Burning Pine for firewood?

In Colorado we burned Pine, Aspen, mixed Coal in it.

big rockpile

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I burn tons of pine, both white and yellow, because that is what we have on the property. All is well seasoned and stored under cover. The white pine is about like balsa wood and burns fast, fine for taking the chill off in the early and late spring as well bring the house up to temp in the evening during colder weather, takes a bunch of it though. The yellow pine is better than some of the local hardwoods, such as yellow poplar, and can be damped down for a nights worth of heat when the temps are above freezing. Both leave a noticeably darker soot in the stove than hardwoods and will make greasy black mark on your skin in you bump the side building the next fire. I clean 2-3 times a winter with no issues.

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Burn it
Pound for pound dry firewood is dry firewood whether it be Oak
or Pine. Sure Oak burns longer but it is twice as dense.
I think there is about a cord of pine here drying in next winters mix of firewood.
Good shoulder season wood like poplar is.

I have burned a fair amount of Southern White Pine with no problems. I prefer hard wood but have lost some pines and hated to see them rot so we just burn them in our heater.

Down here it's yellow pine.

I've used dry for kindling, but never for my main wood.

I've been through one chimney fire. Don't care to do that again.

We burn only pine, because that's what grows on our property. Never had a problem but we never damp down the woodstoves and let them roar.

Agmantoo beat me to it get it dry seasoned , burn it hot and control it by how much you add

if burnt small but hot it will work very well

by small i mean add 2-3 pieces don't fill the fire box , it will burn fast and you control that by how much you add at any one time

when i say pieces i think of each piece as approximately the same volume as a 16 inch long 4x4 , if you have larger pieces add fewwer and add them to a good bed of coals

the problem with green pine is really the same as any green wood the water vapor will carry unburnt gasses into the chimney that will condense on a cold flue and build up , pine being soft will burns easier green than hard woods that you need a lot more heat to get and keep going so flue temps will be lower allowing it to condense easier

the big issue is it burn a bit like solid rocket fuel the second time around

after building a 3 sided shed to store my wood in a few years ago , I can tell you it was very wise money spend , wood stored under a roof gets so much drier than any i had stored under a tarp and burns that much easier and safer and i don't have to knock a foot of snow off before i can get to my wood

from everything ive heard it is just fine as long as you burn it hot and fast. i talked to a guy who has a high mass masonry stove (which always burns verry hot and fast) and he collects discarded Christmas trees in town every year, chops them up and stores them. then he can keep his house warm all winter using last years trees. just dont let them smolder.

My wife and I went to a nice resort with chalet style cottages along a large river on our second anniversary, the cottages were not insulated and it dropped down to about 3 degrees that night "June 21" The only firewood provided was wet pine, and my wife started feeling really sick from the cold as I sat in a chair all night long feeding the fire about every 10 minutes. went through the entire contents off the wood box that night my chair was probably about 2 feet from the fire and I was cold. At one point I put my hand on the stove and held it there for about 5 seconds without it even coming close to burning.

I cannot possibly try to imagine heating a home with pine unless you don't enjoy warmth or sleep.

We keep our 3,500 sq ft home around 75 (our ideal temp) all winter long with pine. We burn only dry pine in the wood stoves that we don't ever damp down. It got down to -6 last winter but usually is in the teens for a couple of months.

Wet wood of any sort won't put out much heat.

i would suggest mixing the pine with other woods in your stove..also if it is an open fireplace make sure you have a screen and a fireproof rug to protect floors from sparks

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I live in Louisiana, and the pine we have is VERY sappy. The pine at my cabin in Montana is low in sap. People tell me in Montana they burn the pine. In Louisiana, it is a NO-NO!!
In 1982, six weeks after my youngest daughter was born, a chunk of my LIGHTER pine got accidently put in our wood stove. When the fire alarm went off, I took the baby to my neighbors in a run, call the fire department. The stove was not that air tight. Smoke was rolling out of the stove. The chimney pipe in the house was ORANGE! I could see through it. I grabbed my wash tub, put on leather gloves and opened the stove, reached in and took out the lighter pine, put it in the wash tub and out the door I went with it. This all happened in a matter of minutes. I then shot water from the hose at the chimney from outside. By the time the fire department got there, it was already cooling off. So I use NO PINE, only hardwoods in the south. I keep my lighter pine, if I use any, very well marked!!

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you might burn your house. mama got a fire going with pine once. she had to open the door and pour water in. the walls were to hot to touch.

When I FIRST got married, my granddad gave me a old post pile made outa bo dark. I cut it on the buzz saw and saw sparks. One night I went down to the barn to milk and do chores. When I came up the wife, a city gal had loaded the stove with bodark. I had locust there also and cant remember why she picked it. maybe she made a mix. Anyway, it was a sheet iron stove, otherwise known as tin to noobs. It was red or orange, ive forgotten, that was in 68. The sides bowed out. All the water we had came from a cistern with one of those wind around gem pumps. We stayed up 1/2 the night watching it.
Didn't touch it with water for fear the sudden change in temp would split it.

Cut it, split it, and dry it out, like any other wood. It burns hot and fast. I like it for a quick fire in spring or fall when it is not too cold out. It is great for starting up a new fire (if it is dry). The downside is that for me a pine fire will never make it through the night. I was burning a lot of pine and fir from dead standing trees and an old broken down fence this spring after we ran out of firewood - it served the purpose well. Will even start up one last fire tomorrow as it is in the 30's here day and night lately. For the subzero temps of January, I need something with some more mass like oak or birch however. For Kentucky, pine might work out just fine.

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If it was split, it is ready now. Otherwise, split it all as soon as possible and it will be ready by next winter. I like to have my wood cut, split, and stacked out of the weather about 10-12 months prior to burning.

You make a good point. If the stove is not one where you can restrict air intake a lot, a pine fire might get too hot. Sounds like your chimney may have had creosote build up too if smoke was coming out the stove as opposed to up out the chimney.

Are you cleaning from the bottom?

You lost me at the messy part???

Are y'all familiar with what we call "fatwood" or "lighter pine"?

Some of that stuff has so much resin in it, it will clear your sinuses just to sniff the wood.

Actually, what we often call "pine" up here is white spruce. It has some sap, but not excessive amounts.

I would concede that excessive amounts of sap might get the stove going a lot hotter than you would like. Sounds like some of that wood down south (fatwood) is in that category.

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