An observation on bark burning...

[DeanBrown3D]

I wanted to report my findings on burning bark for heat. I have no scientific measurements, but none-the-less I think its interesting. Last year I decided to keep all the bark from the wood I was collecting, if it fell off, and I had maybe 1/4 cord of the stuff in the end. I collected and dried it. Most of it was really thick, around 1" think I suppose, a lot of it from sweet gum.

For a few weeks I decided to burn only bark, and no wood at all. It burns very well, lots of heat, lasts quite a while, looks beautiful (since the patterns are very distinct).

BUT.... On a regular-wood basis, I have to empty my ash tray around once every 3-4 days when I am burning maple, oak, poplar. However, when on bark alone, the ash was overwhelming and I had to empty the thing every single day. The ash build up was so voluminous it was verging on the ridiculous. Considering that the wood I was comparing with also had some bark on it, I would say that I get maybe 5 times more ash with pure bark than with pure wood.

Until now I used to leave the bark on, even if it were loose (free energy I thought). In the future, I'm going to try to remove as much of the bark as possible. A nice bed of coals can get really choked by a bunch of ash.

Anyway, that's all for that story.

DeanB

 

[hardwood715]

interesting...very interesting. Could here my neighbor now, what the hell is that??? It's 4 pallets of bark! Any real embers fly from that stuff??

 

[BrotherBart]

interesting...very interesting. Could here my neighbor now, what the hell is that??? It's 4 pallets of bark! Any real embers fly from that stuff??

Ya don't wanna burn major loads of bark in the ole hoss hardwood. Your chimney would smoke like an outdoor wood boiler.

 

[hardwood715]

Thanks BB, thats all I'd need , she would have me locked up by sundown, call the DEC on me or something... the one next door, the one with the pet!