OK, the big debate.

The truth is that per kg of wood, at the same moisture content, hardwood & softwood contain the same energy.

Hardwood is denser (feels heavier) so each log contains more energy.

The advantage of this is that hardwood logs will last longer in the stove, great.

However, there are 2 critical disadvantages for you to consider.

1. Hardwood is significantly more expensive (up to £30-40 per cube). This is because the raw timber costs more to buy in and it is harder to process. Generally, this difference is proportionally greater than the actual energy difference

2. Hardwood takes much, much longer to dry. Taking up to a year in a conventional store, whereas larch can be air dried to kiln dry moisture levels (under 20%) in just 3 months. So if you choose hardwood, this has the effect of increasing the cost if you purchase seasoned logs, or increasing the amount of logs you have drying at any one time.

With these factors in mind, it is very much up to you to decide which logs you would like, but I can tell you that most of the staff here select the cheaper softwood option. Those of you with wood burners can happily use softwood or hardwood.

Just to point out that there is an advanced option whereby you burn both hard and softwood, utilising the different properties (softwood gets your fire roaring quicker and hotter, but hardwood can be used to backup the stove if you will be away for a while or overnight for example).

There is an environmental aspect to the burning of hardwoods, in that there just isn’t enough managed hardwood timber production in the UK to satisfy the growing demand. This is why huge quantities of hardwood are being sucked in from Eastern Europe, costing horrendous amounts of road miles.

It make great sense to make more use of the plentiful supplies of UK grown softwood instead of this.

As softwoods are generally more plentiful this is another reason for their cheaper price.

Next we will deal with some of the ecological issues around using firewood.