What Is Sustainable Firewood?

There's nothing more comforting than sitting by a crackling fire in the dead of winter, keeping your home nice and snug, no matter what the weather's doing outside. But have you ever given much thought to the kind of wood you burn and whether there's a more sustainable approach you could adopt?

The answer is yes! Sustainable firewood is becoming increasingly popular as time goes on and it becomes more important than ever to move away from fossil fuels and the likes of coal.

Coal itself is a finite resource but if you source your wood responsibly and make sure that it's been dried to the appropriate levels, it will produce far fewer polluting emissions when burned than other options, as well as being a more sustainable option.

It's always advisable to check where you get your wood from, because chopping down trees to make firewood naturally has a lasting impact on the natural environment.

Hardwoods like ash, birch, apple, oak and cherry are common options for wood-burning stoves and they're well suited to the job because they're denser than softwoods and will burn for longer, producing more heat as a result.

But these trees are denser because they take longer to grow, so they take longer to replace, which is why softwood logs are often burned instead. As such, you need to make sure that your logs come from productive, biodiverse and healthy woodlands if you're keen to be more sustainable while enjoying your fire at home.

As well as burning for longer, hardwood varieties are less resinous than softwoods, so you reduce the risk of tar deposit buildup in the flue of your chimney. If tar does start to accumulate, your appliance will run less efficiently and you increase the chances of a flue fire breaking out - so hardwood is generally the go-to option.

If you'd like to find out more about firewood and what the most sustainable choices are, get in touch with the Southdowns Firewood team today.

• by Admin