Why heat with forest chips?

Heating with wood is a practice that is gaining more and more ground, to such an extent that households are gradually abandoning fuel oil, electricity and gas. Among the fuels used in wood heating, woodchips are an advantageous option in many respects. Find out more about this type of fuel, how it works and the benefits of using it.

What is the forest chip?

Wood chips are also known as wood chips. They come in the form of small pieces of wood about 3 cm long, or even more. They are obtained following the crushing of wood residues from logging, hedge trimming, pruning or from industrial sawmills.

The wood residues are generally crushed, then dried for a period of between 6 months and 1 year depending on the nature of the wood in order to reduce the humidity rate as much as possible. This will promote combustion. Depending on the species and the moisture content, the performance of the wood chips will also be different. Its calorific value can range from 2,600 to 3,800 kWh per ton.

How does woodchip heating work?

Woodchip heating is a particularly interesting wood heating solution. Its operating system is both simple and economical. Generally speaking, all you have to do is pour the chips into a storage silo and they will automatically be conveyed to the hearth of the stove via an auger.

The chipped wood burns gradually and the heat is distributed throughout the room. The larger your storage tank, the less frequently you will need to refill it. The wood chip stove is suitable for a room with a large area. It will nevertheless be necessary that the hearth is placed in the center of this one to ensure an optimal diffusion of heat.

Unlike pellets, wood chips do not require complex processing. The wood is directly usable in its form of dried waste of a more or less variable size. This simplicity in obtaining it means that its cost is relatively low.

The benefits of woodchip heating

It is true that woodchips have a lower calorific value compared to pellets or compressed logs. Nevertheless, they remain a very interesting and advantageous solution in many respects:

• An attractive purchase price: wood chips are very affordable compared to other types of wood energy. This is because their production is very simple, requiring no complex process;
• An ecological solution: forest chips are obtained directly from waste and residues from the various timber operations, this waste which is most of the time discarded or unused. It is therefore an environmentally friendly solution;
• Can be stored in large quantities: wood chips are less sensitive to humidity, unlike pellets and logs. As a result, it can be stored in large quantities in a place that does not require strict layout.