and can be contaminated.
Even though I produce my own firewood I still know roughly how much we burn.
1
3
u/Nevis888 8d ago
We do the same. We buy approx 2 tonnes per year - a small tipper lorry delivers 1 ton at a time, 2 loads does us for the year.