Fuelwood - Firewood
Cubic metre fuelwood
Fuelwood cubic metre, solid cubic metre or bulk volume. Here you will find comprehensive explanations of specific terminology with regard to fuelwood.
The forestry industry and firewood suppliers use units and measurements which require an explanation for non-professionals. Commonly used are measurements and units like fuelwod cubic metre, solid cubic metre or fuelwood bulk volume, which are not necessarily easy to understand.
What is a solid cubic metre fuelwood?
First of all there is the unit solid cubic metre. A solid cubic metre describes a cube with an edge length of 1m x 1m x 1m of compact or solidly stacked wood, leaving no space free. This measurement is purely mathematical, as a solid cubic metre for stacked wood, does not exist and is therefore hardly used selling fuelwood.
What exactly is a cubic metre firewood?
Today’s most commonly used measurement for fuelwood is the cubic metre. A cubic metre describes a cube with an edge length of 1m x 1m x 1m. This time however it accounts for air gaps which usually appear with stacked trunk wood or logs. For comparison:
1 solid cubic metre equals approximately 1.6 cubic metres of fuelwood.
What does bulk volume mean with regard to firewood?
The third conventionally used measurement is bulk volume. Again, for comparison sake, bulk volume of 1 cubic metre describes a cube with an edge length of 1m x 1m x 1m. In this case however the ready-to-burn logs (25cm to 35cm long) are dumped into containers of a certain volume. This leads to relatively huge gaps between the fuelwood logs, hence the amount of wood is even lower than in a cubic metre. For comparison:
The bulk volume of 1 cubic metre fuelwood of 33cm logs equals approximately 0.7 cubic metre firewood and 0.4 solid cubic metre wood.
Are there other wood measurements or units?
In the southern part of Germany, some parts of Austria and Switzerland the measurement “Ster” is still used. However, a ster is only synonym for a cubic metre.
An old and not commonly used measurement for wood is cord or fathom. A cord of wood described a stack of logs of approximately 1.8m long and high and 0.9m deep. This equals 3 to 4 cubic metres of wood. The cord or fathom was not defined by law and can therefore lead to regionally, varying measure- ments.
Abbreviations for commonly used terms are:
SCM – solid cubic metre (fuelwood / firewood)
CM – cubic metre (fuelwood /firewood)
BV – bulk volume (fuelwood / firewood)
Source: kaminholz-wissen.de
