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From buying it to burning it, knowing a few things about firewood can greatly help the productivity of your wood stove or fireplace this winter. Here are tips culled from the nonprofit Wood Heat Organization to help you prepare.
What makes for good firewood?
When determining which types of firewood burn better, it’s important to remember some high school chemistry and the fact that all trees, no matter their species, are made of pretty much the same chemicals. What makes for good firewood, though, is density and moisture content.
From buying it to burning it, knowing a few things about firewood can greatly help the productivity of your wood stove or fireplace this winter. Here are tips culled from the nonprofit Wood Heat Organization to help you prepare.
What makes for good firewood?
When determining which types of firewood burn better, it’s important to remember some high school chemistry and the fact that all trees, no matter their species, are made of pretty much the same chemicals. What makes for good firewood, though, is density and moisture content.
My father gets really good Oak and I stole some to use in my fireplace since the wood I purchased was green after being told it was seasoned
Next season I am getting it from my father's delivery person even if I have to have it dropped at his house and pick it up myself. I searched CL, and drove around town and found nothing that seemed to fit the budget I was looking for and had little guarantee of the quality. I actually stopped at the place I bought my wood from to complain but still have not heard back from the message I left for the gentleman before Christmas. If I don't hear back by New Year's, he has lost a customer for many other things (shrubs, mulch, stone, etc.)
Threads like this can be speculative with answers without basis in fact. If based solely on species with the greatest BTU output then Buckeye wins. However, there are many things that need to be considered like cost, availability, and efficiency. Hardwoods are preferred for their long burning characteristics due to their dense composition. This doesn't mean softwoods shouldn't be used either with their faster burning, but typically greater BTU output.
As a West coast carpenter I would haul home Douglas Fir from work whenever available, and have delivered in August one cord of Red Oak that worked well in the San Francisco bay area. My wife could never understand why I would come home and build a roaring fire mainly with the Doug Fir, and wean off to the Oak as the evening progressed. I can remember working in 30 degree temps all day, or the job that the concrete slab had 3/4" of water so your boot were soaked by the end of the day. The last thing I wanted was to be cold at home.
With natural gas as cheap as it is right now I would think wood heat is secondary. In the bay area, and here in Reno when we get temperature inversions we have no burn days. You can only burn if it is your primary source of heat. I live 600' higher than the valley where Reno sits, so when I go to town I see the smoke that sits in the valley as I drive down into it. I think we will see more, and more regulations being placed on wood burning in metro areas as the population increase.
My BIL hated to waste anything, and when we would clear the fence lines, or he had some trees that fell from a storm in his pasture he would cut it all up, and burn it either in his fireplace, or pot-belly stove in his camp house. I used to laugh when he would burn Hackberry. It was about as efficient as burning newspaper. It doesn't season at all. It just gets pithy, and puts out no heat. Trash wood IMO. Like has been said here, Oak is the best. Mesquite is a good wood if it's seasoned, and burns real hot. Pecan is good, too, but it has an oily smoke that probably would build up soot and wouldn't be good for a fireplace flue.
The best firewood is one that has been properly seasoned and kept dry, regardless of type, and available locally. For example, some of the firewood mentioned in previews posts are not available in the interior of Alaska. What we have in this area mostly is birch, and spruce. There is also the very soft poplar, but this one requires a little more care to keep dry, because it absorbs moisture quite fast and gets water-logged.
MrWillys has made some excellent points in his response.
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