# Wood



## Karen Ince (May 15, 2014)

We have a family holiday home near Caldas - serro do bourro area - anyone know of a local wood yard where we can buy in bulk ready for winter? We are currently paying 20c per kilo at Flor Obidos on an as needed basis and looking to perhaps stock up for next year.


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## paramonte (Sep 9, 2007)

20 cents is too expensive even for the best quality azinho wood

azinho wood normal price should not be over 17 cents/kilo
sobro around 14 cents/kilo
pinho and eucalipto around 10 cents/kilo


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

We pay €110 per tonne and it is good quality wood (DRY) we have usede the ssame supplier for 8 years without any problems. He stacks when he delivers the wood for you too


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## In 2 bikes (Apr 18, 2013)

can anyone tell me what a metre cubed is in terms of weight? A local supplier is doing a metre at 50 euros...cheers


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## paramonte (Sep 9, 2007)

In 2 bikes said:


> can anyone tell me what a metre cubed is in terms of weight? A local supplier is doing a metre at 50 euros...cheers



for azinho (the heaviest) it is accepted that 1m3 equates to 600 to 800 kg


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## In 2 bikes (Apr 18, 2013)

thank you..


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## paramonte (Sep 9, 2007)

azinho and sobro (the ones that are more efficient than pine or eucalipto because take more time to burn) are typically more prevalent in the south part of the country. Sobro comes from the cork trees trimmings, mainly Alentejo area.

For central and north PT most popular are eucalipto, pine and a variety of others, being olive tree wood also very efficient (the preferred for wood fired cooking baker woven) also good is vine wood that is available when they uproot the old vines to plant new ones.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

From my experience, you need to be VERY careful with eucalyptus, pine and olive (unless VERY well seasoned) because it's prone to producing a pitch like substance and once you get that in your firebox and/or flue, it's a royal PITA to get rid of. 

I'm glad to say we switched to a wood pellet burning boiler a couple of years ago and it's an absolute pleasure and pretty much maintenance free.


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## paramonte (Sep 9, 2007)

conifers like pine, produce creosote (some wood burners stoves do not recommend to use conifers wood). 

Some experts say this is wrong since every wood produces creosote, even go as far as saying conifers produce less creosote since they burn faster, so they recommend chimney cleaning every year.

I don't think olive tree and eucaliptos are connifers

Pellet burners also produce creosote as pellets are made from a mix of wood and other stuff


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## DREAMWEAVER1 (May 28, 2013)

paramonte said:


> conifers like pine, produce creosote (some wood burners stoves do not recommend to use conifers wood).
> 
> Some experts say this is wrong since every wood produces creosote, even go as far as saying conifers produce less creosote since they burn faster, so they recommend chimney cleaning every year.
> 
> ...


Olive and eucalyptus are definitely NOT conifers!


David


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

I didn't suggest they were conifers........ I suggested that burning wood, especially unseasoned wood from those trees produces a tar like substance that is a royal PITA to get rid of and I know from bitter experience that statement is absolutely correct.

Note I also say tar like substance and not creosote because I do not know what it is, have not had it analysed and consequently, I cannot give a more accurate statement as to what it is.

Also, for what it's worth, we've had a wood pellet burning boiler in for 18 months and so far, the pellets burn pretty much cleanly. It runs for about 16 hours a day for every day of the winter and so far, I haven't even had to clean the flue.


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## DREAMWEAVER1 (May 28, 2013)

travelling-man said:


> I didn't suggest they were conifers........ I suggested that burning wood, especially unseasoned wood from those trees produces a tar like substance that is a royal PITA to get rid of and I know from bitter experience that statement is absolutely correct.
> 
> Note I also say tar like substance and not creosote because I do not know what it is, have not had it analysed and consequently, I cannot give a more accurate statement as to what it is.
> 
> Also, for what it's worth, we've had a wood pellet burning boiler in for 18 months and so far, the pellets burn pretty much cleanly. It runs for about 16 hours a day for every day of the winter and so far, I haven't even had to clean the flue.



TM,I was answering Paramonte,s comment regarding olive and eucalyptus.

Your comment regarding not having a flue problem since changing to a pellet feed system sounds positive,we may have to upgrade our oil boiler,so the pellet system will be worth consideration.


David


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

David

For what it's worth, we used to have a wood burning boiler and a standby diesel powered boiler, both linked to the central heating system and replaced the wood burning boiler with a wood pellet burning boiler and the running costs per day for a 16 hour burn works/worked out to about:

Wood pellet: €3
Wood: €5 
Diesel; €12

The wood pellet burning boiler also requires about 10 minutes work once every 3 days to maintain and the wood burning one required about 10 minutes every 2 or 3 hours.


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## DREAMWEAVER1 (May 28, 2013)

travelling-man said:


> David
> 
> For what it's worth, we used to have a wood burning boiler and a standby diesel powered boiler, both linked to the central heating system and replaced the wood burning boiler with a wood pellet burning boiler and the running costs per day for a 16 hour burn works/worked out to about:
> 
> ...



Friends of our have a gas bottle fired boiler,costing a lot more than the figures you have quoted!


David


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

If you have an existing oil fired boiler and it's condition is good like ours was, pellet conversion systems are available to replace the oil burner, where well on par to recoup the cost of our conversion before the 18 months I'd budgeted for as break even


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

David

I've never had gas powered heating but understand it is pretty expensive and also makes a lot of condensation/damp. 

C/M 

I tried to get a pellet conversion for my diesel powered boiler but unfortunately nothing was available which was a bit of a nuisance. 

So I've kept it as a standby but am not sure it's worth keeping because the new pellet burning one is so reliable and I might consider selling the diesel one of someone made me a half decent offer.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

I only know of one person who can afford C/H powered by bottled gas and he has a small 2 bedroomed modern built well insulated bungalow. It's the stand alone bottled gas fires that produce the water not boiler they flue externally 

30€ for boiler


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## In 2 bikes (Apr 18, 2013)

I have caved in and after days of considering the costs and space requirements of a wood burner to 'supplement' our open log fire and pellet powered central heating, I have bought a walk-about gas fire. It's not the prettiest option but it blends in and keeps the Mrs quiet.......sorry warm..

We have a 10 litre dehumidifier to suck up the H2O the fire will pump out. A the end of the day, it's for only 8 weeks of the year and cost next to nothing to worry about.


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

In 2 bikes said:


> I have caved in and after days of considering the costs and space requirements of a wood burner to 'supplement' our open log fire and pellet powered central heating, I have bought a walk-about gas fire. It's not the prettiest option but it blends in and keeps the Mrs quiet.......sorry warm..
> 
> We have a 10 litre dehumidifier to suck up the H2O the fire will pump out. A the end of the day, it's for only 8 weeks of the year and cost next to nothing to worry about.



We have just pick up a hotspot by Galp. Just for casual use


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## In 2 bikes (Apr 18, 2013)

siobhanwf said:


> We have just pick up a hotspot by Galp. Just for casual use


We bought our portable from JUMBO but when we went to a local shop for a cylinder and saw the 'hotspot' Mrs In-2- got all excited. I have to say it is a cool looking portable fire.........nice one !


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

In 2 bikes said:


> We bought our portable from JUMBO but when we went to a local shop for a cylinder and saw the 'hotspot' Mrs In-2- got all excited. I have to say it is a cool looking portable fire.........nice one !


Not only cool but extremely efficient and unlike most of those type of fires does not seem to produce a lot of moisture


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