I am very lucky to have a whole lot of black birch on my property. According to Sweep's Library .com, BB has the same BTU/Cord as White Oak at 24.2 MBTU/ cord. However, it only takes 9-12 mo. to dry black birch to well under 20% MC (more like 15%). I'm only in my second season burning a wood stove (PE Alderlea T5) for heat, but my "go to" wood for cold nights and long burns is black birch. I love red maple, cherry and tulip poplar for easy to burn and dry wood; but, when the forecast calls for real cold (single digits, etc.) you can bet I will be burning BB As I said, I'm new to wood burning for heat so I would VERY MUCH appreciate others' experiences and opinions.
Loves me some black birch. Smells great on the saw and in the splitter, and then again in the fire! Burns hot and dries fast, too. If I had only one wood to burn, black birch would be my choice.
Black birch is some primo wood. 9 - 12 months & down near 15% moisture, you must have good dry air . Your chimney gives the best indication if your wood is dry. Inspect it every 2 weeks or so, after burning about 6 weeks, clean it & see how much creosote you get. I burn Alaska paper birch, takes me 2 - 3 years to get near the 15%.
The top btu tree on our property is American Hophornbeam (Ironwood) 26.4, Sugar Maple 23.2 and Beech 22.7. We like burning Sugar Maple and Beech because of the size of the trees compared to Ironwood. We do have two face cord of Ironwood that is ready if we want. I'm a G.I.B.I.R. so I also only take what's down or topped off. I've never burned any Black Birch (most of ours is Yellow) but I hear it's great.
Keep in mind, that looking at a set of BTU ratings on a single chart isn't really doing anyone any good. Look at a few, and throw out the high and low. We don't have any black birch here, but from what I hear about it, it's as good as oak, BTU wise, but better based on drying time. Now when I see a BTU chart that has beech at 22 mbtu a cord I have to laugh. It's better than sugar maple, and pretty much all charts show Sugar maple at 24 mbtu's. IME, oaks, and sugar maple are a constant at 24 mbtu's, beech is only a little lower than ironwood (27 mbtu's), and ironwood is a little lower than shagbark. When you can find a faster drying wood that will keep you warm, sooner, by all means do it. That includes cutting dead standing, or downed trees, in addition to cutting faster drying species.
Black birch is my favorite firewood. Great smell, easy to cut, easy to split, smells good, dries fast and high BTU. And did I mention that wonderful wintergreen smell when cutting it?
Great new avatar mike! yup I like black birch.. i have more yellow and silver and white.. I .. but I like it as much as sugar maple! I don't have a lot of oak either! BUT 15% Mc is my favorite favorite firewood!
