EcoBriquettes are made from 100% waste birch wood from sawmills. The sawmills source the birch from managed forests and process the wood into construction and furniture materials like birch ply. This produces a lot of waste sawdust, which we then turn into compressed carbon-neutral briquettes.

​There’s nothing else and certainly no glue. The wood contains a natural substance called lignin in the cell walls. In hardwoods like birch, lignin can be up to 25%. It’s this lignin that helps to naturally bind the EcoBriquettes when the sawdust is compressed under pressure.

Burning any fuel (wood, oil, coal, turf, gas) that contains carbon produces carbon dioxide gas that is released into the atmosphere.

This is the main ‘greenhouse gas’ we talk about that’s related to climate change. But not all fuel is the same. Fossil fuels like coal and gas are made from ancient carbon that’s trapped safely under the ground. It’s only when we dig it up and burn it that we add this into the natural ‘carbon cycle’.

Wood fuels come ultimately from forests, which absorb carbon (as carbon dioxide gas) from the air as they grow. Trees rerelease the carbon as they die and rot or when they’re burned for energy. This is the natural carbon cycle. Since we use only wood from managed (and fully FSC-certified) forests, we know that trees are replanted at a rate that balances out the fallen trees.

Besides, for EcoBriquettes, we only use waste wood, which is created as a byproduct. This reduces the trees that are cut down for firewood so they can keep growing and store carbon for longer.

First, as a wood product from managed sources, EcoBriquettes (and all our briquettes) are carbon neutral.

But because they’re made from waste wood and sawdust, they go one step further. Left to decompose, the waste sawdust would naturally release its stored carbon as carbon dioxide. But when turned into an EcoBriquette, we get to extract the heat energy too. So you get to heat your home with energy that would otherwise be wasted, without any additional carbon dioxide being released.

They’re FSC certified so we can trace them from the forest to your fireplace. We can be certain that they’re from managed sources. that’s important to us.

The manufacturing process produced ultradry briquettes with moisture below 10% (compared to around 15% for kiln-dried logs). This means they burn more efficiently, with less ash to clean, less smoke and fewer chemical emissions like NOx and SOx (the same things they monitor in car exhaust emissions when you get your NCT).

Good question. In this modern global economy, most of our goods are transported somewhere. We import lamb from New Zealand and export beef to Japan. Our cars, our clothes, our food, and much of our energy are all transported. And all these lorries, trains and ships have a carbon footprint.

One thing we’re certain of is that it’s better to import sustainable EcoBriquettes from Europe than coal from Poland and Columbia. And it’s better than digging up turf and burning the very land we stand on. Peatlands are important and complex ecosystems that absorb carbon from the air and support wildlife, so wood-based briquettes are cleaner than burning traditional peat briquettes or turf.

What’s most important is that we source from a country that’s built around a sustainable forestry and timber industry like Latvia. That’s where the best quality wood waste is created and we can rely on the FSC certification for traceability. Ireland’s forestry focuses more on growing fast-growing softwoods for construction, rather than denser hardwoods like birch which produce more heat. And forests cover only 8% of Ireland, compared to around 50% in Latvia, where forestry is much more of a way of life.

We’d love to see things improve in Ireland of course. As we learned more about the poor state of Ireland’s forests today, it’s become important to us that we help here too, which is why we joined 1% for the Planet and send 1% of our sales to Hometree to help restore native Irish woodland.

Not yet. We need great quality hardwood waste that meets the rigorous standards for sustainable sourcing that we live by. So we source directly from the FSC-certified sawmills where this waste is produced, in Latvia.

EcoBriquettes expand and can double in length as they burn. It’s all down to the way they’re compressed in the factory. The expansion is the key to their high performance because it exposes more area inside the briquette to catch alight. That’s why they get so warm so quickly.

It also means you can use half as much as you’d normally use for other briquettes like pinikay or for hardwood logs.

We recommend breaking up each EcoBriquette into 2 or 3 pieces before adding to your fire.

The hole running through the middle of the EcoBriquette has 2 jobs:

1. It helps produce consistent pressure during manufacturing so each EcoBriquette has the same high density throughout.
2. The hole lets air circulate through the log so it burns more effectively and improves the energy output.

Absolutely.

If it’s the first time you’ve used them, we recommend using no more than one EcoBriquette (broken into 2 or 3 pieces) so you can see their extreme burning characteristics.

Because they’re ultradry (below 10% moisture content) it’s essential to store EcoBriquettes indoors in a dry place. If they’re stored in a damp atmosphere with poor air circulation, they can absorb moisture from the air so they don’t burn as effectively as they should.

Outside, even if they’re covered from the rain, they’ll still absorb moisture from the cold damp air we get in even the mildest Irish winter.

The biggest complaint is that EcoBriquettes burn too hot or produce too much of a flame. We’ve heard this from both professional sauna operators and residential customers.

But there’s a simple solution that also helps save money… just use less.

Especially if you’re new to EcoBriquettes, it’s a big surprise how well they burn the first time you use them. I’ve been using them for years and it still blows my mind how much fire they produce.

EcoBriquettes are easy to break by hand and we recommend breaking each EcoBriquette into 2 or 3 pieces before adding to your fire. And use no more than one EcoBriquette until you know what kind of fire you’ll get.

As a rule of thumb, I’d use what looks like half of the amount you’d normally use if you were burning kiln-dried logs. The EcoBriquettes will easily expand as they burn to produce a bigger flame (and more heat) than you’d expect.

The only other complaint is that they can expand if they’re stored somewhere that’s not dry enough. It’s important to store them inside, somewhere dry, away from moist air.

Storing them inside will make sure your fire burns like a furnace every time.