neupit

Hello

We are coming over for a winter visit, after many June and September visits to find out what it's like at that time of year. Moving over full time in March, cannot wait!!!!

We have rented a 2 bed house for a month that will need heating, we were told by the owner that a ton of wood is Euro 190 and that we can order and have it delivered, or half a ton, or else we can buy sacks by ourselves. Please what is the cost of a sack of wood and how long is the burn time approximately??

Thank you.

MrBife

I would forget the sack idea and ask the owner you are renting from get you at least half a ton of DRY wood delivered ASAP - before the first rain, burn time of wood in Portugal is more or less (exactly) the same as where you are right now and a 'sack' is anyone's guess as to quantity.

Lentisc

Yes what ever you do don't buy this years fellings,it just won't burn well.

Buying wood in small bags is very expensive, OK if for a week or two but not for months.

Make sure you have a place to store the wood dry as quoted before. If not you can always buy a small 6X6 metre plastic sheet to cover.

Ask around locally, you will be supprised on how many people know someone who can supply it.

I have s local farmer who supplies and brings it on the back of a tractor and trailer, right across a field to the back of my wood shed, fantastic.

Good luck.

ouriquejan

190?? For a ton of what sort of wood?

We've never paid more than 140€ - a mixture of oak, olive and anything else. And that was in the East Algarve.

We'll be paying about 120€ for a ton of well dried wood this year.

Depending on where you are (and the build quality of the house) - you can need fires from October until March/April.

In Fuzeta, we'd light the fire when it got damp and wet, not sure this year, as not had a full winter, herein the Alentejo. But our wood is ordered - 2 to of it, as we have 2 fires and I really can't wait been a long hot summer

EMR

We pzy 180e tonnes for hardwood and 140e for mixed although we always stick to the more exoensive.
You can also buy barrowloads bh the roadside for 10e , very mixed quality.

gedscottish

180? That's shocking! 90€ here for a dry tonne of eucalyptus or pine, slightly more for oak.

EMR

If you pay a rubbish price you get rubbish such as pine and eucalyptus.
Hardwoods such as olive and oaks, slow burning, low in soots, oil and tars should be your choice.
The massive fires in Portugal are often fueled by plantations of eucalyptus.

neupit

Thank you so much everyone, we will get the owner to order dry wood for us so it's there when we arrive!!

gedscottish

while I don't like pine and find it poor eucalyptus is a hardwood and burns just fine be it faster burning than oak. Oak would be the ideal choice but considering it grows slow and makes up a tiny percentage of portugals trees it's unrealistic that we could all be burning it. Eucalyptus however makes up almost half the trees in Portugal and grows rapidly, cut one down and another 4 or 5 pop up!
Personally I don't buy wood as we have enough trees on our land to keep us going and sell out a load every few years, and the vast amount is eucalyptus, this winter though I'll be burning some cherry and olive trees we cut down.

Still though, you are being taken for a mug for paying 180€ for oak, I know guys who sell wood and oak goes for 110-120€

If you doubt it:
http://www.custojusto.pt/braga/outra...elada-17383754

EMR

50% the trees are eucalyptus you say and this year is one if the worst on record for fires.
We have had massive firex this week, if you can see a eucalyptus plantation on fire you could grub up evryone on your land if you have them..
The wood equivalent of a firework.
Thev only eucalyptus we see for sale is in those overpriced supermarket bags of wood.

nogard

Where i live we have a Farmers market every Monday. There are always a number of trucks loaded with logs; for sale.
The truck load is five cubic mt's, in this case, well seasoned Oak; cost €250! I purchased two truck loads. A cubic mt. of Oak is 3/4 of a ton. A very good indication, as to whether the wood is seasoned, is to look for cracks in the cut face of the log.
I only moved into my Quinta in April this year, however; i do have ten acre's of woodland and will be cutting and replanting; SRC, my own wood this Autumn.

gedscottish

Sorry I did not quite get if you are doubting half portals trees are eucalyptus? And did you mean I should dig up all the ones on our land? If so I don't think our several acres is going to make any impact, the north of Portugal is riddled with them and perhaps that's why just about all the firewood for sale here is eucalyptus. The only way to get rid of the stuff would be to gig it up as it cutting it down just makes more grow, perhaps some EU funding to get rid of it and replant would be the solution.

Red Eric

And on that last point, I'm fairly sure I heard the PM suggesting the self-same thing very recently, so you never know, it may well come to pass. Hurrah for the EU, and all that