Firewood Logs

There is nothing like burning firewood logs for heating your home or for an outdoor fire. People have enjoyed the comfort of a wood burning fire since prehistoric time. People are naturally drawn to fire and it still brings us comfort on a primal level.

Heating with firewood logs is not as convenient as setting the switch on a central heating unit but the satisfaction you can get from a wood fire is well worth the extra work. Producing, storing and using firewood does require some work and planning, but with the right knowledge you can make the experience much easier.

One of the most important factors when burning firewood logs is keeping the wood dry. It is possible to get wet pieces of wood to burn if the conditions are right but it won’t be very easy or efficient. When you put wet wood into a fire the heat evaporates the water. The evaporating water cools the wood and the area around the wood which prevents combustion.

The wet wood will not burn until the water is evaporated out of the wood. If you throw a firewood log into an already established fire, the heat from the fire will dry the wood and the wood will eventually burn but this creates a very inefficient burning environment. The evaporating water will take heat away from the fire and send it up the chimney as water vapor. The cooler temperatures will cause an incomplete burn and produce more smoke and creosote, which creates pollution and can build up in the chimney.

In order to produce more heat, instead of producing steam, smoke and creosote, It is very important that the wood you burn is dry.

Burning Firewood Logs and the Environment

Many people are concerned that burning firewood logs could be bad for the environment. As with many things, this all depends on how responsible it is done. If forests are being destroyed to make firewood logs then that is obviously not a good thing. But this usually is not the case.

Trees are renewable, new trees grow back after others are harvested. In most cases trees that are cut into firewood logs are replaced with new trees, or in many cases firewood comes from trees that were thinned from forests that were overstocked and have too many trees to begin with. Just like thinning carrots in a garden, thinning overstocked trees can help the trees that were left grow faster and healthier since they don’t have to compete as much for resources.

Unlike burning fossil fuels, burning wood is a part of the natural carbon cycle. The carbon that is released when burning the trees is absorbed by the trees that replace them as they grow.