10 cube beech, €450. & how do you light yours?

[dedee]

Twas delivered in the pouring rain last weekend and stacked and stored in the pouring rain. As a complete and utter novice in the wood buning lark I was pleased with my stacks.

Outside stack,

3 stacks in the barn

Fire lighting.
Being new to this wood burning lark I've read about as much as I can manage on the subject of wood burning stoves. During this research I have come across a number of articles on making the fire upside down, ie large logs on the bottom, smaller logs on the large logs, kindling above that with cardboard then newspaper on the top. I was sceptical as it sounds counter intuitive but after lighting a dozen or more fires this way I have to say it works and means that the fire, once lit can be left for several hours before any new logs need to be added.

Anyone else tried this method?

Andy

 

[Woodmagnet]

No! Please take this thread away Andy, burning wood aaaaggghhhh!!!!
Get a lathe please,

 

[Travis Byrne]

Hi Andy
I have been using a wood stove in the shop for the last 12 years.
My method of liting is a little differant. 2 or 3 sheets of newspaper on bottom with 2 or 3 pieces of cardboard, then small wood (cut offs,etc) and finally regular fire wood on top and then add firewood as needed. I have not always used cardboard, but we have been getting stuff in boxes and this is a good way to get rid of it without filling the trash bin.

Thats a good looking load of wood you have there, but a little high compared to us prices. I live in the country and wood is cheaper that in the big cities.
Stay warm.

Travis

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Travis

I have not always used cardboard, but we have been getting stuff in boxes and this is a good way to get rid of it without filling the trash bin.

We have three bins. One for garden waste, another for paper, cardboard and plastic waste, and the third for regular household waste.

It never ceases to amaze me how full our recycling bin gets, when it is collected each fortnight.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[Mr Ed]

Andy

Might be worth taking a look at this website, which has some interesting tips on firelighting;

http://www.woodheat.org/tips/technique.htm

Ed

 

[White House Workshop]

Cardboard flares up nicely, but doesn't burn completely away and the residue can block airflow.

Take a walk in the woods and pick up as many pine cones as you can carry. They light easily and burn for a long time. Put a few sticks/twigs on top of those and then your logs on top of them. Works every time in our woodstove (75,000 btu job that can almost heat the whole house when fired up fully!).

 

[dedee]

Brian,
Pine cones? Nice idea but in this part of France all the woods are broad leaved hard woods. The only conifers are those damn leylandii types that the locals seem to enjoy hiding behind.

Out of curiosity what is the physical size of a 75,000 btu wood stove?

I'm beginning to wonder if there is enough air getting into my stove as I only seem to get a good burn going, ie lots of flame, when I wedge the door ajar about 1/2". There seems to be plenty of draught as the door will shut if it is not wedged open. There is a vent on the top of the stove and one in the door that provides air under the iron plate that the logs are laid on. These vents are left open all the time except overnight. The iron plate has a dozen or so 3/4" holes which the ash falls through to a tray below.
The chimney was last swept in June.

Andy

 

[White House Workshop]

Our current stove is rather large and old - about 2' wide, a bit less than that high (although it's also on legs) and about 3' back to front overall. I don't really like it as it has solid doors on the front and I prefer the glass one of our previous stove - which was more efficient too. That one is about 30" wide, 24" tall and 24" deep, put out about 60,000 btu and actually was used to heat the whole house. We lived in a 'split' and the stove was n the downstairs room, thus all the heat would go upstairs once that room was heated. Love to watch the flames through the glass - and no problem with smoke getting into the room.

One of the problems a lot of people find with woodstoves is getting sufficient 'draw' to encourage burning. The wood itself doesn't burn as hot as, say, coal so the temperature difference between the bottom and top of the chimney is less, thus a slower draught goes up. That is the opposite of what you need as to get the wood to burn really hot you need a decent draught! We have used a small fan directed at the stove to help it along when it's being started, but once it's really hot it works fine. Then we use the fan to circulate the hot air coming off the fire box...

 

[Smudger]

Andy - we get ours delivered (in Normandy) AND stacked in the woodshed! I think we paid about €75 a stere, which is a trailer load. Guaranteed to have been cut at least 2 years, or it will burn badly. Mostly oak, some cherry and other stuff that has spent some time being fence posts. We don't cross-stack it, no-one else round us does, either.
We start the fire with paper and kindling, usually old bits of timber that Mrs Smudger saves. We once took a Volvo to France with a tongue-and-groove floor in the back to cut up and use... At the moment we're working through some door frames.
We start the fire with the chimney vent open and the doors closed, and then open them up to get a real roarer going.
Cheap, carbon neutral, romantic, but not the most efficient form of heating.

 

[dedee]

Dick,
I think I got my sums wrong earlier. The 1st picture actually shows 10 steres. I now know that a stere is slightly less than a cubic metre. Even so we only paid €45 euro per stere so yours seems a little expensive, even if they did stack it.

The cross stacking idea came from by SIL and her partner who both work for the ONF (French Foresty Commission).

If you would like the details of the chap who we sourced the wood from drop me a PM. He is located around Bayeaux, I think.

Andy

 

[Smudger]

Actually I've no idea how much we paid for it, that was just the figure that stuck in my head - our builder supplies it and we pay in amongst other stuff. €45 is a good price, though. I thought a stere was 2m3, but I'm hopeless at that stuff, and apparently it can mean different things in different parts of France (so no surprise there). I'm kept firmly out of the fire stuff. That's Julie's territory, unless our d-i-l is there, in which case we can get through a month's wood in a weekend. She likes a roaring fire, even in the spring.

Round lower Normandy the farmers all stack their wood in the open under tarps, and they do it cordwood style. I'm never sure how much it really dries, as the weather can be pretty damp. 'C'est tranquil, mais c'est humide' as my old neighbour used to say. As I say, ours is all in an outbuilding, along with any unused lumber or offcuts, sizeable branches and so on, so it stays pretty dry.