Ready to Burn moisture content firewood: not the split

The round is on the block, the wedge has run through, and the two halves have dropped clear. It is an easy moment to treat that split as proof the firewood is dry enough to sell, or dry enough for the stove tonight. Ready to Burn moisture content for firewood in England is a figure of 20% or less, on a certificate or a meter. The way the log opened does not produce that figure.

A boot-load you sell and a stack you burn yourself sit under different rules. The Products Compared editorial team used the amazon.co.uk listings in our splitting wedge comparison, plus GOV.UK's selling guidance and the Air Quality (Domestic Solid Fuels Standards) (England) Regulations 2020. We did not run a moisture test on any log. A qualifying purchase on amazon.co.uk can earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you.

In short

In England, wood fuel sold for domestic burning in a unit under 2 cubic metres has to be certified Ready to Burn, at a moisture content of 20% or less. At 2 cubic metres or more you supply a set customer notice instead of that certificate, and the notice still says to wait for 20% and to meter a freshly split face. An easy split, loose bark or a radial crack is only a hint that it is time to test.

What Ready to Burn means in England

The duty applies to wood supplied by sale for burning in domestic premises in England. That includes a private dwelling and a boat used solely as a permanent home. The sale can run from a shop, a website, a phone line or any other method, and it counts at the point of sale, or on dispatch if that is later. The prohibitions have been in force since 1 May 2021.

Under 2 cubic metres the wood has to be authorised, because the prohibited level is a moisture content of more than 20%. GOV.UK calls that route Ready to Burn and says the mark means 20% or less, through the Ready to Burn scheme. A shed meter does not award the logo. The first supplier applies with a sample, tested to ISO 18134-1 or ISO 18134-2, the methods named with BS EN ISO 17225-5. The certificate lasts 12 months.

At the sale, the logo, the supplier name and the certificate number go on the packaging, beside the wood or next to the price, and online the logo sits where that fuel is advertised. Buyers can check the number on the Woodsure site, as GOV.UK directs.

If you later have reason to believe the moisture is over 20%, you must not supply it, so store certified wood indoors, off the ground or under cover. Local authorities enforce this, with a £300 fixed penalty due within 28 days, and a court can impose a higher fine.

Selling firewood under or over 2 cubic metres

Less than 2 cubic metres is the certificate category. Two cubic metres or more must carry the Schedule 2 notice, so a load that measures exactly 2 cubic metres is on the notice side. Calling a heaped trailer "about a cube and a half" is how a sale lands in the wrong box.

GOV.UK puts single retail bags, loose bulk under 2 cubic metres, and wood briquettes in those forms, into Ready to Burn. A forecourt net is already in that group. Skipping the litre count does not move it out.

Measure the space the loose wood fills, rather than counting rounds. One cubic metre is a cube of 1 metre on each side. Two cubic metres is twice that: a block 2 metres long, 1 metre high and 1 metre deep. Logs heaped above a trailer side add volume a flat bed measurement misses.

Above that volume you may add a note that the wood is dry, and you still give the statutory notice, including if you are a small producer. Leave the wording as it stands, rather than rewriting it as seasoned hardwood ready for the stove. The wedge finishes neither job.

Why an easy split is not a moisture reading

A wedge reports grain, knots and the blow. Moisture is the water in the wood, and the two often part company. As a rule of thumb, straight-grained ash opens more readily than a knotty oak or elm round of similar size, green or seasoned. Frozen green wood can spring apart while it is still full of water.

End-grain checks and lifting bark are what people trust. The notice treats them as a suggestion, then sends you to a meter, because the outside of a thick round dries before the core. A pale end can hide a middle that will still smoke.

A dry, interlocked round can bury a wedge and feel green. That fight is covered on the splitting knotty hardwood page, which is about freeing the steel. The knot is not a percentage of water, so the awkward piece is a poor sample of the stack.

A wedge is still the right tool when you need a fresh face for the meter. In the splitting wedge comparison the top pick is the Roughneck 65-504 wood grenade, listed on amazon.co.uk at about £13.99. Item weight is 1.46 kg. The rating is 4.3 from 1,490 reviews.

Reviewers describe opening rounds, including birch that moved in two hits from a 5 lb hammer, and they do not report moisture. If you open a billet for a reading, follow how to use a splitting wedge: seat the tip, take your hand off, then strike with impact eye protection on.

The customer notice and a fresh split face

At 2 cubic metres or more, the wood has to carry the Schedule 2 notice. It says the wood is not suitable for burning until it has been dried, and that you should not burn it until moisture is 20% or less. Wet wood makes smoke and harmful particulates, and it can damage a stove and chimney. Dry it in a sunny, well-aired space for at least two years, and keep the rain off in winter.

Two years is the notice's allowance, not a guarantee: small splits in a windy covered bay can get there sooner, and a dense round left on soil can miss it. The same notice says radial cracks, and bark that comes off easily, only suggest the wood might be ready. You then test with a moisture meter, calibrating first and reading a freshly split surface.

Follow the meter's own check, then split a piece so the pins meet new wood rather than bark or a sun-checked end. Take more than one piece if the years are mixed or the bottom course has sat on the ground, because one easy billet from the top is a weak sample.

The certificate test is the body's ISO 18134-1 or ISO 18134-2 method, and a handheld reading does not create a logo. A certified net left in the rain is a reason to believe the moisture has climbed, so store it off the soil and read a fresh face before you sell it.

Your own logs, and sales outside England

Logs you grow and burn yourself are outside this sales rule, so your own fire needs no Ready to Burn certificate. Waiting for 20% or less is a burning choice on your own stack, and a legal condition when you sell.

Supply in these regulations means supply by way of sale. A gift of logs, with no payment, is outside that definition. Once money changes hands, including mates' rates for a boot-load, you are selling in England. Measure the unit and use the certificate or the notice that matches.

Smoke control is separate. Sellers must tell customers that, in a smoke control area, wood may be used only in an appropriate exempt appliance. Ready to Burn does not map your street or turn an open fire into an exempt stove. Ask the local authority if you are unsure.

The sales instrument itself is England only, so Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland need their own check before you copy the logo or the notice. Manufactured solid fuel and bituminous coal sit in other parts of the same regulations. For split hardwood sold in England, the volume chooses the duty, and a meter on a fresh face chooses when it is burned.