Fireplace advice

Neuk_ said:
Wood delivery scheduled for tomorrow, as is redoing the water proofing of our fireplace flue on the roof, waiting to hear when the roof insulation will be delivered. Ordered more wood than last year as I ordered twice last year and would rather have more than I need with a newborn in the house this winter. Ordered 132 sqm of 145mm thick insulation for our bedrooms, bathrooms and office as the roof has bugger all at the moment, so it should make a difference to maintaining room temperature. Like our last house I plan to do install it myself, should be a bit easier as there is more apace between our roof trusses and more space in the roof to move around, will get some wooden planks to assist. Morning outside temperatures are in the 7 Deg C at the moment so getting closer to sealing up the house and making daily fires…
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How much wood do you go through in a season?
 
The_Mowgs said:
How much wood do you go through in a season?
Click to expand...

I order wood in the large 25kg dog food bags, went through around 60 last year so I have ordered 65 this year as I have a little left over. I am not sure how much wood this actually is, I’ll take a picture when they deliver tomorrow, to give an idea. We run a Morso 1630 which is rated at 10kw and sometimes our open fireplace if we have guests over and are entertaining in our lounge.
 
Neuk_ said:
I order wood in the large 25kg dog food bags, went through around 60 last year so I have ordered 65 this year as I have a little left over. I am not sure how much wood this actually is, I’ll take a picture when they deliver tomorrow, to give an idea. We run a Morso 1630 which is rated at 10kw and sometimes our open fireplace if we have guests over and are entertaining in our lounge.
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Is that ordered by the bag or is that a 'bakkie' load?
 
richjdavies said:
Is that ordered by the bag or is that a 'bakkie' load?
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You can order by medium bag or jumbo bag for most of the woods they have or bakkie load for their ‘firewood’. I get in bags as I have wood storage that I ‘decant’ in to from the bags periodically, separating small, medium and large pieces.
 
Blue gum, seasoned for one year, LWB bakkie load + Venter trailer load, R1250 delivered. Just to give you guys an idea. Knysna Sedgefield area. Nice and dry, burns great:

1713080470809.png

1713080500215.png
 
And another delivery of the same in late June / early July will likely see us through the whole of the winter time.
 
I've got piles of milkwood I need to cut to size before I can think about ordering firewood.

IMG_5555.JPG
 
I bought a 'bakkie load" of dry blue gum for R800 delivered and stacked. This load was a standard bakkie filled to the height of the load bed, no higher. I estimate the piece count at about 650 pieces.
This is to feed my small new 5kw Northern Fires Hampton which I bought and had installed for 18k all in.
This beaut burns about 1 piece an hour and warms our small living/kitchen area no problem.

gcfires.co.za

Northern Flame Hampton – GC Fires

The Northern Flame Ecosy+ Hampton boasts some of the lowest combined readings of NOx, CO and dust of any wood burning stove sold in the UK.
gcfires.co.za
Northern-Flame-Hampton-5kW-SIA-Eco-Design-Ready-2022-closed-combustion-fireplace-3.jpg

Edit: Just ordered a fireplace thermal fan too. Not sure if it will make any difference in a 2.6m ceiling height space of 35m2.
Does anyone have any experience with these or any opinions?

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s-zoom.jpg
 
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flytek said:
I bought a 'bakkie load" of dry blue gum for R800 delivered and stacked. This load was a standard bakkie filled to the height of the load bed, no higher. I estimate the piece count at about 650 pieces.
This is to feed my small new 5kw Northern Fires Hampton which I bought and had installed for 18k all in.
This beaut burns about 1 piece an hour and warms our small living/kitchen area no problem.

gcfires.co.za

Northern Flame Hampton – GC Fires

The Northern Flame Ecosy+ Hampton boasts some of the lowest combined readings of NOx, CO and dust of any wood burning stove sold in the UK.
gcfires.co.za
View attachment 1690875

Edit: Just ordered a fireplace thermal fan too. Not sure if it will make any difference in a 2.6m ceiling height space of 35m2.
Does anyone have any experience with these or any opinions?

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
www.takealot.com www.takealot.com

View attachment 1690895
Click to expand...

Keen to see any feedback on the fan, our fireplace heats up our ‘common’ area quiet well but getting air moving and to our bedrooms is an issue I want to tackle.
 
Have a fan like this for the last few years , not same brand but same purpose. My fireplace is in an area that is very open and we normally never sit in, and heat stays in area and lost via skylight.

When this fan kicks in and faced toward our passage , you can feel the heat in the passage . In fact, thx for the reminder, need to buy another one to face our lounge.
 
so yeah the wood cuts all vary

some guys give pieces that are 500g some give 2kg pieces

so paying per piece is better if you know the size you getting

also some fireplaces prefer smaller pieces so again judge on that
 
Any wood seller recommendations for Pretoria? All my usual spots seems AWOL :P Have enough for a month but wanna stock up sooner than later
 
flytek said:
I bought a 'bakkie load" of dry blue gum for R800 delivered and stacked. This load was a standard bakkie filled to the height of the load bed, no higher. I estimate the piece count at about 650 pieces.
This is to feed my small new 5kw Northern Fires Hampton which I bought and had installed for 18k all in.
This beaut burns about 1 piece an hour and warms our small living/kitchen area no problem.

gcfires.co.za

Northern Flame Hampton – GC Fires

The Northern Flame Ecosy+ Hampton boasts some of the lowest combined readings of NOx, CO and dust of any wood burning stove sold in the UK.
gcfires.co.za
View attachment 1690875

Edit: Just ordered a fireplace thermal fan too. Not sure if it will make any difference in a 2.6m ceiling height space of 35m2.
Does anyone have any experience with these or any opinions?

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
www.takealot.com www.takealot.com

View attachment 1690895
Click to expand...
I bought one on a Takealot special in summer - looking forward to see how it works in winter
 
Well - my curiousity got the better of me:

In general it looks to me like Black Wattle is sold at similar prices / kg than blue gum, but from some very simple research it sounds like it should produce much more heat? So the best value in Cape Town generally seems to be black wattle; and in general it doesn't seem to be too useful to buy lots - but then a "bakkie" load or a "piece" is obviously open to debate!

docs.google.com

Cape Town Firewood Comparison Live

docs.google.com docs.google.com


I'm getting a median price of around R1/kWh for seasoned firewood (assuming a 70% efficient fireplace)
Sometimes it does seem to get down to around R0.60/kWh - and as high as R2/kWh for say ecologs.

Interestingly often coal can come pretty close in price per kWh
 
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