There’s nothing that evokes a feeling of cosiness and comfort more on a cold November’s day, when your breath hangs suspended on the bracingly crisp air, than a roaring, raging, crackling fire. Fires are magic. They are breathtakingly beautiful to behold. They can cast a spell on those who gaze, mesmerised, into the dancing, flickering flames as they devour the ashen charcoal logs that lie crumbling in the hearth or lick at the smoky glass window of the cast iron stove door. Man has always been drawn to fire. It satisfies a primeval desire. It fends off wild animals, it is a source of energy that provides both comfort and warmth and it plays a key role in manufacturing processes and in preparing food. And you don’t have to be the proud owner of an Inglenook fireplace to feel and appreciate just how special a fire is.

It is important to know, however, that you won’t get a decent fire going and you won’t get to enjoy your glass of mulled wine while relaxing in front of your open range fireplace or unwinding in front of your stylish wood-burning stove if the wood you have chopped and stacked or bought from a local company is not as dry as you either think it is or is alleged to be!

Wet firewood can not only dampen your spirits, it can also dampen any endeavour you make to keep a good fire going. It doesn’t matter what type of wood it is – good old English oak, sweet-smelling spruce, or pine, beech or birch – if the moisture content of the wood is too high because the wood has not been given enough time to dry, then such moist, green, unseasoned wood will not only produce less heat, it will also produce more sparks and billowy, stinging smoke which can quickly cause a fire to fizzle out. In addition, the gases which your wet firewood sets free are harmful to the environment and therefore, of course, inevitably harmful to us all.

So what can you do to make sure that you get the most out of your locally bought or harvested firewood? Here a list of do’s and don’ts:

• Store the wood for at least one year – two is even better – before you put it on the fire.
• Split the chunkier pieces of wood, like trunks and boughs, into smaller, handy-sized pieces. It not only looks better, it also speeds up the drying process considerably.
• Make sure that you store your wood in a dry, open place under a roof of sorts. Do not, under any circumstances, cover the wood with a plastic sheet or tarpaulin. It may stop raining from falling on it, but it also stops the moisture from evaporating.
• Do not wedge the pieces too closely together. Stack them loosely. The air has to be able to circulate, which also means leaving about 10cm room between your wood stack and the ground and walls. If you don’t, then the wood which you have so laboriously chopped and stacked will rot away and become useless as firewood.
• Make sure that your firewood really is dry. Dry means that the moisture content of the wood should not be higher than 20%. This is where the BM15 from Trotec can help out. The BM15 is a moisture meter which can measure the moisture content of your wood and provide you with a reliable and accurate reading in the space of only a few seconds.

And yes, it is worth it.

Because when you make a fire with dry wood you are not only heating more efficiently, you are also heating more safely too.

Dry wood burns longer and more evenly, and it also produces much less smoke and harmful gases – smoke and gases that cannot only quickly work their way back into the room when you open the door to remedy the situation, but which also pollute the atmosphere and cause considerable discomfort to your neighbours. And to make matters even worse, wet wood leaves high creosote deposits, i.e. unburnt fuel (!) in your chimney. This is like an accident waiting to happen, because the creosote can ignite and cause a chimney fire, which could also quickly spread through your entire house!

Far be it from us to put you off using firewood to feed your fireplace or stove. But we do feel that it is important to know that there are some very real safety issues involved when it comes to burning wood and we also think that you will want to get the most out of your firewood, not only from a financial point of view.

After all, was it not Thoreau who once wrote “Every man looks at his woodpile with a kind of affection.”

Trotec. We’re here to make a difference.

Moisture is indeed a real problem in homes and houses. Excess moisture, be it in the air or in the walls or in the brickwork of a house, provides the ideal breeding ground for mould, fungi and dry rot which cannot only seriously affect and harm the occupants’ health but also damage parts of the building or even endanger the whole structure.

For technical reasons the VDL engineers who were assigned to this particular case could not shut off the boiler separately, which meant that they could not measure the pressure in the cold and hot water systems individually. Instead they decided to measure the pressure in both systems simultaneously, where they were able to detect a significant pressure loss.

Our engineers then used a T2000 moisture meter to determine the exact extent of the damage and to establish where the excess moisture that was quite obviously the root of the problem had spread to. The highest moisture readings that our engineers obtained were at a spot about 1m up from the floor very close to a wall casing that concealed some other pipes.

It was discovered that the pipes behind the casing were rising pipes that had already been fitted in preparation for a pending loft conversion. In addition, the circulation pipe had been connected to the hot-water pipe. The high moisture levels close to the casing were a clear indication that this was where the leak must be. Further non-destructive moisture measurements were carried out to pin-point the exact spot. A tile was then removed to reveal a leak on a fitting. Our engineers were able to recommend an authorized and respectable fitter to repair what had been a botched up job.

The situation described above once again goes to show how efficient and cost-effective non-destructive inspections can be. By being able to locate the leak using one of our highly accurate moisture meters, our engineers were able to spare the owners the often frustrating and costly experience of having to rely on a tradesman – one who is hopefully honest and reliable enough – to find the leak so that it could be properly, and promptly fixed.

In addition our engineers are also eager, if possible, to provide our customers with an extra service by recommending any small local businesses whose work they have been especially satisfied with in the course of our business activities, so that you the customer can continue to rely on a high standard of personalised service.

It is not uncommon for humidity levels in Asia to reach 95%. Too much for the Apple iphone according to an article in the South China Morning Post. The phone’s onboard moisture sensors, so called Liquid Submersion Indicators (LSIs), react extremely sensitively to such conditions and switch the cult objet d’art off. Thousands of customers have already been affected.

But worse is still to come: Apple’s one-year warranty expires in case of damage caused by moisture – the company assumes that their cult smartphone has then either been dropped into a swimming pool or left out in the rain. And the warranty clauses are carefully worded with regard to temperature and relative humidity operating and storage ranges, leaving nothing to chance. This development obviously does not go down well with the Apple enthusiasts whose world suddenly goes pear-shaped when their company refuses to accept any responsibility. To date there is no sign that the iphone users can expect either compensation or sympathy from the company giant.

And Asia is much closer than you think. The relative humidity in bathrooms can also reach very high levels, especially when somebody is having a hot bath or shower. And how many smartphone owners, people who like listening to mp3 files or who want to be sure that they don’t miss a call, take their prized possessions into the bathroom with them? But it is exactly these environments that can present a grave problem – not only to your iphone but also your health. Mould thrives on high levels of moisture and as we pointed out in our blog last week: Mould can be a killer. This is why we at Trotec recommend using dehumidifiers to extract excess moisture from the air, especially in bathrooms, windowless rooms or cellars where high levels of moisture can often be compared to a time bomb ticking over and waiting to go off.

The time has come for you to take responsibility into your own hands and create your own dry zone – before it is too late. Check the relative humidity in your home, flat or apartment with one of the many moisture meters from Trotec and bring down moisture levels in bathrooms, basements, cellars and cubby-holes with one of our state-of-the-art, low-priced iphones – sorry, mobile dehumidifiers.

Alright, dear. But only if you check it with the BM20 first.

This week has certainly been MultiMeasure week! Yesterday we decided to settle the discussion regarding which series is the better of the two – the MultiMeasure Basic Series or the Multimeasure Professional Series – and came to the conclusion that neither is better. Each series is designed for different applications, different users and different budgets with both series offering simply unbeatable value for money and superb quality into the bargain. And the day before that we elaborated on the benefits of having a series for professionals designed by professionals who come from the same fields and who are able to read the needs of their clients like no others and provide them with just the right tools for their own individual applications.

Well, today we would like to draw your attention briefly to a particular device, a device which you would normally think you wouldn’t be needing until much later in the year. The BM20 moisture moisture from Trotec is yet another extremely useful and affordable measuring device straight from the Multimeasure Basic Series. The BM20 mositure meter is designed to measure the amount of moisture in a number of building materials and – here comes the interesting part – a whole selection of different types of woods. Wood used for building, wood used in carpentry and cabinet-making, wood used in furniture construction – and firewood.

Firewood is not just firewood. Firewood normally has to be stacked properly and sheltered from the rain so that it can dry over a longer period before being used as a source of heat, comfort and fuel. Wood that is properly treated is called seasoned firewood and has a moisture content that lies between 20 and 25%. If the wood you have bought, collected or cut is burnt while it is still too moist, then you do not only run a real risk of ruining your chimney, you even risk setting your house on fire. Wet firewood does not only burn badly – the wood is not able to unfold its full heat potential because the excess moisture in the wood turns to steam and mixes with the other gases, thus stopping them from igniting and generating the heat they normally would produce – it can be extremely dangerous too. The soot or creosote that forms on the inside of the chimney is highly combustible. That means it can literally erupt into a fire of volcanic proportions.

The best way to prevent such an event from occurring is to season your firewood properly – and to check that the moisture content is not too high. If you buy wood from a supplier for the first time or from somebody who is selling ready-to-burn firewood at a suspiciously low price, then it is always better to check the moisture content first.

By the way… wood burning is ecologically friendly. The carbon dioxide that is released during the burning process lies dormant in the wood and would – if you wood pardon the pun – also be released into the atmosphere if the wood were to remain in the forest and rot.

Buy a BM20 moisture meter today. You wouldn’t want to risk anything when so much is at stake now wood you?

“A workman is only as good his tools.”

There’s a lot of truth in this old saying. There are exceptions of course: tennis players like the legendary Rod Laver, the extremely-talented but hapless three-time Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick and the notoriously incorrigible Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs, who in his later years also achieved legendary status by challenging the all-time great Wimbledon Ladies tennis champion, Billy Jean King, to a match dubbed “The Battle of the Sexes” to prove his theory of male dominance – only then to get wiped off the court in straight sets – all at least at one time in their career swapped their sophisticated, hi-tech tools – their tennis rackets – for a simple kitchen utensil – a frying pan – in a display of their skill, knowledge, experience and ability – and still won !

But these are just that – exceptions. Generally speaking, it would be safe to say: the better the tool, the better the job you can do with it. This is why Trotec designed the MultiMeasure Professional Series, a high-quality series designed to provide you
with only the best in tools, a series designed by professionals for professionals. Professionals who themselves have been out in the field and who have spent years in the field of humidification and dehumidification, indoor climate conditioning, construction diagnostics and infrared thermographic imaging. Years in which they were able to gain a wealth of information, know-how and experience which they then channeled into a series of tools that measure a variety of different parameters ranging from relative humidity, air and surface temperature and air velocity and volume to moisture in building materials, wood and different surfaces.
The MultiMeasure Professional Series comprises of high-precision measuring instruments famed for combining cutting-edge technology and ergonomic design with an extremely high degree of accuracy, reliability and robustness. Measuring devices like the T 650 moisture meter, a hand-held moisture meter which bears all the hallmarks of a reliable and superior device “made in Germany” and which is able to detect moisture up to a depth of 4cm below the surface of floors, walls and ceilings. Or the T 2000 S, a multi-measuring device par excellence which is especially popular among professionals like architects, surveyors and engineers who appreciate the device’s accuracy, reliability and flexibility and who use it for a whole host of non-destruction applications to determine air, surface and material temperatures and moisture in a sheer endless number of woods and building materials.

Yet despite the fact that the tools in the MultiMeasure Professional Series incorporate state-of-the-art technology and that they are built to last, they don’t come with the price tag you would expect to pay for such a piece of professional equipment. This means that they do not only provide you with accurate and reliable readings, they also provide you with excellent value for money.

And as if that were not enough, the MultiMeasure Professional Series comes complete with a wide range of accessories which make it easier for you to select just the sensor or electrode you need to carry out your own individual application.

So why make do with a frying pan? Buy yourself a measuring device in the MultiMeasure Professional Series from Trotec and feel the difference.

Simply purchase a T200 thermohygrometer, a T250 infrared thermohygrometer, T500 moisture meter, a T600 microwave moisture meter or a T650 moisture meter and get a BM15 humidity indicator for free.

This offer is valid only on December 18th.

Today is your lucky day:

This exclusive offer is only available at Trotec and there are many more just waiting in the wings. Benefit from fast and easy moisture measurements carried
out wherever you are and transport the measuring device quiet comfortably in the
belt pouch.

Go to the special offer: buy a T650 and make a real savings …

This offer is valid only on December 3rd.