6 Mistakes to Avoid When Purchasing Firewood

The last 12 months have seen prices increase on all fronts, whether that be the food you serve on the table or the fuel you put in your car (fossil or electric!) Controlling costs is difficult and it's also hard to work out whether you are getting the true value for your money. 

If your home benefits from a wood burner, you might be considering using that as your primary source of heat this winter due to the increasing cost of energy, so we have collated some potential mistakes you might be making when purchasing which are costing you more. Here are 6 ways you might be wasting money on wood fuel this year and what you can do to get the most heat out of each log! 

Mistake #1: Ordering Wood Fuel in Small Quantities

Whilst ordering firewood a few boxes at a time might be incredibly convenient for storage and time-saving purposes, when you look at the price per cubic metre, it is a lot cheaper to buy in bulk. For instance, our Firekits offer a practicality that bulk bags don't but due to the cost of labour, packaging and the higher delivery charge, they are a  more expensive way of purchasing your firewood. So, we only recommend these boxes if storage and access are difficult or if you're wanting to try our our product. If the access to your property is good and you are happy doing a little bit of outdoor exercise through stacking lovely smelling kiln dried logs, that we recommend buying in bulk bags as you will save quite a bit on your heating bill. Plus, we offer free delivery on all orders over £125 throughout mainland UK.

Mistake #2: You're Not Taking Advantage of Our Multi-Buy Offers

To help you save money on firelighting accessories, we offer multi-buy deals on our kindling and Flamers. You can purchase our kindling in quantities of 1, 4 or 8, where the larger quantity you buy, the larger the discount you receive. If you ordered 8 boxes you can receive a discount of nearly £8 (saving more than the cost of 1 box of kindling!). The best time to take this offer up is when purchasing any bulk deliveries as you won't need to pay any extra delivery charges.

We also offer better pricing on larger quantity orders of our Flamers Natural Firelighters. Our Flamers can be used to start fires across a range of appliances, including wood burners, barbeques, stoves, campfires, pizza ovens and firepits, and as such are a very versatile product and great to have on hand for lighting a fuss free fire. This is why we recommend buying our 200 pack of Flamers when buying bulk, as you actually pay 12p per Flamer purchasing this way rather than paying 15p per Flamer (50 pack) or 20p per Flamer (24 pack). [as per 18th October 2022 online pricing]

Mistake #3: You Have an Inefficient Stove

The first step to saving money on firewood is ensuring that when you do come to burning it, you are doing it in the most efficient way. Upgrading to an EcoDesign or clearSkies certified log burner can help you extract upwards of 40-60% more heat when burning the same amount of wood fuel as before. Plus, you'll be helping the environment too, as all EcoDesign and ClearSkies stoves are manufactured with the aim to decrease the number of pollutants they produce (more on that here). So, upgrading or purchasing an efficient stove is one of the best investments you could make when trying to save money in the long term.

Mistake #4: You Haven't Tried our KindleFlamers

George Snell, one of our founders, is a man of many talents and innovation is definitely one that we associate with him! Back in 2020, he invented the KindleFlamer, which is 3 x the length of the average firelighter and because of the sheer length of this firelighter which makes it extra powerful, no kindling is required to light a fire.

Don't worry, we've done the calculations for you just to show you how much money you can save when you choose our KindleFlamers rather than your traditional Flamers and kindling duo. Our KindleFlamers come in packs of 18, retailing at £8.99 and as you only need 1 per fire, this means that you will be paying 49p per fire for your firelighting tools, minus logs. However, if you were to purchase our KindleFlamers in a pack of 50, your cost per fire would be only 43p!

If you were to purchase the more traditional Flamers and kindling, choosing a 24 pack + 1 box of kindling (roughly enough for 18 fires), you would then be looking at around 60p per fire. Not only does the KindleFlamer save you money, but it also saves time and storage, a no-brainer really! [all prices as of 02/06/23]

Mistake #5: You Only Stock Up In Winter

Now, it might seem a bit strange ordering firewood when it's not cold outside, but a little forward planning can save you a lot of money. Purchasing in the summer when supply is high and demand is low, can potentially save you a lot of money as most firewood suppliers will often lower their prices. Here at Certainly Wood, we more often run sales over the summer period to help lower the demand in the colder months and help our customers prepare for winter with greater value for money. The recommended thing to do is to sign up to our mailing list where you will be notified of any price changes, industry updates or sales. Sign up here. 

Mistake #6: You're Not Taking Advantage of Certainly Wood Loyalty Schemes

We want to make the process of purchasing firewood that bit less of an expense and we want to reward those who advocate for our great products, that's why we have brought in our Refer a Friend Scheme, where you and a friend can save £10 off both of your orders. If you find yourself referring us to any of your friends, make sure you utilise this scheme so you can save a bit of money on your next order, because as Tesco says..."every little helps." 

Another scheme to keep in mind when purchasing your firewood is our Loyalty Program, where you can earn points when you complete certain activities like creating an account, signing up to our mailing list, following us on social media and making a purchase. Every £1 you spend is 1 point, which means when you gain 200 points, that equates to a voucher worth £2 and so on. This scheme is extremely beneficial for long-term customers and can help you save money over time. More information can be found here.

References

[1] - SIA - https://stoveindustryalliance.com/news-media/videos/