I heated my house 1 winter on Tulip and Ash; I might get a lil more snow cold than Midwest. New stove with cat; like dry dry wood. Hence why I heated withTulip and Ash
I did mostly all Tulip one year, hybrid stove. I found that I could actually produce more heat burning Tulip because there’s no coaling stage. Did a lot more running to do it though. If I was trying to heat the house while at work it would have sucked. If your home to constantly feed the stove it gets the job done.
My wheels have been spinning like crazy lately. What cocktail of wood could I use to get the most out of the shoulder wood? A couple smaller splits of locust or red oak at the bottom before I light the stove? That way there's SOME kind of coal bed still going a few hours later. I do have quite a bit of dead/barkless locust limb wood that's 2-4" diameter... This is going to be the season of experiments for sure
Stumbled on this thread after a search. Eric Schamell, wondering if you did many experiments this past season and if so, did you figure out any useful methods, procedures or combinations?
I was able to get red oak dry in about 6 months (disclaimer: results may vary widely) I went after some long dead, down but off the ground red oak with punky sapwood, mushrooms, moss etc. in June/July, processed it small, kept it top covered and by January it burned fantastic. Sub-Optimal Oak Experiment Also as a general rule I’ve had good luck getting wood to dry faster in single rows, which makes sense if you think about airflow. Of course there’s nothing wrong with double or even triple rows leaving a small gap, but when you’re pressed for time it’s not ideal.
Yes! I had a lot of variety to choose from this past winter, shoulder wood and better hardwoods. I mixed a little locust with spruce, and locust with tulip poplar. So I’d get the benefits of a hot fast fire but also some long term coals to keep it going for a few hours on low heat. It worked out nicely. I was mixing red oak with Aspen when I had it and had similar results. I think any combination would get you there though. Sugar Maple/pine, oak/silver maple, beech/box elder etc.
