Firewood Price Guide

markin

Im sure many would gladly pick Gas if they could, its not about being Free or cheaper its about heating the home, If you can Match the Gas or oil price you are doing well, Any free or cheap wood is just a bonus, Plus you don't have the cost of boiler Service, replacement, or oil tanks.

I get it tipped on the Driveway. And we can do the shoulder months Oct,Nov and April, May On collected sticks.

The options are 

how-to-live-without-heating 

Install Oil heating and tank

LPG boiler and system

7-8k-for-aircon-system 

Install Night Storage and go on E7

Heat pump wet system £15K

Pellet stove

lohr500

All I know is that when I had the wood burner with a back boiler in my small single bedroom cottage, it was a massive amount of effort each summer building up a stock of "free" wood in readiness for the following winter.

I was fortunate that I had a suitable vehicle and trailer to gather it and undercover space to store it. I found that pallet wood was great for fire starting but not dense enough to bank up the stove so it would run for hours without needing topping up. For a while a friend and I had access to decommissioned telegraph poles which did burn well and for a long time, but the creosote caused tarring problems in the stove and flue. Often farmers would be happy for us to log up fallen trees for free if they didn't want them. But without a chipper it was very difficult to leave a site tidy after we had finished. Small twigs and branches are a right PIA to transport away if you can't chip them.

If I had to heat a larger property based purely on gathering free wood, then I don't think I could sustain the amount of effort needed.

Intoodeep

thozza said:

It very much depends where you live and how much space you have for storage, if you are in a rural area, chances are that there will be a local supplier of firewood delivering in bulk/tonne builders bags.

We pay £65.00 for a tonne bag of dry ash, I have seen mixed hard/soft wood for £50.00 a tonne bag. You do need somewhere out of the weather to stack your firewood though, we have a wooden crate with a lid which takes about 1.5 bags when full.

Buying from an Internet supplier means you are paying for the carrier charge, even if they include it in the price, that's normally £30.00 or more. If you can buy locally it will save that and probably be more sustainable. 

A "Tonne" bag or a bag with a Tonne of logs in it, ordinary dumpy bag will take between 0.27 Tonne & 0.32 Tonne.

Intoodeep

QrizB said:

swoodward89 said:

greyteam1959 said:

Just be aware that although you get logs delivered in a one tonne builders bag you most certainly do not get one tonne of logs.

That's interesting, my neighbour said a similar thing for that very reason. Our neighbours like my dad also get it delivered in a crate. 

A one tonne bag (like this one) is intended for a tonne of sand or aggregare. It holds about 600 litres.

A litre of wood weighs quite a lot less than a kilogram (which is why wood floats on water) and logs are random shapes so you won't get 600 litres of wood in a bag anyway.

I would be surprised if a one tonne bag contains more than 300kg of dry logs.

You are quite correct, we did some testing (Sawmill) and found on a sample of 10 Bags that the average was between 0.27 Ts & 0.32 Ts. Anyone claiming to sell a "Tonne" of logs in a builders dumpy bag should be reported to Trading Standards.

Intoodeep

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

I think dumpy bags are expensive way to buy firewood, they are loose fill so by the time you stack it you end up with a small pile of wood.

Ideally everyone would sell stacked and by the cubic metre so you can compare prices.

The crates online may appear expensive but they are stacked neatly in the crate (I presume by the pictures) and the websites I've looked at in the past detailed how many cubic metres worth you were getting. 

Anyone selling firewood in England in quantities of 2 cubic metres of less should be certified (this is to ensure they supply you with wood that is less than % moisture) and give their certification number to the customer. Do the dumpy bag sellers bother with this? 

Ermm or just sell by the ACTUAL weight of the Logs at a local Sawmill if they possess a Public Weighbridge

Ectophile

The trouble with buying logs by weight is that the heavier they are, the less easily they burn.  A "1 tonne" bag of well-seasoned dry logs will weight a lot less than a bag of logs that have been left out in the rain for a few months.

FreeBear

Ectophile said: The trouble with buying logs by weight is that the heavier they are, the less easily they burn.  A "1 tonne" bag of well-seasoned dry logs will weight a lot less than a bag of logs that have been left out in the rain for a few months.

Not so sure about this - Oak is pretty darned heavy even after it is well seasoned. One of my favorite woods as it is slow burning with a modicum of flame. One decent sized log will last me a good few hours. Stuff like Poplar & Willow, fast burning and real light when properly seasoned.

Personally, I wouldn't purchase logs by the bag - Much cheaper by the load, although that can be a crap shoot as to exactly how much you get.

dunstonh

Personally, I wouldn't purchase logs by the bag - Much cheaper by the load, although that can be a crap shoot as to exactly how much you get.

Purchasing by the bag is useful for people who are:
1) unable to pick up the loose and stack personally
2) dont have a surface suitable for dropping the load.
3) just don't want the hassle.

I sometimes have bags. I sometimes do loose.   It really depends on whether I want to spend two to three hours moving loose logs into position vs opening the barn doors and having the lorry lift the bag into the barn.

mumf

dunstonh said:

Personally, I wouldn't purchase logs by the bag - Much cheaper by the load, although that can be a crap shoot as to exactly how much you get.

Purchasing by the bag is useful for people who are:
1) unable to pick up the loose and stack personally
2) dont have a surface suitable for dropping the load.
3) just don't want the hassle.

I sometimes have bags. I sometimes do loose.   It really depends on whether I want to spend two to three hours moving loose logs into position vs opening the barn doors and having the lorry lift the bag into the barn.

Agreed. My ever- present back problems make a loose load difficult for me to deal with these days.

sisisimoore

Probably a bit late but where are you all getting your firewood from these days? Now that the temperature has taken a turn for the worse..