Heating With Wood – Buying Firewood

October 10, 2009 | Posted by Mark Z

Once you decide to heat your home with wood, you face the big question: where do I get the wood? Here and in a few future posts, I’ll outline some strategies for finding good quality firewood.

The cardinal rule of firewood is maximize. Maximize the value of any money spent, and the productivity of any time spent. The second rule: always get hardwood whenever possible. Hardwood burns longer and cleaner than softwood, so purchasing or gathering hardwood maximizes your money and time.

However, the most important factor is the wood’s dryness! Dry softwoods burn hotter and cleaner than green hardwoods, so don’t focus on the type of wood without regard to its dryness.

Your most likely source of firewood is a local wood seller. If you must purchase wood, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.

Most wood sells by the cord. A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet, usually stacked four feet high, four feet deep, and eight feet long. But, not all cords are created equal! Since you’re paying cubic footage, you’re actually buying the space taken up by the wood, and the space in between the wood. A cord of large rounds actually contains less wood than a cord of mixed large and small rounds. The small rounds fill up more of the space between the large ones. Always ask for a “mixed cord,” comprised of both large and small rounds, including kindling-size pieces. That will give you more firewood for the money.

If your vendor sells by the truckload, find out the size of his truck bed. You can either ask outright, which is a fair question from a customer, or find out the make and model of his truck, and look up the specs for it on line. Calculate the difference between the cubic footage of the truck bed and a cord. You may find some good deals this way.

If you pay by weight, buy softwood rather than hardwood. This goes against the rule stated above, but softwoods are lighter than hardwoods, so by weight, you’ll get more wood from a softwood load than from a hardwood load.

Make sure you’re buying seasoned, dry wood. Seasoned wood is dried well enough that the moisture in the fresh-cut wood has evaporated to an acceptable level for burning. Dried wood is seasoned, but is also currently dry—it hasn’t reabsorbed moisture from sitting out in the rain after seasoning. Any moisture seasoned wood might have absorbed will make it heavier, costing more if you’re buying by weight, or just make it harder to move, stack and burn. Don’t feel like you’re being redundant by specifying that the wood be seasoned and dry.

“Trust but verify” is good policy when buying wood. Inspect the wood for dryness. Examine the ends of the rounds or pieces. Dry wood has cracks in the ends, while green wood will be smooth and whole. Weigh some pieces in your hand: dry wood is obviously lighter than green wood. Knock a few pieces together and listen for a hollow sound, meaning dry, rather than the dull thud of green wood. Most wood sellers are honest, but for what you’ll be paying, you deserve to get a quality product.

Next: Scrounging free firewood!

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Mark Zeiger is a regular contributor to The Self Reliance Exchange. He and his family homestead off the grid in Southeast Alaska, heating their home and water with wood. See more at www.akzeigers.com.

Categories: home energy | Tags: figuring wood cords, how to buy firewood, self reliance | No Comments »