Maximizing use of aspen/popple scrap wood

[planner steve]

I'd like some ideas or cautions on using this wood. I can buy bags of aspen pieces that are mostly 1"x1"'s that are 18" long. See pictures. This is kiln dried and burns really fast. I also attached a picture of my woodstove, a 1980's Woodland (Fisher clone) insert. I just bought the house and am trying my hand at reducing heating costs by burning wood. I have a heat pump as alternative source, so paying $200 dollars a cord for fir just isn't worth it. But I can buy these scraps for equivalent of $30 dollars a cord. That works out to a little less than half the cost of heat pump BTU's according to my calculations. So I bought a bag. I work at home, so my strategy has been to throw a handful in as I go by the stove. Works fine during the day, but there seems to be no way to make this stuff last very long into the night. For now, I throw an North Idaho Energy Log in at bedtime if it going to be cold so I have a few coals in the morning. My goal doing that is to avoid the heat pump going to resistive heat in the morning. Seems to be working so far. As you can tell, this is kind of an engineering hobby/challenge for me.
Since I'm so new to this, please share with me your cautions on using this wood, ideas on how to maximize value of this wood, any potential to damage my equipment, etc.

Thank you,
Steve

 

[wahoowad]

figure out a way to resell the little aspen stuff to offset the cost of buying some normal sized firewood. You will not get an overnight burn with that little stuff. Most would only use it for kindling to start a fire. Or, do like many of us here do...go buy a chainsaw, woodsplitter, other gear and scavenge up fallen trees to make your own firewood.

 

[SKIN052]

Nothing wrong with burning Aspen. It does not give of a allot of heat so stove should be fine. It is kiln dried though so I would not load up a stove with any kiln dried kindling. I often cut down one or two aspen in the spring, turn it all into kindling and use it the next season. Aspen is also great for burning down a coal bed since it produces almost no coal itself just fine white ash. So in the end I would use it just as you have been, maybe use a bit more of it but not two much. Good luck.

 

[Fred Wright]

Good kindling wood.

Small, kiln dried and pretty much uniform in size, it would be great for use in a cook stove.

 

[Jags]

Be VERY cautious with the amount of that stuff you put in the stove. With a very high ratio of surface to mass you could easily find yourself in an over fire condition.

I would stack it as tight as possible in the stove and start out with fairly small loads till you get familiar with it.

 

[Wood Duck]

I don't think it is possible to get a long burn with 1x1 inch aspen. If you can get daytime burns with it that is about the best you can hope for.

 

[billb3]

I think you've done a decent job of identifying the limitations of the scrap wood.
You're pretty much netting the same results as those of us who have busted up and burned pallets .
Small short hot fires. A bit of time consuming work but it is heat.
The $200 a cord fir might have sufficient mass for longer duration burns at night.

 

[planner steve]

figure out a way to resell the little aspen stuff to offset the cost of buying some normal sized firewood. You will not get an overnight burn with that little stuff. Most would only use it for kindling to start a fire. Or, do like many of us here do...go buy a chainsaw, woodsplitter, other gear and scavenge up fallen trees to make your own firewood.

Interesting idea, actually there is already a guy here reselling the bags I buy for $10 on Craig's list for $60. I don't think economics justify buying the gear to gather fallen trees. I understand that a lot of guys would find that a fun hobby, but I'm not one of them. Did too much woodcutting as a kid growing up in northern Wisconsin. But I do enjoy poking around in the woodstove.

 

[planner steve]

Be VERY cautious with the amount of that stuff you put in the stove. With a very high ratio of surface to mass you could easily find yourself in an over fire condition.

I would stack it as tight as possible in the stove and start out with fairly small loads till you get familiar with it.

Thanks for that advice. I searched this forum early on and have avoided over firing. What I didn't learn through my first search was about whuffing. I produced a whuff with this wood early on when I stuffed a bunch in on top of a good bed of coals and cut back on the air. Fortunately the only consequence was some smoke and ash blowing out the air intakes. I think I'll try the tight stack idea, starting small of course.

 

[planner steve]

I think you've done a decent job of identifying the limitations of the scrap wood.
You're pretty much netting the same results as those of us who have busted up and burned pallets .
Small short hot fires. A bit of time consuming work but it is heat.
The $200 a cord fir might have sufficient mass for longer duration burns at night.

Thanks for the response. I think I will experiment with some fir for overnight. Might be worth it to avoid resistive heat coming on in the morning and is less expensive than North Idaho Energy Logs.

Heat pump $10/MMBTU
Auxiliary resistive heat $29/MMBTU
Aspen $4/MMBTU
$200 Fir $14/MMBTU
NIEL $23/MMBTU

MMBTU's are delivered to home taking into account various efficiencies. The aspen is very low cost. I suspect pallets might even be better if you don't place a value on your labor.

 

[CenterTree]

I also attached a picture of my woodstove, a 1980's Woodland (Fisher clone) insert. I just bought the house and am trying my hand at reducing heating costs by burning wood. I have a heat pump as alternative source,.... As you can tell, this is kind of an engineering hobby/challenge for me.

Thank you,
Steve

OK, I am curious about the WOODLAND stove there.
How is that thing "mounted"? I mean, from the pic it seems like it is not sitting on the floor at all.

 

[Badger]

Get a BK. Load her up to the gills and close her down for a slower burn. I burn a lot of poppel cord wood in my princess and I'll get up to 16 hrs during the shoulder season. I'd think you'd be able to get overnight burns with your dimensional lumber.

With that said, I would start with small loads first just to ensure I could still control it with a full load.

 

[planner steve]

OK, I am curious about the WOODLAND stove there.
How is that thing "mounted"? I mean, from the pic it seems like it is not sitting on the floor at all.

I attached a picture that gives a better idea of the installation. It is about 30 inches above the floor. I think it looks like the stove in this post https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/fisher-style-insert.81819/ I don't know much more as I just bought the house and I suspect it was installed in the 70's or 80's.
It is all in working order so I decided to use it. It is centrally located in the house so it does a good job of heating the living spaces.

 

[CenterTree]

Interesting.
I have never seen an install like that.