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[Robin]

I've never bought "wet wood" from a garage, but someone brought a net to one of our camps.

We were used to burning very dry chopped up scaffold boards (we used to have a source), but that night we put some of the "wet wood" on the firepit and couldn't beleive the difference - from a dry heat with very little smoke to a smog which saw us all retire early!

Never again   

[oilstain]

I’m very unsure if a ban on burning wet wood can be enforced and the legal definition of wet wood that could be used to enforce such a ban.
Is there a probe you can stick in a log and measure the water content and can this tell if the wood was cut down last month and stored in a dry inside location or wood cut down 1 years ago and left outside in a heap on wet ground.
I think either you have a total ban wood burners or live with them
I think burning “building timber” such as old door frames and scaffolding boards has few problems but my concerns relate the clouds of smoke from some house around me

[Clifford Pope]

There's a big difference between freshly cut from the tree, dried a few months under cover, seasoned outdoors for a year or two under rudimentary cover, and kiln dried so it will ignite with a spark.
Also species vary - as someone said, ash traditionally burns well when green, but I don't think anything else does.

Some wood that's a bit green burns perfectly well as long as you burn a larger mass, and keep it blazing with more air.
We're burning largely apple at the moment in the Rayburn, cut 2 months ago and stored ventilated under cover. We start the stove with seasoned ash, but switch over to the apple once going well. The apple burns well with very little smoke, but it doesn't like being shut down - if the fire goes low we need to built it up again with a few small logs of ash until back blazing again.

It's very noticeable that the drier ash gives more heat - it's really hard to get the oven much over 300 degrees F on the apple, but the ash shoots up to 400 easily and needs watching not to burn food in the top of the oven. That's to be expected, because evaporating the moisture obviously absorbs some of the energy produced.
Green wood isn't really cheaper, unless it's free, because you are buying more water and producing less heat.

[Wittsend]

For reference from 

The Burning Properties of Wood

Below is a list of the most common woods for burning, although there are more.

It is worth remembering that ALL wood will burn better if split.

There is an old saying, "Before starting a fire - collect the right wood." 

It's a good idea to learn which wood is best for your fires, as it will make life a lot easier. A natural result of tree recognition is to learn the burning properties of their woods.

Alder:  Poor in heat and does not last.
Apple:  Splendid! It burns slowly and steadily when dry, with little flame, but good heat. The scent is pleasing.
Ash: Best burning wood; has both flame and heat, and will burn when green, though naturally not as well as when dry.
Beech:  A rival to ash, though not a close one, and only fair when green. If it has a fault, it is apt to shoot embers a long way.
Birch, Silver:  The heat is good but it burns very quickly. The smell is pleasant.
Cedar:  Good when dry. Full of crackle and snap. It gives little flame but much heat, and the scent is beautiful.
Cherry: Burns slowly, with good heat. Another wood with the advantage of scent.
Chestnut:  Mediocre. Apt to shoot embers. Small flame and heating power.
Douglas Fir:  Poor. Little flame or heat.
Elder:   Mediocre. Very smoky. Quick burner, with not much heat.
Elm:  Commonly offered for sale. To burn well it needs to be kept for two years. Even then it will smoke. Very variable fuel.
Hazel:  Good.
Holly:  Good, will burn when green, but best when kept a season.
Hornbeam:  Almost as good as beech.
Laburnum:  Totally poisonous tree, acrid smoke, taints food and best never used.
Larch:  Crackly, scented, and fairly good for heat.
Laurel:  Has brilliant flame.
Lime:  Poor. Burns with dull flame.
Maple:  Good.
Oak: The novelist's 'blazing fire of oaken logs' is fanciful. Oak is sparse in flame and the smoke is acrid, but dry old oak is excellent for heat, burning slowly and steadily until whole log collapses into cigar-like ash.
Pear:  A good heat and a good scent.
Pine:  Burns with a splendid flame, but apt to spit. The resinous Weymouth pine has a lovely scent and a cheerful blue flame.
Plane: Burns pleasantly, but is apt to throw sparks if very dry.
Plum:  Good heat and aromatic.
Poplar:  Truly awful.
Rhododendron:  The thick old stems, being very tough, burn well.
Robinia (Acacia):  Burns slowly, with good heat, but with acrid smoke.
Spruce:  Burns too quickly and with too many sparks.
Sycamore:  Burns with a good flame, with moderate heat. Useless green.
Thorn:  Quite one of the best woods. Burns slowly, with great heat and little smoke.
Walnut:  Good, and so is the scent. Aromatic wood.
Willow:  Poor. It must be dry to use, and then it burns slowly, with little flame. Apt to spark.
Yew:  Last but among the best. Burns slowly, with fierce heat, and the scent is pleasant.

Next door's fence: Goes like a rocket, very satisfying.

 

A rhyme to help you to remember

These hardwoods burn well and slowly,
Ash, beech, hawthorn oak and holly.
Softwoods flare up quick and fine,
Birch, fir, hazel, larch and pine.
Elm and willow you'll regret,
Chestnut green and sycamore wet


 

Dib dib dib ... 

[Genem]

^^^^ I'd disagree with the comment about Alder. We have a lot of it along the river, used to be called "Scottish Mahogany" it dries so hard....and in that state its a good long-burning log. ( Traditional cottage industry around here was turning alder into spindles for the woollen mills). 

[Wittsend]

Maybe the Scottish sub-species is hardier



 

[Exile]

Very good idea to ban the sale of wet wood. (why didn't the EU get round to it earlier? )

I've been sawing down trees and processing wood for home-burning, for decades.

You very soon learn that burning wet wood is a total waste of time.

A few years ago I bought one of those cheap 2-pin moisture meters off eBay (you can set the readout according to species) and found that my system produces wood up to an absolute maximum of 15%, but usually lower.

I have found that if too dry, it is more tricky to get my log-burner to slow down the combustion.


Keeping the flue free of tar is an absolute imperative though.

What are peoples' experience of the flue-clear powders that are available?

Do they work?

Must you also sweep?


Actually, this topic is almost irrelevant to me this "winter".

Never before have I lit the log burner so few times.  I haven't even needed to saw up more logs than I had left over from last winter.

I am no fan of weeks of wind and rain howver, no matter how mild.

[Rog-from-Bix]

I will get one of those moisture meters just to see what one says I have always judged the dryness of our wood by eye and weight of log.
Son and I this last week.

[Clifford Pope]

What are peoples' experience of the flue-clear powders that are available?

Do they work?

Must you also sweep?

Firing a shotgun up the chimney is the traditional way of clearing soot.  :)

[Rog-from-Bix]

Firing a shotgun up the chimney is the traditional way of clearing soot.  :)

Or climb on roof and throw a live chicken down chimney.

[Grandadrob]

I just got one of those moisture meters, £20 on Ebay.  It says my wood in the store, which has been there for 12 months is about 14%. I got it just before all this fuss, just because my wood burner has not been getting hot this winter. Thought it was the wood. I buy it one year, store it for 12 months, and then repeat the process.
I do use that Hot Spot powder, not really sure if it works. I have a good quality metal twin wall dead straight flue, I do clean it every year, just for peace of mind. But what I do notice is that whilst about 70% of it has hardly any tar, the piece where it exits the roof (and cools down) accumulates very much more. That piece is about four feet long. The section containing the wood burner is single storey.

[Genem]

On a side-shoot, how about those heat-powered fans that can sit on the stove. We recently got one and I'm pretty sure its improving life, by pushing more warm air out into the room. The far end of the room certainly seems warmer.

[Scimike]

 Thank goodness they are not banning pallets and old window frames.
It's amazing what you can burn on those dark cold nights, at night, no one can see your smoke. 
Stay warm people.

[Dentman]

My brother, teaching in the 80s, covering the subject of coal asked if any of the 8-9 year olds knew what coal was
Only one boy offered, "My gran has it Sir, they're like black stones!"
This  nigh on 40 years ago, many will not mourn their passing.

This was at an inner city school it must be said.

[Sunny Jim]

The real issue is that it is pretty pointless legislation (virtue signalling) for all the reasons said above. Here, I can burn  anything, but across the road is a smokeless zone! We already have smokeless zones where there is a problem and more could be introduced if needed. Steam railways are worried as, although there should be an 'exemption' the price and sourcing of suitable coal could be an issue. We have the ridiculous situation that part of our railway is a smokeless zone which means you can burn coal in the locomotive on the train, but not in the fireplace in the waiting room! As Wittsend says, clean coal technology exists - we did fluidised beds and high temperature combustion theory at college 35 years ago, there is even underground gasification of coal using directional drilling, so no coal mines required!

The more worrying thing is that this is part of the supposed 'Net Zero' by 2050 and the proposal to ban internal combustion cars in as little as 12 years, with neither the resources to make the cars, nor the power generation or distribution infrastructure to carry it out. It is a case of the 'ratchet' method of banning things in small steps. The whole '12 years' thing could be a case of 'Pace and Lead' where you propose something over the top, set the pace of the debate and settle for what you originally intended.

The real irony is that a new deep mine has been approved at St Bees for coking coal, essential for steel production!

One other issue is, like the steam railways, they always quote the 'Climate Change Creed': Ooh yes we know it contributes to climate change, but can we pretty please have an exemption? This attitude puts you at the mercy of the alarmist narrative and the 'Pace and Lead' technique. There are so many sceptical people around, it is high time we all started badgering our MPs on the issue!

You never know, maybe we might get some grown ups to run the country, rather than those more concerned with their own standing in world politics? There again, who in their right mind would stand for national office anyway?

Sunny Jim