firewood question..

[brin]

For over 30 yrs. we have used whatever wood we had in our fireplace, pine , poplar, oak , hickory and have had no problems...chimney is clean as can be..wood is wood and there are many miths out there....urban ledgends or country ledgends..burn your poplar and enjoy it. By the way Hickory is my favorite wood to burn...can't beat the smell.

 

[Egon]

[..wood is wood and there are many miths out there....urban ledgends or country ledgends./QUOTE]

What! Are you kidding us?

 

[brin]

[..wood is wood and there are many miths out there....urban ledgends or country ledgends./QUOTE]

What! Are you kidding us?

No Egon I am not kidding..I don't kid ....There has been a persistent legend that burning pine or any soft wood causes creosote build up in chimneys...I am here to tell you it is not true. If you know how to build a fire then your fire will burn hot and clean. If you are trying to burn damp or green wood then you will have a problem. There are many myths out there..if you want to believe them go right ahead.

 

[charlz]

I use Poplar my shop at times (grows like a weed around here). I like it because it's almost always a 'cold stove' deal and it heats up real fast. This year I got a cord of hardwood and it takes much longer to get up to temp... but once hardwood gets a bed of coals going it will run me right out of the shop if I am not careful and put too much in there

 

[brin]

I agree charlz I had a wood stove in my shop and same thing with me..it will run you out of there, amazing how the shop can be so cold and then so hot..LOL - Just have to know how to establish the coals and burn a hot fire..

 

[Egon]

[No Egon I am not kidding..I don't kid ..../QUOTE]

Bob; that was a tongue in cheek statement. Most of my life was spent in an area where only poplar, pine or spruce was available as firewood.

The pine and creosote always make me grin. I just love watching the bursts of flame from the pitch as pine burns.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Yup. I agree with Brin.

I burn anything... ash, oak, poplar, spruce, pine, hackmatack/juniper etc. I make sure it is dry. At least 12 to 24 months. I also clean my SS chimney twice a year. I watch the temp gauge on the stove as well.

Safe burning and happy new year....

Only difference between soft and hard wood is how many trips you make to the stove!!!

Lloyd

PS: remember - burning wood leaves no carbon foot print = carbon neutral.

 

[dave1949]

For over 30 yrs. we have used whatever wood we had in our fireplace, pine , poplar, oak , hickory and have had no problems...chimney is clean as can be..wood is wood and there are many miths out there....urban ledgends or country ledgends..burn your poplar and enjoy it. By the way Hickory is my favorite wood to burn...can't beat the smell.

Could be a difference between an open fireplace and an air-tight stove in creosote formation. I am pretty sure most people don't give their air-tights enough air and put in too much wood at once.

I think the best way to get overnight heat from a stove is to build up a deep bed of coals during the evening, then add just a couple sticks before bedtime. I hear people say they load up their stoves with wood for overnight. They have to shut down the air or it would overheat, that is a mistake in IMHO. It's that situation that creates creosote.

Never tried burning softwoods, so I have no data on that.
Dave.

 

[Egon]

I hear people say they load up their stoves with wood for overnight. They have to shut down the air or it would overheat, that is a mistake in IMHO. It's that situation that creates creosote.

I'll agree with you on that. Creosote is formed from unburned gasses which condense out on the chimney walls. Or, in other words, incomplete combustion of the wood.

The soft woods will do the same thing and coal will also do the same.

 

[jimmyj]

Sometimes I load up with "all nighters" and turn the air down on the stove even though I know it is not ideal for creosote. But, our wood is really seasoned and I but the stove hot all day. I clean the chimney a couple of times a year (SSteel) and feel like a fool doing it because it's always as clean as a whistle.

There is nothing like the smell of burning wood though, sweet and smooth.

 

[brin]

[No Egon I am not kidding..I don't kid ..../QUOTE]

Bob; that was a tongue in cheek statement. Most of my life was spent in an area where only poplar, pine or spruce was available as firewood.

The pine and creosote always make me grin. I just love watching the bursts of flame from the pitch as pine burns.

Egon - I know what you mean. In Ga. we call pine that is loaded with resin..." Lighter wood or fat wood " and when you have one of those logs in the fireplace it is a fireworks show. Many here split the lightered wood into kindling and when you put a match to it ...it is as if it had been soaked in gasoline. I have found that pine actually burns hotter than most hardwoods but it burns much faster.

 

[turnkey4099]

Yup. I agree with Brin.

I burn anything... ash, oak, poplar, spruce, pine, hackmatack/juniper etc. I make sure it is dry. At least 12 to 24 months. I also clean my SS chimney twice a year. I watch the temp gauge on the stove as well.

Safe burning and happy new year....

Only difference between soft and hard wood is how many trips you make to the stove!!!

Lloyd

PS: remember - burning wood leaves no carbon foot print = carbon neutral.

Well...sorta. True it is neutral in the long run (decades) as the wood gives up teh carbon when it rots. In the short term (years) no, I heat solely with wood and know that I burn a lot more wood than will be replenished on the areas I cut.

Still better to burn wood than oil or coal - it is renewable and even in the short term leaves less of a footprint.

Harry K

 

[Lloyd_E]

I look at it from a different view perhaps and I could be wrong... trees use carbon dioxide for growth and regeneration and is renewable as compared to fossil fuels.

Also, from my research and talking to older wood lot owners - the theory is you can take a cord per acre annually in perpetuity if properly managed. So if you have a 20 acre wood lot - you can take 20 cords per year etc...

I started this past year with my small lot and it appears to work.

Lloyd

 

[turnkey4099]

I look at it from a different view perhaps and I could be wrong... trees use carbon dioxide for growth and regeneration and is renewable as compared to fossil fuels.

Also, from my research and talking to older wood lot owners - the theory is you can take a cord per acre annually in perpetuity if properly managed. So if you have a 20 acre wood lot - you can take 20 cords per year etc...

I started this past year with my small lot and it appears to work.

Lloyd

Yes, the cord/year is a commonly quoted figure. It does depend on what area of the country however. Then there is the effect of people who heat with wood that do not have acreage. I would say that those far outweigh the ones that do. Overall in the short term, I would say that burning wood probably supplies almost as much carbon/residence as does burning fossil fuels (oil/gas/coal).

Harry K

 

[dmccarty]

Overall in the short term, I would say that burning wood probably supplies almost as much carbon/residence as does burning fossil fuels (oil/gas/coal).

Harry K

My first job was working on a farm where one of the things we did was make firewood. At the end of the summer we would load up a large UHAUL truck with wood and drive it the hour or so to a staging area in town. the boss tried a semi one year but he could not get the truck up out of the Ohio Valley. Glad I did not work for him that year, I would have hated to unload the trailer that I had just loaded.

Every trip back from the farm we would haul a trailer and pickup load of wood home. The UHAUL load(s) would remove the huge house sized piles of cord wood I split over the summer. We would then sell the wood and deliver by the PU load. There was very little fuel per cord of wood used.

My best guess is that I use 3-5 gallons of diesel and gas to cut, drag, and split a cord of firewood. Maybe $15. If I ran the heat pump to replace that same cord of wood I would spend $100-200. But we would be colder since the heat pump can only do so much.

Back to the farm firewood, even with us hauling the wood from the farm to town and finally to people's houses, the extra few gallons of gas are nothing compared to the what the wood saves in other energy costs.

Later,
Dan

 

[eepete]

Something I've not seen mentioned regarding creosote:

How your chimney is constructed affects the formation of creosote. Newer inside wood stoves that have a liner in the chimney and insulation (typically vermiculite) only get creosote at the very top of the chimney where the liner cools because it is exposed to outside air. We had a lot more chimney fires 15 years ago than we do today. People were taking unlined chimneys and adding an inside wood stove. The creosote formed on the entire chimney, and when it went off that was it.

Newer wood stoves that have lined and insulated chimneys are easy for the home owner to maintain- you just have to get up on the chimney and knock down the 6" of creosote that has formed at the top. When people who don't do this get a chimney fire, it is all above the roof in the top 1 foot of the chimney, and it burns itself out (while the home owner and fire fighters watch).
There are less inside wood stoves in my area now, the outside detached water stoves (like the Taylor brand) are very popular. Speaking of which people here use Poplar as a daytime fuel. Current weather today not withstanding, the average January high here is 45 to 50 degrees, so you can load up with Poplar in the outside wood stove, goto work, and be OK.

I currently heat with wood. The wood makes pulp, the pulp makes paper, and I use the paper to write the power company a check. Expensive, but incredible BTU per # of paper.

Pete