Wood storage – how to save time, space and money?

The end of February is the moment when, due to the upcoming bird mating season, the logging period in Polish forests comes to an end.

With the approaching spring, a busy time is also coming for all allotment holders and home gardeners. In the first weeks of March, all kinds of pruning shears, chainsaws and saw blades will be put into motion. Early spring is, apart from late autumn, the best time for pruning garden trees and shrubs.

What does this mean… many of us will soon become owners of quite a pile of wood and several wheelbarrows of larger and smaller branches. 

Wood, as we know, always comes in handy.

However, how to sensibly store it until the first larger summer bonfire, or perhaps keep it for the next winter? Let’s take a closer look at this.

1. The foundation is the right place 

Moisture is the greatest enemy of wood. Wet wood burns poorly, produces smoke and creates deposits in chimney ducts. 

To protect wood from moisture, it is best to store it elevated, without direct contact with damp ground. For this purpose, pallets can be used, for example.

A dry and well-ventilated space is also important. Wood should be stored in a place that is dry and sheltered from rain. A shed or any type of roofing is ideal for this. 

The way the wood is arranged is also not without significance. It is best to do it in such a way that the spaces between individual pieces are as large as possible. This will ensure proper air circulation and prevent rapid rotting.

2. Appropriate seasoning time

Depending on its intended use, wood should be stored for different periods.

For a recreational bonfire and baking the proverbial potatoes in its embers, any reasonably dry wood will do, without prior seasoning. 

The situation looks different if we want to use our wood to heat stoves or use it in a home fireplace. Firewood is best dried for at least 6 months, and ideally for 1-2 years, depending on the species. Younger wood (e.g. birch) dries faster, while hardwood, such as oak or beech, may require a longer time.

3. Effective shredding

It is no discovery to state that finely chopped wood may take up less space than large branches in whole. Tedious chopping, an activity relaxing for some, but in the long run tiring and burdensome, can be replaced by the work of a wood chipper.  

Wood chippers are mainly associated with logging work and may be considered specialist equipment for lumberjacks. In reality, however, any farm or workshop generating large amounts of wooden waste can successfully make use of their functionality.

There are many types of chippers available on the market, with different power supply methods. Adjustable blades allow control over the size of the material fed through the chipper. Thanks to this, apart from shredding wood for fuel, irregular branches or wooden waste can also be processed into wood chips, and these have a number of practical applications. They can be useful in gardening, as material for fertilizing beds or for covering garden or park paths. Wood chips are also used as insulation or material for the production of wood-based boards – e.g. particle boards. 

4. Pelletizing and briquetting

If, more than recreational burning in the fireplace, we care about efficient heating of our household using our own wood, a good solution may turn out to be the production of wood-based fuels. 

We distinguish two most popular types of this type of fuel:

4.1. Briquettes

Briquettes are solid fuel in the form of small cuboids with high density. It is created as a result of compressing biomass, in this case wood-based, inside a device called a briquetting machine. The energy value of briquettes may vary depending on the type of biomass, the moisture content of the material and the method of its processing. The most energy-efficient: sawdust briquette, has an efficiency of 17 - 19 MJ/kg. Briquettes achieve the best efficiency in biomass furnaces, but they also burn without problems in universal boilers, coal furnaces with adjustable air supply or in industrial boilers. Less frequently, but also successfully, they are burned in fireplaces or so-called “goat” stoves.

4.2. Pellets

Pellet is a more specialist type of wood-based fuel. It is produced in a way similar to briquette, with the difference that the finished product of the pellet mill is granulate that is easy to transport and store. This type of fuel is produced from all kinds of shavings, sawdust, chips or branches. 

Good quality pellet shows an energy value of 18 - 20 MJ/kg. 

Pellet is burned in special pellet stoves ensuring the use of the maximum energy potential of the fuel with the lowest possible production of smoke and ash.

The advantage of wood-based fuels over unprocessed wood is the ease of transport and storage. Heavily compressed briquette or pellet takes up significantly less space than the wood from which these fuels were produced.

In the process of their production, the water content is also significantly reduced, thanks to which pellets or briquettes are not very susceptible to rotting. 

Lower fuel moisture also reduces smoke emissions compared to burning unprocessed wood. Another advantage of such processing is the lack of need for thorough drying of wood intended for pellet or briquette.

 Are you considering producing your own fuel? More information about pellet mills and briquetting machines can be found in our other article.

In summary

Wood is still one of the most universal and available fuel materials in our region. Its growth, however, is a long-term process. It is therefore worth managing its resources responsibly and fully using the energy potential inherent in it. Good and loss-free storage, even on a small scale,  is a key element of wise exploitation of this raw material.