the article quotes a firewood seller. thats the first mistake. his claim is that maple has a "higher heat output" than oak...i don't know what that means... I didn't see where he said higher BTU.
Probably because it dries faster, thus making more heat.. Here very few season oak long enough. Or 3 to 4 years in my area.
I get that it dries faster but I equate higher heat output to BTU's. A person could say pine has higher heat output because it dries faster too.
Thanks Dale, that reminds me. I have a stack that needs top covered... and right now its covered with 9" of snow
All wood is made up of roughly the same stuff, and basically all has roughly the same btu potential per lb. Sure, something like poplar is fluffy compared to ironwood, or resinous woods have extra kapow, but that doesn't change the fact that a lb of wood is a lb of wood. Obviously we would grab the densest more bang for your buck wood in a perfect world though. I'd still like to know (scientifically, not anecdotally) how any wood is hotter than another, unless being burned at a greater lb per hour rate?
saskwoodburner, you are mostly right, but in a stove if you can load it full with 35 lbs of fuel insteas of 15 lbs of fuel you will get more heat.. IF and only IF, that 35 pounds of fuel is not 20 lbs water..
Sugar maple, yes, does have about the same btus as oak. Now, that maple doesn't need 4 years to dry. So yeah, not ready to burn oak will definitely not put out as much heat as sugar maple in 2 yrs seasoning time.
Article went off the rails at: Was this a sponsored ad for Fontaine Tree Experts Co. in Marlborough, Massachusetts ? and are they currently oversupplied with maple ?
This article seems to be for the general amateur wood burner, a Sunday driver if you will or a new student driver. In this case I would recommend Maple over oak as a better choice for a recreational user both in shorter seasoning and ease of getting the fire up to temps quickly and burning cleanly. But this article should have a disclaimer and express this. The article is also half advertisement for a wood supplier who may have access to lots of maple and/ or likes that he can season it quicker so he's pushing the product. However the intellects that we are... ahem.. we know there are many types of maples that you could compare to many oaks including various or degraded conditions of the wood before it was even split and stacked. This is my favorite part “It has a higher heat output than oak, which was long thought to be the cream of the crop,”. I love the way it assumes oak is no longer thought of as general best. It also makes it sound like the quality of oak has been falling lately the way a car manufacturer car sales may fall due to cutting corners or not offering as many options. Come on oak, you used to make such a good product...What happened!?!? Maple is now performing much better with its new cellulose technology! I don't think you can make a statement like this when talking about something natural like a tree unless there is a new man made technology that extracts the energy differently and perhaps it performs better burning much lighter softer wood than oak. People would now think "willow is the cream of the crop"....what? It can happen
I caught that one too Bill. "The key indicator of a log’s dryness is checking, when the wood splits at the ends." “That’s a really good sign that it’s drying out nicely,” says Jake Dyer, owner of Southern Maine Firewood in Gorham, Maine. “The easiest way to tell is to check for cracks all in the ends” Sorry lad, the ends can and will check really quickly but that says nothing about the interior of the wood.
For sure that article came from someone trying to make himself sound like he knows what is best. In truth, it appears he does not know much at all.
