SCORE=hardwood (5) softwood (3.5)

[RedRanger]

About 18 months ago I managed to score about a half cord of paper bark birch. Got into that stuff yesterday,put 4 nice-sized chunks into my firebox and 5 hours later still getting nice heat. Now, out here on the "wet" oops west coast our supply is predomintley softwood,fir hemlock alder and cedar. I burn mostly douglas fir. Anyway,loading the same amount of fir only gives me heat for about 3 1\2 hours . I would be willing to bet that most of the (burn times) that the manufacturers conduct on their stoves and inserts are done with hardwood? Sure wish we had more of that nice stuff in this part of world. Oh, well, at least it doesn`t get cold out here on the coast. :coolsmile:

 

[begreen]

Nice score. If you're lucky to get some madrona you can see the same nice benefits and even more heat produced.

 

[babalu87]

Imagine if you guys could get your hands on some of the two year dried Red Oak I have all stacked and dried, talk about BTU's. Much credit to those who rely on softwoods for heating.

 

[begreen]

Droool. When I visit back east I can't get over how much nice firewood is just lying there on the ground.

 

[BrotherBart]

I have burned a few small pieces of last years oak so far but mostly I am still toasting pine. In honor of our western friends.

 

[babalu87]

Cost about $1.00/pound to ship it UPS

 

[RedRanger]

Well BeGreen I`m drooling too. Maybe I`ll regret this post. Those Eastern Folks will be crowing over us for an eternity. ;-)

 

[begreen]

Like you said, it's nature's balance. They have a lot colder temps to deal with, so I will burn softwood and be happy. But it's hard not to envy those long burn times.

 

[begreen]

Cost about $1.00/pound to ship it UPS

I can just see explaining that to my wife. Uh, honey, about that $3500 UPS bill :gulp:
We can buy madrona here for about $250 a cord. But I'm burning free soft maple, so who am I to complain.

 

[Highbeam]

Even within softwoods there is a huge difference between nice tight doug fir and western red cedar or even worse -cottonwood. I have to agree that the stove burn time ratings are not done with our softwood. It's a bum deal since we can buy a huge stove to hold the huge volume of softwood but then we would get cooked out. Tough to balance burn time and btu output with softwoods. Best hope is that monster blaze king with a cat and thermostatic primary air. Or do like me and just feed it.

We're shooting for doug fir or alder from this point forward. Alder is almost as nice as fir since it creates enough ash to offer good coaling.

 

[kevin fitzsimmons]

Around here, hardwood is when your dropping trees and they wind up somewhere you have to wok to get it out. The other variety is easy wood, close and can pretty much be loaded where it lands. The choices are pine, spruce or aspen. I tend to choose pine. Cold here today (-16 C as a high), and the rest of the week id not looking much better.

 

[begreen]

Cold? I thought that is the temp when you just start thinking of putting on a sweater. ;-)

 

[TMonter]

My experience is that in real burn time I can get about 25% more with oak, but the BTU/lb is about the same. Oak is just a lot denser than Doug fir.

However since there is almost no oak here and I get Doug Fir and Tamarack for almost free that's what I get.

 

[jpl1nh]

I have burned a few small pieces of last years oak so far but mostly I am still toasting pine. In honor of our western friends.

Here, here brother, cept up here I'm burning mostly hemlock for the time being. Next week from the sounds of it I may be diggin into the harder stuff.