Ash Burn Rate

[cbscout]

Hi, I just put in my new PE insert and ordered 6 face cord of ash. It's below 20% moisture content and I brought a few armfuls home prior to his delivery. Burns great, nice and hot. I have been continuing to try to find more wood, with decent seasoning. Just wondered, how fast does ash burn in comparison to oak, maple and other hardwoods? I am estimating how much wood to buy for this year. I know purchasing more is better than less, but am trying to achieve a balance as I don't have a lot of property.

Thanks for any advice/info you have.

 

[DAKSY]

 

[TedyOH]

Which insert do you have?

 

[Chas0218]

Burn rate depends on many variables not just the species or size of the split. My stove loaded with 5"-6" Ash splits will last overnight with coals in the A.M. I can also have enough coals to light up a fresh load when burning Cherry and Red Maple after an overnight burn. It really depends on the stove and the amount of wood you can cram inside.

I just burned up the last of my poplar and that would get me about 6 hours with coals. When I was burning overnight with it I wouldn't have any hot coals in the A.M.

 

[cbscout]

Which insert do you have?

I have the PE Alderlea T5 Classic. We have only burned once in it, but it was fantastic.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Ash is a very good "utility" wood, you can use it for kindling or quarter splits or regular size splits or even whole logs and if seasoned it burns very well, nice and steady, not as long as Oak or Hickory or Apple or Black Locust (the big guns) but longer than the soft Maples and Poplar and such.

 

[TedyOH]

I have the PE Alderlea T5 Classic. We have only burned once in it, but it was fantastic.

I have a Neo with a smaller firebox...i burn from 4pm to 11pm (last load up) and all day on Saturdays and Sunday's....i go through about 3 cord a year....1st cord is usually ash then the last two cord (later, colder in the season) are hickory, sugar maple and oak....like Chas said ash coals will make it through the night...the better hard woods will last even longer. So if i had your larger firebox and burned with the same habits and hardwood id say you'd need about 4 cord or so....but that depends if your a full time burner or a weekend warrior

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[cbscout]

View attachment 232277

Excellent chart. Thanks.This gives me a great idea of which woods I want to shoot for next year. Even this year I'm trying to find someone who may have seasoned oak or maple available to try this winter to mix in with the ash.

 

[cbscout]

I have a Neo with a smaller firebox...i burn from 4pm to 11pm (last load up) and all day on Saturdays and Sunday's....i go through about 3 cord a year....1st cord is usually ash then the last two cord (later, colder in the season) are hickory, sugar maple and oak....like Chas said ash coals will make it through the night...the better hard woods will last even longer. So if i had your larger firebox and burned with the same habits and hardwood id say you'd need about 4 cord or so....but that depends if your a full time burner or a weekend warrior

Interesting...we are planning on burning most of the day and possibly through the night, however far it will take us. Because we have a ranch, we may not burn all night, as it will be tough to get the heat down to the other end of the house. But I'm figuring on burning up to 15 hours a day most days. We are initially purchasing 9 face cord. You were talking full cord, right?

 

[cbscout]

Burn rate depends on many variables not just the species or size of the split. My stove loaded with 5"-6" Ash splits will last overnight with coals in the A.M. I can also have enough coals to light up a fresh load when burning Cherry and Red Maple after an overnight burn. It really depends on the stove and the amount of wood you can cram inside.

We have only had a couple of fires (are waiting on the bulk of our wood to be delivered tomorrow) and are trying to figure out how to get it hot enough to heat our family room/kitchen space and lock it down without burning through a full load too quickly.

 

[weatherguy]

If you can get more of that ash I'd buy as much as you fit on your lot, I love ash, seasons quicker than oak and I get burns almost as long as oak. Plus it might be a lot harder to find seasoned oak at this time of the year.

 

[TedyOH]

Interesting...we are planning on burning most of the day and possibly through the night, however far it will take us. Because we have a ranch, we may not burn all night, as it will be tough to get the heat down to the other end of the house. But I'm figuring on burning up to 15 hours a day most days. We are initially purchasing 9 face cord. You were talking full cord, right?

Yes im talking full cords. You shouldnt have a problem with a ranch...I have a 2500 sq/ft colonial and this little Neo has no problems (if i close the 3 unused bedroom doors upstairs) 80 deg right now in family room (im in shorts and tee shirt) ,68 deg in dinning room on opposite side of 1st floor from insert....41 degrees outside....started the stove around 4:30 pm

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[cbscout]

Yes im talking full cords. You shouldnt have a problem with a ranch...I have a 2500 sq/ft colonial and this little Neo has no problems (if i close the 3 unused bedroom doors upstairs) 80 deg right now in family room (im in shorts and tee shirt) ,68 deg in dinning room on opposite side of 1st floor from insert....41 degrees outside....started the stove around 4:30 pm

Guess I got a few things to learn about our new fireplace insert - how to make it hot AND efficient. Family room is comfortable, but not even close to 80. We started ours around 6.

 

[TedyOH]

My guess would be your wood....im burning 2 year CSS ash....is your glass clean or is there black crap in the corner(s)?

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[cbscout]

My guess would be your wood....im burning 2 year CSS ash....is your glass clean or is there black crap in the corner(s)?

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I tested the wood, around 18-19%. No soot at all, glass is completely clear.

 

[TedyOH]

I tested the wood, around 18-19%. No soot at all, glass is completely clear.

Thats good if you just split a spit in half and checked....i just did and im at 18%...our baffles are pretty much the same so last thing may be air flow and blowers....my first load of kindling i let rip with the air wide open, blowers on high....burn down to coals, reload(packed) immediately after flames are gone, let the reload rip wide open until logs are fully chard, blowers on high...cut air intake down to 50% until flames are ripping again, blowers on 50%, then shut air intake all the way off...blowers between 50% to lowest setting.

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[cbscout]

Thats good if you just split a spit in half and checked....i just did and im at 18%...our baffles are pretty much the same so last thing may be air flow and blowers....my first load of kindling i let rip with the air wide open, blowers on high....burn down to coals, reload(packed) immediately after flames are gone, let the reload rip wide open until logs are fully chard, blowers on high...cut air intake down to 50% until flames are ripping again, blowers on 50%, then shut air intake all the way off...blowers between 50% to lowest setting.

Great! Thanks. I'm gonna try that. And yes, tested on a fresh split off a split. Each time I went to a firewood supplier they would hand me a split to test, and then look at me confused when I asked them to split it again to test. I had to explain it each time - most just don't know. One seller even acted like he didn't have an axe in the back to split one, until I pushed him to do it.
I appreciate the explanation of your process.

 

[Paulywalnut]

If you can scrounge up some dry hard maple (not silver) it will burn like dry ash.

 

[Slocum]

Your fortunate to find seasoned wood. They all advertise it to be seasoned but it rarely is. I can’t say I’ve ever came across seasoned oak for sale. It takes 2-3 years for oak to dry. Hard for a dealer to have it sitting around in the way.


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[cbscout]

Your fortunate to find seasoned wood. They all advertise it to be seasoned but it rarely is. I can’t say I’ve ever came across seasoned oak for sale. It takes 2-3 years for oak to dry. Hard for a dealer to have it sitting around in the way.

I haven't found seasoned oak, yet, either. My firewood guy has been great (as I said, we bought all ash), and he had some oak delivered to him this year as seasoned round but it was very wet. It will be a couple years till that's ready - and I'll be ready for it when it's dry.

 

[cbscout]

Another question for you all, I was looking to buy firewood from a guy, and he had the face cord laid out in stacks in the row "log cabin style," all the way across. Log cabin style is usually only used on the ends of rows when you are stacking freestanding firewood to keep the firewood from rolling away, but he did it all the way across. Seems to me this wouldn't be a full face cord because of the extra space between wood. But have any of you ever seen this before? I attached an image of "log cabin style."