# Fire Wood



## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

Just wondered what amount of fire wood people use in an average winter ?

( if you use wood burning for heating ,that is )


I would say we use about 1 and a half to two tons each year of Almond or Olive wood 

Tony 

Agost Alicante


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

I guess we make 1500Kg last two years but then we supplement it a little with some of our own wood from when I prune out old branches etc.


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## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

Thats good going !

we only have a small wood burner , but it never ceases to amaze me how much it wood can eat !!


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## alborino (Dec 13, 2014)

Remember having a log burner in the UK in my last house. A neighbour gave me a lesson in keeping it burning 7x24 in winter. How the proportion of wood to air had to be high to keep heat to wood ratio high.

Of course we wanted to see the flames leaping and space for jacket potatoes so didn't always follow the guide lines but the fire often went a week despite us being out for long working days. The cats sure enjoyed that  And wood economy seemed good but that was in the 90s when a pile of mixed wood logs cost us £5.

At the other end of the scale in California we rented a cottage on the northern coast. In the grate was a log shape wrapped in paper. It said "light both ends, will burn for 4 hours". A blazing log did just that and after almost to the minute it just collapsed into a pile of very fine ash. Not much wastage there if you're into 4 hour evenings


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Depending on the weather, we have used as little as 2 tonnes in a good winter and 3 tonnes in a bad one. Our leña costs us 100€ per tonne cut to length, delivered and stacked in our wood store (two floors below ground) so heating with that costs us between 200 and 300 € per winter. It is mostly olive but with some cherry and occasional peach/almond.


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## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

10c a liko is a good price , I had to buy 3 tons to get it down to 12c a kilo

The average price around Alicante seems to be 15c a kilo for Almond or olive , fruit wood is a bit cheaper 

Tony , Agost Alicante


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## Gareth54 (Nov 8, 2014)

Would depend a lot on how well insulated your house is, double glazing etc. I am renting with an all in price and have two radiators on all the time in the lounge but they struggle to get above 17 degrees ie full blast but I'm not paying the electric bill!!
With the wind whistling round the house, blowing under / round doors and windows I also light the fire and after 3 months here have used about 1/2 a ton of wood.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Gareth54 said:


> Would depend a lot on how well insulated your house is, double glazing etc. I am renting with an all in price and have two radiators on all the time in the lounge but they struggle to get above 17 degrees ie full blast but I'm not paying the electric bill!!
> With the wind whistling round the house, blowing under / round doors and windows I also light the fire and after 3 months here have used about 1/2 a ton of wood.


½ton in 3 months isn't bad. we only use the log burner early December to maybe April and get through 2 tonnes and we only light it in the morning and let it go out after 1 pm, unless we have visitors but only lit for about 4 hours it warms the house for most of the day and well into evening.


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## fergie (Oct 4, 2010)

We have gas central heating, but use the wood burner to boost the heat. Our house is badly insulated, single wall with no insulation, although we do have double glazing.
We decided to buy a foil type stuff, which fits very easily behind our radiators, to reflect heat back into the room, we got it from Amazon. The foil is easily found on their website, and will be enough for 8-16 radiators depending on the size, I cannot advertise the name of the product because it is wrong to do so on an open forum. I can honestly say we have noticed a difference, it raises the temperature of the room by at least 2 degrees, we still like our log fire, but don't need to put it on till later in the evening, and at a lower light to last longer. So I think our £40 investment, plus postage, of the radiator reflector foil will be a long term good investment.


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## Gareth54 (Nov 8, 2014)

baldilocks said:


> ½ton in 3 months isn't bad. we only use the log burner early December to maybe April and get through 2 tonnes and we only light it in the morning and let it go out after 1 pm, unless we have visitors but only lit for about 4 hours it warms the house for most of the day and well into evening.


But you live in a town, no idea whether your house is de / attached to other houses which could make a vast difference in the number of exposed walls. Live here in the campo exposed in all directions and only have the open fire on in the evenings sometimes. In daylight hours try to be outside as much as possible


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

fergie said:


> We have gas central heating, but use the wood burner to boost the heat. Our house is badly insulated, single wall with no insulation, although we do have double glazing.
> We decided to buy a foil type stuff, which fits very easily behind our radiators, to reflect heat back into the room, we got it from Amazon. The foil is easily found on their website, and will be enough for 8-16 radiators depending on the size, I cannot advertise the name of the product because it is wrong to do so on an open forum. I can honestly say we have noticed a difference, it raises the temperature of the room by at least 2 degrees, we still like our log fire, but don't need to put it on till later in the evening, and at a lower light to last longer. So I think our £40 investment, plus postage, of the radiator reflector foil will be a long term good investment.


We got foil stuff many years ago here, can't remember where, Leroy Merlin?
You *can* give the name of whatever company you like as a regular poster, as long as it's not naming and shaming


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Pesky Wesky said:


> We got foil stuff many years ago here, can't remember where, Leroy Merlin?
> You *can* give the name of whatever company you like as a regular poster, as long as it's not naming and shaming



exactly! personal recommendations are always welcome!


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Gareth54 said:


> But you live in a town, no idea whether your house is de / attached to other houses which could make a vast difference in the number of exposed walls. Live here in the campo exposed in all directions and only have the open fire on in the evenings sometimes. In daylight hours try to be outside as much as possible


Village actually, but exposed on the windward side and at the top of a slope so the wind fair whips up at the house - had the new (not some that were ready to fall off!) gutters and tiles off recently, so we are exposed. Our walls aren't insulated either but we did have the outside done in capa-fina to help prevent the rain coming through.


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## fergie (Oct 4, 2010)

Didn't now I could name the product,thank you for letting me know, it is called RADFLEK, we bought the larger pack, but ordered it from Amazon UK, it arrived less than a week after ordering it, and in the couple of weeks we have used it, there does seem to be a difference.

Pesky I didn't realise a similar product was available here in Spain, we get most of our things we need DIY wise, from larger Spanish DIY shops, but I had never seen this strong foil stuff.

We live on a mountain side, where sometimes the weather can be adverse, in fact it is raining and cold outside at the moment, with higher gusts of wind expected, so will try anything to keep our home warm in winter.
These chats on threads are so useful for general information.


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

We burn at least four tonnes each winter but have two log burners and live in the mountains where the temperature is often 6c cooler than the coast. During this current cold spell we have one log burner alight almost 24/7 and this keeps the inside temperature above 20c. We pay 12 cents a kilo for well seasoned olive and almond but get a fair bit of leña from our own land.


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

In the UK when we relied on woodburners we would use about two cords over the winter period, only ever used hard wood like Oak










I've around three cords cut and seasoning for next year.


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## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

Interesting fact Bob Bob , thanks for sharing.

A cord looks very neat !

I have only got one big mess stored , as its just in heap !

Cheers Tony Agost Alicante


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