I’m asking my local contacts for their recommendations as my old supplier has moved away. Last winter was fuelled by trees felled on my property in 2019.
Have a 2 metre trailer, chainsaw and a 4 tonne splitter; so collecting uncut wood isn’t a problem.
I used one of these to raise my splitter to a comfortable height:
I highly recommend wearing a forester’s helmet when using a horizontal splitter as mine can throw the split chunks several metres in the direction of hydraulic ram travel or, very occasionally, pop one up in the air.
My wood man is my neighbour, fixed price. €150 for 4m2 (is that a cord, I always get confused!). Ready split and chopped to 50 for us. I think this is really good value - is a lot less than we paid in the Aude 15 years ago!
Just ordered 2 lots and we usually order another one later in the year (although I think we’ll try to get it in once we have space as sometimes the wood delivered later is not as good!).
We have 2 burners, one at each end of our barn. Only need both going when it is really freezing. We would like to get a burner that can also heat water for us and possibly radiators.
Same here, went over to air to air about 5 or 6 years ago but I still have a sizable stack in reserve and the wood burner, just in case.
But for 15 years before that I only bought from one farmer and never thought ahead, just when I could see the need. The longest I ever waited was 2 weeks I think. Also the price hardly varied from year to year and never within the same year due to the date. In fact, once when he told me the price would be higher the next time, it was in fact the following year before it went up.
I almost felt guilty when I no longer needed him. He delivered on a chassis trailer and he and his Polish wife always stacked it for me. A few times I tried to help but 3 people within that length meant only getting in the way.
I have learnt that a stère is by and large what the local market decides it is - if buying direct. All well to have legal definition, but your local person will tell you what he will provide for what price which will be an approximation of a stère…ours sells by the load, which is just over an official stère when we stack and measure.
Well. Our delivers in a flatbed with high sides and I always take it full because splitting the load means hoping that he can stop the load once he tips it up. For sure there’s no scales involved just an ‘au pif ‘. So I take the full load but this will be the 4th year. But yes we have pompe à chaleur as the main heating. Fire is a comfort and disaster recovery. Anyone fully dependent on EDF will know that periods without power do come surprisingly often in winter. Our fire is a monster beast 15kw insert so we’ve got it covered.
Umm to you too, I stere is 1 cubic metre, but only if the timber is cut in 1mt lengths. 1 stere of 50cm logs is 0,8m³, 1 stere of 33cm logs equals 0.7 m³
That’s a new one to me. A stere is a standard measure, like a kilogram or a litre. Selling short measure is a criminal offence, so I would hope those who do so would be prosecuted. I usually buy 30 cm logs and they are certainly full measure.
I mentioned earlier that we buy 16 Stere each year which is correct. I used the word Stere but actually our woodyard refers to each bundle as a Fagot.
It seems that they contain more than 1m3 as sad as I am I have just measured the content of this years purchase and the surface area is exactly 16m2 but there is a bonus.
Each log measures 1.1 metres so if my maths is correct we actually have 17.6 cubic metres.
The reason for the 1.1 metre lengths is our woodyard is a major supplier of oak flooring and oak for wine barrels and the firewood they sell is offcuts that dont meet the required standard for the end product but for us the end product is perfect.
It’s pretty logical…the bigger the bits of wood, the more air spaces you have so need more room for same actual amount of wood. And pretty well known I’d have thought? But unless you are buying super- expensive palleted wood then arguing the toss with the wood provider is generally a fruitless exercise…and if you are buying 30cm and say you get the full measure it suggests you are getting extra! (How in heavens name do you measure it? We just know that the amount we buy ends up as a stack of 17m, the length of our wall.)
Interesting, my wood is palleted. I can measure it quite easily - my abri has a capacity of 4.5 cu metres, when I buy this amount it fills the abri to bursting point, with some left over. It’s not exact, but close enough for me.
to cut, stack and then hump up to the house!
