Any firewood you won't take (cut)for free

[Franny K]

What many here still do not realize is that you receive a million BTUs of heat from 134 lb of firewood, regardless of what tree produced it: poplar, cottonwood, oak or hickory.

That is with air or with oxygen? At what moisture content? I am aware of that line of thinking or analysis. It is cellulose. There may be an exception for oily species. I am thinking that would be most accurate for something like a Russian fireplace that is loaded up and burned up then the wooden damper is closed and the heat is in the large masonry mass. How about hay does that have the same 134 lb for the same moisture content?

Puzzling things come to mind though I had or have a friend who worked at the steam plant for the nearby university. At the time the plant used a thick oil probably like they use in ocean going vessels. He said they injected steam with the heated fuel. It just does not seem right as that should lower the reaction end temperature but it must transfer more heat out somehow.

I think the whiskey like odor when driving by a large sawmill operation is a volatile energy containing gas. At some point things seem to get too dry and fuel volume goes up.

I have some poplar in my pile and it is so light a couple of years later it is kind of funny. I think they call it quaking aspen in other parts of the country where poplar means tulip poplar. Generally wood is handled by volume, sold by volume but heat factor like you say more closely follows weight and moisture content.

 

[Wyrdman]

Its basically the btu content of the cellulose and lignin. To account for the water this would be the dry weight of the wood as in you'd measure the moisture content and subtract that water weight weight. As in 160.8lbs of 20%mc firewood has 134lbs of dry wood and 26.8lbs of water, a little over 3 gallons. That wood is light because half the actual wood has decomposed back into co2. so it has half the BTUs as a piece that's heavy and dry.

 

[fulladirt]

Haven't seen anyone mention Sassafras yet. I can't stand it, doesn't burn worth a crap.
Problem is there's lots of it around me and grows faster than any tree I ever saw....I think of it more like a weed.

 

[JoshNY]

What many here still do not realize is that you receive a million BTUs of heat from 134 lb of firewood, regardless of what tree produced it: poplar, cottonwood, oak or hickory. I tried to convince one of my customers last year to try red elm but he refused. All he wanted was ash, oak, hard maple, and walnut. This year he finally agreed to try it and said, "That red elm you brought last time is really good firewood. Thanks for finding it. Do you have any left?"

Guess what. I'm sold out of red elm and it's really rare and tough to find. Not many of these trees remain.

That may be true, but the issue with that is, wood is measures and sold by the cord, not per pound.
If we say dry willow weighs 1/2 of what dry hickory weighs. That cord of dry willow only makes half the heat that the cord of hickory makes.
They both will heat your house, but you'll spend a lot more time feeding the stove and you will need a lot more willow to burn.

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[Mustang71]

That may be true, but the issue with that is, wood is measures and sold by the cord, not per pound.
If we say dry willow weighs 1/2 of what dry hickory weighs. That cord of dry willow only makes half the heat that the cord of hickory makes.
They both will heat your house, but you'll spend a lot more time feeding the stove and you will need a lot more willow to burn.

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That's on the person buying wood. A cord of willow should be half the cost of a cord of hickory. So it kind of evens out in the end. Buy 2 cords of willow or 1 cord of hickory.

Take those 2 cords and mix them and you get the same amount of heat out of each mixed cord. That's what my wood stacks amount to a mix of different wood and I dont notice a difference in heat.

 

[Wood Doctor]

That's on the person buying wood. A cord of willow should be half the cost of a cord of hickory. So it kind of evens out in the end. Buy 2 cords of willow or 1 cord of hickory.

Take those 2 cords and mix them and you get the same amount of heat out of each mixed cord. That's what my wood stacks amount to a mix of different wood and I don't notice a difference in heat.

Yes, and the mixed cords make more sense because the softer woods get the fire going and the harder woods love the hot coals that the softer woods produce. It's a simple combination that my firewood customers thrive on after I explain it to them.

 

[Mustang71]

Yes, and the mixed cords make more sense because the softer woods get the fire going and the harder woods love the hot coals that the softer woods produce. It's a simple combination that my firewood customers thrive on after I explain it to them.

That is why I start the fire with pallet wood then throw hard wood splits on top. Gets hot quick then burns hot for a while. When it starts to cool down and there's still a nice sized log in there I add a bit more soft wood and away it goes again, heat until its burned down to coals. I hate to waste good hard wood.

But again I have a furnace and not a newer stove. Secondary burn changes how you burn wood.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Now I take every thing since I obtained more storage space. Cedar and fir were off limits. I gather the stuff that is not great and make a pile to sell to campers as they seem to love it. They just want some thing to put in the fire pit. I often sell a loose pickup bed for $50 and they tell their friends. It turns out it is easier than chipping it. Thanks

 

[muddstopper]

i saw your burn pine
i was told to never burn pine to much sap and pitch
messes up the chimmney
can cause a chimmney fire or even burn down the house

Havent gotten out much have you? Dry pine doesn't create anymore creosote than dry oak in a chimney. Its the moisture content of the wood that creates the creosote. The moisture in the wood cools down the smoke as it rises inside a chimney. This cooling is what causes the creosote to start to form and clog up the pipes. Creosote will form when the flue temps get below 250f. Water turns to steam at 212f. Dry pine burns very hot. I hadn't cleaned my chimney in two seasons and I burn a lot of pine and anything else that will fit in the stove. When I did clean my chimney, I got maybe a gallon of creosote and that was mostly in the form of black soot. My masonry chimney is almost 30ft tall from the basement floor to the cap on the roof. I think I can live with a half gallon of creosote a year. Now if you are going to burn green pine, then I suspect creosote might become a problem. I know you can put a fire out by piling on green whitepine. The second cause of creosote formation is incomplete combustion. This is usually seen when folks cut off the air flow to try and maintain a overnite fire, or they are trying to create a little heat to knock off a slight chill. Running the stove with green wood or not allowing proper air flow is the major cause of creosote formation. That would be called operator error, and not wood type being burnt.

 

[Multifaceted]

Preach it, brother.

 

[Mustang71]

Theres a lot of areas of the country that have an abundance of pine and that's all they burn. I'm not sure where the pine myth came from.

 

[Higgs]

I go through about 2 cords or boxelder, spruce, and poplar. They're
not as bad as people make it out to be..

 

[Mustang71]

I burn enough 2x4s and pallets to know that pine is no issue and in a EPA furnace which I now own I would burn any wood that is dry. If it's not smoking out the chimney then it's not doing any harm.

 

[svk]

as long as its not pine id burn it
post pictures

But it’s free. I thought you wanted free wood.

 

[aaronk25]

as long as its not pine id burn it
post pictures

That’s a old tail. I’ve burned a lot of it and never had any more or less creosote In the chimney. What creates creosote is high moisture content in the wood.

Some places only have pine and they don’t burn down there houses.
Now pine isn’t my favorite, but because it has less btu than oak because it is less dense, it dries much faster, so it actually creates less creosote.

Just my 2c.


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[olyman]

i saw your burn pine
i was told to never burn pine to much sap and pitch
messes up the chimmney
can cause a chimmney fire or even burn down the house

so you have a woodstove, do yeah???

 

[olyman]

NO basswood,poplar, cottonwood,,or any willow

 

[olyman]

go crawl back in your hole, termite..

 

[olyman]

what the F.UCK

God said brains,,you thought he said trains,,and you jumped on the train...…...

 

[homemade]

Cottonwood or willow. Heavy and wet no matter when you cut it. And if you split it small enough that it will dry out and not start sprouting shoots. It’s like throwing a crumpled up newspaper in the wood stove.