How Much is Firewood This Year?

What are the going rates please everybody?

I think I need to buy some to top up what I've got. I always seem to run out at the end of the season.

How much do you allow for a small woodburner in an older (50s-60s) two bedroom house (ceiling & under floor insulation)? I'm out at work five days a week.

Thanks.

we paid $240 for I think a cord, which has completely filled the log shed and will do for the whole year.

We've decided not to pay for firewood this year and have been able to forage so far about 700kg. We've still got a bit left from last year. It does seem to go up every year though. We would normally spend $600 per year on firewood mostly the hard stuff like Macarocarpa.
Toast - Rustic Supplies and Andrews Firewood have always been very reliable for us.
For two years running Rustic had mac offcuts from their sawmill, they were awesome pieces of wood, very square and stacked beautifully, however they still had to be cut to fit into woodburner - but hubby and teenage son good at that.

We used Rustic as well here in Palmy - very reliable and always dry wood.

Firewood prices will vary through out the country so there is no standard price.
It will also depend on what you mean b y firewood.
Young pine ie under 30 years, has little or no value as firewood compared with macrocarpo, gum, casurina or any of the woods that burn really well
So you need to really decide what kind of wood you are after and be sure its really dry for a wood stove.
The age of the wood stove and how well it double burns will also impact on how much wood you use, as will the size of the logs and how much you open the flue or damp it down.
What we use here up in auckland with a different temperature zone may be less than you use

360 for 5m Hotmix delivered. a bit of pine but heaps of gum sheoak mac too. Nice and dry but I always buy early too. I'm stay at home dad so I have it ticking over during the day. Prob go through 7-8ish? got some from last year and dropped a tree a while back.

Chimney sweep suggested i start saving for a new burner as my one may only have two seasons in it. Or I go to heat pump, but they aren't very romantic. There's no charm in making love under the heat pump on a stormy winters eve.......

Our house is 2 storied, so the flue is about 6m. When we burn hardwood like manuka, beech or some of the others if the fire is not running fairly high then the tars solidify on the top of the flue. Last year, after about 20 years of running the fire, the tar that had run down the outside of the flue corroded the lead and the tiles. Thus we spent heaps of $ on repairs. According to the chimney expert, if we has run softer woods like willow, poplar, soft pine and others the problem would have not happened as early as it did. He suggested a mixture of wood types so that the fire could be run at full speed more often, with wood with less tar.
Also if there is a wetback in the system, this too cools the smoke so the tar condenses.

As I understand it from the guys that installed my wood stove a couple of years back, you get more tar from slow burning. So if you are burning would that does produce tar, and casurina/sheoke is one of those, then you need to have a lot of fast burning hasppening. Its when you damp it down that this encourages the tar build up

Thanks, everybody. Good info. Just been on the roof putting the top back on the flue. In high winds the weak soldering (or whatever) in two different areas had given way. The top came off & flew to the ground missing my car by mm. Anyway all rivetted back together now & very sold to the feel.

Thanks agin.

muri, when the wetback is boiling the water cylinder, and the flue is glowing red hot, that is just the time that you don't want to have to have the fire running hot. If your area is prone to autumn and winter droughts it is something to be aware of. But not something that Toast needs to worry too much about if the Manawatu climate is something like what it was in the '70s when I was there. In 1973 it rained for some of the day or night for 30 continuous days or nights . Very depressing in an old farmhouse in Cloverlea Rd.

MooandPop;488091 wrote: 360 for 5m Hotmix delivered. a bit of pine but heaps of gum sheoak mac too. Nice and dry but I always buy early too. I'm stay at home dad so I have it ticking over during the day. Prob go through 7-8ish? got some from last year and dropped a tree a while back.

Where do you get yours from? I need to get some and thats a good price / mix! Wonder if they deliver over this way

Tui Ridge;488275 wrote: Where do you get yours from? I need to get some and thats a good price / mix! Wonder if they deliver over this way

Just off trade me, but i've got it from them a couple of years now

www.trademe.co.nz/home-living/heating-co...uction-710561788.htm

I got it 6 weeks ago so its a bit pricier now. Good wood though.

My old akld chimney sweep told us to try and avoid gum wood if possible......too much clinker, which I'm thinking is the tar being referred to. Not sure and can't remember the details. We've had all the crab apple trees along the front boundary pruned by a good 4m some months ago by top energy. We asked them to leave us to tidy up so it cost us nothing. We've been chopping and sawing and dragging branches and lumps of tree for what feels like a year. Whether it's ready or not (but should be as it most of it's been cut for a good 8 months)....but like it or not, that's our firewood this winter. Oo......i love a fire. A heat pump just doesn't have the same ambience.

Perhaps your sweep was referring to gummy wood rather than gum (eucalypt) species. Many people grow eucalypts specifically for fuel wood as they generally burn hot and cleanly. Here in the South eucalypt firewood commands a premium price over other species. You are onto a good thing with the apple prunings. Most of the fruit woods burn very well.

That's good to know about the crab apple tree wood. Waste not what can be used. Ah, you may be right about gummy woods instead of gum itself.

I was a little alarmed about longridge's mention of wetbacks, glowing flues, and water cylinders burning dry!! Seriously?? Eek! What do I watch out for to prevent this? This is our first wetback system. This will be our 3rd winter here.