"Kiln Dried" Firewood

Here in the UK I'm seeing more and more adverts for Kiln Dried logs - Slightly more expensive but not hugely so. For example

http://www.timports.co.uk/half_loose_logs.html?gclid=CKO5naH8kKUCFVBc4wodmntgMw

I guess people are attracted to the uniformity and reliability of the product. A lot of people here are town dwellers with stoves, limited garden space and no access to land for cutting/scrounging their own.

Are you guys in the US seeing this kind of market forming? Something I read suggested that these places are able to keep their costs low because they don't need the same kind of space that other firewood suppliers need - they can run simply from a warehouse on an industrial lot and have a very high throughput.

As far as I'm aware they use "waste" wood (shavings, uglies, small scraps etc...) to fire the kilns which also keeps cost and pollution down.

What are your thoughts on this? I this the direction that the industry will go? It certainly cuts cowboys out of the circuit.

I haven't seen that pallet-size amount being sold here. However, small bundles are sold for recreational use in department stores that have been kiln dried.

Hi Mesuno

I have heard of possible laws coming to requiring it. But mainly because it kill all the bugs in the wood.

Billy

Makes sense in the US I guess, as I know you have problems with pathogens. We don't tend to have that issue in the same way here in the UK. I guess it also would make shipping wood from overseas safer - I know split wood and pellets are imported to the UK from Europe.

:roll:

Talk about marketing hype!


I wonder what they add to them, it sounds almost too good to be true. Maybe they soak them in liquid creosote. :lol:

Now y'all know why I kiln-dry my wood. I get 35% more BTUs by doing so. %-P

Yes, saw that bit and was like... ummm....
I guess they could argue that, by weight, their logs are better than unseasoned green wood. Unfortunately everyone else measures wood by volume (eg cord).

The price works out to about $480 per cord :ahhh:
I can see how they can afford free delivery to any place in the UK. ;-)


My stove is on a low calorific diet.

Possibly the wood is being imported?. There are regulations in effect these days that all wood that is shipped has to be heated to kill any invasive species so maybe they just advertise it as kiln dried to makeup for the cost for killing the bugs?.

That's pretty common in the States, don't know about UK. That site is advertising it as below 20% MC, so that must be enforceable I'd think.

I don't see any MC claims on any of the stuff sold around here. I have a buddy that oversees a "kiln-dried" firewood operation. They had to stop selling to the markets because they were getting mold inside the bags. That doesn't happen with truly kiln-dried wood. Now they are selling all of it to the NY State campgrounds, and since they are trucking it more than 50 miles, they do have to get the temps up to like 165ºF for a while to kill the bugs.

There was a good youtube video of a kiln drying operation in the UK - found it :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_bhLszwitw&feature=related

If it's available at a reasonable cost (the stuff I buy [woodbrickfuel] is around $300/15M BTU's aka 1 ton ... not exactly cheap, cheaper than electricity but for the quality of heat you get with wood it's fine by me) I'd be game for some of that.

I have never found kiln dried firewood for sale at any outlets around here. Most places which sell the stuff for firewood just buys bundles made up from a local firewood seller. They take what they can get. I've looked over some of the stuff and seriously wonder how anyone would even buy such expensive poorly dried stuff.

I hope our country does not begin to require kiln dried.

We set up kilns in the Uk approx 10 years ago, originally fired on oil, but over the last 5 years we have started to sell kiln dried firewood and kindling and now have new kilns which fire on wood waste from our operation. Demand is growing fast for this product because i is consistently high quality. The UK is a wash with very poor quality so called "seasoned" logs being sold which are so often barely below 30-40% moisture content and in the later winter months often nearer 50%. Kiln dried wood delivers 15-25% every time and therefore provides maximum heat output and a clean burn. More and more stoves are being sold each year and over 80% of stove problems are caused by the burning of damp wood. This solves all the problems. For more information, visit our website www.certainlywood.co.uk

Wow thats about 1/3 of a cord for $262! More like $791/cord.

Given the varying exchange rates, I'm wondering if we will see a firewood commodities market in the future if the kiln-dried product takes off.

I have seen prices from $450-$700 or more per cord (equivalent). This would be for "kiln dried" bundles and pallets like the ones in the pictures. The wood is of excellent to moderate quality. I personally would not pay for this but for the occasional user who wants an easy light and hot burn it does work. They sell it all day long...

If you can really guarantee the moisture content to a specified percentage, seems that it would be appropriate to sell by the ton rather than by the cord. That way, all species would be equal on a BTU/dollar basis.

Kiln dried is a nice idea, just not for me. I could probably run a condensing gas boiler on the cost of buying this premium wood. I get all the free wood I want here & sometimes dried ready to burn. Be tough to shell out $600 a cord in my case, Randy

In the UK we still have lots of homes in villages or generally off the beaten track which are reliant on bottled gas or heating oil - the cost of deliveries of these keep on going up. As a replacement the economics of kiln dried don't look so bad - you get a reliable high quality product delivered to your door.

It may be something you need only for your first heating season or two, before you get a bit ahead with the wood yourself, but it give people a lot of peace of mind when first moving to wood heat.