only have wood to heat our house-no other option

Ectophile

If this new law does any good, it will be by driving out the terrible quality nets of wood that used to be on sale everywhere.  The nets were invariably either unseasoned, or soaking wet through being left outside in the rain.

It's a fristrating exercise trying to burn poor quality firewood in your shiny new wood burning stive.

MattMattMattUK

Sg28 said:

Apodemus said:

Sg28 said:

You cant buy unseasoned wood anymore? I always use to buy it direct from estate managers or tree surgeons and season myself for a year. Is this not possible anymore? I haven't had a stove for 5 years since I moved house but getting one installed in the new year

The rule only applies (in England) to volumes of less than 2m2, where it has to be certified as "ready to burn", which is defined as less than 20% moisture content.

I remember buying a net bag of "ready to burn" firewood from b&q a few years ago. Split one and checked it with my moisture meter and it was 45%! 

This came up in the local paper a few ears ago, B&Q were storing all the "ready to burn" wood outside in a pile out the back of the store and restocking inside as required so it was far from dry. I certainly would not buy fire wood from B&Q though, there are almost always better options in every part of the country. 

Apodemus

MattMattMattUK said:

Sg28 said:

Apodemus said:

Sg28 said:

You cant buy unseasoned wood anymore? I always use to buy it direct from estate managers or tree surgeons and season myself for a year. Is this not possible anymore? I haven't had a stove for 5 years since I moved house but getting one installed in the new year

The rule only applies (in England) to volumes of less than 2m2, where it has to be certified as "ready to burn", which is defined as less than 20% moisture content.

I remember buying a net bag of "ready to burn" firewood from b&q a few years ago. Split one and checked it with my moisture meter and it was 45%! 

This came up in the local paper a few ears ago, B&Q were storing all the "ready to burn" wood outside in a pile out the back of the store and restocking inside as required so it was far from dry. I certainly would not buy fire wood from B&Q though, there are almost always better options in every part of the country. 

It would be interesting to get the Trading Standards view on this, as it would seem to breach the legislation if they were to do that now.

Ectophile

Apodemus said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Sg28 said:

Apodemus said:

Sg28 said:

You cant buy unseasoned wood anymore? I always use to buy it direct from estate managers or tree surgeons and season myself for a year. Is this not possible anymore? I haven't had a stove for 5 years since I moved house but getting one installed in the new year

The rule only applies (in England) to volumes of less than 2m2, where it has to be certified as "ready to burn", which is defined as less than 20% moisture content.

I remember buying a net bag of "ready to burn" firewood from b&q a few years ago. Split one and checked it with my moisture meter and it was 45%! 

This came up in the local paper a few ears ago, B&Q were storing all the "ready to burn" wood outside in a pile out the back of the store and restocking inside as required so it was far from dry. I certainly would not buy fire wood from B&Q though, there are almost always better options in every part of the country. 

It would be interesting to get the Trading Standards view on this, as it would seem to breach the legislation if they were to do that now.

I expect their view is that they are under funded, short staffed and have far more important things to deal with.

Kiran

Do you remember when burning wood was the best thing since sliced bread, it was carbon neutral and we were all given that warm and fuzzy feeling. Do you also remember that people who buy wood used to do it in bulk bags that in general people paid cash for. All of a sudden when tax wasn't being paid burning wood suddenly became vilified! Just saying...

It's just the same as the eco friendly cars that were low road tax, as soon as everybody was only paying £20-30/year and the treasury was running dry the 5 years full whack came into play. 

mmmmikey

MattMattMattUK said:

This came up in the local paper a few ears ago, B&Q were storing all the "ready to burn" wood outside in a pile out the back of the store and restocking inside as required so it was far from dry. I certainly would not buy fire wood from B&Q though, there are almost always better options in every part of the country. 

Once firewood is fully seasoned, it dries out quickly again after being in the rain. The way to measure the moisture and convince yourself of this is to split a log and measure the moisture in the middle.

MX5huggy

mmmmikey said:

Sg28

I remember buying a net bag of "ready to burn" firewood from b&q a few years ago. Split one and checked it with my moisture meter and it was 45%! 

Funny to hear you say that, I had a similar experience with unseasoned logs from B&Q, that became known as the B&Q safety logs on the basis they were inflammable To this day, if anyone puts a log on the fire that doesn't burn someone invariably asks if it's a B&Q safety log

Don’t sound very “safe” to me.

Inflammable means “easily catch’s fire” as does flammable. Inflammable actually could be worse not requiring a flame 🔥 for ignition. 

The were non-flammable logs.