Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Smallhold Farming and Rural Living => Property, Buildings, Equipment and Alternative Energy => Topic started by: dodgy geezer on January 20, 2012, 15:44
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I'm looking at getting a wood burning stove fitted and was wondering can i burn wood pallets & the block wood spacers on the pallets? I've visited a few different forums and this seems quite divided whether you can or not, thanks
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You can, but if you do, you'd be advised to make sure your flue/chimney is cleaned thoroughly and often as you will get a lot of deposit from it.
:)
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and some of them can smell from the various treatments on the wood.
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And you need to be careful what woodburner you have - my brother has one with a catalytic converter which was chosen as they were told it was such a clean burn they would not need to line the chimney (it waas an old cottage and chimney lining would have been very difficult).
The catalytic converter means they can only burn well seasoned tree wood, whereas our multi-fuel woodburner is very tolerant & copes with all sorts of wood etc.
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Ok thanks, i'm looking at a multi fuel burner anyway it's just i can get my hands on loads of blocks & clean pallets, i'm not planning on burning these solely, just alongside logs & solid fuel, much appreciated for your replies ;)
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That sounds fine then. We have a multi fuel here, but try to stick to wood as much as possible too. :) Just remember to be aware that deposit build up is a potential cause of chimney fires.. ;)
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The bottom line here is that most pallets and spacers are made from softwoods. Which contain a lot of resins. Which, when burned, leave lots of creosote residue on chimney liners. Which can, if not cleaned very regularly, can self-ignite and cause chimney fires.
As said, be sure to burn the pallet and spacers with lots of hardwood which burn hotter and will burn off much of any creosote residue, but never totally. You'll still need to do annual cleanouts or you'll have future house insurance problems if you have a housefire.
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Yes i plan to burn mostly wood & have chimney swept once or twice a year, currently just trying to gather as much information as possible. Thanks again
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We burn most wood on ours pallets no problem except those returnable blue ones If you do burn pallets tho you need a good well made stove as those cheap ones dont seal that well and with the dry wood will just roar away burning terrific amounts of wood breaking pallets up is also a bit of a pain as well You may well burn a few hundred over a winter
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We got a multifuel stove just over a week ago. We had loads of pallets which my OH prised apart with his "new" tool. I have been sawing up the long bits and then chopping into kindling with a small axe (I use tongs to hold the wood, rather than my fingers), it's my new hobby! and you get loads of kindling from one pallett. We have been burning the blocks no prob but they seem to need a hot rapid fire from other wood or coal etc, otherwise they just smolder and go black
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Hi,
I would use soft wood for starting your wood burner, then run it on well seasoned hardwood, we burn Oak, Ash & Hornbeam which are readily available but you may like to search for local suppliers. You could continue to burn softwood, but you'll find your flue will be tarred or very sooty depending what you burn and as stated some pallets are treated with preservatives.
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If you just use the softwood to get it going then use your seasoned logs I think that would be the way to go. You will see on your log burner door the residues coming off the pallet wood
Bear in mind that your log burner is not an incinerator but an expensive piece of kit, which if looked after, should last many trouble-free years :)
My log burner will burn smokeless fuel but I'd rather burn logs and then I use the ash on the garden or in the compost bin
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I'm pretty sure if your burning a lot of soft wood which smoulders your best off sweeping every 3 months when in use. If your multiburners being installed by a HETAS engineer and you know the installation will be safe for several years you could look at buying the sweeping brushes and doing it yourself
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Whoa! I'm really enjoying reading this thread!
It happens to be Mrs James' next great plan - to buy a multi-fuel wood-burner. I'm quite looking forward to the challenge (and sitting in front of it next winter). And, like someone's already commented, my plan is to saw the planks from pallets and chop them up into kindling to start the fire, and then move onto logs (as much hardwood as I can find).
Let us know how you get on Dodgy! I'll do the same if I get mine installed before you!
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Same here.... we are getting a burner in a few weeks...my question is what is the best wood to burn ?
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any soft wood will do to get it going ,but imho the best allround wood to burn is beech
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Thanks sparkyrog
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Our friend Harry in the village says ash is best! We just burn anything we can get our hands on.
My old dining chairs went one year! :lol:
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Depends on what you want Grannie ! oak is the king of woods burning slow and hot ,Ash burns hot and fast Beech is somewhere in the middle :D
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How do you feel about silver birch? :)
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one of the few I have never burnt or not knowingly :) I was in the trade for a while so have burnt most types of wood in mine ,both native and otherwise .
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We buy our logs from the son of a tree surgeon, so we never know what we are getting, but there is a lot of ash at the moment, and silver birch.
There is something else that when as dry as we get them is VERY light, not sure what it is, but it's almost as light as balsa wood! This wood is barn dried for a year before we get it.
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Woods have different qualities and some burn better than others. There is a rhyme on Google which explains all :D
We have trees at home which get cut down and chopped up but if we do order a load I get mix of hard and soft wood logs.
The felled wood has to be allowed to dry out, it gets quartered and stacked and left to season. If you bang the logs together they ring if they're dry enough. If you get a dull thud they need more seasoning (under cover in a log store)
Pallet wood burns extremely hot so you have to be careful. I would use it just as kindling to get the logs going. Treat yourself to a temperature gauge which fits onto the flue pipe with a magnet. This shows when the log burner is at the right temperature and alerts you if it's getting overheated. I don't burn wood with paints or tars on it
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temperature gauge eh? Mmm thanks will look at them. We have an eco fan on top of our burner that helps distribute the heat quicker. It does help heat the lounge quicker.
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Any of the properly dried hardwoods like oak, acer, elma, ironwood, etc.
Any wood will burn but you really want to avoid burning any quantities at a time of softwoods like evergreens, willow, etc because the creosote buildup is fast and heavy and dangerous. They're just good for starting up the daily fire or kicking wet hardwood into action.
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I see no reason whatsoever why you cannot burn dry wood pallets in a wood burner; indeed they make an excellent and cheap fuel source if you have access to them. Contrary to what others have said on here very few, if any, pallets are made from treated wood. Some have plastic parts, but these are obvious. The nails in them will need to be cleaned out of the ash.
So long as the wood you burn is properly seasoned and dried, is not treated and comes from a sustainable source then it is good wood to burn in a wood burner.
You can buy "logs" made from saw mill waste, these may seem expensive but £ per BTU/Kw they are actually very good value.
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I agree 100% with Trillium's post on page 1. I'd add to that that have too-cool a fire will also create creosote. Pallets are fine, but mix it up with other woods and don't use the painted or green stained ones. We're lucky enough to have Almond and Olive wood on tap here, as well as Pine and other soft woods. Normally I only use the softwood as kindling, then add the hard wood once you've got a blaze on.
Get a stove pipe thermometer too as it will tell you if the fire is hot enough, thus minimising creosote deposits.
Also worth an extra investment is something like the Caframo stove top fan. It works by metallic reaction which drives a motor and fan blades, thus circulating the warm air from around the stove. We bought one a few months ago and it really does make a difference in warming those cold zones in a room.
Here's our stove (bought from fleabay), there's 2 cooking holes too, that's my rabbit casserole in there!
(http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn180/djshadesnumber1/cave%20stuff/080111_zpsc7342f8f.jpg)
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We bought an Eco fan a few weeks back, and it really does make a difference in how quickly the lounge warms up!
But if anyone decides they want one. Shop around. they vary in price fom £58 to £120 for the identical fan! :ohmy:
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hello ive had quite a few agas/woodburners i find burning dry seasoned ash wood will burn quick giving lots of fast heat but burning seasoned oak will give you hot but longer burning , it will stay in all night.all that lovely wood ash for the garden.burning wet wood just cloggs the chimney up with tar with less heat,hope this helps. from 2 allotments ;)
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My father has just had a new property built and a chimney with the correct flue liners for a multi fuel wood burner.
there is alot of tar well thats what i think it is running out of the top of the chimney and also coming down the liners, it almost seems like as if the inside of the liners are condensating.
He has told me he has burned unseasoned timber on it and thought this is what it must be.
Its got that bad he has had another metal liner installed inside the other liner.
has anyone else come across this or does anyone know what this could be please?
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Sounds as if it's not running hot enough ,combined with green wood that wood explain it :)
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We had a leakage a month or so ago, it made a right mess. I couldn't work out why it was doing it. I then removed the external section of the flue pipe to find a blockage which was severely choking the smoke escaping. I cleared out the blockage and the dripping stopped.
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It's usually a sign of too much softwood being burned which has a lot of resins and becomes creosote (the black leaky stuff dripping everywhere). Get enough in there and it can ignite itself and become a chimney fire.
A too-tall chimney can cool down faster at the top before it exits the house and can also cause the black runny creosote.
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Whilst I once again agree with your analysis Trillium, in our case I know it's not too much softwood burning. Probably 5% is softwood 95% Olive. However the long run of flue pipe is a probable issue (ours being around 15m or so). I do believe that the long run coupled with the blockage was the culprit for our leak. However, now the blockage has been removed everything is fine, and the flue length remains the same. I agree with your point on length though which has the potential to be an issue.