Burning Wood

JoePa · #1 04/08/13, 06:41 PM

I heat my home primarily with a wood stove in the winter - been doing it since sometime in the '70s - I use my heat pump to take the chill out of the house in the morning when I get out of bed - crank up the wood stove and that keeps the place warm all day - I've never burned pine before - but this pass winter when we had the big storm it uprooted a lot of douglas fir and blue sprice trees on my property - I hate to waste this wood since most of these trees are pretty big - my question is - what are your thoughts and experience on burning pine in the wood stove - I know it will burn a lot faster than the oat, ash, maple that I burn now but I'm wondering about the creosote in the chimmey - thanks for your thoughts

haypoint · #2 04/08/13, 07:03 PM

I'd want to make sure it was dry. Wood doesn't dry nearly as fast unless it is split, so split everything. To some extent your firing methods and the stove design impact the amount of creosote build up. I had a boiler furnace that was very efficient. It pulled most of the heat out of the smoke. Hard to get the stack temperature up very hot. The kitchen cook stove burned hot. It was old and like all old cook stoves, not air tight.
A local factory was supplying lumber for a window manufacture. They cut all the knots out and finger jointed the boards. I got a huge pile of 1 x 4 pine boards 4 inches long with a huge red pine knot in the center. Hard and lots of pitch. Never had a creosote problem.
Because your pine is lighter, when dry, it will produce less heat. I'd burn it on a cold day, when the stove draft is open and the stack hot. Save the lingering over night burn for maple or oak.
You will find you get a lot more heat out of very dry wood. It is a worthy goal.

farmrbrown · #3 04/08/13, 07:07 PM

I just finished burning my winter's stock......hopefully.
Out of about 6 cords I'd say I burned 1 to 2 of pine. Sure, I wish it was all hardwood, but I don't like to let it go to waste or be cold either.
Others will have their own opinion, but if I clean it once a year, judging by what it looks like this year, I don't see a problem.
I've heard horror stories all my life, but after doing it myself, I'm not worried as long as I clean I flue.

bluefish · #4 04/08/13, 07:09 PM

We burn nothing but pine as it's all that's available. Long as it's cured and dry we don't have a problem with it.

jwal10 · #5 04/08/13, 07:34 PM

All of it burns fine. I just like the bigger stuff, split it and the bark usually falls off. I don't burn the bark from pine, it likes to pop and send clinkers out of the stove when you open the door. I burn the bark in the fire pit. I don't burn all limb wood at 1 time, just add a piece now and then. Douglas fir is good burning wood, makes nice fire. No problem with flue buildup....James

Dale Alan · #6 04/08/13, 07:38 PM

I burn some pine too. I burn when dry and have never had a creosote problem.I usually use it for the morning fire to get things heated up fast.I let it go full throttle,keeps the flue/pipes pretty clean really.

TnAndy · #7 04/08/13, 07:45 PM

Creosote is caused by the moisture content of the wood, and the amount of air you burn with it. Wet hardwood will make just as much creosote as any wood out there.

goatlady · #8 04/08/13, 08:23 PM

Burned exclusively pine for 17 years in SD and now burning it here in AR with no creosote problems. Pine burn hot and fast and really does not build up much gunk at all. It's the slow slow overnight burn that messes up the stove pipes. I clean once a year and very little soot/creosote is in the pipes.

Nimrod · #9 04/08/13, 08:41 PM

Why don't you get a person with a portable sawmill to make lumber out of the trees? Way more valuable than firewood.

If you do decide to burn it, be sure it is very dry and burn it in a hot, fast fire. Save the hardwood for the slower overnight burns. One of the new stoves with secondary burn will burn up most of the smoke so there will be less creosote problem.

I intend to build a Russian/Finnish stove in my new place. This will have two or three hot, fast fires a day so it will work fine for pine.

bassmaster17327 · #10 04/08/13, 08:42 PM

It seems like a lot of older people say that you can not burn pine because it causes a chimney fire, I thik this comes from the fact that a lot of those people did not burn seasoned wood, didn't clean their chimney and less efficient stoves that caused creasote build up in the chimney. The chimney was already dirty and then they burned pine which burned hotter than the other woods and caused their dirty chimney to catch fire

Harry Chickpea · #11 04/08/13, 10:30 PM

If you go back to the 1930s and 1940s, plantations of pine trees were tapped for turpentine and pine pitch. (I've got a picture from one of my parents albums showing this.) Undoubtedly a lot of people saw the amounts of pitch, the similarity to some creosote before it dried, and made assumptions.

Hoopjohn · #12 04/09/13, 08:44 AM

Around here, they call pine gopher wood. Throw a piece in the stove, and go-for another.
Properly dried pine burns quickly.

where I want to · #13 04/09/13, 12:13 PM

Doug fir is considered good wood here. It burn fast and hot. Spruce seems more pitchy.
I love to have doug fir to start up, then mix the harder woods in.

ET1 SS · #14 04/09/13, 02:21 PM

We burn pine.

No problems.