Question for the western folks,how do you guys burn that stuff?

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SilverKing

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I see alot of post where the folks out west and in the north will burn alot of fir and spruce.Now this post isnt meant to put down any type of wood,but Im just wondering.Here in the east,WV to be specific,softwoods,or evergreens,get thrown in a sink hole.Even soft hardwoods,like poplar and basswood get chucked into trash piles.Im just wondering if the evergreen species out west are a little less "sappy"than they are here.Or do yall just let the wood season a few years.Once in a great while,someone local will request a few chunks of red cedar to burn,just to make their house smell good.Other than that softwood is out.Thanks for any replies
 
As a northeasterner, I can still see that you burn what you've got, regardless of where you are.
We don't have osage orange, so it'd be way too expensive to ship it here to burn it. Ditto mesquite and such. Damn!
If all you have in the region is big conifers, some of that's going into the stove. Or you freeze.
We burn some of that in shoulder-season. Don't need snobs. :) :chop:
 
Del_ said:
Conifers burn just fine. All wood needs seasoning.
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I burn green locust and ash,which actually heats better green and of course burns longer than when seasoned.I also burn dead standing white oak,which of course dead standing trees dry out much better.How long does it take you guys to season out a big pine?
 
We just have to cut and burn more of it. The ever greens take a little longer to season. Cottonwood is ready to go the soonest. Like I said, we just have to burn more wood to get the necessary BTU's
 
Spent most of my life in Montana. I burned a whole lot of douglas fir, larch, and lodgepole pine. Most of the trees cut are either killed by beetle or forest fire and are bone dry. The fir and larch will have some pockets of sap in mostly in the butt section but the lodge pole pine very little. They don't have the btu's of hardwood species but do burn plenty hot to heat a house. You don't get as long of burn times either. I can assure you though that there are a ton of homes being heated with the evergreens.
 
I have burned some pine in my secondary combustion stove, and it seemed to work quite well. Got a really good secondary burn going, and did not see much gunk in the flue either. Worked as well as tulip or sassafras, which I burn often.
 
Per pound most conifers are slightly ahead of hardwoods on BTU's. Per cubic foot they are behind, so BTU's per cord are lower for conifer, but so is the weight.

Truth is that work really is based on weight, so the effort to put up a little extra conifer is the same as fewer cords of hardwood. It basically takes the same effort for a given amount of BTU's regardless of what kind of wood you are getting.

As was mentioned earlier standing dead is a great way to go, you save all the work of moving water that will dry out of the wood. Along those lines I know guys who cut trees and leave them in log form for a year before they buck them into firewood and split the rounds.

As to how a conifer burns? Just fine, really. Sap is simply not a problem, it doesn't clog chimneys or burn houses down.



Mr. HE:cool:
 
I've got lots of pine spilt and stack this last summer hopefully ready to go for next year. Along with oak and maple. But half is at least pine. I like it, burns hot and clean imo but does go kinda fast.
 
Around here, the USFS firewood permits are for standing dead only. You can go to areas of beetle killed lodgepole and have all the ready-to-burn wood your rig can carry.
 
Eric K said:
I can assure you though that there are a ton of homes being heated with the evergreens.
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I've had the same discussion about Elm. Old timers here who can remember when every city had large Elm will tell you it's a lousy firewood. I had some bad experience trying to split and burn a fairly large one (for this area) that was green when I cut it. But folks further west love it. Turns out its not so bad once you learn a bit about it. One thing is to give it plenty of time to dry and season.

Hddnis said:
As to how a conifer burns? Just fine, really. Sap is simply not a problem, it doesn't clog chimneys or burn houses down.
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That's always the fear, here. Don't burn pine. There's too much sap. Hemlock is OK but not Pine. I imagine that you could get away with leaving a high BTU wood like Oak slightly under seasoned because the heat of the wood overcomes the moisture. When folks try to season Pine for the same length of time they end up with creosote.

Chris-PA said:
I have burned some pine in my secondary combustion stove, and it seemed to work quite well. Got a really good secondary burn going, and did not see much gunk in the flue either. Worked as well as tulip or sassafras, which I burn often.
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I was hoping to get a stove in the barn this year. I have a reburner and I have a pile of Pine that I was going to mix with other light wood so I didn't use up the house supply. Judging by the number of people that have good luck, I figured the odds weren't that bad to start.
 
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1project2many said:
I've had the same discussion about Elm. Old timers here who can remember when every city had large Elm will tell you it's a lousy firewood. I had some bad experience trying to split and burn it a fairly lage one that was green when I cut it. But folks further west love it. Turns out its not so bad once you learn a bit about it. One thing is to give it plenty of time to dry and season.


That's always the fear, here. Don't burn pine. There's too much sap. Hemlock is OK but not Pine. I imagine that you could get away with leaving a high BTU wood like Oak slightly under seasoned because the heat of the wood overcame the moisture. When folks try to season Pine for the same length of time end up with creosote.


I was hoping to get a stove in the barn this year. I have a reburner and I have a pile of Pine that I was going to mix with other light wood so I didn't use up the house supply. Judging by the number of peopel that have good luck, I figured the odds weren't that bad to start.
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normally around here,elm only grows around river and creek banks.Once dry will put off some major btus,but I have seen it rot before it actually dries.And a total B$%^h to split.Same goes for hickory.Some high btus,but if it seasons outside of a wood shed,will generally rot before it seasons thoroughly.White ash and yellow locust are the most sought after wood here.Osage orange,normally called hedge apple here,is a high btu wood,but grows fairly small and normally grows in brush thickets,and nobody really cuts it much
 
what i burn here is pine, hemlock and hardwood,got a lot of pine for free all i have to do is split it,hardwood is my last years stash. burning pine while were home,when we go out for more than 4 hrs i put hardwood in to hold it over.. pine i got is in blocks for over a year or so, so it is basically dry.burns nice.chimney and pipes are clean,check every month.no issues.
 
Our wood is already dry when we cut it, our permit to cut on BLM lands are only for dead pinyon, juniper or mountain mahogany. Pinyon is one of the sappiest trees ever, but once it's dry it burns great. I never have any creosote build up, and at the end of the season when I brush the flue pipe it's got 1/16" of fluffy soot. It's so dry here and so little humidity that wood dries out quick.
 
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I suspect the whole too much sap Old Wives Tale came from when folks put in airtight stoves in the 70s and were burning green wood due to the first oil price spikes...and pine just got blamed. I grew up with that same nonsense. The older generation of stoves shoved a lot more air up the chimneys and helped keep them cleaner than airtights did.

Easy enough to write it off around here when you can get more BTUs for the same amount of work out of hardwoods.

I'd probably put "Elm is bad firewood" in the same category...since most of the Elms around here were killed off before you had hydraulic splitters, and if was I splitting by hand it sure would be bad firewood.
 
I'll be set for next year with all the Hurricane Sandy pine I had to clean up. Got about 90% of it split and stacked within a month of getting it near the splitter. Over a year later and I think all the sap has finally worn off the machine!
 
I burn it, Pine, Hemlock,Spruce are all on the menue.
I prefer Oak, Maple, Birch or even Elm, but you burn what you can get.
Around here, you can't give Pine away. Only the guys with OWB will take it and ME.
Burn it HOT with lots of air and you will have no prob.
 

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