Firewood for the fireplace: types of solid fuel and inexpensive alternative solutions. What kind of firewood is best for a cast iron stove? what to light the fireplace with? Is it possible to burn a fireplace with aspen?

06.07.2017
2951
Pechnik (Moscow)

Firewood for a solid fuel fireplace is an integral component. The correct choice of logs directly affects the quality, speed of heating the room, uniformity of heat distribution, consumption and time for which one full load is enough.

If you don’t know which firewood is best, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the materials presented in this article in more detail and view best selection thematic photos.

Briquettes and classic options for heating

Without knowing which firewood is best for the fireplace, you can opt for one of the following varieties:

Fuel type

Firewood produced as briquettes is distinguished by its environmental friendliness. The composition includes various compressed processed products (coal, peat, wood).

Euro firewood for a fireplace is capable of burning for quite a long time, unlike simple ones.

Fireplace wood belongs to the classic category solid fuel. This option is quite economical.

However, you cannot use simple and freshly prepared logs for burning. Before loading them into the fireplace, it is necessary to dry them well for a sufficiently long period and only then use them for their intended purpose.

Main features of briquettes:

Briquettes made from wood can burn in a fireplace for a short period of time; it takes about two hours for them to completely flare up and burn out. Such flames are distinguished by their intensity and uniformity;
Burning wood in a fireplace may have a peat base. To improve the combustion process, at the first stage you need to light a fire from a small number of briquettes and only after that add all the rest to the fireplace. The combustion time in this case ranges from 3 to 5 hours.

Important: if youfirewood required for fireplaces,and if you want to make the combustion process longer and more intense, we recommend choosing briquettes. They have a higher flame intensity, 20-60 percent higher than simple logs. The combustion time of Eurowood is also several times higher.

More details about Eurowood

Since the burning temperature of wood in a fireplace is always very high, it is important to know that ready-made purchased solid fuel is not only capable of making it as high as possible, but also provides longer and more uniform heating in a minimum period of time.

Purchased eurowood, the price of which is higher than that of simple solid fuel, has the following distinctive characteristics and features:

They are distinguished by their environmental friendliness, since they contain only natural and natural ingredients. Briquettes are compressed using special equipment at the factory;
The presence of foreign impurities that could release during combustion is completely eliminated Not nice smell;
This fuel is produced in one shape and size, which allows it to be used for hearths and combustion chambers of any size;
The crackling of wood in the fireplace in this case, as well as the characteristic color of the flame, is preserved and partially corresponds to the original;
Such Euro-firewood can be used not only for lighting classic stoves and fireplaces, but also large boilers, street barbecues, barbecue;
Pre-compressed wood burning in a fireplace has a reduced humidity percentage, not exceeding 10-12 percent, which makes the consumption of such fuel more economical and safe.

Important: if you don't knowwhat kind of wood to burn the fireplace with?and you want the visual component, all sounds and smells to match the original ones as closely as possible, buy orwith your own handsProduce classic fuel.

Interesting to know: when choosing products based on conifers, remember that the heat transfer in this case is not high enough. However, at the same time, all resins and other impurities capable of releasing and forming sediments and deposits on the surface of the structure are completely absent, since they are artificially removed during processing and pressing.

Advice: if you decidewhat kind of wood is best for burning a fireplace?, it is strictly not recommended to choose coal. Since although it has high heat transfer, in order to obtain it, you need to spend a lot of time. Coal can only be used in fully modified combustion chambers. To do this, stove makers specifically replace standard grates with ones made of cast iron and, lifting them, install them higher. Metal and steel chambers are not suitable for burning coal, since strong and prolonged heating causes the metal to partially or completely burn out.

Choosing firewood for the fireplace

Ceramic firewood for fireplaces, of course, is very popular, but preference is often given to classic logs. The following wood species are most often chosen for the firebox:

The most popular and convenient to use are considered to be beech and oak wood species. They have high heat transfer, provide long-lasting and uniform combustion, and do not create sparks. Oak, unlike beech, has a higher cost and strength. Due to this, splitting them is quite difficult and problematic;
The sound of burning wood in the fireplace can also be recreated by logs prepared from various fruit trees(pear, apple tree). Such wood species have a stable, pleasant characteristic odor and emit a minimum of smoke;
Poplar and linden, despite their characteristic, pleasant smell, completely burn out quite quickly. They have low heat transfer and are not suitable for full heating of premises and houses;
Alder and aspen do not emit a large amount of smoke or other unpleasant odors during the combustion process. These rocks are mainly used for control heating in order to clean the chimney and inner surface hearth from soot, soot and other formations;
Acacia, cherry, birch and other deciduous woods burn well and split easily. However, to prevent the occurrence of tar, there must be good ventilation in the fireplace and unimpeded penetration of oxygen.

Important: if you don't knowhow to properly burn a fireplace with wood, remember a few basic rules. Be sure to carry out preliminary preparation such fuel, it must be completely dry and not rotten. This will ensure longer and more uniform combustion, without unpleasant odors, with a minimum amount of decay products and sparks.

Tip: for convenient storage For logs, it is not at all necessary to use a special woodcutter. Not a large number of fuel can always be kept on hand.Wood stand by the fireplacecan be made on your own from any non-flammable materials or purchased at a specialized store. Alsofireplace stand for firewoodif necessary, it can be replaced with a larger and more capacious basket, bag or woodpile.

For fireplaces with a door made of heat-resistant glass, it is necessary to choose a special fuel:

Choose wood that produces a minimum amount of smoke during combustion. The most the best option will become beech, oak, aspen or alder. Aspen is distinguished by the high intensity of the flame it produces and is mainly used for preventative combustion and cleaning the fireplace from soot and soot;
It is important that the moisture content of the selected logs does not exceed the specified limit. The lower the humidity, the less smoke will be released during the heating process. Firewood with a moisture content exceeding 15 percent for fireplaces with glass door use is not recommended;
Do not use spruce or pine. These tree species emit a large amount of resins.

Rules for laying logs in the fireplace

In order for the combustion process to be as long as possible and the flame intensity to be maintained in the specified mode, it is necessary to correctly add fuel at the first stage. The following instructions will help you with this:

The size of the logs should be approximately the same. Prepare the fuel in such a way that the size of each element does not exceed five centimeters of the depth of the combustion chamber itself;
First you need to lay the seed, represented by dry wood chips;
After which the logs themselves are laid, the distance between each element should be 10 to 15 centimeters. Next, the second row is laid. Externally, the structure should resemble a simple “pioneer fire”.

You can learn more about the process of laying firewood and the rules of ignition by also watching the video in this article.

We perform melting

The danger of improperly heating the fireplace installation is that during the combustion of wood, carbon monoxide begins to be released, which is dangerous to human life and health. To ensure that this gas does not enter the room but exits through the chimney pipe, carefully monitor the proper operation of the traction mechanism. It is equally important to comply following rules and recommendations:

Fuel moisture content should not be higher than 15-20 percent;
During the ignition process, the temperature should increase gradually;
At self-training or purchasing, choose wood species that have a completely cleaned surface (without knots and bark), which can become a source of strong smoke;
During operation of the furnace unit, all dampers cannot be completely closed. This can lead to malfunction of the traction mechanism and will prevent oxygen from entering the interior of the structure;
Do not forget about the need for regular cleaning of both the hearth itself and the chimney. Carefully check and monitor the serviceability of each element and mechanism of the heating structure.

Advice: if you have not heated the stove for a long time, it is recommended to use a simple newspaper for ignition, which should slightly warm up the walls of the chimney and the hearth itself. If the room is very cold, for gradual melting, first load about one-third of the logs into the firebox; after they are completely burned, you can do a full load.

Simple firewood for the fireplace is more affordable. However, their preparation takes much more time than when purchasing ready-made ones. ceramic products, briquettes. When choosing solid fuel, remember that only natural wood is capable of fully conveying all the brightness and shades of a burning flame, as well as the characteristic smell and crackling sound. And purchased analogues are safer, do not cause smoke and leave the surface of the fireplace as clean as possible. In order to do right choice, first determine especially important criteria for yourself.

Today, fireplaces are often installed, especially in country houses, which serve as excellent decorative elements and excellent heat sources on a cold winter day. Therefore, it is important to choose the right logs for the fireplace, since the decision of which firewood is best to use affects the service life and operational effectiveness, and after several uses the overall appearance of the firebox will be determined.

Almost every person associates a classic fireplace only with wood. But often people, when buying a fireplace and choosing firewood for it, want the maximum amount of heat released during combustion, and one stack of logs to last as long as possible. Today, manufacturers produce a large number of different types of fireplace fuel. Lately Pressed wood, so-called briquettes, are especially popular. They are characterized excellent heat dissipation and long service life. Such firewood is usually made from chopped wood different breeds, peat or coal. Pressed firewood differs from conventional firewood in the production method: when processing briquettes from crushed All moisture and resin are removed from the raw materials, and for uniform combustion, small particles are pressed so that there are no voids between them. This production method allows you to heat the fireplace even with pine wood briquettes, and when they burn, a minimal amount of smoke is released. Pressed firewood flares up quickly and can continuously maintain combustion for up to two hours; also, when melting briquettes, almost half more heat is released than during combustion regular firewood.

When choosing fuel for a fireplace, it is also worth considering aesthetic, external features. Still, a real flame and its typical crackling sound are characteristic only when using ordinary chopped logs.

Some of the best natural firewood is made from hardwoods. Oak, acacia, aspen and beech are perfect for lighting a fireplace. It is important that any firewood is not rotten and dry. When choosing wood for the firebox, you should take into account some combustion features, since some wood species burn evenly, without sparks and give off a large amount of heat, while others are not at all suitable for lighting a fireplace.

Tree species such as oak or beech are “elite firewood”. They received this name due to their high quality. The uniform and rich burning of oak and beech logs is accompanied by a pleasant, quiet crackling sound. Beech firewood cannot be compared to any logs in terms of heat output; you just need to dry them thoroughly before use. The same can be said about oak wood fuel. In addition to high heat transfer, such firewood has a long burning time and produces very little smoke. Oak logs have only one drawback - their significant cost.

Fruit wood species are often used to fuel a fireplace. Firewood from apple, pear, etc. is used. An important advantage of such logs is the pleasant smell that is formed in the room during their combustion. And after a while, a persistent and pleasant aroma of wood appears. That’s why they usually burn with such wood living rooms.

When using a fireplace, poplar logs are also used. Although they are more often used for decorative purposes than for practical use. Such firewood does not burn for long and gives off little heat. To heat a room with poplar, you will need to continually add wood to the fireplace every hour. Similar things happen with linden firewood. They burn just as briefly, do not emit heat, but also do not produce smoke at all.

Distinctive Features They use aspen and alder firewood. During their combustion, no smoke or soot is produced at all. In addition, the fire formed when burning such wood removes soot from the chimney. Therefore, it is recommended to heat the fireplace with aspen or alder at least a couple of times a month. Thanks to this, it is possible to prevent the filling of the internal space of the chimney with soot.

Deciduous trees that are good to use are hazel, acacia, cherry, and birch. Their convenience in lighting a fireplace is determined by the simple preparation of raw materials: the logs split easily. Hardwood fuels have a high heat output, and for some time the heat also comes from the coals. And birch firewood burns well, even with high humidity, although in this case it is necessary to create a continuous flow of fresh air, since a lack of oxygen can lead to the appearance of a large amount of tar.

The duration of the fireplace operation, especially with the glass closed, Various types firewood affects differently. But in addition to the types of wood described above, there are types of fuel that are strictly Not recommended use when burning a fireplace.

First of all, these are coniferous trees. Spruce and pine are not dense in texture; inside there are cavities with resin, which during combustion release a significant amount of soot, which clogs inner space chimney pipes.
There are also cases of spontaneous combustion of soot in the chimney, which can damage the pipe.

Almost all the fuel burned in the fireplace affects the climate of the room. Therefore, in no case should you light a fireplace with painted boards because it is easy to get poisoned by heavy metals released into the air when such fuel burns.

It is not always easy to light a fireplace with wood to the required state. In order to be able to effectively burn wood, you need to understand some features of combustion and operation. It is important to ensure not only high heat transfer and long burning, but also safety for people in the building, preventing the possibility of a fire and distribution carbon monoxide in room.

It is not always easy to choose the right firewood and properly care for the fireplace. Therefore, if certain problems arise during the preliminary preparation and storage of logs, it is recommended to purchase ready-made firewood that has the necessary moisture content and is suitable for heating in the fireplace.
Based on materials from the site “Secret Tips”

Success depends on the choice of firewood winter holiday in the country

Not all country property owners place their homes in winter preservation. Staying at the dacha in autumn and winter largely depends on the quality of firewood, so your choice should be Special attention.

The harder the better
For centuries, people have heated their stoves with wood; many country property owners have remained faithful to this habit to this day. So what kind of firewood is best to choose for heating? country house?

If you have a traditional stove installed in your dacha, and not an open fireplace, then you can heat it with any kind of wood; it’s just that the use of certain types of wood requires increased attention to the chimney. Today, there are 4 main types of firewood on the market in our region: oak, birch, pine and mixed.

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Oak firewood has the highest calorie content. Oak burns slowly, but at the same time gives off a lot of heat. Oak wood contains almost no resin, so soot hardly settles inside the chimney. But oak firewood emit a lot of carbon monoxide, so special attention should be paid to the chimney damper. When burning a stove with oak wood, the chimney must always be open.

Birch firewood is a bestseller. This is due to the prevalence of this tree in our latitudes; moreover, birch grows much faster than oak, so such firewood costs less than oak. Birch wood is excellent for heating stoves. Such firewood burns faster than oak wood and releases heat very quickly. But birch, especially its bark, contains a lot of resin, so soot is deposited in the chimney, and it needs to be cleaned much more often than when using oak firewood. True, if you rarely visit your dacha in winter, then you don’t have to worry about the cleanliness of the chimney. Soot will not clog it even in several years.

Pine firewood can only be used out of desperation. Pine wood contains a lot of resin, which has a detrimental effect on the condition of the chimney. On the market, they mainly sell waste to sawmills, which consists mainly of bark, which means that the resin content in this firewood is even higher, and the chimney will clog even faster. So you should refrain from using such firewood.

Mixed firewood consists of different types of wood, such firewood is obtained as a result of pruning urban green spaces. When purchasing such firewood, you should pay attention to which species predominate in the total mass. If it’s aspen, then you can buy it, but it’s better to refrain from buying poplar. Poplar burns poorly and produces a bitter odor that can ruin your weekend. In addition, such firewood burns poorly and produces little heat.

Aspen is more suitable as firewood. Although it does not produce as much heat as birch, it contains almost no resin, and its use does not lead to soot settling on the walls of the chimney.

Food for the fireplace
If you are the happy owner of a fireplace, then you should be more careful when choosing firewood. Pine and birch are not suitable; this wood “shoots” sparks and throws burning chips out of the flame. In addition, such firewood burns out very quickly - given the gluttony of the fireplace, your vacation can turn into a fireman's work shift.

It is best to use oak firewood without bark. The ideal option would be the wood of fruit trees. Such firewood exudes pleasant aroma when burning and create a particularly pleasant atmosphere in the room. You can use apple, pear, and cherry as firewood for the fireplace. You should avoid plums; when burned, its wood gives off a slightly bitter odor, which not everyone likes.

Firewood for the fireplace should not be thin; logs with a diameter of 6-8 centimeters are best. Fireplace wood should not be too dry, otherwise you will get a blazing fire instead of a calm, even flame. Firewood for such a heat source should be stored outdoors under a canopy; this storage method will provide them optimal humidity.

Painting the flame
The flame in the fireplace can be given different shades; for this, the firewood must be soaked in special solutions. There are many recipes for such solutions, but most of the components for their manufacture are almost impossible to purchase. Only three recipes for such compositions are quite accessible. A strong aqueous solution of table salt gives the flame a beautiful yellow. To achieve this effect, the firewood must be soaked in a salt solution for 2-3 days and then dried. The strength of the salt solution is determined chicken egg, salt must be dissolved in water until the egg floats on the surface.

Water solution potassium permanganate will color the flame blue or green color. The color of the flame is determined by the concentration of the solution: the higher it is, the more the flame turns blue. The procedure for preparing this solution is the same as with salt. But the concentration has to be determined experimentally.

Solution copper sulfate gives the tips of the flames a bluish glow. The concentration of the solution also needs to be selected empirically. Much depends on the density of the wood, its porosity, and humidity.

To achieve a color effect, you don’t need to fill the entire firebox with soaked wood. 2-3 logs in one stack is quite enough.

Chimney cleaning
There are many ways to clean your chimney. The safest and most correct is the classic one. To do this, you need to climb onto the roof, remove the umbrella from the pipe and clean it with a brush. The soot will fall inside the fireplace or stove and can be removed with a dustpan. You can make a chimney brush yourself from steel cable with a diameter of at least 6 millimeters, to which you need to attach a disk with wire brush. Such discs are installed on an angle grinder and are sold in a tool store. The cost of the brush will be several times lower special device for cleaning pipes, and its efficiency is just as high.

There are a lot folk recipes for cleaning the chimney without mechanical cleaning. For example, you can heat the stove aspen firewood or add to coals potato peelings. Also on sale now special means for cleaning chimneys.

All these products clean the chimney by burning soot in it. And this is their main drawback and danger. Soot is coal dust, which, when burned, releases a huge amount of heat, and not every chimney can handle such heat. When you burn the soot out chimney It's not smoke coming out, it's flames coming out of it. Moreover, the combustion intensity is so high that the pipe looks like nozzles space rocket. Chimneys cannot withstand such heat load and burn out. Through the burnout, the flame spreads to the roof and a fire begins. So it’s better not to be lazy, but once a year to climb onto the roof and clean the chimney using the traditional mechanical method.

What kind of firewood choose for fireplace

In the old days, since not a single house could do without hearth and home, no one thought about it what kind of firewood to choose for a fireplace or stove. With the advent of centralized heat supply, these gradually became obsolete. Today fireplaces are considered a luxury, and not everyone can afford them, just as not everyone knows what kind of firewood is better use for the hearth. Like everything in this world, firewood for the fireplace has its own disadvantages and advantages. Particular attention must be paid to this when choosing firewood for your home.

Before looking at the wood list, it is important to clarify a few details. The logs must be properly prepared and dried. And here a special role is played by the correct chopping wood, which is quite easy to implement using . The easiest way to get beautiful and even logs is with a firewood cleaver. Let's start with the fact that trees are coniferous and deciduous. For heat, choose the second option; for smell and cozy crackling, give preference to logs of the first type.

Firewood from coniferous trees

The needles are rich essential oils and resins. It is thanks to them that the notorious crackling is created. If you have this kind of firewood in your fireplace, then the house will quickly be filled with the festive New Year’s smell of spruce. In addition, such logs provide good heat. One load can provide four hours of warmth. But it is worth considering that resinous substances greatly pollute the chimney. It is for this reason that they are recommended to be used as an additive, and not as a main material.

Deciduous tree logs

Such firewood considered most suitable for stove and fireplace. They burn evenly and contain practically no smoke-forming resins.

	Advantages	Flaws
Oak	- burns for a long time; -has a pleasant smell; -gives a large amount of heat. When purchasing such logs, choose a medium-aged tree. A young plant produces little heat, but an old one has a specific smell and heavily pollutes the fireplace.	Very expensive
Birch	- burns long and evenly; -produces heat	The bark emits a lot of soot
Aspen	- holds heat well; -cleanses the chimney of soot. Typically used as an additive to basic raw materials	- difficult to flare up; -burns out quickly
Alder	- burns without smoke; - the flame is even; -keeps warm; - cleans the chimney	-Expensive; -rare
Linden	- retain heat well	-difficult to ignite
Fruit trees	-smells pleasant thanks to resins; - keep the heat	-they smoke a lot
Poplar	-cheap; -common	- burns out quickly; - little heat; - few coals

Based on the characteristics described above, you know what kind of firewood to choose for the fireplace and stove. Don't stop at one type of wood, experiment and create mixtures. You can buy logs in a supermarket, at special markets, or simply order them online.