Bill Grey wrote:
"John L" wrote in message
...
Cross-posted to DIY and to Gardening:

A bit late to ask because I've just finished sawing up about half a ton!
However there is another ton to come.

What's leylandii like as a fuel (open fire, and/or wood burner)?

I'm not intending using it until next winter.

Cheers
John

Getting the green stuff off theboughs is a real pain - hardly worth the
effort for theamount of useable timber available. The green fronds burn
ferociously and care is needed. As for the logs, can't say as I've never
used them for house heating. On a garden fire the logs do not burn very
well at all.


They do when dry, I once burned a stump out that way.,

After a couple of years.

The key is that conifers are nowt special, except the sap contains tars
and resins that will in combinatiuo9n with water, spit like **** and
carry tars up in the smoke. Once dry, without the water, they burn just
fine.

after all, ordinary constructin timber is coniferous.



Bill

Steve Firth wrote:
Christina Websell wrote:

I would say be very careful, I would not describe it as "fine" for a
woodburner if you have a sliding damper on the front of your stove. It will
spit out of it across the room, in my experience.

I burn leylandii in a wood burner without problems. The woodburner has a
sliding damper on the front. Since the damper is within an anclosure
that is made of the same steel as the woodburner it is hard to see how
it could be "spit out of it across the room".

I tried conifer wood once, I'm glad I was not out for a few hours, it
sparked out from the tiny hole in the damper and set my carpet on fire when
I was upstairs. Never again.

Yew is a conifer.

I suppose it might be...at that.

I burn lots of coniferous stuff. builidng wopod scraps, douglas fir,
scots pine, odd bits of spruce. once dry its not the worst spitter in
the world by a long chalk. Willow and polar just as bad if not worse.

On 27 Jan, 20:01, "george [dicegeorge]"
wrote:

What's leylandii like as a fuel (open fire, and/or wood burner)?

geat for bonfires, even when freshly cut,

I'll tell you a tale about that.

I felled 6 leylandii whilst on leave once. The day I was supposed to
be rejoining the ship I spent the morning burning the last of the
branches. I was in a hurry, and threw a big pile on the fire, from
which the volatiles were obviously evaporating. I then threw a second
bundle on, which disturbed the equilibrium and caused the vapour to
ignite. There was a huge fireball - a flash burn - that lasted a
second or so, and when it was over my glasses were irretrevabley
frosted and all my hair and beard had burned off. I was otherwise
unharmed, although the smell of burning hair inside my nose persisted
for a week.

I had to go straight to the ship with a slightly pink face and no hair
of any sort.

"Clint Sharp" wrote in message
...
In message
,
Andy Dingley writes
Efficient burning needs a Norwegian box stove, with enough
secondary
combustion chamber to cope with burning the producer gas from
conifers. It's also likely to coat your flue with tars and
creosote.
Chimney fire material.

Like all wood Leylandi needs seasoning well before burning. I try
to never burn anything under two years old, and have burned a lot
of Leylandi over the years. It's not good firewood, but hey when
its free I'll burn it. If you need the damper far enough open
that sparks can fly out then that's a sure sign that the wood
inside is not ready to be burnt. Another sure sign that you are
burning wood too early is when the glass in the door tars up. I
have often been asked how we clean the glass in ours and the
answer is that we don't. It stays clear when burning well
seasoned wood.
See
http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...uddymike.10666

Mike

On 29 Jan, 07:51, bobharvey wrote:

There was a huge fireball - a flash burn -

I posted the E-type Jag story ages ago...

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...

I burn lots of coniferous stuff. builidng wopod scraps, douglas fir, scots
pine, odd bits of spruce. once dry its not the worst spitter in the world
by a long chalk. Willow and polar just as bad if not worse.

Yes - I have had trouble with polar as well.
Not a lot of heat comes out in my experience (:-(

Regards
Pete (:-)

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:53:54 -0000, "Pete"
wrote:



"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...

I burn lots of coniferous stuff. builidng wopod scraps, douglas fir,
scots
pine, odd bits of spruce. once dry its not the worst spitter in the
world
by a long chalk. Willow and polar just as bad if not worse.

Yes - I have had trouble with polar as well.
Not a lot of heat comes out in my experience (:-(

Despite GW?

There is quite a bit of hot air talked in gardeners world - I'll grant you
!
Pete

John L wrote:
Cross-posted to DIY and to Gardening:

A bit late to ask because I've just finished sawing up about half a ton!
However there is another ton to come.

What's leylandii like as a fuel (open fire, and/or wood burner)?

I'm not intending using it until next winter.

Fine. Most cypress is, though some can spit. I've never had that problem
with Leyland cypress though.

--
Rusty

george [dicegeorge] wrote:
John L wrote:
Cross-posted to DIY and to Gardening:

A bit late to ask because I've just finished sawing up about half a
ton! However there is another ton to come.

What's leylandii like as a fuel (open fire, and/or wood burner)?

I'm not intending using it until next winter.

Cheers
John
geat for bonfires, even when freshly cut,
huge high flames,
not very eco though.

[g]

Carbon neutral. If you discount the stored carbon in the roots, that is.

--
Rusty

bobharvey wrote:
On 27 Jan, 20:01, "george [dicegeorge]"
wrote:

What's leylandii like as a fuel (open fire, and/or wood burner)?

geat for bonfires, even when freshly cut,

I'll tell you a tale about that.

I felled 6 leylandii whilst on leave once. The day I was supposed to
be rejoining the ship I spent the morning burning the last of the
branches. I was in a hurry, and threw a big pile on the fire, from
which the volatiles were obviously evaporating. I then threw a second
bundle on, which disturbed the equilibrium and caused the vapour to
ignite. There was a huge fireball - a flash burn - that lasted a
second or so, and when it was over my glasses were irretrevabley
frosted and all my hair and beard had burned off. I was otherwise
unharmed, although the smell of burning hair inside my nose persisted
for a week.

I had to go straight to the ship with a slightly pink face and no hair
of any sort.

That'll teach you not to garden au naturelle...

--
Rusty

Andy Dingley wrote:
On 27 Jan, 19:22, John L wrote:

What's leylandii like as a fuel (open fire, and/or wood burner)?

Great, possibly too great. It's very resinous, so it burns like
crazy. Make sure you're capable of burning it safely. If you've
burning logs, dry them a year first, then do it in something with a
lid. They can go off like a grenade when green.

Efficient burning needs a Norwegian box stove, with enough secondary
combustion chamber to cope with burning the producer gas from
conifers. It's also likely to coat your flue with tars and creosote.

Only if you burn the wood green.

--
Rusty

Christina Websell wrote:
"John L" wrote in message
...
Cross-posted to DIY and to Gardening:

A bit late to ask because I've just finished sawing up about half a ton!
However there is another ton to come.

What's leylandii like as a fuel (open fire, and/or wood burner)?

I'm not intending using it until next winter.


Absolutely not.

Give another year, under some sort of cover.

It's full of resin or some sort of stuff that spits like
crazy which is dangerous in an open fire.

Only when green, and IME,green Leylandii doesn't spit much anyway.

I have a woodburner and I don't even use conifer wood in that - it can spit
out of the dampers on the front even if open a half inch and set the carpet
on fire whilst you are out of the room for a few minutes.
So my advice is don't use it for fuel in your house.

My house is heated almost exclusively with wood fires, and I have never
experienced those problems.

The foliage makes a good starter for a bonfire even when green but stand
well back if you don't want to lose your eyebrows..

--
Rusty

"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
...
Steve Firth wrote:

Yew is a conifer.

And burns like asbestos...

--
Rusty

I have a 10ft long 15 to 20 inch diameter yew trunk I scavenged
from the woods next door when they were cleared last year.
Still debating whether to cut it up for logs or offer it to a
wood turner. Yew does make for a very good fire.

Mike

wrote:

Leylandii is *much* better than pine and other similar softwood for
burning, although it is technically a softwood it doesn't really
behave like one, it's much denser and tougher.

Yes indeed - consider that balsa is technically a hardwood,,,

--
Rusty

Steve Firth wrote:

Yew is a conifer.

And burns like asbestos...

--
Rusty