When should you buy firewood for winter? The best time, price and how to choose it

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The same thing happens every year: the first frosts arrive, demand for firewood shoots up, and anyone who did not plan ahead finds less choice, higher prices and, above all, wood that is still damp inside. Buying it now, in the middle of summer, is not an obsession — it is the difference between a fire that burns well and one that smokes, dirties the flue more quickly and performs much less efficiently.

Why buy firewood now rather than in winter

There are three practical reasons, and they all point in the same direction:

• Price: many suppliers raise prices during the months of peak demand. Buying in summer is usually cheaper than buying in December.
• Availability: distributors tend to run out of the best batches (drier and better cut) as winter progresses. What is left at the end of the season is not always the best.
• Drying time: this is the reason that has the biggest impact on your fireplace. If you buy “green” (freshly cut) firewood in November, it will not have time to dry before you burn it. If you buy it now, it will.

How long firewood needs to dry

It depends on the type of wood. As a general guide:

• Hardwoods (holm oak, oak, beech): between 12 and 24 months of outdoor seasoning, properly stacked. They provide the most heat, but they also take the longest to dry.
• Softwoods (pine, poplar, willow): between 6 and 12 months is usually enough. They burn faster and provide less heat per log, but they dry sooner.

If you buy hardwood firewood now, it may still not be ready for this winter — it is better to plan to use it next season. If you need wood to burn this winter, look for softwood cut several months ago, or hardwood that the supplier guarantees is already dry (with measured moisture content, not simply described as “from last season”).

How to tell whether the firewood you buy is already dry

You cannot always measure moisture with a meter, but there are reliable signs:

• Sound: when you knock two logs together, dry wood sounds hollow and clear. Damp wood gives a dull, muted sound.
• Colour and cracks: dry firewood has a greyer colour and visible radial cracks at the ends.
• Weight: for the same size, dry firewood weighs noticeably less than freshly cut wood.
• Bark: it comes away more easily the drier the wood becomes.

How much firewood you need for the whole winter

It depends greatly on how you use it — a fireplace lit on the occasional weekend is not the same as one that serves as the home’s main heating system. As a general guide, a home that uses the fireplace regularly in winter usually needs between 3 and 6 cubic metres (or steres) of firewood per season. If it is your first year or you are unsure, it is better to overestimate: having some well-seasoned wood left for the following year is easier than running out in the middle of January.