Curling up next to a warm and cosy fire department with a hot cup of cocoa and your favourite book is one of the highlights of winter. However, in the recent years with the growing awareness over air pollution, it is extremely irresponsible to burn firewood for prolonged periods of time without thinking about the environment. Make use of the best-quality firewood supplies in Northern Beaches.
Here are six tips by which you can choose the best firewood for a clean and low-pollution burning:
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Moisture content of the wood
Good firewood is always dry, as moisture-laden wood refuses to burn properly. Most firewood trees like pine and cedar are softwood trees, which consists of a significant amount of moisture even months after the tree has been felled. It is extremely important to have dry wood for a long-burning, clean fire as wood with a high water retention capacity requires much more energy to burn. Moreover, the smoke from moist wood releases much stronger pollutants when it is burnt, and therefore does not burn clean.
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Seasoning of the wood
For a clean fire, wood that has been seasoned by the elements of weather for a significant amount of time is always a better choice than unseasoned wood. Unseasoned wood is often laden with water, and therefore is less clean than a seasoned firewood when it is burnt. If you take two logs of wood and bang them together, well-seasoned and dry wood would always sound hollow.
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Age of the wood
The age of the wood determines the quality of firewood, since older firewood burns much cleaner than greenwood. The old wood is always stored at the bottom of a pile, and is often characterized by cracking ends, which signifies that the wood has been properly seasoned and dried. Since a well-seasoned and well-dried wood is the best for clean burning, it is important to get an old piece of firewood.
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Colour of the wood
Good firewood that burns clean is always stored in a dry place, and therefore has a different colour from greenwood. A good firewood log is always grey and dusty on the outside and clean and dry on the inside, indicating that the wood has a lower amount of residual material in it.
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Density of the wood
The density of firewood is extremely significant for a clean fire, since the firewood with higher density burns more efficiently than one with a lower density. While low density woods are often quickly burnt out, the higher density wood takes a longer time to burn, thereby causing less pollution.
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Bark of the wood
A good firewood that is dry and well seasoned will always have its bark chipped or peeling from the surface of the log. Since the bark of a tree requires moisture to stay attached to the rest of the log, the chipped and peeling bark indicates that the wood is dry, and will burn cleanly with as little pollution as possible.
By following these tips, you can build a warm and cosy fire at your house while being responsible towards the environment. Make use of the top-quality firewood supplies in North Shore.
