Burning Books for Non-Political Reasons

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jimcooncat

jimcooncat

Member
Hearth Supporter
Jun 29, 2008
34
Central Maine
I've taken on a new venture as an online bookseller, as well as sell them in my wife's shop, and sometimes get in books that have no redeeming value whatsoever. I'm not talking about anything politically sensitive, they are like outdated law books, 1960 encyclopedias and text books, and fiction books that no one in the past five years has bought a copy online.

I'm now looking at a purchase of 650 old books, and I'll be lucky to get 50 ones out of the pile worth selling. I'm guessing the remainder may have the heating value of a quarter cord of wood or more. I have a Harmon coal/wood furnace in the cellar with a double-wall insulated stainless chimney.

I'm thinking of throwing in a few at a time once I have a hot fire. Would I be facing any problems, other than a visit from the book police?
 
I know that books do not burn at all well in a wood stove but not sure about a furnace.
 
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I've read on here before about this same question. The verdict was books have glue in them which release potentially bad chemicals into your fire box/flue. And that they leave a pile of ash after burning. I would probably donate them to someone else.
 
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I'd give it a try and see what happens, as long as you have a clean chimney. If you have creosote in your chimney, I could see a chimney fire happening.
I've burnt a lot of cardboard in my gasser with no problems.
 
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Thanks for the great feedback, everyone! I think I will try a few and see how it goes before I pop on that big purchase. The Harmon burns really clean unless I feed it pine or spruce, so I don't do that anymore except for chunks of 2x4. Ash really isn't much of a problem, a shake of the grate takes care of that. And yes, I do donate a lot to Goodwill if it has any resale value at all; but I don't burden them with worthless items.

So I guess then my decision will be whether they stink when they burn or make too much of an ashy mess.
 
I think you will find they tend to create too much ash unless you agitate them. Worth trying. Some kind of joke about old law books here....
 
Agree with Tom. It took more of my energy than it generated. Never tried Mike's idea that I like a lot. It never hurt anything, just wasn't worth the effort. Maybe old books burn better than what I had.
 
I've burnt a few paperbacks from time to time, falling apart, etc. At our dump [i mean recycle place] theres a compactor for all paper, books included. Thats where I'd take a hundred or so. Also, our library has an all summer book sale, they raise over half their budget that way & you can take a tax deduction for donating them there.
 
mike van said:
I've burnt a few paperbacks from time to time, falling apart, etc. At our dump [i mean recycle place] theres a compactor for all paper, books included. Thats where I'd take a hundred or so. Also, our library has an all summer book sale, they raise over half their budget that way & you can take a tax deduction for donating them there.
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I agree, recycling them would be a better choice.
 
I got good news yesterday from our recycling center's manager, they are happy for me to furnish them even if I bring them in from out of town. I'll only burn the fun ones now! Thanks to all who responded.
 
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Some background on why books don't burn. I used to work for a papermill that made book paper. Our plant supplied the paper for a lot of the Steven King Books and Harry Potter books as well as a lot of acid free paper for specialty books. Unfortunately like many other items, books are now mostly printed in China and the paper comes from China. The paper in books is a mostly a mix of cellulose (wood fiber) and clay. The wood fiber give the paper its strength and the clay make the paper smooth and not transparent. Wood fiber is expensive, depending on exchange rates $500 to $1000 per ton while Clay is far less expensive. Paper without clay is basically tissue paper. If the paper is glossy like a magazine, the paper is "coated" with clay as part of the papermaking process while uncoated paper just has the clay mixed in.

The goal is to use as little cellulose as possible just enough to make the paper strong enough to meet the specs and then clay is added to add bulk and make the paper opaque (not see through).

With coated papers more then 50% of the weight is added clay (or other mineral fillers). Therefore when you burn a book, 50% of the weight is something that will end up in the ash bucket.

When paper is recycled, the cellulose is recovered and the clays and fillers end up in landfill.
 
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peakbagger said:
Some background on why books don't burn. I used to work for a papermill that made book paper. Our plant supplied the paper for a lot of the Steven King Books and Harry Potter books as well as a lot of acid free paper for specialty books. Unfortunately like many other items, books are now mostly printed in China and the paper comes from China. The paper in books is a mostly a mix of cellulose (wood fiber) and clay. The wood fiber give the paper its strength and the clay make the paper smooth and not transparent. Wood fiber is expensive, depending on exchange rates $500 to $1000 per ton while Clay is far less expensive. Paper without clay is basically tissue paper. If the paper is glossy like a magazine, the paper is "coated" with clay as part of the papermaking process while uncoated paper just has the clay mixed in.

The goal is to use as little cellulose as possible just enough to make the paper strong enough to meet the specs and then clay is added to add bulk and make the paper opaque (not see through).

With coated papers more then 50% of the weight is added clay (or other mineral fillers). Therefore when you burn a book, 50% of the weight is something that will end up in the ash bucket.

When paper is recycled, the cellulose is recovered and the clays and fillers end up in landfill.
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
 
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Absolutely awesome information, peakbagger! I can see a lot of differences in the paper used in the books. Many of the older ones have a "pulpy" feel and rough edges. I'm betting that type might burn clean, but I don't know yet as to the hard covers on them.

Some soft covers are even made with that type. I put stock numbers on with painter's tape, and when it goes on that rough paper the ink peels off, so I'm more careful to avoid doing it to that kind of cover.
 
Older paperbacks are one step up from newspapers which burn pretty well, not a lot of fillers in either one. Its the smooth white paper typically with color printing that is full of clay.

Newsprint is actually made with a different process, the logs are ground into pulp, possibly bleached and then turned into paper. Since its not "cooked" like regular paper, the ground wood pulp has both cellulose and lignin which is the "glue" that keeps the cellulose fibers stiff in a tree. It might actually have a higher btu content per poud than regular uncoated paper as with regular paper the lignin is washed out of the fibers.
 
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