Firewood FAQ

[LeftyTom]

I had a large poplar felled this week. It had been struck by lightning a few years ago, and had developed some rot on one side.

I do not heat with wood, but the mother in law does. I had the trunk cut into 24" lengths, 24" - 30" diameter. The rule of thumb is one year "seasoning " before use. Is there a preferred moisture content? I ask because a few pieces are noticeably drier or have rot.

 

[KenOfCary]

I'm no expert but I'd split those large pieces as soon as possible to help them dry out more. Poplar is pretty straight grained so should split pretty easily. Everything is relative. I'd much rather try to split Hickory than Gum for firewood any day.

Gum is just too hard to split. I could tell a story about trying to split a gum log with a maul and about nearly knocking myself out when it got embedded in the wood and finally released - very unexpectedly. Luckily it wasn't a double sided Axe that hit me in the middle of the forehead. I was a lot younger and less smart in those days.

But then I won't mention that story. I looked too silly staggering across the yard trying not to pass out.

 

[aplpickr]

Popular gets its name from what happens when it is burned! Pieces pop with minor explosions. Open a wood stove door and pieces fly out. I set fire to the living room carpet when a 2" piece landed about 5 feet away. I would landfill it. I do not use popular firewood!

 

[chris_goris]

Its high in creosote content too… not good… Ive known people who will burn it mixed in with other woods, but it doesnt give off much heat.

 

[Jeff]

You are talking about tulip poplar, correct? Split and stack it so it'll air dry over the summer. It'll be fine for use this winter but it won't last long in the wood stove and don't expect a lot of heat from it. It's not one of the heavy hitters as far as Btu/cord; it's not even listed in most firewood charts!

https://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm

http://www.woodheat.org/firewood.html

Creosote? That's a consequence of burning any wet wood with reduced airflow (wood stove).

 

[LeftyTom]

Thanks, guys. The MIL burns other wood, so the poplar will be diluted. so to speak. She burns wood in a large wood stoce in her basement ( concrete floor, no burnable material near the stove door. I have delegated the splitting to the brother-in law, who lives with MIL. I gotta get some good use out of him.

 

[merrill77]

As the others said, you won't get much heat or any coals from it. When I burned poplar in my fireplace, I noticed that I had to put another log on the fire ~ every 5 minutes. It was ~15 minutes with oak.

I don't even bother carrying it up the hill to my house anymore...burning it is more work than it's worth, IMO.

 

[jerrye]

FWIW, if you have a setup with poor draft, poplar can be a very good wood to burn. I once had such a setup that wouldn't do well with oak or hickory but did fine with poplar, which worked out well because a local wood dealer gave me a fantastic deal on a season's worth of wood, because he had a load that was mostly poplar.

 

[CrealBilly]

Poplar is pretty good to get a fire started but not much use afterwards. The guys are right burns fast to a pile of white ashes. Cedar is better to get a fire started it smells a lot better too. But I wouldn't burn cedar regularly for cresol build up concerns.

"the internet is not a luxury, it's a necessity." Barack Hussein Obama II - 15 July 2015

 

[chris_goris]

Creosote? That's a consequence of burning any wet wood with reduced airflow (wood stove).

Burning wood, no matter how you do it, releases pollutants, mainly in the form of gases and particulate matter. There is no avoiding this but, how these things are dealt with in your wood burning appliance can vary greatly - not only in the type of stove you choose but in how you operate it. One of the main dangers of wood burning is the excessive build up of creosote in chimneys and stove pipes.Creosote is a gummy, foul smelling, corrosive and extremely combustible substance that, if no precautions are taken, will coat the insides of everything it passes through. It is formed when volatile gases given off in the burning process combine and condense on their way out of the chimney.The gases leave the burning wood with the smoke. If the smoke is cooled below 250 degrees F, the gases liquefy, combine, and solidify, forming creosote. Creosote takes several forms, all bad. As a liquid, it can run down the insides of pipes and chimneys, oozing out of any openings. It can form a hard layer coating the insides of pipes and chimney liners. It can form into a fluffy substance that plugs pipes and breaks off and falls down, filling low spots in piping. It is the cause of most chimney fires and the main reason chimneys and pipes have to be cleaned and inspected periodically.

 

[Endless Pursuit]

If you want to rid your flue of creosote, toss an aluminum can 1/4 filled with fine rock salt onto a hot fire. The shiny black creosote will turn to light, fluffy harmless brown ash that floats out the top.

 

[cpw]

Poplar is pretty good to get a fire started but not much use afterwards. The guys are right burns fast to a pile of white ashes.

I prefer to use semi-hardwoods like poplar and soft maple in this capacity. Once I get some heat going then I'll put on the oak or cherry.

 

[SubGuy]

I use wood exclusively to heat my house up here. Poplar is good for fire starting, kindling but as others have said, lacks in longevity and heat. Using it mixed is find as long as she knows which piece of wood is which. As far as Creosote goes, as said earlier, depends on MC of wood, airflow, etc. You can even burn pine if it's properly seasoned. http://www.mastersweep.com/wood.htm

 

[CrealBilly]

If you want to rid your flue of creosote, toss an aluminum can 1/4 filled with fine rock salt onto a hot fire. The shiny black creosote will turn to light, fluffy harmless brown ash that floats out the top.

Could you elaborate a little on this? I never heard of this before. You mean like a beer can? What is this fine rock salt you speak of? The only rock salt I know is rock salt never seen fine rock salt before. Do you cut the can in to a quarter? Thanks

"the internet is not a luxury, it's a necessity." Barack Hussein Obama II - 15 July 2015

 

[cpw]

This handout from the University of Kentucky seems to discourage using salt-based products for chemical cleaning. They describe it as "controversial" and point out that sodium chloride is corrosive to metal and masonry. It also includes several recommendations for avoiding creosote buildup in the first place, the chief one being avoid burning wood with over 20% moisture content. I prefer mine as close to 10% as possible.

Considering how late firewood season starts here in the south, if you cut and split the poplar now and stack it where the wind and sun can get to it, it should be plenty dry by January. My main firewood racks are actually in the shade and I still have no problem drying summer wood in time to burn it in the winter.

 

[merrill77]

This handout from the University of Kentucky seems to discourage using salt-based products for chemical cleaning. They describe it as "controversial" and point out that sodium chloride is corrosive to metal and masonry. It also includes several recommendations for avoiding creosote buildup in the first place, the chief one being avoid burning wood with over 20% moisture content. I prefer mine as close to 10% as possible.

Poorly worded paragraph in that article. First it says:

Hardwood with a 20 percent or less moisture content is the best wood to burn.

but is immediately followed by:

For many years, high moisture wood was associated with creosote formation but this has been proven untrue

If the second is true, why mention the moisture content in the first? If it is because the moisture content it is related to the temperature of the burn, then the authors should have been more explicit.


It seems like the temperature of the fire is really they key - I keep my fires burning slowly (more coals and less flame), limit the airflow (via the flue, helps with slow-burning) and use seasoned wood that makes lots of coal, so I guess I'm doing most of the right things. Until this thread, I was under the (mistaken) impression that pine sap caused the dangerous chimney buildup, rather than the burn temp. Good to know. Does SYP burn well (well == lots of hot coals)? I'm assuming not, since it is rarely mentioned.


Anyway, I thank this entire discussion for reminding me that I haven't had my chimney cleaned in many years. We don't use the fireplace a lot, but that is a poor excuse.

 

[Gofor]

If you want to rid your flue of creosote, toss an aluminum can 1/4 filled with fine rock salt onto a hot fire. The shiny black creosote will turn to light, fluffy harmless brown ash that floats out the top.

Back when I was a lad, my Dad would throw all the used flashlight batteries (the lead/acid type before Nicad and rechargeables) into our coal furnace to keep the brick chimney clean. Can't say how well it worked, but don't remember ever having a chimney sweep come by, and I know my Dad didn't clean it because he had a very strong dislike for heights. (He would tie himself off to the chimney with a rope whenever he had to work on the roof before we boys grew big enough to do any repairs needed to the roof.) He (or we boys) did shovel out the soot from the base of the chimney every spring, but that was about the extent of any cleaning.

FWIW

Go

 

[CrealBilly]

This is a interesting conversation. Its not very timely because I'm sitting here sweating from the summer heat but it's interesting never the less.

"the internet is not a luxury, it's a necessity." Barack Hussein Obama II - 15 July 2015

 

[Jeff]

Anyway, I thank this entire discussion for reminding me that I haven't had my chimney cleaned in many years. We don't use the fireplace a lot, but that is a poor excuse.

Chimney cleaning 1x/year is a good investment. More so for a wood stove.

 

[merrill77]

Back when I was a lad, my Dad would throw all the used flashlight batteries (the lead/acid type before Nicad and rechargeables)into our coal furnace to keep the brick chimney clean.

I would think putting a lead-acid battery into a furnace could be quite the disaster! Is there some other type of lead-acid battery that I'm not aware of...one that doesn't create (highly-explosive) hydrogen gas when it overheats?

(zinc-carbon, zinc-chloride and alkaline batteries were common before the recent rechargeable technologies)