How to choose the best firewood?
All firewood burns, but not all work the same way. Some give off more heat, burn slower and cleaner, and have an amazing aroma. Others burn quickly, smoke and the tar residue quickly clogs the chimney.
But smoke is good in smokehouses, delicious kebabs are made on fragrant fruit stones, and essential pine oils are beneficial for us in the bathhouse. This means that the best firewood is the one that does the job best.
To know what kind of firewood to take for a wood-burning, bathing or chewing bath, fireplace, grill or boiler room, you need to understand their characteristics. The main characteristics of wood (and bark) needed to be considered firewood are:
- Moisture;
- Ash;
- Density;
- Elasticity;
- Calorific value (thermal conductivity);
- caloric value;
- shelf life.
Moisture content of firewood
Dry firewood burns poorly, expends energy to evaporate moisture rather than heat the air, and produces a lot of soot. For wood used as firewood, use relative (not absolute) moisture content, which is the amount of moisture currently contained in the fibers relative to their own weight.
The amount of water in dried wood depends on the species, the time it was sawn, and the degree and method of drying. It is advisable to cut the wood for firewood in winter, when it has the least water in it. Such firewood will dry to the right condition in about 6 months, shrink in July and dry out only after a year.
In addition, it should not be forgotten that the bark affects the evaporation of water from the wood, so thin round logs should also be chopped or sawn into pieces.
Billets are dried both outdoors and in special ovens. In chambers at lower temperatures, firewood can be dried at lower humidity and much faster. The latter method is more expensive, but provides high heat output of the wood. Green wood weighs 70-100% more than seasoned wood.
Dry wood usually has a moisture content of 20% or less, this can be checked with a moisture meter. If you do not have such a device, a long-used method will help: when striking dry logs should not be deafening, but sonorous sound should be heard from each other.
Density (specific gravity).
This is a common physical quantity that shows how much weight a substance has per standard volume (usually one cubic meter). Density depends on the moisture content of the wood, and it is itself a major cause of its caloric content.
The greater the density of the wood, the more “hot” firewood it makes.
Less dense wood burns faster, so you have to restart the stove several times to heat it to the desired temperature.
According to the density of the wood regions are conditionally divided into 3 groups. Evaluation is carried out at a moisture content of 12%:
- Low-density (up to 540 kg/m3): of conifers – juniper, pine, fir, spruce; of deciduous – aspen, poplar, willow, linden, alder;
- Medium-dense (550-740 kg/m3): dudden, beech, elm, maple, apple, common ash, larch, larch, etc;
- Very (750 kg/m3 and above): coddle, oak, silver birch, sand and white acacia.
Caloric value of firewood
To estimate how much heat wood gives off, it is necessary to use the specific heat, which is a value derived from the density and heat transfer.
According to the caloric value of firewood from species growing in Russia, are divided into 3 groups:
- The greatest heat output (200-350 kcal) comes from properly harvested and dried birch, beech, gravel, ash, elm, larch, maple, elm and oak firewood.
- The second group in terms of heat output includes alder and pine firewood.
- And the lowest calorifics are aspen, willow, poplar, linden, spruce and cedar.
Although the massive heat from softwood is greater than that from hardwood, the resulting thermal efficiency of softwood with firewood is lower.
ash content of firewood
Ash is the minerals that remain after the organic part of the firewood is completely burned. The more minerals the wood contains, the more ash it leaves behind.
The ash content of firewood is measured as a percentage of the total weight of the wood fuel. It is divided into internal (in quantity from 0,2 to 2,16 %), that is H. The one which is present in wood in natural conditions, and external (up to 20 %), which is listed during cutting, storage or transportation (for example soil particles left after bands). And, as we can see, the latter far exceeds the former.
The most ashy type of firewood is:
- pine – 2.19 … 1,39%;
- spruce – 2,23 … 2,31%;
- birch – 2,43 … 0,52%;
- aspen – 2,73%.
Smolity
Not only needlewoods have resin, but many others as well. For example, birch tar is also wood resin.
The resin content of wood depends on the tree, where it grew, when it was cut, and how long it was dried. Deciduous species release less than volatile resin.
Softwood, especially if it burns in an oxygen-deprived environment, strongly contaminates the chimney and stove. Birch wood is also not recommended for pyrolysis boilers. If there is not enough oxygen, they give off a lot of mahogany.
Firewood distribution.
The elasticity of firewood depends on its elasticity and density; the higher the elasticity and lower the density, the easier it will split.
In general, wet fresh wood is easier than mother wood, but very wet, it becomes ductile and difficult.
But frozen hardwood is also easy to kolka when dry, so many people advise stocking up on firewood for the winter, especially hardwood.
For needlewood books, the time of year does not matter, they can be chipped even in summer, even in winter.
The easiest species to split are chestnut, aspen, beech, and linden. But vices and knots make it difficult to split firewood.
Longevity of firewood
Contrary to popular belief, firewood has a shelf life. Needlewood is stored longer because the large amount of resin in its fibers, including birch, has a limited shelf life.
Only alder and aspen are well preserved for more than 2 (3) years. After this period, the wood begins to rot, and burning rot is dangerous to health. When it burns, it releases toxic substances. Poplar wood has very little time before it begins to rot. It can be stored for only a few months.
| Breed | Density, kg/m3 (average humidity 12%) | Specific heat capacity, Kcal/DM 3 |
|---|---|---|
| birch | 640; Holidays; Viscous on impact. | 1389. 2240 |
| Beech | Hard, tough – 680; withstands great impact loads. | 1258. 2133 |
| Slingshot | High beam – 795 | 1654. 2148 |
| Ash | Strong – 730, with high impact strength. | 1403. 2194 |
| Elm, Ilm. | 650 – with high impact strength. | 1282. 2341 |
| Maple | 690 – hard, withstands high impact loads. | 1503. 2277 |
| Oak | 750 – hard, durable, calorific value – kcal/dm3. | 1538. 2429 |
| Alder | 525 – has medium values. | 1122. 1744 |
| aspen | p12=496 – soft, brittle. | 1002. 1729 |
| Pasture | Very soft | 1128. 1840 |
| poplar | 455 – soft | 839. 1370 |
| linden | 495 – soft | 1046. 1775 |
| larch | 660 – strong | 1084. 2207 |
| Jaw | 500 | 1282. 2130 |
| Spruce | 445 | 1068. 1974 |
The increase of specific heat emission is explained by such factors as: moisture content of wood, conditions and term of storage, age of trees, etc.
| Breed | Processing, drying and burning | Scope of application as a combustible material |
|---|---|---|
| birch | Easy to dry, but not stored for more than 2 years, as it is not resistant to rotting, burns slowly and evenly, does not split much. | Wood stoves (incompatible or mixed with other wood, preferably aspen), but with a lack of oxygen produces tar and smoke, good for baths. |
| Beech | Difficult to dry, shrinks a lot, splits easily, prone to rot. | For fireplaces, smokehouses, all stoves and for cooking. |
| Slingshot | Difficult to dry, badly split, burns slowly and smokelessly, generates a lot of heat. A versatile wood. | Long used by blacksmiths, jewelers, potters and bakers. It is also good for heating the baths, the house and the fireplace. |
| Ash | Difficult to dry and susceptible to rot. | Fireplaces, wood stoves in the house and bathroom. |
| Elm, Ilm. | Difficult to dry, prone to rot, smokes strongly when burning, burns poorly. The species is difficult to separate. | No data. |
| Maple | Hard dry rock, splits well, burns quickly, does not produce much charcoal, but heats the room well enough. | Home stoves, fireplaces, baths. |
| Oak | Difficult to dry but rot-resistant species, splinters poorly. | Baths, fireplaces, wood-burning stoves, including boilers. Good for cooking, such as pizza. |
| Alder | Prone to shrinkage, glows easily, burns evenly, leaving small amounts of soot and ash. | Good for cooking, especially baking, heating baths, houses, fireplaces, smokehouses, burns without soot formation, cleaning chimneys. |
| aspen | Dries easily and shrinks heavily, splits easily into logs. Aspen firewood gives a high flame. You can cook food (kebabs, pizza, rolls in a Russian stove) in baths, wood-burning stoves, but not the best option. | Aspen firewood can be used in the last stages of heating to burn off soot from burning other firewood. |
| Pasture | Not resistant to rot, takes a long time to dry, burns quickly, leaves little charcoal, may smoke if poorly dried. | Not a good fuel for heating, but great for campfires – ignites quickly and burns quickly. |
| poplar | Not resistant to rot. Burns very quickly, you need to burn a lot of firewood to heat your home with it. | Poor quality fuel for indoor home stoves. |
| linden | Very similar to maple in its properties. | sauna |
| Coniferous wood (should be treated only after a long drying period) | ||
| larch | It breaks down easily and is resistant to rot. | Stoves with a straight chimney, such as B. Iron, for pizza baking. |
| Jaw | Dries well, splits easily, and is resistant to rot. Sparks a lot when burning and gives off a lot of soot. | sauna |
| cedar pine. | Dries well, does not rot, gives long smoldering embers when burning. | sauna |
| Spruce | Dries well, inferior to pine in biostability, splits easily, smokes and sparks when burning. | sauna |
The best firewood by application
What kind of firewood is suitable for a heating stove?
Firewood for a heating stove should give a lot of heat, burn long and steadily, leaving ash in the furnace, not on the walls of the chimney. Hardwoods have these characteristics: oak, birch, ash, maple, most fruit trees. They contain little sap and resin, which means they do not produce soot. In most cases, hardwoods leave not only ash after burning, but also smoldering embers. This way, you can keep warm for longer.
Not all hardwoods make good firewood. Aspen, linden, and willow have very soft firewood with poor heat output. However, their performance is slightly better than most conifers.
Soft wood burns so well that it burns almost instantly, so it requires much more firewood than hard hardwood. However, it can smoke and smoke a lot.
firewood for a fireplace.
Fuel for outdoor home systems should not smoke or burn, give off heat well, and have a pleasant aroma.
For the fireplace is better other species: alder, oak, maple, ash, hornbeam and beech.
You can also use aspen, acacia and fruit trees for this purpose. Coniferous firewood will emit sparks and soot, although it has a pleasant aroma. They, like birch, pollute the chimney with soot.
firewood for the bathroom.
High temperature, aroma and antiseptic properties that distinguish some wood species when burned are important for baths. Good for baths are:
- Needlewoods. Their advantage is not in the number of calories, but in the phytoncide properties of their essential oil and pleasant aroma;
- birch. They also disinfect the air, although in the bath it is already sterile, quickly heat the stove and retain heat for a long time
- Thanks to the smoldering embers. It also gives off a pleasant aroma;
- Alder – quickly heats the room, does not smoke;
- Lime Scents the air and gives it antiseptic properties, heats the stove well.
What kind of wood is needed for cooking pizza?
To cook pizza, as well as other dishes, suitable wood that gives enough heat, a pleasant and not repulsive flavor, not smoke. Good pizza will turn out on oak, ash, maple, beech, cedar, lime, fruit wood.
Do not use spruce, fir, pine or birch for pizza. The substances present in their composition spoil the taste of the food.
What kind of firewood should I choose?
Alder firewood
Alder wood and bark can be called a universal fuel, it combines all the positive properties. For making alder firewood, trees growing away from water on hills are grown as firewood. Therefore, they are easy to dry and suitable for burning home stoves. They store for a long time, but after 3 years they lose their aromatic properties, which are so well used in smokestacks.
Olya doesn’t smoke much, so she was accustomed to stoking the bathhouse “black” a long time ago. It’s good for burning in fireplaces. And if you add birch logs to it, it gets even warmer and burns longer. Ola also clears soot from chimneys.
Oak firewood
Oak firewood is expensive and rare. They are hard to light, but they give off a lot of heat. Even a few flights made on species of other trees will provide a longer burning time. When burning, oak leaves long embers that keep the hearth heated.
Oak firewood is aromatic, it is good for fireplaces, for cooking pizza and other dishes.
Real Italian pizza is known to be cooked on such logs. However, in Italy, oak wood is very rare and expensive, so even there it is replaced by… grapevine.
But only young oak wood has the properties described above. The older the wood, the less heat radiates from its trunks. Oak firewood has another disadvantage – after burning, it leaves a lot of ash and strongly pollutes the chimneys.
Birch firewood
Although it is a fast-growing tree, it is suitable as firewood at the age of 40-60 years. Only in this case there is more heat than from pine and aspen.
Birch firewood burns easily and in undried or raw form, its bark contains resin, so it is often used to kindle other firewood (such as aspen or oak). It burns long and hot, but releases a lot of soot, which settles in the chimneys.
Therefore, it is recommended to use birch firewood along with aspen firewood, which has the ability to clean the chimneys.
Since ancient times, birch firewood has been used for heating baths. When burning, they not only warm the room well and quickly, but also disinfect its air. The birch burns completely, leaving no hard coals as a result.
This type of firewood is also not suitable for cooking grills and other dishes – tar adds to the food bitterness.
Birch firewood does not keep for a long time, it rots after 2 years, especially if it is in the open air. Therefore, it is not advisable to stock up on birch firewood for a long time.
Ash firewood
Ash firewood burns more intensely and hotter than oak firewood. This is due to the structure of their wood. Inside its trunk are fibrous tubes filled with air, so the wood heats from the center outward.
The ash contains little moisture, it dries quickly, and burns with an even flame. This wood does not smoke and does not contaminate the parts of the stove. Suitable for any purpose except cleaning chimneys.
Linden Firewood
Lime burns strongly, but burns intensely and gives off a lot of heat. It is well suited for baths. Since ancient times, along with linden, honey, which was burned together with the logs, was also used to cure the heat of the bath. It is said that such an aromatic combination is beneficial to the respiratory tract and promotes healing of wounds on the skin.
Unfortunately, the healing properties of linden last only 2 years. Linden firewood in long-term storage is only suitable for home heating.
Aspen firewood
Aspen firewood is used to kindle the stove before laying coals, although aspen itself should be kindled with birch bark or paper, this process is difficult for aspen.
It is suitable for cleaning soot from chimneys, it does not smoke itself, does not leave much ash after burning, but it does not produce much heat.
Because of the cheapness of aspen firewood, they can be used to heat baths and fireplaces, but they need to burn a lot, they will not spoil the grill, although they will not add flavor to it.
Aspen can be stored longer than birch, fresh it pricks well.
Willow and poplar firewood
This is a cheap and sometimes free (with annual planned cuts in city parks), but unprofitable fuel. Firewood from these types of wood burns quickly and therefore does not give off much heat. To heat a room with them, you have to put a lot of hands in the stove.
But they can be used for heating houses and baths, they smoke or do not smoke, although they give off a characteristic aroma and have a strong sheen. Poplar is not easy to chop, but it is stored for a very limited time – only a few months.
What firewood is profitable to buy: tips, recommendations
Homeowners and dacha owners are wondering what kind of firewood is more profitable, how to get good firewood for the furnace? When using the best firewood, the efficiency of the heating system becomes higher and more heat is released. Company “Drovnitsa” sells various kinds of firewood in any quantity, for which you can always choose the most profitable options.
Varieties of products
Firewood is an excellent fuel. It can be used in all solid fuel stoves in homes, baths, fireplaces and other structures. Firewood is available in the following forms:
- Ready-made protocols. They do not need to be chopped: the trunks are already cut into small pieces. It only remains to properly stack them in the place of storage. The price of chopped firewood is higher than the rest.
- Wedges (cones). Higher, but there is no chopped firewood. You have to chop them yourself and then stack them in a stack of firewood. Raw wedges are easier to split. Wood of some species cannot be stored as wedges – it rots quickly. Wooden wedges are more economical than chopped firewood.
Depending on the species of wood, you need to choose which firewood is cheaper. Dried wood also burns differently depending on the species. They produce different amounts of heat, smoke, and produce different amounts of ash. The denser the structure of the wood, the longer it burns, the more heat it releases. Hardwood (needlewood) varieties smoke more strongly.
Birch trunks are a popular product. They have an average density, but are leaders in heat efficiency. The disadvantage is the presence of resin, which forms smoke during combustion. Spruce is ideal for fireplaces because of its high aesthetics. It is suitable for any stove, produces a lot of heat, almost no smoke. Aspen firewood burns faster, but doesn’t smoke and leaves a minimum of soot and ash. With them, you can keep your chimney clean without wasting time on maintenance.
Firewood wedges
What kind of firewood is a bargain to buy? Wedges are much cheaper than other products. In large volume, they take up less space than chopped firewood. This type of purchase is suitable for those who want to chop their own firewood. Many experience the pleasure of the process and replace going to the gym.
If difficulties arise, you can buy a design to mechanize things. This way even a woman can cope with the wood. You can put an un-split block of wood in a large stove. The main thing is to provide wood chips for quick kindling.
If you have brought a lot of wood, you can leave some for creativity. Billets make great pieces of furniture for the garden, dacha. They serve as legs for benches, tables, are used in landscape design.
Reasons to buy firewood
If you have absolutely no desire to prepare and split firewood, it is worth choosing a finished product. You do not have to physically invest in chopping: just stack the firewood. Another advantage of spaltwood is that it dries quickly compared to wedges. Prepared protocols are appropriate in such cases:
- Lack of a saw, a cleaver axe;
- The need to stoke the stove without a long wait.
Not everyone is in good physical shape. Therefore, people buy already chopped firewood, not considering the cost. Small packaged firewood is popular with dacha owners, who stoke the stove only on cold days. Chopped wood is necessary for a trip to a picnic, the river.
Important Information
When choosing firewood, wood species that give a pleasant smell and bring a cozy atmosphere are preferred. Coniferous wood is not suitable – it produces a lot of smoke and “shoots” small embers. Raw wood is generally undesirable to use. From it little heat, but a lot of smoke.
To check the degree of drying, beat the trunk of a tree against another one. If the sound is sonorous, the wood is dry. The driest wood is sold in the winter, although it costs more in the cold season. Drovnitza has all the firewood options for your home, cottage and will advise you on all your questions!
