Wood burners banish fuel bill chill

Demand for firewood has doubled in the last year – the only problem is it can take up to 120 years for a tree to be ready for felling.

"People need to be thinking now about the wood they are going to need for next winter as the demand is so high," said Charles Raby, owner of a firewood processing site near Rugeley.

"Usually logs are felled and then dried out for a few months to ensure all the moisture is removed and the wood burns at its best.

"We are so short of wood at the moment that there is no time for the drying, and the wood that is felled today could be on someone's fire tomorrow.

"We have found that sales of firewood in the West Midlands, compared to last year, have doubled."

Figures from the Solid Fuel Technology Institute suggest that burning wood alone, or mixed with coal, costs around half that of gas or oil – not including the free supplies people collect from the countryside or skips.

Sales of woodburning stoves are up 40 per cent on last year. Ideally, wood should be left to dry to avoid a build-up of residue in the chimney.

Gordon Wyatt, operations manager for West Midlands Forest Enterprise, which is the commercial side of the Forestry Commission, said: "We produce 70,000 tonnes of timber a year.

"We don't supply directly to people, but we have noticed a huge increase in the demand for firewood. People who can't get enough from their usual supplier are phoning us, and I would say enquiries have quadrupled in the last few months."

Mr Wyatt says the best wood for fires is ash, but oak and birch also burn slowly.

"Trees can be felled for firewood at 35 years and in the case of others like oak it is 120 years.

At Cannock Chase, a mechanical harvester grabs the tree, chops it near the base and cuts the branches off. Prices have risen by a third compared to last year.

Mr Raby, who has worked at the site for 28 years, said: "Two years ago there were just a few of us working in firewood processing, but now a lot more people are interested."