Choosing the Right Firewood For the Best Possible Fires
FiresHave you ever purchased firewood for your fireplace? If you’re like most people, you just walked into a firewood dealer’s store and purchased either whatever he was hawking that day, or whatever was on sale. It’s important to know that if you’re really serious about making quality fires that provide significant amounts of heat and last for hours that you must do your research, purchase the right type of firewood and keep it safe in a firewood rack with a properly fitted firewood rack cover.
One of the most important things you can do when purchasing firewood is to buy wood that is seasoned. Freshly cut firewood is often roughly a 45-55% moisture content level, which is just way too wet to burn with any efficiency (if you can get it to light at all that is). Seasoned firewood is wood that has been let properly dry for a number of months, and it is generally considered seasoned at a moisture content level of about 20% Holz kaufen.
The discussion of seasoned firewood brings up the point of a proper storage system, which usually means a combination of a firewood rack with a secure cover. Moisture can easily ruin firewood, so if you’re serious about your fires, you must buy a rack and a cover. A rack will keep the firewood off the ground, so no ground moisture can seep in. A cover will of course guard the wood from rain and snow, and used together, they are an effective moisture deterring system.
The next consideration when buying firewood is the energy level the wood can produce, which is measured in British Thermal Unites (BTUs for short). The woods for a long, slow and hot burn are hardwoods such as white oak, beech, hickory, ash and birch. These all have a high BTU level, which means they will produce the most energy. One drawback of hardwoods are that they are not the easiest woods to ignite in the first place
Softwoods such as fir, spruce and southern yellow pine on the other hand have lover BTU ratings, but they are quite easy to ignite. They’ll give you a quick, hot burn, and used together with hardwoods, you have an effective way to make a fire that satisfies all your needs.
Proper fire-making is a serious business, and you need to do your homework. If you use the methods described above, you’ll have a good base of knowledge to make the proper decisions and more importantly to have the best fires this coming winter.