Buying Firewood – The Definitive New Zealand Guide

Know this first: If you're reading this in winter, finding affordable dry wood ready for immediate burning can be difficult. It's also the most expensive time to buy as unprepared people panic buy.

This guide explains how to buy firewood at any time of the year, with a focus on buying in advance of winter and storing it for DIY drying. Our research revealed that while firewood suppliers sell year-round, spring and summer are the best times to buy.

Our dedicated guides for Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin list firewood providers who are reliable, trusted and, most importantly, sell good quality wood.

Summary:

• Every year, many New Zealanders attempt to heat their home with over-priced and poor-quality firewood that’s damp, contains many varieties of trees (making it difficult to burn and manage a fire consistently) and/or generally offers ​poor value for money.
• The best approach to securing firewood is to pre-order it in advance, with the best time being between September and December. If you wait until winter, there are delays, price gauging and (in some years) scams. 
• If you only use your fire to heat your home (i.e. there's no heat pump installed), and you have large spaces, you’re going to need a sizeable amount of firewood. It’s always cheaper to buy in bulk upfront and dry it at home before use. The longer you can dry it, the less wood you'll need to burn.
• The size of your firebox limits the firewood you can burn – there's no point buying big if you can only burn small/medium (and while an axe will split average-sized pieces into single burnable pieces, it's a hassle that can be avoided with the right planning). 
• A well-insulated home (pink batts, double glazing, etc.) requires less firewood as your home stays warm for longer and brings down heating costs in general. You may qualify for an insulation subsidy.
• Firewood is often sold in cubic metres (one cube of wood is 1 metre x 1 metre x 1 metre), and it's measured as dropped wood, not stacked. How many cubic metres of firewood you'll need per year depends on where you live and the size of your home. However, you can buy it by the sack full.
• Open fires send the majority of the heat up the chimney – a log burner, by comparison, retains heat and uses far less wood. 
• How often you light the fire influences what wood to buy. If your fire is on all day, hardwood slow-burns so you don’t need to stoke it or top-up wood. If you’re just lighting a fire in the evening for a couple of hours, you'll need softwood to start it off and hardwood to sustain the fire.

This guide has been published to help you get the best-burning firewood for your home at a competitive price. We cover:

• Softwood vs Hardwood Explained
• Buying Firewood in a Nutshell
• ​​Firewood Essentials - Five Must-Knows for the coming winter

MoneyHub user Dave describes his philosophy for firewood:
"There's no secret to having good firewood; all you have to do is plan in advance. Around October every year without fail, I go shopping for a good stack of wood that slow burns. I prefer blue gum as it's easy to chop up and light. In October, demand is low and I don't pay more than $600 for three cubic metres. I then leave it in the garage until the fire lights up around June. By that time, it's perfectly dry. I never have any issues with wet wood, nor do I get ripped off".

There are two different types of firewood – softwood and hardwood, and within those several species of trees. 

1. Softwood is a low-density wood, which means (compared to hardwood):

• It doesn’t give as much heat as there is less wood to burn
• It’s easier to light, carry and split (as it weighs less)
• It’s quicker to burn
• It’s quick to grow
• It dries faster but can absorb more moisture

2. Hardwood is a high-density wood, which means (compared to softwood)

• It burns longer and gives out more heat
• It takes longer to dry but is far more resistant to moisture given its density
• It is heavier and more difficult to split

In the table below, we outline the different woods available throughout New Zealand, and how long it takes to dry (also known as 'season'). We have excluded pricing as it varies month to month, and there is no standard size - suppliers sell it by 3.6 cubic metres, 1 cubic metre, 48cm x 78cm hessian sacks and other sizes. 

Making the wrong buying decision today can lead to sub-optimal fires and colder homes during winter. There's no point drying firewood that burns quickly and doesn't heat as well as better burning varieties. We reveal what you need to know in detail.

Where you live and the size of your home directly influence how much firewood you need. Our estimates for major cities include:

• Auckland – evening use is the norm in Auckland; we estimate 3-5 cubic metres of hardwood should through June to September
• Wellington – with cold, windy winter evenings, we estimate 6-10 cubic metres of hardwood should get an average home through winter (and retain some for cooler evenings)
• Christchurch and Dunedin – the average house will most likely use between 7-14 cubic metres of hardwood. 

Important:

1. If you have significant storage space (i.e. in the garage, under the house), buying more than you need for one year is a good idea. Firewood never 'expires', but running short during winter means you'll be forced to pay whatever price is asked. 
2. In addition to the hardwood you buy, you'll need to purchase some kindling to start your fire, or have some softwood on hand (such as pine).

The only way to avoid ending up with bad wood and/or overpaying is to compare. The Consumer Institute reported that in their price investigation, they found a cubic metre of pine in Wellington ranged between $60 to $190, and a cubic metre of macrocarpa in Auckland ranges from $60 to $230. 

To get the best price, be organised, shop in spring or early summer, store the wood and re-order every year at the same time.

The best (and cheapest) time is spring and summer because firewood needs time to dry before use. Buying is October, for example, lets you dry the wood for around six months before you use it. The worst time (and most expensive) is winter. You’ll either end up with pre-dried firewood (which is very expensive), or ‘unseasoned’ (i.e. wet) firewood, which isn’t going to dry in time for use.

It may feel unusual to spend $300 or $600 of firewood just as winter comes to an end, but doing so will lock in the best quality wood, lowest price and give you the longest runway for drying it at home. However, freshly cut hardwood like gum needs at least six months to dry (and in some cases, up to 18 months).

Our chart above outlines the approximate drying time.

Firewood that isn’t sufficiently dry is known as ‘green wood’ and burning it creates smoke. It also adds to air pollution and is bad for your health to breathe in. You may also be burning wet wood, which is even worse than green wood. Neither woods are fit for the purpose of burning.

This is covered in the Firewood Essentials below.

Modern Woodburners are far more efficient, healthy and cleaner than an open fireplace. A Woodburner is designed to transmit heat into the room, using 80% of the heat generated. This compares favourably to an open fire, which inefficiently sends around 80% of the heat generated up into the chimney. Woodburners can also be used to help heat your home’s hot water cylinder, reducing power bills in winter when electricity rates are at their highest.