Basswood burning you Maine guys?

[711ac]

Noticed a post about Hemlock and the Maine guys jumped in on it so...                    I'm new to burning here in ME and got a bunch of Basswood that is easy to get at. I've been trying to get it out to release the better trees coming. It seems like "junk wood" at least for burning, but I thought about cutting a few cds for the "shoulder" season for my wood "gasser". I'm just woried that it'l burn like paper, fast and no heat. Any experience?

[beenthere]

711   Welcome to the forum
If you buck it to length and get it dry, then it will give you the most BTU's. And yes, it will burn faster than a harder wood like oak.
For an equal moisture content, might be carrying twice the volume of basswood to the burner than you would oak.

[SwampDonkey]

Best used for kindling or early fall wood to take the morning chill off with a kitchen stove. ;)

Mom's uncle burned aspen in the kitchen stove all the time, had all kinds of it growing nearby that my uncle would cut and haul in the winter to the wood shed on sled with horse. Hauled in probably in April actually when snow was less deep. All down hill loaded. ;) Main heat was oil for 40 years.

[thecfarm]

You can get heat from anything thing,even cedar,if it's dry. I have no bass wood so can not help you. I would try it,but have some "good" wood close by if it don't work out. I suppose this is a OWB? Should smother the fire out when no heat is needed. Might work out for you. I know I would try it.

[Corley5]

I burn some basswood and find that it works best if it's mixed with hardwood.

[711ac]

You can get heat from anything thing,even cedar,if it's dry. I have no bass wood so can not help you. I would try it,but have some "good" wood close by if it don't work out. I suppose this is a OWB? Should smother the fire out when no heat is needed. Might work out for you. I know I would try it.

Oh heck yes, have 'bout 10 cord of maple, beech, ash, and birch racked up right now, it's just that my place was cut over real hard, not far from a clear cut, by the last owner (a logger)(no cut down to loggers) and the basswood with no value (as I've been told) other than tongue depressors and for carving, mouldings? that I might as well burn it in the begining and end of the season when I don't need full "horsepower" out of my boiler. I was just concerned that even though I process it mechanically, it was not worth the effort. 
Thanks!

[Al_Smith]

Rather timely this subject should arise .

My little bud Tom the tree trimmer brought out his skid loader today so I could use it and as I type there is about 3 cord of basswood on his dump truck .He was going to haul it to the dump but I think I'll off load it for my wifes cousin .

The stuff only has half the BTU's per cord as oak but any firewood is better than no firewood and free makes it real good . :D

[SwampDonkey]

Anything to keep warm.

I knew a Hungarian that immigrated here and he and the wife would cut and burn speckled alders in the kitchen stove. ;D  If you had an old pasture of alders on 50 acres you could cut non stop and have 3" alder every 3 or 4 years on sections cut previously. ;D

[stumper]

Like they say you can burn anything if dry.  The issue as I see it is the amount of work per BTU.  I would choose pine over basswood.  I would also choose alder and even ccedar.  I think all would dry better and give me more heat per unit of work. 

This reminds me of an old timers comment on burning cottonwood.  Sure you can burn it but even the flames are cold.

[Al_Smith]

Depends on how you look at it .Red oak for example weighs around 4,000 lbs per cord and has around 27 million btu .A ton of anthracite coal has exactly that same btu's .

Cottonwood and basswood only weigh 2,000 lbs per cord ,dry and have around 13.5 million BTU per cord .Sooooo per pound it has as much as oak if you want to figure it that way .You just have to burn more of it but what the hey if it's free why worry . ;D

[SwampDonkey]

What MC% and what fraction of a cord are you using for solid wood Al? Seems to me you could add 500 lbs to each at 12 % MC and 100 ft³ solid wood. I've never had maple that light as your oak, but moisture would have been around 22% I think. Both maple and oak are 43lbs/ft³ at 12 %.

We had a few scales here to weigh potato sacs, but father sold them all with the farm. Some day I need to buy a decent set of scales I guess.  :

[Al_Smith]

You can find cordage weights  on charts on the internet but they vary a tad bit .Some list dry weight as being 20 % moisture .They're only an aproximation anyway .

The point I was trying to make is the fact that per pound and not volume all wood produces about the same heat . Now of course given the choice between osage orange or shag bark hickory as oppossed to basswood or cottonwood most of us would prefer the former two .

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, it also seems to vary by region to, by hundreds of pounds based on green volume. :D

One guy here (near home) says his hard maple is 6300 lbs a cord green. Must be a super sized cord.  ;)

[woodmills1]

dry firewood in is heat out........... :P...................loads per day becomes the variable

[red oaks lumber]

basswood burns like dog poop, if its dry it leaves such a ash pile it fills the fire box. if i spend my energy harvesting wood even free or close it won't be b.wood or pine or cedar or any other "carp" wood. you can give me formulas all day but when it comes to keeping warm hardwoods is the only road i'll travel 8)

[thecfarm]

A OWB burns different than a regular wood stove. I burn dead ceder and pine,fir in my OWB and am nice and warm.Was a thread about not burning hardwood on here.With my Heatmor it is well worth it to me to cut dead wood instead of walking by it to cut a live hardwood tree.I don't get into the formulas or the weight. I just want it to last through the night and still have a fire in the morning.

[SwampDonkey]

red, one of the neighbors burns white cedar slabs from his neighbor with a portable Woodmizer. He lives in a very old farm house on a hill with no protection from cold wind or blown snow. Not much insulation either. It's free to take I suppose and about all he does, that I can see, is keep fires. :D

Neighbors next door use cedar to get their green hardwood to burn in their OWB. They burn 30 cords of hardwood to heat a house and the green house don't start up until March as far as I know. They buy all their hardwood from my cousin and others around. Seems expensive to heat a house that can be done for 1/3 the cost conventionally and all under cover. ;) As far as I can see, those things work financial wise if you have your own supply. Then is depends on how well they are maintained and if the design is reputable.

[Al_Smith]

 :D Well I have no comparrison as to how dog do do burns .I've stepped in it but never burned it .Perhaps like buffalo chips ?

Any wood that is dry will burn some just produce more heat by volume .The best BTU's are the cheapest .

Now I have some of the best hardwoods in the world and lots of them .However I'm not opposed to burning some less desirable types during periods such as early fall and late spring when not as much heat is need .Makes more sense than opening the windows and door to keep from roasting .Worse yet sitting around in your skivies .That is not a pretty sight .

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, but that dry heat feels better than the humid hot outside summer air some folks are suffering. Besides, after a long damp summer, that heat will dry stuff up in the basement and walls. ;D

[doctorb]

I am a little confused by this thread.  If we are talking about basswood in an indoor stove, I understand that it puts out less heat per unit of volume and therefore may be an adequate fuel for the "shoulder" heating months.  But it seems we are talking about it's use in an OWB.  The outdoor boiler isn't smart enough to know the outside temperature or what the temperature is inside your house.  It is only smart enough to know that it has to kick on when the boiler jacket water temp gets below the selected range, say, 185 degrees.  Now, on the warmer "shoulder" heating months, there may be less demand for heat, so the rate of heat loss or draw from the boilers water may certainly be less than in the dead of winter, but the boilers job is simply to maintain that selected water temp.

 I wonder if, during these "shoulder" months, if it would be more efficient to lower the water temp range on your OWB, thereby demanding less heat from a less than optimal fuel, basswood.  Your house would still be warm, but your boiler would not be burning through a lot of that stuff to reach a temperature that, at that time of year, you may not need.

I agree that heat is heat and that free heat is great.  But your gonna have to prep more basswood than maple or oak for a given period of lower heat demand.  If you've got the time and space for it, and are willing to increase the amount of your effort for the decrease in costs, it will work fine.  Anything, as long as it is dry, will work fine.

[Al_Smith]

Here's a little tip on less desirable btu output wood .Split it smaller and use more air so it burns faster in the stove .How simple is that ?

I mean geeze if you can burn dog do-do and dirty diapers a load of swamp willow would  certainly be a better option I would think . :D

[stumper]

This may seem strange but with my Eclassic 2300 I find it better to burn junk in the dead of winter.  The lesser quality wood does not hold coal well enough to burn in the "shoulder" times.  That may change with a pulse timer but I have not had one up to now.

[red oaks lumber]

thats the problem al  dog dung don't burrn ;D
for the sake of lookin stupid what is "shoulder" times? :P

[doctorb]

"shoulder" times, in the context of this discussion, are, in my estimation, those periods, usually of  4-6 weeks, at the beginning and the end of the heating season that are warmer and usually have decreased heating requirements.  It's a made up term to describe the approach and decline of winter, when less heat needs to be generated.   At least, that's the way I understood the term, so that's the way I used it. 

[Al_Smith]

 :D Oh just toss the stuff in there ,it'll burn .So will the dog do if it gets dry enough .

If you could get the dog to eat sawdust ,all the better .Such nonsense  8)