btu

[charlie knighton]

why does maple burn hotter than other woods, say oak??????????? the maple is green

[Steve Vaughan]

Wonder if it actually burns hotter or does it burn faster? I'd always heard oak, hickory, black locust have the hottest and longer lasting fires.

[Pete Jordan]

http://www.asootysolution.com/Firewood_101.html

Go down a little and it gives the btus

[Hilel Salomon]

Unscientific, but having a wood stove which essentially warms my whole house in VA, I've noticed that Black Locust (not on Peter Jordan's list) burns slower and hotter than any of the other hardwoods I have tried, including oak, maple, hickory and walnut. I usually start a fire with the other woods and then add locust. It's cheaper and more convenient for me to buy oak, which around me will be delivered and stacked, but I still go up to the mountains in my place and harvest fallen locusts, which I cut and split. The outside temperature can be in the teens, and the parts of my house I want heated, wind up being 70+ degrees when I use locust. Now turning the wood is another story. I prefer maple, cherry and cedar.

Hilel

[Hilel Salomon]

Out of curiosity, I googled the question of weight and btu's and found many sites on the subject. No two sites had the same results. The only common result was that Osage Orange was generally at the top, but Black locust was less, more, equal to oak and maple, depending on the chart. Go figure? Those of my neighbors who depend on wood stoves all agree about locust, so I'll stick to my experience.

Hilel

[Roger Chandler]

I burn wood in my wood stove...........I have never seen a piece of maple burn hotter than oak........given both were seasoned and not green. YMMV

[Robert McGowen]

Not sure why you guys are discussing wood stoves. It was in the 80's and not a cloud in the sky today in central Texas. Rode the motorcycle to the hardware store in jeans and a t-shirt. :D

[Dennis Ford]

Burning hotter and burning longer don't normally come in the same wood. Mesquite burns very hot but does not last a long time.

[David E Keller]

I still can't believe that people burn mesquite!

[Scott Hackler]

You want to see a wood that burns real hot and last for a ling time...look at Osage Orange! While growing up, Dad would always place a large hedge (Osage Orange for you non Midwest people) in the stove, just before we went to bed. It would last all night long and at times I would awake to go get a drink of water and the sides of oval wood stove would be glowing! Does pop a bit, but around here it is the best firewood and fence posts (and great for turning too)!

[Fred Belknap]

Just my idea, all wood is mostly carbon and when it changes to CO2 it gives off heat, so I guess wood that is dry and heavy would give off the most btu. Heck it was just a thought.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

All wood fibers are equal in BTU value, it is just that some wood species have more of them packed in a smaller package, By weight all woods are equal in BTU value, and worth about 7000 BTU per Pound at 20% moisture level.

Realizing this, it is best to get/buy the most dense wood that is dried well, if bought in cords, and for this reason sellers are starting to sell firewood by weight, rather than the cord or face cord or heap, truckload etc.

220465

Here's some more info.

http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G5450

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-biomass-combustion-heat-d_440.html

[Reed Gray]

Well, we don't have sugar maple here, and the BLM burns up pretty fast. Black locust does put out a lot of heat, but takes 2 plus years to dry enough to burn. Osage does great as well. Hottest one I have found is the Mountain Mahogany. Too rare to just burn, but the scraps tend to leave a pile of ashes the same size as the chunk of wood.

robo hippy

[Mike Cruz]

Hands down, Locust is the best fire wood. My wood stove is packed with it right now! ;) With the stove up to a good heat, I can turn down the air intake almost closed and have it stay hot and burn all night. Other woods require more air to stay the same heat. Or, they can use the same amount of air, but burn up quickly. Bottom line with burning wood is that the wood stove uses up air to burn. When it burns air from inside your house (duh!) that air needs to be replaced. It is replaced with air from outside. So, on a 20 degree day, you are sucking in 20 degree air (through all the cracks in your house). The less you suck in, the more efficient your heating is. Locust, hands down, does the best of any of the woods in this area. The challenge is that Locust doesn't grow quite as plentiful as the others. We have LOTS of ash and poplar here. I don't like burning either. Sure there's plenty of oak, maple, cherry, walnut, and others. Oak is my second choice. Then maple. Won't burn anything else. But when that occasional walnut burns....mmmmmm that smells heavenly.

[Jeff Nicol]

Another wood that is very hot is Hop Hornbeam, it is hard and dense so when it gets burning the logs turn into hot coals that keep their shape for a while. The softer lighter woods will turn to ash much faster and not make a good bed of coals, hot coals heat better than flames. The only thing about the hornbeam is that it will dull a chainsaw pretty fast, but grows like weeds up here and the DNR forestry would like everyone to cut all of it down as it competes with the other trees.

Makes good tool handles too and carving mallets!

Jeff

[David Starks]

I get some locust in my wood pile every year and it goes in the mixed pile even tho its hotter (or as hot as anyway) than oak. People around here are caught up on oak and blackjack oak in particular. Ive always said i could have a rick of oak at $100 and a rick of locust at $50 and most will pay the money for the oak even after you show them the btu charts.