Alaska birch is same BTUs as white ash & yellow birch.

[bogydave]

While searching around looking for the weight of Alaska birch/cord (green) I found some other good info.
Ak birch, (according to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks)
is a pretty good fire wood.
23.6 Mil btus/cord
Equal to white ash & yellow birch in the lower 48.
Almost as good as red oak.
Not that it matters, just good to know I have more BTUs stacked up than I thought (not that I ever thought about the btus)
& the white spruce we have here is 18.1 Mill btus/cord.
A symptom of "cabin fever" rambling on & on

 

[Backwoods Savage]

But you still don't have enough stacked up Dave. Get out there and cut before the skeeters hatch! lol

 

[smokinj]

Yea Dave Before Dennis shows his pic's of the stacks he working on.....We all have about a week and he will make us all look lazy..

 

[Wood Duck]

There is more than one way to measure BTUs in firewood. For a good conparison, I'd look at values produced by the same people, or at least be sure the method is the same. Alaskans all think birch is great firewood - maybe they are right.

 

[bogydave]

There is more than one way to measure BTUs in firewood. For a good conparison, I'd look at values produced by the same people, or at least be sure the method is the same. Alaskans all think birch is great firewood - maybe they are right.

What??

I'm not saying birch is great or the best firewood.

I'm saying it is the best we have available, white spruce second.

Locust is GREAT firewood, but shipping it to Alaska would be about $1500/cord. Not cost effective & burn more energy getting it here than is in it.

Firewood choices in my area of Alaska: http://forestry.alaska.gov/pdfs/08BTUFirewoodHandout.pdf

Fuel sources in Alaska) : http://www.alaskawoodheating.com/energy_content.php

I noticed it rated more BTUs than I thought (I used the paper birch or white birch when I looked at charts)

 

[daveswoodhauler]

I love burning birch, and also love the smell from it to....not like any of the smoke gets into the room at all

 

[Wood Duck]

I burned wood for a few years in Fairbanks, and back then I would have rated birch as excellent firewood. Yeah, I knew oak was supposed to have more BTUs, but the everyday experience with birch was a more powerful influence on my thoguht process than data on other woods from farther south. I felt like good birch did a pretty nice job of heating up the place, and I still feel that way. I know a lot of my friends agreed, and that is what I mean when I say Alaskan's think birch is a great firewood. It is. Maybe not as good as oak in a lab test, but very nice firewood and something you can actually get your hands on. Now, living in PA, I have about 30 types of wood to choose from, including a bunch of hardwoods that are supposed to be far higher in BTUs than birch, but I still recall birch as excellent firewood. No amount of lab data will change that.

 

[bogydave]

I burned wood for a few years in Fairbanks, and back then I would have rated birch as excellent firewood. Yeah, I knew oak was supposed to have more BTUs, but the everyday experience with birch was a more powerful influence on my thoguht process than data on other woods from farther south. I felt like good birch did a pretty nice job of heating up the place, and I still feel that way. I know a lot of my friends agreed, and that is what I mean when I say Alaskan's think birch is a great firewood. It is. Maybe not as good as oak in a lab test, but very nice firewood and something you can actually get your hands on. Now, living in PA, I have about 30 types of wood to choose from, including a bunch of hardwoods that are supposed to be far higher in BTUs than birch, but I still recall birch as excellent firewood. No amount of lab data will change that.

I think the reason Alaska white (paper) birch is more btu's than lower 48 - white (paper) birch is it is
tighter grained, growing season is shorter, maybe just a little denser wood.

Fairbanks to PA, now that's a climate over a 100 degree temperature change in the winter (-60° f to mid 40°f ) (PA had mild winters past few years)
I',m PA to Alaska over 30 years ago. (left PA in early 70s , to Oregon , to Alaska in late 70s)