If you have an open fireplace, a wood-burning stove or a log burner at your Surrey or West Sussex property, you’ll need to stock up on firewood for those colder winter months. At LJN Firewood, we supply quality products, such as kiln-dried logs, seasoned logs, hardwood logs, and kindling, to suit your wood burning needs. If you’re unsure about which type of firewood to choose for heating your Cranleigh, Dorking, Leatherhead or Guildford home, this page explains everything. We also have a page that explains our delivery options and pricings.
There are many different types of firewood, each of which has its own distinct calorific value. This relates to the amount of energy inside. To determine the level of heat that wood gives off when burned and at what rate, we use a unit of measurement called the British Thermal Unit (BTU).
A green tree has a moisture content of around 70% to 100%, which means the wood will burn poorly, create lots of smoke and have a low BTU value. Ideally, firewood should have a moisture content of somewhere between 10% to 25%. This ensures a clean, efficient burn with a high BTU value.
While there are many varieties of natural firewood, we can categorise them into either hardwood or softwood. Hardwood is denser than softwood which means, pound-for-pound, that it contains more energy. This results in a higher BTU value and also means that hardwood logs will burn hotter, and for much longer, than a typical softwood alternative.
Although you can use softwood as firewood for wood-burning stoves and fireplaces in Cranleigh, log burners in Leatherhead and even wood-fired pizza ovens in Guildford and Dorking, it will require more logs to sustain the same heat, and an equivalent burn duration, as that produced by hardwood logs.
Softwood, however, is easy to light and therefore makes excellent kindling.
Drying firewood before use makes it more efficient. Not only will green wood give off less heat, but it will also create more tar and creosote deposits. This can lead to chimney fires. Seasoning logs by leaving them to air dry naturally, for at least a full year, reduces the moisture content to somewhere below 30% and this is what most log sales companies target.
Another drying process is to use a kiln drier for producing kiln-dried logs. This involves forcing the water out of the wood through sustained airflow and regulated temperature control. The result is a firewood between 10% and 20% moisture content.
We have invested over £350,000 into the firewood production side of our business alone to ensure a constant supply of clean, low-moisture, hot-burning and easy-to-light firewood. Our firewood suits a wide range of wood-burning appliances. We supply and deliver to customers in:
LJN Firewood also offers stacking services for your convenience.
