Fuelwood - Firewood
Firewood wood briquettes
What do wood briquettes offer compared to the classic firewood logs?
Owners of wood burning stoves will arrive at the question whether it would be advantageous to burn wood briquettes as an alternative to firewood. The advantages of wood briquettes compared to firewood as well as their heating values will be briefly discussed in this article.
Ordinary wood briquettes are nowadays available in various shapes and sizes from round to oblong or octagonal, etc. Some firewood wood briquettes have a hole in the middle, others haven’t. Generally speaking the form of the wood briquette is irrelevant. Some types of wood briquettes burn and glow very long as embers, others (mainly the types with holes) burn with flames therefore produce less ember. The heating values vary from approximately 4.2 to 5.0 KW/h per kg. The good heating value of wood briquettes results from a high level of compaction of the wood shavings as well as a very low level of residual water content in wood shavings which is usually under 10%. For comparison: Firewood seasoned for 2 years has a residual water content of 10-20%.
The high heating values of wood briquettes together with their standardised uniform size are very well suited for owners of wood burning stoves with little storage capacity. 1 ton of wood briquettes can replace 4 SRM (the bulk volume of 4 cubic meter) firewood logs depending on the moisture in the wood. Another advantage is that wood briquettes develop less ash and slag in the stove. A high quality wood briquette develops less than 1% of its original volume of ash. With regard to heating values and volume the wood briquettes have advantages over firewood. What are the disadvantages?
There are not many disadvantages to be mentioned. The price of wood briquettes compared to firewood logs is marginally higher, however nowhere near enough to ruin the owner of wood burning stoves. The eco balance of wood briquettes is not as good as the one for firewood logs due to the amount of energy that is used during the production of wood briquettes. Additionally, there is a high variance in quality available on the market. Some bargain DIY store wood briquettes turn out to be wood shavings by the time they are going to be burnt. This then leads to a more or less nonexistent heating value. Adding of paper and cardboard during production is not uncommon or worse, illegal tropical hard wood was blended in. Other than that there is the aesthetical question for wood burning stove owners. Real firewood logs certainly create a different atmosphere in your living room than the rather chunky wood briquettes. Last but not least, wood briquettes don’t create the crackle when they burn.
However, wood briquettes are a very good fuel with good heating values and are easily to stack and store for people with little storage.
Have fun fuelling your wood burning stove with wood briquettes.
Source: kaminholz-wissen.de
