Now is a good time for firewood tips
It will take awhile to get used to writing 2018, but, like it or not, another year has passed and this new one is beginning ominously. The arctic blast that has ushered in the New Year extends even into Florida, where I am bundled in a sweat shirt as I write this.
Even small accumulations of snow will not melt when it is in the teens. Remember that ordinary rock salt is pretty useless as a deicer once the temperature gets below 20 degrees. Calcium chloride will still work, however. It is also true that straight antifreeze will also freeze unless it is diluted with some water.
Burning wood to keep warm has allowed humans to survive in places and during times that our early ancestors could not. Every time we fire up the woodstove or light a log in the fireplace, we are repeating a ritual that predates civilization. Wood fires provide a comfort and sense of well-being that cannot be explained in terms of modern science. Whether you cut and prepare your own firewood or buy it, you are utilizing a renewable resource that can last indefinitely.
Properly managed, a 10-acre woodlot can yield about 5 full cords of wood a year, forever. Today, firewood is sold by volume, but the actual heat you get is determined by the weight of the wood, not its volume. A pound of wood provides about 8,000 British Thermal Unites (BTUs), regardless of species. A full cord (128 cubic feet) of hickory or oak may weigh as much as 4,000 pounds, yielding more than twice as much heat as a full cord of pine, willow, basswood or aspen (poplar), which weigh as little as 1,800 pounds. It is wise to learn a bit about what species of wood you are using. There is more to heating your home with wood than just BTU’s, however.
Almost every species of wood has its own burning characteristics and long-term wood burners enjoy the “art” of using just the right wood for a specific purpose. If you want a quick hot fire that will warm the stove and house in a hurry, you might burn some wellseasoned pine, spruce or hemlock, but these species do not burn for long and also do not produce long-lasting coals. If the temperature is not really cold, perhaps in the 40s, you can get by just fine with ash, black cherry, birch, red (soft) maple, butternut, basswood, and even partly rotted beech.
If it gets really cold, hop hornbeam, hickory and my favorite firewood, sugar maple, are preferred. All three of these species burn very hot and make excellent, long-lasting coals. Oak is also excellent firewood, but only when well seasoned.
Oak firewood also has a fragrance that I don’t particularly like. I also do not particularly like the smell of willow, dogwood, black locust and aspen. Apple wood is very dense, burns very hot with great coals and has a wonderful fragrance, as does pear. Paper birch has bark that burns with
a dense, black smoke. It is good for starting fires, but not much else. It sure does look nice stacked near a fireplace, however!
Black locust is also a hardwood that burns very hot, but it often has vapor pockets in the wood that explode and shoot sparks. It is not a good choice for fireplaces unless there is a sturdy screen to block the sparks. Some softwoods like pine or red cedar produce lots of smoke and also shoot sparks due to resin pockets.
The moisture content of any species of wood affects burning characteristics. The hardwood species that contains the least amount of water is white ash. If I am desperate for wood to burn, I can cut down some white ash and burn it somewhat green, but trying to burn very green hickory or oak will often put your fire out.
Sometimes dead elm trees will remain standing for years, providing “instant” dry firewood, but elm is the most difficult wood to split. I would use the branches, but leave the trunk if it is over 10 inches or so. Ash is perhaps the easiest wood to split.
Make sure your woodstove is properly installed and your chimney is clean. Chimney fires often occur when the stove is cranked up high after burning at a low rate for a few days.