What Wood Do You Burn In Your Stove?

[busybee870]

IM considering getting a wood burning stove for heating in the winter. i have cedar everwhere some has been down for over 2 years so it should be dry, ill also be cutting any deseased oaks. what do you burn? have you ever burned cedar indoors?

[goatsareus]

we live in a deciduous hardwood forest, foot hills to the applachian mountains. We burn oak, hickory, white ash for the heat giving woods and poplar for the quick starting fire. We do have the eastern box cedar, but not enough that we have ever burned any. You want a clean burning wood, no creosote. Do not know if cedar produces creosote. A hot burning fire goes a long way in preventing cresote, but some woods are more prone to creating it than others.

[busybee870]

thanks ill do some research on the cedar, i have plenty of it, i hope i can burn it safely

[MaineFarmMom]

We use cedar as kindling because it dries fast and splits into small pieces easily. We burn hardwood and occasionally tamarak when we have dead trees that need to be removed.

[FreeRanger]

I can't immagine heating my home with cedar. Burns too hot and quick. You will be forever loading the stove. Definetely won't last thru the night. I hate getting up in the night to add more wood. Maybe your cedar is different than the cedar I have burned.

The oak is the way to go. Nice hardwood that will last thru the night. Burns evenly (not too hot).

Personally, we use mostly elm with a little bit of walnut and cherry. There is a lot of standing dead elm along the fence line. I need to get going on cutting for this coming winter.

There are websites that tell you the heat value of different types of wood.

Try this one http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/...try/g05450.htm
or this one http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclo...value_BTU.html

[big rockpile]

We use Oak but that is about all we have around here.

There is a good Market for Cedar if it has some size.If not for anything else shavings.

big rockpile

[Cabin Fever]

Just because a tree is down or has benn dead for years, does not mean it's properly seasoned. I've cut into the trunks of many down and dead oaks and the wood is still too fresh to burn.

To answer your question, we burn oak and birch that has been cut and split and then seasoned for at least two years.

[Scrounger]

I have lots of those WEEDS, I mean Cedars, growing on my place. I burn them all the time. I use whatever I can get. I have lots of Black Locust, Hedge, Ash, and some Mulberry. I prefer the Cottonwood, Cedar and Mulberry. I had some well seasoned Oak, but it burns to slow for my liking. I usually would stick a chunk of Locust and a bit of Hedge in for overnight. Cottonwood and Cedar are great for daytime/evening wood, as they will keep a nice fire burning. If you don't split the Cedar, it will still burn well and last longer. As an added bonus, if you go outside, the smoke from Cedar smells like sweet pipe tobacco. I clean my chimney once a year, if it needs it or not - usually it doesn't need much.

[Alex]

Birch, Pine and Spruce.

Not Poplar -- not enough heat, way too much ash and odor not the best. We have burned when we couldn't get Pine, Spruce or Birch.

We don't have Oak and all those other nice hardwoods around.

We do have an 82.5% efficient catalytic wood stove which seems to burn most of the creosote before it gets to the flue. And we burn full hot every so often, and have 2-1/2" high-temperature insulated double stainless steel modern flue. Just in case someone was going to comment about how pine and spruce produce creosote.

Just love the smell of Pine burning!


Flue needs to extend 2' above roof.


This package shows all the things you need to be safe.


An insulated flue, and double wall Stainless steel is a type A flue, and what is required for wood heat, we used an 8" ID flue, with 2-1/2" high temperature insulation all around.


The double wall air insulated steel flue is below the ceiling flue support thimble at the top. Our wood stove is a catalytic Blaze King, 82.5% efficient (you will burn 17.9% less wood, and longer than with a standared air tight)


Finally you need to protect the floor from all those sparks.

Alex

[busybee870]

WOW, thanks for all the replies.!! i do have oak but i love my oak trees, if they are bad and need to be cut ill use them otherwise ill be using mostly cedar, i think the idea of not splitting it to slow it down is good, thanks for the pics, i was looking at the chimnea thing and was planning to have it come out the back and up the wall outside, but did some research and found out thats a no no. That it works better if the chimnea is on the inside, a bunch of physics info on one site. we dont heat alot at night, mainly during the day. we snuggle up with the quilts, and the dogs LOL

[Ramblin Wreck]

Here, the best firewood that is still plentiful would be red oak, water oak, and red maple. Hickory, ash, and white/post oak are very good too, but there's not that much of it (on my place anyway). I'll also burn sweet gum, black gum, and tulip poplar, but it's not the best wood (for heating anyway). My wood seasons for at least a year, and with our hot, dry Summers, it seems to burn well when needed.

[pinfeather]

I live in the Pacific NW and prefer to burn Madrone, but will burn oak in a pinch (it's mossy & dirty & has bugs on it but it burns good). I use whatever softwoods are down or need cleaning up like pine & fir for kindling. Cedar is WAY to valuable out here to just burn.

[comfortablynumb]

lets see.... i burn;

trees [any]
pallets
doors [minus the glass]
furniture [any]
cardboard good in a pinch]
wood shavings [burn amazingly well]
wood pellets
corn [it burns amazingly well just tossed in the fire]
building waste [2x4s plywood ect ect]
coal [soft or hard]
dried horse turds [these burn real well]
bbq charcoal [summertime leftovers]
junk mail

pretty much anything that isnt plastic....

[Hoosierdaddy]

Dutch elm disease helps me with 90% of my wood burning needs. After I've picked all the yellow morels from under the standing, already seasoned trees.

Brett

[edcopp]

It depends a lot on where you are. Here in Southern Ohio my best bet is oak. There are lots of sawmills hera and oak is still plentiful. I probably like Hickory a bit better but it is harder to find.

[MaineFarmMom]

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

Just because a tree is down or has benn dead for years, does not mean it's properly seasoned. I've cut into the trunks of many down and dead oaks and the wood is still too fresh to burn.

We've found that we need to treat it the same as freshly cut trees most of the time.

[canfossi]

Pressure treated wood is what we burn. Just kidding!!!! Seriously though, we burn ironwood, some oak and some maple. Only use cedar for starting the fires. Thanks Chris

[Farmerwilly2]

I don't burn a lot of cedar, mostly branches and the cut offs from fence posts or building posts. I throw it in mostly because I like the way it smells. The Mrs. likes the bark, along with sage, for making her smudge sticks. The berries are very arromatic (still hoping to distill out a batch of home gin from them).

As a public service, I'm willing to come and cut any weed cedars you want to get rid of, especially those in the 6-8" fence post size range. Will also consider furniture size saw logs. Hey, what are friends for.

[Ramblin Wreck]

Originally Posted by Farmerwilly2

As a public service, I'm willing to come and cut any weed cedars you want to get rid of, especially those in the 6-8" fence post size range. Will also consider furniture size saw logs. Hey, what are friends for.

What a guy!

[greg273]

I'l agree cedar works good for getting a fire going, but after that, it burns up pretty quick. The evergreens have resins that burn hotter than the hardwoods.
Gum and elm? Two of the hardest to split woods in the Eastern US! I collected a lot from the ice storms, and I'l use it, but only in big chunks and only because it was free and already cut into manageable sized pieces, usually waiting by a curb...

The king of firewoods is probably, in my view, hickory. White Oak runs a close second, and actually splits much easier, but doesnt seem to give the long lasting heat that hickory does.
The hedgeapples, or Osage Orange, are awesome too, but throw off a lot of sparks, often at 3 in the morning, and often while you are half-asleep.


I'm in the process of cutting up and hauling some cedar saw-logs, to be used for posts and decking when I add the addition to my deck. If you find a guy with a portable band saw mill, you can have yourself some really nice boards for very cheap. I think the guy I call on charges 25cents a board foot.
I dont consider them weed trees around here. I think they are beautiful trees, and look especially nice in the winter, when all else in the Illinois landscape is shades of grey and brown.
As far as I am aware, the Eastern Red Cedar is southern Illinois only naturalized evergreen.