What wood fuel to choose for the furnace and fireplace: expert advice and prices in forestry

Behind the cast-iron door of the oven, flames of golden-red glare glide across the dark walls, drawing bizarre shadows. The air is filled with a subtle smell of dry wood and light haze. The house is gradually warming up. However, to enjoy this comfort on cold days, you need to work in advance.

Time to warm up

In the Pukhovichi district from year to year there is a stable high demand for firewood. People are actively sinking stoves and boilers, purchasing an average of about 15 thousand cubic meters of wood heat source. Another 46.8 thousand cubes are taken by organizations.

At the moment, 281 applications for 2.1 thousand cubic meters of firewood have been registered in the forestry.

- Unfortunately, not everyone follows the principle: “Prepare a sled from the summer”. Although in the case of firewood, this is the most correct strategy, said Olga Baeshko, deputy head of the organization for ideological work. But in the summer people are busy with gardens, and in the autumn they remember that it is time to stock up on fuel. Although we harvest wood all year round. The main stream of applications comes from September. It rains, the wood gets wet, and people complain that the wood is raw. But in this weather, they can not be dry. To get well-dried wood, it was necessary to order it in May.

Autumn hype creates an additional burden for forestry workers. At this time, they already have a lot to do: you need to plant a forest, cultivate crops and protect them from ungulates. But we have to switch to providing the population with firewood.

- Because of this, people sometimes work for 10-12 hours, and sometimes go out on weekends. We have a forestry company whose employees deliver firewood all day on Saturdays. But all this can be avoided if you take care of stocks in advance, the interlocutor says. But, despite the seasonal influx of orders, buyers do not have to wait long for firewood. We try to fulfill applications as soon as possible. According to regulatory documents, people receive conifers in two weeks, deciduous ones in 30 days.

Delivered with the wind

Forestry wood does not cut and does not cut, and sells round length of 2-4 m. They can be picked up in the woodshop, the so-called upper warehouse, or taken out from an intermediate warehouse - on the exit from the forest, where the wood is already sorted, folded and ready for shipment.

- The price depends on the breed. Oak and ash will be more expensive. A cubic meter of such firewood from an intermediate forest warehouse will cost from 34.20 rubles. The cubometer of other breeds is slightly cheaper - 31.20 rubles, - quotes figures Olga Baeshko.

There is in the forestry and delivery service to the buyer's yard. If the distance does not exceed 20 kilometers, a cubic meter of firewood, taking into account delivery, costs 48.60 rubles for oak and ash and 44.40 for other breeds. For each additional kilometer will have to pay 3.17 rubles.

- We try to find the lumber cutter closest to the buyer's place of residence. Then delivery will be cheaper. Because, imagine, until the tractor loads, reaches, unloads - at least two hours will pass. And the hour of operation of the “cart”, as we call a tractor with a hydromanipulator that loads firewood, is 65 rubles, a logger – 45 rubles. So count... explains Olga Baesko. But due to the fact that we competently build logistics not to the detriment of the buyer, delivery is in demand.

Just a few clicks

This year, the country earned an online service to order firewood. Previously, the buyer had to come to the forestry farm and fill out an application. Then, when the required volume of wood was harvested, I had to go there again, pay for the order and only then pick up the wood from the cutting.

Now the process has become easier: you can place an order without leaving home. In the online application, you must specify the desired volume of wood, wood, forestry, where you plan to export, or delivery address. You can also pay for the purchase via the Internet.

- When the service was announced, there was a noise in social networks: they say that as a grandmother will order firewood online, many do not have a touchscreen phone or computer, and even the Internet is not everywhere. This may not happen, but there are children, grandchildren who will gladly help, – says Olga Baesko.

Where's the wood?

In Shatsky forestry would be happy to sell even more firewood, in warehouses there are enough all kinds of breeds - both coniferous and deciduous. But the locals have already stockpiled fuel for the winter, so there is no hype here.

- We had 317 applications for 1,837 cubic meters of firewood. All of them were distributed evenly throughout the year, so we calmly fulfilled them, says Vadim Zayats, a forester. Pine, which prevails in our forests, take reluctantly. Everyone wants deciduous, especially birch. Although deciduous is aspen, and alder, and lime ... And we don't have to sort. The same with the size: the diameter of the log is from 4 centimeters. But if you bring such thin ones, our pensioners will not let you into the yard. Sometimes, outraged and too thick logs, they say, who will prick. There are those who, on the contrary, want to be fatter. In short, you can't please everyone... But we try to make concessions to people as much as possible.

Meanwhile, fewer and fewer buyers are ready to harvest firewood in the forest. This season, there were only three of them in the Shatsk forest. In total, the Pukhovichi forestry farm issued 75 orders for self-procurement. For comparison: in 2025, 149 people independently harvested firewood, in 2024 – 165.

- The fact is that in self-procurement a number of nuances. A man comes to us and says: “I noticed a place near the house, I want to cook wood there.” We're leaving, and there's business wood. By law, it is impossible to cut it for wood, the forester spreads his hands. So first we allocate a plot, mark trees that can be cut. A person is issued a warrant for self-procurement, and only after that he can start cutting.

The wood itself with this method comes out at 2-3 rubles per cubic meter. If you have your own transportation, you can save money. And if you hire special equipment, the final price tag will be similar to that in the forestry.

Fuel balance

In the people, birch is called a universal option for burning, oak is appreciated for the ability to keep the heat for a long time, and pine - for the fact that it flares up quickly. So what kind of wood is best suited? We dealt with together with the head of the department of forest protection and wood science of BSTU Andrey Khvasko.

- Today, there is a standard that regulates the technical conditions that are imposed on wood. According to this document, all wood, depending on the calorific value, is divided into three groups. The first (with high calorific value and density) is birch, ash, rake, maple, oak, ilm (elm), the second is pine and alder, the third is spruce, aspen, linden, fir, poplar, lists the specialist. - I would not say that some breed is better suited for heating the furnace, and some worse. Each has its own characteristics. Coniferous firewood crackles, shoots and releases more resinous substances - as a result, more soot is formed in the pipes. Aspen cleans the chimney of soot.

The rating of the most heat-producing wood species, according to Andrey Khvasko, looks like this: robe, oak, ash, birch. These are dense rocks, logs burn longer.

- I would only stove with a rake at all, says the specialist. The fact is that people think that the more wood in the furnace, the better. The horn has a high density of 795 kg / m3 (for comparison: pine - 505 kg / m3). Therefore, the rake burns for a very long time, emits a huge amount of heat and can develop a burning temperature above 1000 degrees, because of which the furnace overheats and begins to collapse.

Therefore, it is worth maintaining a balance: use logs and fir and deciduous trees. The exception is if you need to melt the fireplace. In this case, it is worth stocking up on purely deciduous wood, since coniferous breeds shoot.

Must dry

The higher the humidity of firewood, the lower their calorific value and the more logs will have to be thrown into the furnace. This should be taken into account by those who harvest wood fuel from autumn, warns Andrey Khvasko.

- Previously, there was an unshakable rule: firewood was folded in wood a year before use. For example, in 2026 they were harvested in order to sink the oven with this raw material in 2027. During this time, the wood managed to dry well.

Now many people harvest fuel immediately before the heating season. But it is better to do it in advance, in the summer. The fact is that in forest farms, both dry and damp-growing wood is used for wood, which is unsuitable for industrial use, construction and furniture production.

- It can be curved, knotted trees or affected by diseases, pests. Or breeds that are little valued in woodworking. Their fate is to become wood, explains Andrei Vladimirovich. So, dry wood has lower humidity, so its calorific value is higher. Freshly cut wood should dry before going to the furnace. It takes time. Interesting fact: dry is more difficult to split, due to the lower moisture content, its strength under mechanical action is higher. Raw logs, on the contrary, are much easier to cut.

It is equally important to store firewood properly. To do this, a shed, a special woodcutter or a canopy with a roof protruding beyond the edges of the woodwork. In this case, wood can not be laid directly on the ground, but it is better to prepare a special platform. It is also necessary to provide good ventilation so that the wood can dry out.

- If the wood is poorly ventilated, they can become damp and rot. At humidity, more than 20% of logs are worse flared up and smoke more strongly. Fuel consumption in winter can increase by 10-30% depending on the degree of humidity. Therefore, firewood should be dry: the lower the humidity, the more efficiently they burn and produce more heat.

And subject to storage conditions - protection from moisture and good ventilation - firewood can lie for several years without significant deterioration in quality.

Help close by

While some store firewood on their own, others can not do without help. Therefore, from May to December, BRSM initiated the Dobro.Bel marathon. It is a set of events organized in the format of monthly thematic tasks.

- This is a kind of challenge for young people. The children unite in volunteer groups and perform tasks that change every month, says Svetlana Pavlenina, secretary of the BRSM Central Committee. In October, we paid special attention to lonely pensioners and labor veterans. Preparations for the heating season continue, and forest farms often bring firewood in the form of round logs that need to be sawed and split. Our volunteers helped grandparents cope with this work.

For example, one of the assistance addresses for Brest volunteers was the house No. 7 in the village of Plyante, Kamenetsky district. Here to a lonely pensioner Nina Vladimirovna Zaretskaya came students of Brest State University named after A. S. Pushkin. While some removed fallen foliage and removed supports for tomatoes in the greenhouse, others took up firewood.

- We usually receive several applications per week. We try to react quickly, says Olga Ignatyuk, First Secretary of the Leninsky District Committee of BRSM NGO Brest. Young people don’t have to talk long. There are guys who call and ask who needs help and where to go.

Volunteer detachments going to addresses consist of five people. You can join at any time by contacting your BRSM district committee. The only thing is that there are age restrictions: those who are already 14 years old and not 31 years old are waiting here.

And to leave a request and get help, you can call the special hotline BRSM at (+375 17) 311-89-89.

It works on weekdays - from 14:00 to 18:00.

- In addition to picking and storing firewood, our guys help with cleaning foliage, garden, delivery of vegetables and fruits to the house from seasonal fairs. Any tasks our guys can handle, concludes Svetlana Pavlenina.

TRAGIC STATISTICS

Since the beginning of 2026, there have been 5.5 thousand fires in Belarus. They killed 423 people, including three children.

Every fifth fire occurred due to violation of the rules of design and operation of furnaces, heat-generating units and devices. For the same reason, 22 people died, which is 37.5% more than a year earlier.

yankovich@sb.by