Ash Ash Everywhere! Some helpful hints

A BIG downside to burning wood for heat is the constant ash pile. A very helpful hint, try to move your ash to the bucket while it's still in coal form. It will emit a little smoke, but otherwise keep ash from being shot in the air from the heat. If you let the coals die down, every scoop will send ash into your air, coating everything in the room!

Another helpful hint, don't dump your ash in a trash can until you're SURE it's completely cold. I've ruined two plastic cans this way, both with gaping burn holes in the bottom.

Have a yard? Potash is high in potassium, good fertilizer for some plants. Do your research though, too much potassium can scorch your plants. You can also use Potash in small amounts with your compost pile.

Happy heating!

Leather Gloves, Buy Some!

Stock up on a few pairs of inexpensive leather gloves. Your local hardware store will have them for $5-$10 a pair. With Winter brings dry air, and painfully dry skin. As you move firewood, collect kindling, break sticks, etc. you will inevitably scratch or scrape your skin. Buy a few pair today, your hands will thank you!

The Hidden Costs of Wood Heat

I LOVE wood heat. The warmth, the smell, the energy savings... but there are hidden costs that will eat into your bottom line, as a first time buyer. After you've invested in a wood stove, installation, chimney liner, wood, fireplace tools, fire extinguisher, fire grate, ash bucket, etc. you're done right? Wrong. Apart from the time and effort (hard to quantify) of cleaning out ash on a daily basis and finding a suitable disposal location (I suggest your composite pile), you should budget $100-$150 a year for a chimney cleaner. You can purchase your own tools inexpensively, but I say, let the experts do their job. Chimney-sweep's are typically fast, clean and will eliminate the dangerous creosote that's formed from previous fires. An unclean chimney can not only cause house fires, but they can also impact the airflow thus causing backdrafts and a living room full of smoke! You've been warned!

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Firewood Kindling, Kindling Collection

Unless you plan to keep your wood stove going 24/7, there will be plenty of occasions when you'll re-start a fire from scratch. Start stocking up now on dry sticks and twigs blown down from Summer storms, you will go through them very quickly. The same goes for newspaper. Have a paper birch near-by? Use the sheddings as a great fire starter.

Like to Burn Wood? Join the Arbor Day Foundation

If you like to burn wood, you owe it to yourself to join the Arbor Day Foundation. Membership not only supports the planting of trees, they'll also send you 10 free tree sproutlings as part of your membership! You'll feel good supporting a worthwhile organization and know you're ultimately replenishing the resource you love.

Happy heating!

Fire Extinguishers, Buy One!

If you have a wood burning stove or fireplace, you should have a fire extinguisher...period. My kitchen floor is singed in half a dozen places due to popping/flying embers. Don't think a fire-screen is going to protect you either, the embers fly over & around. Chances are you will never need a fire extinguisher, but better safe than sorry. Keep it in the same room as the stove, but don't store it next to the stove itself. The high heat can cause undue pressure on the tank risking a malfunction. Make sure and test your fire extinguishers every year as well.

Happy heating!

Wood Burning Stoves + 30 Percent Tax Credit

If you've been toying around with the idea of adding a wood burning stove for your home heating needs, the 2009/2010 seasons IS the time. You can realize a 30% tax credit on your next return up to $1500 per item, in this case a wood stove with at least 75% efficiency. A tax credit will reduce your taxable income dollar for dollar. There's a great Q&A on the Woodstove.com website.

This is HUGE... to draw a comparison, it's like having another child without the long term expense. :-) Parents with children realize a $1000 yearly tax credit.

More Off-season Shopping, Humidifiers

During the heat of Summer, the last thing on your mind is, "how can I add more humidity to the air?". If you own a wood burning stove though, now is a great time to pick-up a humidifier and humidistat for a little less.

When you heat with a wood stove, you wick the moisture out of the air VERY quickly. Several times the humidity in my house went so low the humidistat didn't have a reading. This is bad for numerous reasons... it's not healthy, particularly with air-born rhino viruses in the Winter. Moisture in the air will help cling to floating particals and draw them down. Overly dry air will dry out your skin and nasal passages making you more suseptable to sinus infections. Bottom line, get some humidifiers!

Hot steam or cool mist is fine and if the room is pretty large, it can't hurt to have two. More moisture in the air will also make the room feel warmer. You've heard of 120 degree temps in Arizona and the people say, it's tolerable because it's a "dry heat". The opposite is true in this situation, you want more moisture so the room feels warmer. If you have a free-standing woodstove (not an insert), you can place a pot of water on top of the stove for some abient steam. Use this as a supplement though, not a primary form of humidification.

Invest in a humidistat as well. It not only monitors the temperature in the room but also the humidity. The humidistat will give you a visual read-out when the heat/humidity is out of whack.

Burning Wood Pallets for Firewood

For most businesses wooden pallets are a menace. They add up quickly and are expensive to haul away. As such, you'll often see "free wood" signs close to factories with stacks and stacks free for the taking. Pallets are generally pine but you'll often find oak as well. Out of curiosity I took a few home for my stove. Let me tell you, it's a pain in the butt. The pallets are full of nails and by the time you saw away the un-nailed sections, you aren't left with much! It's like picking a scrawny chicken, not much meat. Don't get me wrong, the wood is extremely dry and burns nicely, but I question the time/effort to benefit ratio here. Unless you have a stove designed to burn the entire pallet nails and all (you can find these!) there's not much value. You can however use old pallets to keep your good firewood off the ground. Why use good split firewood as a base when you can use pallets? If you're really lucky you'll find some old pieces of plywood, these are great for covering the tops of your pile to keep the rain away.

Happy heating!

Prep for the Winter with Yard Sale's

Spring is upon us and so is yard selling season. This is an excellent opportunity to find some cheap gear, including firewood rings and firewood tools like shovels, brushes, pokers, etc. Never buy new unless you have to! People convert their fireplaces from wood to gas or buy a new home and have no intention of using the fireplace. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Happy hunting!

Free Firewood, Bring a Chainsaw!

If you troll Craigslist with any regularity, you've likely come across listings for free firewood. But as the saying goes, is anything REALLY free?

The listings give me a chuckle every time I see them: "More free firewood than you can take. I have 10 oak trees in my backyard that need to be cut down. Bring a chainsaw and have at it!" I certainly can't fault the guys for trying, there's a sucker born every minute.

To fell a tree you're looking at $250-$1000 each from a professional tree trimmer.

Strike while the Firewood is wet!

If you're taking my advice and trying to FIND your firewood vs. pay for it, Spring time is usually rich with free wood. Make sure and check Craigslist or use the Twitter widget here, you'll find loads of free wood. You'll likely drive by many curbs with stacked wood as well. Obviously remember to split and dry the wood for at least 9 months before use. My next big purchase? A junker pick-up truck to cart this free wood home. The family mini-van is not cutting it!

White Oak Firewood Photos

Firewood Hardness Chart

This is a GREAT wood hardness chart, not really intended for firewood, but it works for me. Take a look at White Oak or White Ash, two excellent burning woods, compared to the top woods on the chart. Imagine what Brazilian Walnut could do for your home heating needs! Then again, I'd rather keep our precious rain forests. Click on the photo for a larger view. Happy heating folks.

Black Walnut Firewood Photos

I'd never seen a black walnut or identified the wood before one fell over in my neighbors yard, demolishing his neighbor's garage! It's really quite striking in color and beauty, you will immediately see why it's coveted for high-end furniture and/or veneer. I'm saving several large chunks to hopefully fashion into a nice table or chair. It's a shame to burn the rest but black walnut firewood puts off decent btu's. Click on each photo for a high-res look at the grain. Support Firewood blog by visiting it's sponsors.

Firewood Pile Art

I doubt this is a functional firewood pile, but it's very impressive! Art meets function??

What a sight... shrink wrapped firewood

I know not everyone heats their house with wood and occasionally people want to use their fireplace once or twice a year, but I couldn't help but shutter when I saw shrink wrapped firewood bundles!

It's got to be the lowest of the lows for a tree; cut down in it's prime, split, aged, shrink wrapped in a petroleum derivative and affixed with a cute nylon handle and bar coded. Oh the shame...

White Ash Firewood Photos

White Ash is an excellent firewood, easy to split and tops the BTU output list with White Oak. As you can see from the photos the wood has long parallel grain. You might notice the pattern, white ash is commonly used in baseball bat production. One easy way to identify White Ash firewood is to check out the grain. It will exhibit a diamond shape pattern in the bark. Click on each photo for a high resolution look.

Hard Work!

My Father & I split and stacked wood today for almost six hours. I give MAJOR kudos to anyone that splits wood with an axe and maul, because I'm hurting right now... more pictures to come!

Proud of your Firewood Pile?

Proud of your firewood pile and want to show it? Send me a picture of your pile, how you split it, your location and the type of wood and I'll post it to the blog!

Whether you split via axe and maul or hydraulic splitter, splitting firewood it a LOT of work. Splitting, moving, stacking, hauling, rolling... you'll use muscles you haven't used in a while! Personally I'm very sore, but a small price to pay for energy independence.

(unfortunately that's not my firewood pile to the left!)

Coolest Firewood Splitter EVER!

Black Cherry Firewood Photos

Black cherry firewood is a GREAT firewood to burn. It's sad really, because it's so beautiful. The core of the wood is a peach/pink color grading out to yellow, white and then bark. It burns HOT and LONG and coals nicely. It gives off a little scent, a semi-sweet smell. If you find any, you'll treasure it for sure.

As a general rule any of the fruit woods (cherry, apple, pear, etc) are dense, hot burning firewoods. Click the photos for a high-res view:

Firewood Photos Cross Section

I found this photo on a discussion group. It's great, but unfortunately too small. I hope to create something similar but in high res so you can really see the wood grain.

Norway Maple Firewood Pictures

I spent half of Saturday splitting and part of Sunday stacking this Norway Maple. This is approximately one cord. I'm including some bark shots along with center grain and multiple split shots. More to come of Ash, Black Walnut, Gum and more...

Norway Maple is a decent burning wood but tends to burn up quickly.

White Ash, Wet or Dry

I'll be damned! Having burned or try to burn wet wood, I was HIGHLY skeptical of the claims in the firewood poem. Fortunately I was able to put it to a scientific test! I had just split a half cord of White Ash a day earlier (Saturday 2/21) and I grabbed a piece from the pile. Did it burn, yes! Don't get me wrong, it still emitted some moisture, but it wasn't like burning a piece of wet oak. It took to the flame almost as good as my dry wood. I'm really excited about next Winter, this Ash should burn very nicely dry.

I'll take some high resolution shots of not only the tree but also the split wood, soon.

Firewood Poem

Source unknown:

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's only good they say,
If for logs 'tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold.

Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold
But Ash green or Ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown.

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter's cold
But Ash wet or Ash dry
a king shall warm his slippers by.

Firewood BTU/Energy Ratings

Wood Type	BTU Low	BTU High nge
Osage Orange (Hedge)	32,900
Rock Elm	32,000
Shagbark Hickory	27,700	30,600
White Oak	25,700	30,600
Bitternut Hickory	26,700	29,200
Sugar Maple	24,000	29,000
Beech	24,000	27,800
Red Oak	24,000	27,300
Eastern Hornbeam	27,300
Ironwood	27,100
Beech, Blue	26,800
Birch, Black	26,800
Locust, Black	26,800
Locust, Honey	26,700
Apple	26,500
Yellow Birch	23,600	26,200
Mulberry	25,800
Red Elm	21,800	25,400
White Ash	23,600	25,000
White Elm	19,500	24,500
Red Maple	18,700	24,000
Tamarack	20,800	24,000
Beech, High	24,000
Black Cherry	19,900	23,500
White Birch	20,300	23,400
Black Ash	19,100	22,600
Green Ash	19,900	22,100
Juniper, Rocky Mtn	21,800
Silver Maple	21,700
Coffeetree, Kentucky	21,600
Hackberry	20,800
Birch, Gray	20,300
Birch, Paper	20,300
Walnut, Black	20,200
Cherry	20,000
Elm, American	19,500
Sycamore	19,500
Manitoba Maple	19,300
Large Tooth Aspen	18,200
Fir, Douglas	18,100
Hemlock	15,900	17,900
Boxelder	17,900
Trembling Aspen	17,700
Butternut	14,500	17,400
Balsam Poplar	17,260
Alder, Red	17,200
White Pine	14,300	17100
Pine, Jack	17,100
Pine, Norway	17,100
Pine, Pitch	17,100
Basswood	13,800	17000
Catalpa	16,400
White Cedar	12,200	16300
White Spruce	14,500	16200
Spruce, Black	15,900
Balsam Fir	15,500
Pine, Ponderosa	15,200
Aspen	14,700
Butternut	14,500
Willow	14,500
Fir, Concolor (White)	14,100
Buckeye, Ohio	13,800
Cottonwood	13,500

Firewood Energy/BTU by Type

As I mentioned in the last post, all firewood is not created equal. The following information was compiled through searches across the web. Thanks to the Burner Boys and ChimneySweepOnline for the BTU ratings. There's a large BTU chasm between some varietals, I guess a lot depends on where the tests were done.

In future posts I'll start to post photos both split and unsplit so you can identify the firewood easier. Whether you're finding your wood for free or purchasing it, you should know what you're burning.

Firewood Part 2

As I mentioned in the previous post, if you have to buy your firewood, you won't save as much on home heating. If you do find yourself purchasing some firewood, here's some helpful hints:

1. A true cord of firewood is 4ft H x 4ft D x 8ft L. When shopping firewood make sure you clarify that you want a true cord, not a "face" cord which is only 4ft H x 8ft L and only as deep the first row of firewood.

2. Buying firewood is a very frustrating process. It's literally the wild wild west of commerce. Even after specifying a "true cord" you'll likely be short changed just the same. I don't want to demonize ALL firewood salesmen, but I've never received a full, measured cord. Just another reason to find your OWN firewood if you can.

3. Not all wood is created equal. Different woods put off different amounts of heat/energy. Paying $200 for a full cord of Oak (great wood, high BTU output) vs. a full cord of pine (highly recommended that you don't burn in your wood stove) is completely different. Wood will be listed as Mixed, Mixed Hardwood, All Oak, etc. Mixed could very well include softwoods, which isn't desirable. This is one point I hope to address further in future posts. I'm still learning how to identify wood in the pile.

4. You can likely buy wood from your local lawn and garden store, but you will pay a premium. Usually the best place to start is contacting local tree trimmers. You can find wood salesmen on Craigslist but be careful and ask lots of questions. Show them you're knowledgeable and make crystal clear you will not be ripped off.

Firewood Part 1

I recently told a friend, heating your home with wood heat is a full time job. It's often backbreaking, sweaty and dirty, but it's very rewarding. A lot of the work is preparation, splitting, stacking, etc. Below is one of many observations after heating my home with wood heat for three years:

Observation 1: If you are buying your firewood, your energy savings are going to be greatly marginalized. True 4x4x8 firewood cords will cost you in the range of $125-$200. When you're heating your house with firewood, you will burn through a cord SHOCKINGLY fast. Depending on how fast your home loses heat, you might find that you'll spend as much on wood as you would on gas or electric. To truly realize home energy savings on firewood, you need to get it for free. You can do this several ways...

1. Finding wood is pretty easy if you're looking for it. Typically during the Spring, trees are being felled because of disease, age, damage, etc. Some tree trimmers will leave the wood on the curb, free for the taking. You can find 90% of your wood this way, but be quick, there are others just like you looking for the wood too!
   
2. I've never done this, but I've been told some local forests will sell yearly permits for $10-$50 which allow you to take dead trees. You are responsible for sawing and hauling the wood out.
3. Did you know some municipal dumps have a LARGE amount of green waste? Typically tree limbs, branches and sometimes good chunks of wood. Local municipalities dump the wood from city owned trees. It's a shame really, particularly in this economy, they could split and season the wood themselves and sell it back to citizens at a discount...
   

In the beginning...

Before there was electric or natural gas heating, there was wood heat. Since the dawn of man we've used fires and wood heat to not only keep us warm but also cook our food. There's something very elemental and soothing about a roaring fire...

There are millions of wood stoves in operation across the US and another million + being sold every year. With home heating costs through the roof it's a great way to cut down on your costs. Being fairly new to wood heat though, I was SHOCKED at the lack of information on the internet, particularly relating to wood types and firewood. Buying and installing a wood stove is the EASY part, but there is no one firewood information source (that I've found). For example, which firewood types should you burn, which create more heat, which are readily available in your locale, where do you buy firewood, how do you split firewood, etc. Hopefully this blog resource with help!