taken delivery of "seasoned" logs that are 30-35 moisture

A._Badger

Pretty typical of the sort of logs I keep being offered, sad to say. The popularity of wood stoves and the myth that wood provides 'cheap heat' means there isn't enough to go around (even in areas with a lot of trees) and far too many cowboys in the business, as Greenfires says.

Towser

Is there a legal definition of 'seasoned' in the context of firewood?

If not legal but what would say:

1. Dry % from 20 to 25?
2. ok to burn % from to?
3. damp % from to ?
4. Just felled % from 70 to 100?

There must be someone who knows these values?

Elsewhere

There is a difference between "wet" and "unseasoned"! One is full of water, the other of sap.

Seasoned wood that has got wet will dry out fairly quickly - depending on its surface/volume ratio, and how tightly it is stacked, obviously. DH and I have been chopping and stacking wood in the last few weeks that has been felled for about a year and has been sitting out in the weather ever since, and will burn it this winter.

It would actually burn straight away - wet, though it's naturally better dry. But if it wasn't seasoned it would be useless.

So, OP, given that your logs have moss growing on them they've probably been cut months ago and are well seasoned - and I expect if you start using them in a week or two they will be fine.

Rovver125

We recently took delivery of 2 cubic metres of logs from a local supplier who are registered with hetas.

We got a cube of kiln dried (£140) to see if they were worth the extra money and a cube of mixed seasoned (£85).

I quizzed the supplier about what they classed as 'seasoned' & they told me that as a hetas registered supplier, they are not supposed to sell the seasoned unless they are sub 25%. Moisture testing before we piled them in the store showed them to be anywhere from 15 - 25%.

They produce their own kiln dried logs onsite using waste from the process for the kiln. They aim for a target of 0 to 18% for these & so far we haven't had any over 14%. Most have been sub 10%.

However, I don't think they justify the difference in price, as they don't actually seem to burn that much better/hotter than the seasoned!

Edited to add, we had a few bags of supposedly seasoned logs from a guy up the road that were in the 30 to 40% range & just stacking them near the fire for a few days is drying them out quite rapidly.

MonsterMonster

This is fairly common; wood being passed off as seasoned when in fact it's been felled a few months ago.

I have bought wood from four different suppliers in several years and all of them claimed their product as seasoned only to find the wood hissing and frothing in the burner. When you find a decent supplier as I did you stick with them for a long time. I pay £65 per cubic metre for sub 20% moisture content of mixed wood delivered. Good wood and you can tell its properly seasoned just by looking at it (end splits, bark coming off etc.).

The other thing to check, if possible, is when the wood was felled. Best to buy wood that was felled in winter when sap is low.

Tree surgeons tend not to be reliable sources of good firewood as they fell wood all year round and need to shift it on quickly. Whereas a good dedicated firewood supplier has a better chance of supplying good wood.

Kiln dried wood ... very pretty sounding but waste of money.

I'm no expert, just several years of getting screwed by crap firewood producers.

[Deleted User]

Good advice here. When you find a good supplier stick with them.

Fortunately for the last year or so we have been getting great quality logs. Prior to that all previous suppliers were cowboys.

PS If you need to dry logs beside at fire that are 30-35% I would not burn them. Instead leave them till next year as they are simply not ready.

Cheers