Ready to Burn Update

By know you will have heard of the Ready to Burn initiative from Woodsure which focuses on pre-packed bags of firewood. With the support of Defra, Ready to Burn intends to inform users of firewood that the firewood they are purchasing is just that, ready to burn.

Following recent publicity around poor air quality and linking this to the increased use of wood burning stoves, Government has questioned whether casual consumers buying small retail bags of woodfuel realise the wood they are burning may not be suitable for immediate use. The burning of freshly cut or unseasoned wet wood contribute significantly to high levels of particulate emissions (soot and smoke). Conversely burning dry wood has significant and demonstrable benefits in greatly reduced emissions.

Burning dry wood on modern stoves can further significantly reduces the amount of particle emissions and improve air quality compared to burn wet wood on open fires.

Dry Firewood

The Ready to Burn certification mark is available to wood log suppliers who can demonstrate to Woodsure their ready to burn logs have a moisture content consistently below 20%.   The scheme is open to wood log and briquette suppliers who we are expecting to supply ready to burn fuel typically between 8% and 20% moisture.

The scheme focuses on fuel that is purchased with the intent to burn within a short period of time, including small pre-packed retail woodfuel bags, and bulk delivery bags less than 2m3. Any suppliers offering the sale of wood for seasoning should contact Woodsure to talk through our other wood schemes options.

The scheme has the support of Defra, HETAS, the SIA and Industry representatives, including large producers of pre-packed woodfuel have committed to a scheme that will clearly identify the wood that is ready to burn at the point of sale. Woodsure and HETAS will raise awareness for wood fuel consumers to only burn low moisture, ready to burn firewood.

Scheme requirements

The ‘Ready to Burn’ initiative is for wood log suppliers, having a distinct certification category for dry firewood logs where they are able to demonstrate through audit and point of sale moisture checks that woodfuel they sell as ‘Ready to Burn’ is:

• Labelled as ‘Ready to Burn’
• Is less than 20% moisture content
• There is point of sale information, labelling and support
• Where appropriate, retailers provide information on how to effectively store and keep the firewood in good condition

Contact the Woodsure team on 01684 278188 or click here to complete an enquiry form.

Note: whilst less than 20% is a key requirement of the scheme the message we are promoting to consumers’ and the industry is to burn dry wood fuel, ie the message is: burn wood fuel that is dry and ‘ready to burn’.