Does the firewood split size matter?

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Stubby

ArboristSite Member
AS Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2024
Messages
90
Reaction score
129
Location
Rhode Island
Our wood stove is small...a Vermont Castings Resolute, but it heats our small home very well. Because it's small, I tend to split the firewood kind of small...personal preference.

I've wondered, though, if this makes a difference overall.

Hypothetical situation...all logs are 16" in length, same age, etc. If I split a 12"x12"x16" (rectangular) log into four 6"x6"x16" rectangular logs vs. sixteen 3"x3"x16" rectangular logs, overall, what difference would it make, burn-wise?

I'm thinking that if I wanted to get a fire going faster, the 3x3's would do that. If I wanted a slower burn, the 6x6's would do that.

But, if I didn't care about any of those things, doesn't it all come down to BTU output? A stove full of 3x3's would burn hotter, producing more BTU's for a shorter duration than a stove full of 6x6's.

In the end, let's say that I burned twelve of the 6x6's, or forty eight of the 3x3's (so, same volume of wood..).

Without changing any of the stove's adjustments, would there be a total BTU difference between the different size cuts?

Just curious, that's all....

Rich
 
I can get more wood in the stove when I use some small ones, with all larger wood I can never get the stove completely full.
I care more about that than btu per stick so I split some of my wood up pretty small.
All small wood is fine but to save some time splitting, I dont split it all up to about 3x3, I mix it up size wise, as long as I can get the stove full so it goes all day when im gone im happy.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top