From the yard

The best fuel for an overnight burn: chunky logs or smokeless fuel?

Want the stove still warm in the morning? How chunky logs and smokeless fuels compare for an overnight burn, and what suits a log burner or an open fire.

Coming down to a warm room and a stove you can bring back to life in minutes is one of the joys of winter. Whether that works depends mostly on what you put on last thing at night.

Chunky logs for a log burner

For a wood-only stove, chunky logs are the overnight choice. They're kiln dried and cut to the standard 9 to 10 inch length, but two to three times thicker, so they burn slower and longer with fewer refills. Load two or three onto a good bed of embers, let them catch properly, then turn the air down.

Dry wood matters even more overnight: wet logs smoulder at low air and coat the flue and glass in tar. Ours are dried below 20% moisture and certified Ready to Burn.

Smokeless fuel for a multi-fuel stove or open fire

If your appliance burns solid fuel, a smokeless fuel gives a long, steady burn through the night:

  • Wildfire: a high performance smokeless overnight fuel, easy to light and low in ash, for open fires and smoke control areas.
  • Homefire Brazier: a competitively priced, clean burning smokeless fuel, dependable overnight in open fires and multi-fuel stoves.
  • Ecoal: made with olive stone biomass, with low smoke and over 30% less carbon dioxide than traditional coal.

Only burn smokeless fuel in an appliance designed for it, and always follow your stove maker's instructions.

A common combination

Many customers light the evening fire with kiln dried logs for quick, bright heat, then bank up with chunky logs or a smokeless fuel before bed in a multi-fuel stove. It's easy to add a few bags of smokeless fuel to a log delivery.

Smoke control areas

Parts of towns such as Stoke-on-Trent are smoke control areas. There you can only burn wood in a Defra exempt stove, and an open fire needs an approved smokeless fuel. Check with your council if you're not sure.

Getting it delivered

We deliver chunky logs, kiln dried logs and smokeless fuel together on our own trailer across Staffordshire and Derbyshire from Uttoxeter. See our delivery areas or ring 01889 567449.

Ready when you are

Talk it through with the family who cut and deliver your wood. We’ll help you work out what you need.

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