Tulip wood?

[Newfie]

Treeco is right in saying all wood gives off the same number(or almost the same) of Btu's per unit weight (pound,ton,whatever). The Btu's increases in a piece of wood based on it's density.

This is why a cord of oak is more expensive than a cord of aspen or poplar. Same volume, but different weights due to the differing densities. You would have to burn almost 2 cords of poplar to get the same BTU output as a cord of oak. If you fill your stove with oak or fill it with poplar, you will get very different heat outputs.

As for lighter woods being good fuels, yes, if you want to do the extra work of splitting, stacking ,and all the other handling twice as much. At this point you have to figure the cost/time/enjoyment factors involved. If I could put gas in my tuck that cost half as much but got only 60% of the mileage, I would continue to use the more expensive gas so I spent less time stopping and pumping gas. Life is full of little trade-offs.

 

[eyolf]

Another set of variables in the equation has to be how, exactly, you plan to store your wood, for how long, and how you plan to burn it.

If you plan to burn in an outdoor boiler, the lighter hardwoods are pretty useful. I run mine year around for hot water and the clothes dryer, and find that 3 10" popple rounds last 2 days, without boiling the water in the tank. Oak and maple sometimes boil the water in the tank under these conditions, which is hard on many parts of the system.

A few people have the Swedish/Russian masonry systems in their homes, and at times the lightweight woods are a BETTER choice...as your masonry takes on heat, the higher temperature that the masonry gets, the more ineffectively it gathers heat from the fire. Why burn a longer fire for nothing in less severe weather?

many of us that have a wood heater in the shop choose to burn lightweight woods at high rates to avoid leaving a hot fire burning when we close up and head for the house at night, or to avoid chimney fires because we have dampered the fire down too often and creosoted the chimbley.

 

[Newfie]

Hi eyolf,

Those are very interesting variables you bring to the discussion. I hadn't considered some of those scenarios. Sounds pretty useful when we get into these days of 40-50 degree temperature differentials between highs and lows. (it was 26 last night and is 81 right now) Thanks for broadening my horizon.

 

[sedanman]

Update on the woodpile......I'TS GONE
Went there today after work, the place has been bulldozed! This area belongs to the town and they're replacing the sidewalks and sewers, so they must have needed the space for something. This has been the "woodpile" for 5 years or more, I hope it is again after the construction.

 

[WOLF_RIVER_MIKE]

Sorry to hear about the woodpile demise. Somebody said something about using Birch as kindling? The State has cleared several ditches in my area, and there are, typical ditch/creek trees piled up. Looks mostly like birch and cottenwood. Man, I could drag out birch trees all summer. Right now I'm hauling home Hickory and Oak, (about 85 miles) from a friend that's clearing a homesite. Probably three or four more loads ther. My Dad has 7 oaks he has asked me to take off his place. WRM is busy.

 

[MarylandGuy]

I burn a lot of Tulip Poplar because my land is loaded with it. As everyone has said, it does burn hot and fast. Works well in the Fall before it gets real cold. And then again in late Spring when you don't need as much heat.

Of course as much Poplar as I have split and stacked, I also use it in the Winter evenings when I can keep feeding it to the stove. It goes fast.

On the down side it produces a lot of fluffy ash. When scooping it out, it will be airborne with the slightest droppage. Probably the worst wood ash I have to deal with.

Finally, Tulip Poplar will dry out very quickly. If you stack it in the wind and sun, you could potentially have dry wood in less than two months.