We Have Chimney Leaks! All Articles April Showers Bring…. Can Chimneys Get Repaired in the Winter? Do I Need Fireplace Doors? Does your Chimney System Need a Makeover? Wood Fireplaces: Which is best for you? Has My Chimney Had a Fire? How Does a Chimney Work? How Much Firewood is in a Cord? Is Chimney Cleaning Always Necessary? As the cellulose matter within the firewood turns to heat and gas, some of these gases can become trapped within the pores of the wood. Combined with steam created from the evaporation of moisture within the firewood, the waste gases from combustion expand due to the heat and must find their way out of the wood.
The process of steam and gases forcing their way out of the firewood creates the noises you hear in the form of pops and crackles. The type of firewood burning in a fire can have an effect of how many pops and crackles you can hear from your fireplace. Softwoods typically have a higher sap content compared to hardwoods. The higher sap content of softwoods means that more popping and crackling noises can occur.
The sap can expand and cause further blockages within the firewood, providing less of a means for gases and steam to escape. The increased number of pockets of trapped air inside softwood logs can create more popping and crackling noises as these pockets of air finally find their way out. For fewer pops and crackles from your fireplace look to burn hardwood logs. The moisture content level of firewood can also influence how much firewood will crackle and pop in a fire.
Firewood higher in moisture content will typically produce more noises compared to firewood that is lower in moisture. Moisture within the wood will evaporate and expand due to the temperature of the fire, and the fire can make pops and crackles when the moisture forces its way out of the wood in the form of steam. Firewood higher in moisture content can produce more popping and crackling noises because there is more moisture contained within the wood.
It is preferable to avoid using wet fuel and allow the sun to dry it rather than unnecessarily waste energy on evaporating water. Besides the lower energy output, firewood with high moisture content is more difficult to light. Moreover, the moisture from the fuel cools the flames and evaporated steam mixed with the combustible gases act as a fire-extinguisher leading to incomplete combustion as well as smoke. The existing research on firewood is limited, mainly due to the fact that the definitions and conversion rates for firewood vary, and that firewood is primarily produced and traded in the informal sector.
Worldwide wood fuel totals amounted to around 1. This is strongly driven by China and India which together consume one quarter of global woodfuel consumption.
Due to substitution for other fuels, the Asian consumption of woodfuel has decreased by 3. Wood fuel consumption in Africa and Latin America continue to grow.
Presently, climate policies in Europe and North America are contributing to growing demand for wood fuel. Densified wood fuel wood pellets, briquettes and chips in particular are gaining in importance due to the increasing share of heating and electricity generation applications that utilise woodfuel. For households in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is common for rural households to use firewood as their main source of cooking energy.
The use of firewood in rural areas is still predominant since it is often the only available, accessible and affordable fuel in the region. Accessibility of firewood is a crucial factor for households using firewood for cooking purpose, especially in rural areas where alternative fuels such as LPG are often not reliable available.
Households can collect firewood close to their homesteads at all times due to the fact that it is available year-round and not susceptible to heavy seasonal fluctuations. And biomass represents a major asset when it comes to achieving this target: Biomass is quite simply all the plant- or animal-based materials present on our planet, including organic waste and plant residues.
Biomass can be grouped into 2 main categories: wet organic waste, plant residues etc. Biomass is the oldest energy used by humans: when we discovered fire, we used biomass for the first time to provide light and heat.
As for wet biomass, it is put into a digester a large enclosed container to produce biogas, a gas that produces a lot of heat, via a biomethanisation process anaerobic digestion. These industrial facilities supply the grid with electricity and in some cases heat, which is distributed locally via underground heating networks.
Dry biomass is usually simply burned, so we are mainly talking about firewood, usually in the form of logs or compacted sawmill waste pellets.
Firewood is a renewable source of energy, as long as forests are managed sustainably. By compensating for cutting down trees by planting new ones, forests can replenish themselves faster than they are used up.
This is the case in Europe: wooded areas are permanently growing! Producing heat from wood using a modern device rather than non-renewable energy sources helps reduce our ecological impact.
Indeed, the CO2 released during combustion corresponds to the quantities absorbed when the tree is growing. These emissions are more than offset by the CO2 absorbed by newly planted trees and growing forests.
In European forestry businesses, if they are managed sustainably, the carbon footprint for heating with wood is therefore neutral. Using locally produced wood helps significantly reduce our impact on climate change.
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