[Debbie]

I know that this has been covered elsewhere but I can't find it. I need some info an buying wood. I've no idea what I need to buy, (type of wood) the amount and how to order it. I've trying to research it and am now confussed about my cords, thrown cords, ute loads, sq meters (all apparently different measurments for wood).
If anyone knows a reputiable wood seller in the Auckland area can you PM me their number.
I planned to store the wood in an old metal shed we have, the shed doesn't have a door on it anymore but has 3 sides and a roof. Will this be OK. I've been told I need to ensure it has good air circulation.

Debbie

[Park City Partner]

We live on the Northshore and got 4 meters last winter. I think it was meters...well we got 4 of what ever measurement they use. I don't recall the type of wood, it may have been mixed but we heard last year that blue gum is supposed to be really good...slow burning etc. We will probably get 5 this year which seems like a lot as there are 2 of us and a baby but I am home most of the day and generally run cold...last year we got oil fin heaters and I used them a lot until we got a CRAZY electric bill! But I had a newborn last year and refused to be cold...yes, spoiled American when it comes to heat...We just called a couple of people out of the Northshore times and went with one of them but if someone has a good vendor I would love to know the details...

[Debbie]

Nothing spoilt about it, I'm with you on that one why else would Ibe ordering up my wood now. I can't stand the thought of the weather turning cold and me having to wait 2 weeks for a wood delivery.
I've been given a list of the different wood heat values, I'll try and dig it out and post it for referance. Like you I'm home most of the day and I don'tsee any point in being cold.

Debbie

[Moorf]

Debbie - about now is a good time to be sourcing your firewood, even if you only put in an advanced order. Many people are caught out by leaving it to the last minute and then having to wait for deliveries or unable to get the wood they want.

Christchurch Firewood - our local suppliers - have a great site with wood types and measurements. http://www.cityfirewood.co.nz/index.html

Luckily we've had lots of trees felled over the last year so we have a woodpile you can climb...

Just remember to make sure the wood is dried out and stack somewhere where it's protected from the rain, doesn't necessarily mean it has to be in a closed area, a tarpaulin or roof is fine and in the sun if possible...

We also order in pine offcuts which we use for kindling - you can often order this along with the big rounds....

Oh, and it's also worth requesting stackers (if the company you use has them) otherwise it's a helluva lot of wood to stack yourselves - our stackers only cost $10 / hour and well worth it....

Hope that helps a little

Moorf

[Debbie]

Thanks for that link, Can you tell me how much wood you would order for the winter if you hadn't felled your trees this yr.? I figure you are subject to colder weather than me but I'ma bigger wimp so should even out.
Debbie

[Moorf]

We got through around 9m3 of wood last year, but remember we also have a Juno coal stove which is what we use 24/7 during winter to heat the house and water (and occasionally soup!), and we use our wood for an open fire, not a woodburner.

If I remember correctly we got through around 2 tons of coal last year too - but then it was an exceptionally bad winter!

When we had our woodburner in Chch we used blue gum as we found this the best, albeit most expensive, wood to burn and a type that breaks in to "coals" and keeps it's heat much more than macrocarpa or pine.

We got through around 6m3 there over winter and it was our only source of heating except a few strategically placed oil heaters....

Here's what 9m3 of wood looks like dumped on the drive... the peak is around my shoulder height.....

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c389/Moorf/IMG_1559.jpg

[wilson182]

We got 6m3 of wood last year, and had a little left over at the end of winter. However, we both work and no-one was home during the day. Old man pine is probably most popular, burns a bit faster but hot. Might be best to mix it with some slow burning wood too.

[negirl]

Isn't it funny how firewood becomes an important part of your life over here.:laugh We've had a fair amount given free over the summer from an old neighbour. Last year was our first winter here & the first pile of wood we bought 3m3 looked like a huge pile enough to see us through so we thought:o I think we bought another 2 loads after that. A couple of our kiwi friends told us to buy in the summer as you'll get it cheaper but so far it seems to be advertised at the same price as last winter. We paid $140 for 3m3 of dry pine then the last lot was semi dry & we paid $130 for it. We only have a log burner for heat & we have one of those oil radiator things in the hallway, we only put that on last thing at night when we needed it last winter.

[stu70]

Folks, just a silly question really, do you get a lot of soot, fumes from wood burning? I wonder if they have better chimney systems in place over there. I think some homes here have woodburning fireplaces (more for the atmosphere than anything) and they can make lot of smoke and stuff if not careful.

[robberger]

Okay, coming from Idaho (US) here, where we get permits, head up to the forest and cut down our own 'dead standing' trees, section and load the pickup, drive off the snow-plowed road and spend three hours digging out and propping said wood under tires, bring it back to the house and then split or let it dry and then split. Is there anywhere near Christchurch where one can do something similar--minus the off-road detour? I just like getting out and chopping wood...my brother-in-law says that way it warms you twice!

[Milliemoo]

Hi,

Just got an email from consumer online about firewood a couple of days ago:

http://www.consumer.org.nz/topic.asp?category=Home%20%26%20DIY&docid=167&subcategory=Heating%20%26%20energy&topic=Firewood

Looks quite usefull

:nice1

Milliemoo

[Rizak]

Okay, coming from Idaho (US) here, where we get permits, head up to the forest and cut down our own 'dead standing' trees, section and load the pickup, drive off the snow-plowed road and spend three hours digging out and propping said wood under tires, bring it back to the house and then split or let it dry and then split. Is there anywhere near Christchurch where one can do something similar--minus the off-road detour? I just like getting out and chopping wood...my brother-in-law says that way it warms you twice!


Oh, man. Does that take me back. I can't count the number of hours I spent in the woods clearing Crown land for our furnace. We had a great system of doing it in the winter when there was a lot of snow on the ground, but just around the freezing point so you weren't too cold. You'd cut down the trees and section them into 4' lengths. Then we'd pile them onto an old car hood that we had tied onto a snowmobile, drive that lot back to the truck and load it all in. Repeat until done. Then you get back to the house where you cut each length in half again and stack them in the garage until next fall to dry. Once they were sufficiently dry, you would drag them all out to the driveway, split it all by hand if they were big enough, load it all into the basement through a side window and keep toasty warm until you had to go out and do it all over again.

Yeah. I don't miss that at all. :laugh

However, it does bring up an interesting question: Why is it that I never see any basements in NZ house plans?

[Cindy]

Rizak, I'm no expert but I'm assuming it due to earthquakes, liquifaction, flooding or all of the above. I lived in Los Angeles, CA where earthquakes occur and homes there are built with no basement for that reason.

[Rizak]

Rizak, I'm no expert but I'm assuming it due to earthquakes, liquifaction, flooding or all of the above. I lived in Los Angeles, CA where earthquakes occur and homes there are built with no basement for that reason.


Ah. I see. In case of earthquake the entire building 'floats' on the surface (on the slab) whereas something anchored into the earth would suffer more damage from shearing effects.

Thanks!

[jess]

Thanks to this great thread I just went ahead and ordered firewood for our woodstove today. Better early than waiting on a load as Moorf said! They're bringing it tomorrow morning. We ordered 5 cubic meters -- 2 of the pine and 3 of the bluegum. (Pine gets the fire going and then bluegum burns a long time.)

It was $430 for for the 5 m3 with delivery included. ($300 for the 3 m3 of gum and $130 for the 2 m3 of pine.) It's pine logs cut to fit the woodstove, but it's not "Old Man Pine" (a particular type which was more expensive.) I called about 5 places and the only one that was cheaper overall for the amt. and type of wood we wanted was actually selling pine blocks - the little leftover milled pieces that burn in a flash - and not pine logs.

From what I could gather calling around today - a cord is 3.6 m3 of wood. Places that sold by the cord would sell a half cord or a cord only, and were offering a fifty-fifty mix if I ordered a cord of gum and pine.

Just fyi - the woman where we bought the wood said macrocarpa can make a fire spit, and is better for woodstoves than open fires. As I understand it mac. burns a little slower than pine, but not by too much. (Correct me if I'm wrong - we didn't buy any mac.)

Anyway thanks for the thread or I wouldn't have thought of taking care of this until I was freeezing. :nice1

[jess]

Ok, goober time -- here's my pic of the 5 m3 of pine and gum delivered to our driveway this am. It didn't take long for the two of us to stack it. It's about 5 feet (a little over one and a half meters) tall.

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t60/islandinthepacific/firewood-001.jpg

[Debbie]

Well better late than never, I've found the artical that the chimney man gave me about buying fire wood, I wish I had found it sooner it answers all those things I wanted to know so I thought I would share bits of it with you. If i could work the scanner I would scan it, but this will have to do.

(Im not obsessing about wood and being cold, Honest!!)

"Any sort of wood is suitable for wood burning stoves, though you may wish to advoid Macrocarpa if you have an open fire. It oftern has pockets of moisture that cause sparks to fly. Hard wood like wattle ad gum are better for open fires as they burn slowly, but because you pay extra, the cost of the heat may be more..... Cheaper woods like pine and macroarpa have just as much heat content if measures by weight. But because wood is normally sold by volume, you pay less for the lighter softwoods.

Avoid measures like a "ute" load. Wood should be sold by a legal measure, which means either the cubic meter or cord. ... We don't advise you go looking for a true cord. It's a stack of eight-foot long loggs, four feet high and four feet wide-no longer a convenient way for most people to buy their wood!
The "thrown" or loose cord is the version widley used by wood merchants. It represents cut wood thrown or loosly stacked into a box with the demensions of a cord- 2.44m long by 1.22m wide and 1.22m deep.
A cord equals 3.6 cubic metres. Divide the cord price by 3.6 and you get the metre price.
To compare the cost of the heat you get from different woods divide the cost of the wood by the heat content. These fig are from Forest REsearch Institute. They assume 25% moisture in all woods.
Wood kWh/cu.m
Lucerne 1,970
Manuka 1,860
Sheoak 1,610
Wattle 1,490
bluegum 1,270
willow 1,200
Macrocarpa 1,150
pine 1,090
douglas fir 1,090

Bluegum covers as many as 9 species with heat contents as low as pine or as high as wattle. We give an average figure. Simlarly, pine millslab, which is mostly sapwood, could have less heat content, while older, resinous pine heartwood (sometimes sold as "old man pine") could have asmuch heat as an avgerage bluegum."

I phoned the chimney man and asked his advise on where to get my wood in the end. He gave the number of the place he uses, it's some adult disabilty trust, (sorry he said the name 3 x and I still couldn't make it out over the phone, my kiwi ear isn't that good still), but for those in Northshore looking for a suplier PM me. Im paying $65 m3 for pine and $90m3 for eucalypts.

Debbie.

[Park City Partner]

Just wanted to update this thread. Our firewood was delivered today and I couldn't be happier. I used the Matea Trust which is the place Debbie was told about. The truck should up a wee bit earlier than promised with 7 guys. The trust homes about 8 men and has a few that come there for the day. All are developmentally disabled and the firewood business gives them something to do other than sit in a facility doing art which I was told "would drive them crazy." Trees are cut down and then the guys use the log splitter to split all the wood and load it in the truck and then they unload it as well....and here's the KEY thing....they stacked ALL of the wood for us! They did a beautiful job. We were looking for someone to stack it but every place I called laughed at me when I asked about this. I like the fact that jobs are being provided for these men not to mention that they were absolutley happy to stack for us. Also, this wood is cut into a much better size then the stuff we got last year. The wood we had last year had to be split even further in order to be used.

The American in me had to tip them for their efforts so we ended up "shouting them lunch" with some extra cash. When I paid the man and thanked them for stacking and gave them the tip money he was very appreciative. I am just thrilled and it all came just in time for the cold weather.....

[kanatakiwi]

Hi there fellow Canuck.
re the basement thing.... Unfortunately I dont think it has to do with earthquakes although maybe it should have. Most of the new homes being built here now DO have basements and if it was an earthquake thing, the building restrictions would have gotten more strict, not less.

I would put my money on the fact that housing here in the the 40's 50's etc were built almost like cabins, crawl spaces were the norm. you are lucky if there is even any insulation under the floor. And as there was no central heating there was no need for a basement for the furnace. Of course living through Ontario winters you will know that the best thing about a basment is heat rises and it keeps the main floor warm!.

Having said all that I read today that Auckland has 23 volcano cones, so hope there is some flexibility in the housing envelope! I've been here 8 months and have only felt one minor shake.

[Debbie]

Park City, Glad your wood arrived I was a bit worried about passing their name on as I hadn't used them before myself. I ment to write an update but have been to busy with the easter hols and looking at my lovley log pile:yes

I have to say I cracked and brought a bag of wood from a garage before our wood arrived and the difference is amazing.

The Matea not only is obviously a lot cheeper but as you said a great practical size. The garage wood was so small it burnt through so quickly as this other stuff a log keeps us going all evening. Did a brill job of stacking all 4 m3 in my shed swept up after themself and everything.

Definatly will keep their number for next yr.

Debbie

[Jon&Candy]

I've just come back from a recce trip to New Zealand. While I was there, I saw a TV program where they try to make a family more green. One of the things they reccomended was using small pellets as fuel in log burners, rather than wood.

They said they seem quite expensive, but each pellet contains as much energy as a log, so they actually work out about the same sort of cost as logs. They provide benefits as they generate much less CO2 and soot, and obviously they don't take up the entire garage for a winter's supply.

Has anybody else heard of these?

[jess]

While I was there, I saw a TV program where they try to make a family more green. One of the things they reccomended was using small pellets as fuel in log burners, rather than wood. Although I have heard pellets are efficient, I thought you had to have a pellet burner to use them. I had not heard that you could put pellets in your existing wood burner??

[Moorf]

I'm pretty sure one pellet doesn't have the energy of a log - they're tiny (sorry having sci-fi visions of a pea-sized pellet the weight of a log!). And you need to use an electric-powered pellet burner to use them... which is a bit useless in a power cut ;) (they may have back-ups, I really don't know).

Not a fan, been for a demo, crossed off list of potential heating systems!

[willsken]

Moorf you're right. From the research I've done they kick out about half the heat as some woodburners. I'm pretty sure you have to have a pellet burner not just a woodburner.

[Lupin]

I thought with current population and managed forests wood is considered an environmental heating option anyway, but perhaps I'm wrong there.

We've been utter, utter fools and when our wood arrived, despite both of us being rural dwellers enough to know green wood when we see it, we smiled and parted with our cash, like the silly just-off-the-plane poms we are. Paying for it so many times over now as a decent fire requires an elaborate system of rotating the wood round the burner to make it at least slightly dry before it gets put in.

So from bitter experience I would advise preparing yourself by planning on checking the wood and sending away if needs be BEFORE they dump the lot on your drive!

[jaycee]

Was the TV programme referring to "firelogs", which are compressed wood waste (shavings and sawdust) - like pellets, but bigger? You can use those in a normal woodburner. In both cases, I believe they are supposed to burn cleaner and hotter than wood, and are made of material which might otherwise have been waste.