Heating and cooking with firewood - a visual illustration

[British Red]

We were talking on a couple of recent threads on heating with firewood - in terms of cords and cubic metres. Tonnes is a better measure as different densities of wood burn differently - but volume is easier to measure. Llywd stated he used to use about 10 cords a year to keep warm. A cord is a stack 8' by 4' by 4'. Near as makes no odds, call it 3 and a bit cubic metres of wood. I use about a third of that - say 10 or so cubic metres a year (3 to four cords) - less than that over Winter - 6-8 cubic metres - but we cook as well even in Summer.

I thought it might be interesting to have a visual reference as to what that sort of homesteading wood pile looks like.

This is our Firewood shed when we started on this place in 2009. Its a single garage - but its a bit rotten and I don't trust a car to it - it'll do for keeping the rain off firewood until I build a proper sectional log shed the wind can blow through.


The log shed by British Red, on Flickr

Over three years, I have cut not only what we needed for that Winter, but also enough to build up our stockpile so that we will go into this summer with 10 cords - 35 cubic metres - to season.

This is the log shed now that I have just finished this Springs firewood cutting


full log shed by British Red, on Flickr

It doesn't actually all fit in that space - some is barn stored stuff which should be used next Winter as it has laready seasoned for a year


Barn Firewood by British Red, on Flickr

I think we are at a point now where I can just replace what we use which will be a relief!

I am so relieved to have had chainsaws and splitters to get us this far - with a misery whip and a maul, to get this far ahead would have been really miserable.

For now though, "Happiness is a full log shed"

 

[Dougster]

Nowt I have woodpile envy. It's sobering to think how much wood is needed to keep things warm.

 

[addo]

Here's my main one, been filled and emptied several times now.



Its about 4.5 cubic metres and keeps us going each day from Sept-March for heating and water. I've another to take up the extra months with a couple of cube in it. I really should get a splitter, but not gotten round to it yet. Still, the maul keeps me fit but I doubt I'll be as quick in later years and my back notices all the bending more and more.

 

[sandbender]

That is a healthy looking woodpile Red.

Some ideas for the purpose built building...

...Built by Shakers, in 1861.

 

[British Red]

Excellent pictures guys - thats far more what I need - with open slatted back for the wind to blow through and "bays" so that I can fill one or more bays at a time rather than have seasoned wood "at the back" and having to move it to one side to stack greener wood there. I'm thinking of building slatted areas almost like supermarket aisles to minimise groundspace

 

[Hypnagog]

Wow, that looks like a lot of work there!

I'd love a log burner as a backup for heating and cooking (but most of all because fire is so atmospheric).

 

[addo]

I slatted mine by using split hazel and making hurdles with a loose weave, but it took ages compared to timber or trellis.
The heavy duty canvas roof tarp was brilliant as it weighted more than plastic for stability on the roof, but rotted through after three years.

 

[bb07]

I hope you don't mind BR, but these pics will hopefully warm the hearts of all of us woodpile lovers All blatantly stolen off the internet. My own woodshed and pile are not so nice

 

[British Red]

Mind? They are gorgeous! Mine is "blandly functional" - but one year I may well try for a more ornate stack just for "giggle value"

 

[swotty]

Oh Red.....unfortunately I don't have a requirement for wood to burn anymore (hopefully things will change) but in my old place where I had a solid fuel Rayburn that would be a wood pile to be jealous of! I used to scan the hedge rows for dead fallen wood and then go out under cover of darkness armed with Land rover, trailer and chainsaw for fuel. Managed to go a whole winter doing this only having to get a ton of coal to keep it going overnight....happy days!

 

[jackcbr]

This year will be my first at proper wood piling. I was toying with something a little less grand. My thoughts are pallets for the floor, back and dividers. This should fit nicely into the space I've got, now to get busy splitting, having said that, my brother-in-law has been playing with a tractor powered splitter. Here's a little video. Maybe I should let him do all the splitting, after all it's all for him.

 

[British Red]

I'd certainly be using that hydralic splitter if I was you - takes half the work out of it!

Axes and mauls are fine for small suff - but those awkward crowns and Y pieces, a hydraulic spliiter is king - especially a beast like that. You can do it with sledge and wedge - but its arduous after an hour or five

Pallets for the floor is the way to go - anything for the walls that supports the wood and lets air through. Aim for bins of a few cubic metres rather than one big building. You don't want to move it all around at the end of the season to accomodate "greener" stuff

 

[jackcbr]

Yeah, I was thinking 2 pallet bays. We've got a hedge line that we can stack along, so little and often is the way to go.

 

[harryhawk]

OK, I know it's only pine they're splitting. Not sure how it'd cope with a knarly old lump of Oak.
Is it me, but I find this slightly hypnotic
[video=youtube;KdXzaGFkWfU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded& v=KdXzaGFkWfU#![/video]

 

[bilmo-p5]

OK, Is it me, but I find this slightly hypnotic

Were you the kid who was mesmerised by the doughnut machine at the seaside?

 

[British Red]

If you had a Hahn harvester head to match the Hahn firewood processor on that bobcat? Pretty well - its wasteful though the harvester head just dumps all the limbs and odd shaped bits of trunk.

We do try to use all the tree - even the brash we use for mulch


Wood chip by British Red, on Flickr

but........oh gods I want that Bobcat!!!!!!

 

[Lister]

OK, I know it's only pine they're splitting. Not sure how it'd cope with a knarly old lump of Oak.
Is it me, but I find this slightly hypnotic
[video=youtube;KdXzaGFkWfU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded& v=KdXzaGFkWfU#![/video]

I want one, don't need one but i want one

 

[santaman2000]

OK, I know it's only pine they're splitting. Not sure how it'd cope with a knarly old lump of Oak.
Is it me, but I find this slightly hypnotic
[video=youtube;KdXzaGFkWfU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded& v=KdXzaGFkWfU#![/video]

I'm curious just why they're cutting and splkitting pine that way? Do people actually burn pine in their fireplace there?

 

[BenTheSweep]

Some good stuff in this thread. I get to see a lot of woodpiles, and I have a lot of woodpile envy.

I can never understand why people pay £5 to £7 for a bag of logs off a garage forecourt though. I think a lot of it is to do with wood becoming fashionable as not only a way to warm a room, but also for the ambience. I am seeing more and more people fit wood burning stoves but not thinking carefully about where to source fuel from.
It can be as cheap ( or cheaper ) than any other way of heating your house but not at £5 to £7 a bag for what is essentially an evenings fuel.

The other end of the scale is people wanting to save a few quid and buying unseasoned wood. Or, collecting wood and not seasoning it.
This is fatal to many lined and unlined woodburning stoves as it fills the flue with a hard mixture of creosote, tar and soot. Sometimes it is impossible to remove without using a flail and this destroys the costly stainless flues that folk fit. Plus it increases the chance of a chimney fire, which are not fun!

Anyway, rambling, day job, etc.

I'll get me coat.

 

[Dandaman_24]

I too like to have a nice pile of logs, for heating over the winter, but only go through around 3-4 m3 each year.

I was in Belarus over in Oct 2011 in a remote area the Chernobyl region. The locals were as poor as poor get, but those fortunate enough to live close enough to the towns boiler systems were able to have warmth in the winter. In winter it gets bitterly cold -20 maybe colder.

I managed to have a look around the storage yard for the winters fuel. Needless to say these guys didnt split their logs, literally chopped logs to size and into the furnace they went. Once the boilers went on in late October they were permanently on until the cold spell was over, so at a guess march time.

The chimney stack

Wide angle view of the yard

THe boiler house to the right