I Think I Get More Heat Out Of Pine Than Hardwood?

Seasoned Oak said:

Dont know what it feels like to BUY wood. After 5 years burning, still working my way thru the "other " stuff.
I rarely use my cherished seasoned oak that i scrounged.

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We had to buy the first two years. We scrounge very little hardwood, usually pine/spruce end up at the road. Well, willow and box elder too, but I'd rather have pine! Lots of burners around here, but still plenty of folks that think pine will burn your house down, so that's easy pickins.

Grisu said:

Plus, if you feel the need to burn pine for the heat most of the time it suggests your stove is undersized. Looking at your sig that could be the case for you as the Alterra is a pretty small stove.

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Good topic & good observation about having an undersized stove (such as I do). I do like to mix in some pine in between loads of oak/locust to help get more heat during the coaling stage on the coldest days of the year. I never thought about it that way before, but in my situation I'd probably be better off doing a lot of pine only fires during the daytime (on the coldest days) since someone's home all day and saving the BL for overnight.

ailanthus said:

Good topic & good observation about having an undersized stove (such as I do). I do like to mix in some pine in between loads of oak/locust to help get more heat during the coaling stage on the coldest days of the year. I never thought about it that way before, but in my situation I'd probably be better off doing a lot of pine only fires during the daytime (on the coldest days) since someone's home all day and saving the BL for overnight.

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Just be careful when you run the stove on a full load of dry pine. That can get to an overfire in a hurry. Make sure to rake the coals all to the front and maybe even burn them down a little more. Then load the pine, let it catch fire briefly and then already start dialing down the air. Better to err on the side of too little air than too much. You can always open the control a little bit more again if the fire starts looking sluggish.

ailanthus said:

Good topic & good observation about having an undersized stove (such as I do). I do like to mix in some pine in between loads of oak/locust to help get more heat during the coaling stage on the coldest days of the year. I never thought about it that way before, but in my situation I'd probably be better off doing a lot of pine only fires during the daytime (on the coldest days) since someone's home all day and saving the BL for overnight.

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Hey Ailanthus,your signature reminds me of the Aliantus tree.My spelling may be off but that wood considered a semi hard wood burns real good when dry.

Grisu said:

Just be careful when you run the stove on a full load of dry pine.

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Sorry, this made me giggle.

Rich L said:

Hey Ailanthus,your signature reminds me of the Aliantus tree.My spelling may be off but that wood considered a semi hard wood burns real good when dry.

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Exactly. It is an invasive/nuisance tree, but it's what I'm burning right now and with two years of drying it's not half bad. Does not coal at all and leaves plenty of ash, but I'd take it anytime.

Grisu said:

Thinking in BTUs per hour you are probably right. You state the same reasons why I had come to love pine in the midst of winter. Since it burns really fast with little coals, I can stuff the stove every 3 to 4 hours and keep it at hot temps (>500 F) pretty much all the time. More difficult to do with hardwood and its extensive coaling stage. The drawbacks are you are tending the stove quite often and softwoods are more work compared with hardwood as you will need to cut, split, stack and move around about 40% to 50% more wood.

Plus, if you feel the need to burn pine for the heat most of the time it suggests your stove is undersized. Looking at your sig that could be the case for you as the Alterra is a pretty small stove.

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No, you get the heat out of pine faster- not more.

If you are loading much more frequently, then each piece has less heat total.

Pine has just a shade more heat per pound than hardwoods- that's per pound.

Adios Pantalones said:

No, you get the heat out of pine faster- not more.

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Grisu said:

Thinking in BTUs per hour

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Not sure why you think you are saying anything different than I did. Looking at the two main species I burn: One cord of white pine has ~13 MBTU per cord, ash ~22 MBTU (Ref.: http://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm). Burn two cords of pine in the same time you are burning one cord of ash that equals 26 MBTU compared with 22 MBTU. Ergo, more heat. (With the disadvantage of twice the work.)

Grisu said:

Not sure why you think you are saying anything different than I did. Looking at the two main species I burn: One cord of white pine has ~13 MBTU per cord, ash ~22 MBTU (Ref.: http://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm). Burn two cords of pine in the same time you are burning one cord of ash that equals 26 MBTU compared with 22 MBTU. Ergo, more heat. (With the disadvantage of twice the work.)

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I mistakenly quoted you. I was trying to respond to the OP.

apologies

Beetle-Kill said:

Sorry, this made me giggle.

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Me too, but I do get the point, it is different to burn than hardwood. I ran a 3/4 load of mixed last night, haven't had any hardwood in a while but we somehow had a few pieces mixed in with the pine DH brought in during the day. I tried to close the air off like I do with pine (fairly quickly) and it kept choking (I put the hardwood on the coals since it wasn't coaled down as much as I like, so that was lighting off first). Hardwood takes more patience I guess!

ailanthus said:

Exactly. It is an invasive/nuisance tree, but it's what I'm burning right now and with two years of drying it's not half bad. Does not coal at all and leaves plenty of ash, but I'd take it anytime.

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The tree guys call it junk wood but I like you will take it anytime.If I had the land I would plant this tree to harvest as firewood since it grows so fast and burns so well.

In AP's defense, I understood his message just fine.
Turbo, I see what you're say'in- more Pine in- more heat out. Don't have to worry about those pesky coals to burn down before a re-load. I get it and agree, not that I have any experience with hardwood and the BK-(Grrrrrr.....) maybe someday..
My 3yr. Aspen is doing 24hr. burns for the time being, I ain't gonna groan about this.

I have a lot of White Pine, may be the least desirable Pine, because of the "hurricane" Sandy that hit us hard 35 miles in from the shore in NJ. That was October 2012. I started burning some of that Pine a few days ago and I am rather pleased with the results. I made a post on the subject then did a search and found this informative thread.

I I still have a cord or two of uncut downed wood out there and think I will split more of it. I also got some nice Ash that came down later, unrelated to Sandy, that has been aging just three months now so it should be useable in late February, I think. Back to Pine, I am burning right now and have been using it since early this morning - the house is a little too hot where the Insert is operating. But is isn't really cold, about 32 degrees right now.

Now that I've finally found a reasonably priced hardwood source, I'd have to agree in a way. My pine is well dried and burns hot but fast. I burn pine from the time I get home until the last stuff before bed as I have a ton of it and it's more readily available locally. At the end of night I stuff it with hardwood and shut it way down. In the morning (when I give myself enough time) I get it going again with pine and literally fry down a small pile of thin splits to get good hot coals in there. Then I fill it with hardwood again and shut it way down once the hardwood hits the secondaries again. I haven't turned on my electric baseboard all winter so far and my house hasn't been under 65f even when unattended for 10 hours on a 20f day. My house is very poorly insulated as well.

I love pine and hardwood, they both have their pros and cons in every situation.

Pine is good for quick heat but as others have mentioned the stove has to be reloaded often. I have burned white pine (the most prevalent where I am) and I am guessing if I heated exclusively with it I'd have to cut at least twice the amount I do for a winter. Good to get the fire going and take the chill off the house, but then it's on to the oak and locust.

Nobody wants to double the splitting workload!

I have a geothermal heat pump and use it for most of my heat. So, I learn this year after years of using only hardwood, I like to be able to run the wood fire in the morning when I'm bringing the house back up from a 5 or 6 degree set back on the heat pump for the sleeping period. I can get a hot insert with the Pine in a few minutes and I may run it only through the warm up and until the day starts to warm, or at least I am getting some solar heating to help out. That's what I have done today, and I will start an evening fire before 7 pm, run it until 11 pm or so and then got to bed and let the fire burn down and out. The heat pump will cut in an hour or so after the Insert cools down enough to not be able to carry the house. When I say carry the house, I mean keep othe thermostat happy. The upstairs/bedrooms are upwards of 10 degrees cooler but the electric blanket takes care of that with little cost in electricity. I have typically burnded a couple of cords of hard wood a year. This year it will be less as I am still running on Pine, with a fewe pieces of HW thrown in to help out.