Have you dreamed of sitting around a crackling fire in your living room every evening for years? Then it's time to buy a fireplace. There are electric fireplaces and gas stoves, but for some people nothing beats a traditional wood fire. The wonderful smell of burning wood cannot be matched, while the heat of the stove makes your living room pleasant. It is important that you invest in good firewood. This way you ensure that your heating is as clean as possible, without causing nuisance to your neighbors. What requirements must good firewood meet? You can read that here.
The right moisture percentage
One of the most important things to keep an eye on is the moisture of the wood. Is the firewood too wet? This will cause the temperature in your stove to drop. This prevents the wood from burning at a high temperature, causing a lot of smoke to be released. This not only creates an unpleasant odor in the house, but also nuisances in the neighbourhood. The dirty soot particles in the air cause odor nuisance. In addition, they can irritate the respiratory tract, cause itchy eyes and cause nausea. When these soot particles sink over time, soot precipitates. The result? Cars and houses covered with a thin layer of soot.
It is therefore clear that you have to pay attention to the moisture percentage of your firewood, but what requirements must the wood meet exactly? The ideal firewood has a moisture percentage between 12% and 15%. If you buy fuel wood from a specialist store, you can count on it that this wood has been dried in an oven. This guarantees a low moisture percentage. Do you prefer to collect and split your own wood? Then you have to let it dry for at least two years under a roof in the garden. After this, most wood has a moisture percentage below 20%. Do you want to be sure that the wood does not contain too much moisture? Then it is useful to have a moisture meter at home. This way you know exactly whether your wood is dry enough to burn.
Clean and unprocessed wood
When selecting firewood, it is also important to pay attention to the condition of the wood. For your own health, it is better not to burn processed wood. Avoid painted wood and make sure your firewood has not been treated with chemicals. Treated wood burns less cleanly. Chemicals are therefore released that are harmful to humans and nature. That is not only bad for the air quality in your own home, but also for the air quality in your neighbourhood.
When you buy fuel wood from a specialist store, you can be sure that it is high-quality and untreated wood. That is less certain when you collect your own firewood. Do not use residual wood from furniture, but choose to cut fresh wood. This way you know for sure that you are getting quality, so that you can light a fire without any worries. The type of wood you use doesn't matter. You can light your fire well with oak, ash, birch, alder and beech wood. Every type of wood has its own qualities, so keep that in mind. For example, soft woods are easier to light, while hard woods burn longer.
