An interesting thought I had while looking at a BTU sheet; the pine we have here in Tennessee burns as hot or even hotter than the soft maples. Interesting considering so many people "won't burn pine." I know they say it's due to creosote (and the fact that we're covered in hardwoods), but my argument is that pine is easy to split, dries quickly, lights easily, we have TONS of it, and honestly, a low of 15F is considered really cold here, so it's not like we'll freeze if we don't have oak or hickory. Just a random thought I had. Short-leaf/Loblolly yellow pine (Pinus Echinata/Pinus Taeda): 20.14 mBTUs @20% moisture Silver maple (Acer Saccharinum): 18.9 mBTUs @20% moisture Red Maple (Acer Rubrum): 21 mBTUs @20% moisture
I wouldn't pass up pine. I think it burns great. When you've got a stove full of coals from hardwoods, a bit of pine tossed in burns them down to nothing. I don't get the science behind it, but I'm all for it.
My last reload today before heading out for the afternoon was a few chunks of almost 3 year old white pine. Other than the burn time, it'll heat my house just as well as any black locust or hickory will.
Pine is fine but hickrees quicker. Yes there’s a bunch of splits in an 80’ gun barrel straight Short leaf, or Loblolly. Long leaf should be with that duo. Fallen Virginia Pines could get every wood burner on the 5yr plan.
Yeah Chud, we have quite a few dead, tall 70-80' short-leaf pines that I can process really fast and get a bunch of wood out of without breaking a sweat.
Many types of softwood have slightly more BTU's per pound that hardwoods do...its just that you can pack a bunch more BTU's (pounds) into a stove with hardwood than with softwood. I've said it before, it your stove is "too small" for the house, and you have to really push it hard to keep the place warm when its really cold out, you'll stay warmer with pine than oak, as long as someone is around to feed the stove frequently...no waiting on all the coals to burn down, like with many/most hardwoods...get that stove temp up, and keep it up!
I love pine people here are mostly brainwashed with the bad info. Red pine and Doug Fir are my favorite softwoods for sure.
We have both red maple and various pines. I still say the maple will outperform pine but I have nothing against pine and have burned a good deal of it.
I burn pine pretty much exclusively these days without concern. As long as it's seasoned I don't really see the issue. I also have easy access to my stove pipe for clean out and sweep often, so I guess I'll never really know.
Yeah I guess up there not much else grows. You guys have Jack pine up there? I hear it's pretty good.
Absolutely. I've pushed an old cast iron stove past its limits with pine trying to get a house heated back up in zero degree weather and power out. Couldn't do it with oak and maple. Baked the stove paint white. LOL. Stove was OK afterwards though. All these myths about pine and even creosote are hilarious.
Decent load of EWP and some past its prime oak. Should work good for the warm temps we've been having, if not maybe some good March wood or just good daytime wood.
Firewood heating works on the basis of pyrolysis of cellulose. Some wood has a higher density of cellulose than others. Assuming they all have the same surface area they should burn equally as "hot", but the denser wood can do it for longer. There's probably more to it than this, but my recollections of chemistry class only go so far.
Funny how the human mind works. I’m up to my eyeballs in BL but now I’m thinking on where I can get me some of this pine.
