Are pine trees and pine wood as good as other firewood?
I"m trimming a pine tree that has branches** that have been dead for about 2 years, and I would put the branches in my firewood stack except I have the impression that the pine resin and whatever leaves drops of "honey" underneath the branches would cause more creosote in my chimney than other firewood. My chimney is metal.
Am I right at all? Has the resin disappeared somehow in 2 years?
What about used pine 2x4s? They are a lot older than 2 years, but are they as good as other firewood?
Thanks.
**FWIW, the branches are 3/4 inch to 3 inches thick.
Wood burns in two stages: first the flames and then the coals. The flame stage gets a stove hot to cook breakfast. The coal stage can keep a room warm all night.
If the smoke doesn't burn very well, the flame stage produces creosote. Pine is associated with creosote because it burns mostly in the flame stage. If your wood is dry, and your combustion chamber is fairly hot, and you have enough secondary air (the draft that sweeps above the fuel instead of fanning the flames), creosote may not be a problem.
It depends on what you are burning it *in* as well as your aims.
Pine creates a creosote problem which means a black tarry glaze that coats a chimney or stove pipe. This then can catch fire. It is not recommended to use pine in any fireplace for this reason. It is more difficult to clean in a chimney and can be very expensive to contract (yet cheaper than a house fire).
Now lets say instead it is a wood burner stove with an easily removed pipe and you are the sort who would actually remove and clean it regular. It should be fine then and no reason to not take advantage of your 'windfall'. How often 'regular' is will depend on usage levels. I can hazard a 'guess' that at a rate of 12 hours a day burn time, you'd want to check it every 2 weeks until you get a feel for it?
I burn only hardwood in my fireplace but some of the load apparently was a little mixed and I added too much paper probably last winter (soda cartons etc which I didnt know were bad- no one knows everything!). Now I have a glaze problem and need what I think they called a CBR or CFR log for a bit to clear it. They also said we might want to have it cleaned twice a year. The glaze isnt bad, more a 'warning' note level.
I use the fireplace heavier than most. Although located south of many who deal with real cold, it's enough we have to run heat to deal with 4 months of the low-40's to mid-30's with occasional dips to the teens and *rare* single digits. The fireplace augments the heat and due to our insulation and design, saved us about 900$ last year beyond the cost of wood. The fireplace generally ran about 12 hours a day. You could tell the heat HVAC barely kicked on.
I can tell you from my experinces what I have seen. I lived in South Carolina (but up agaist the smokies so we got snow etc). Some folks had wood burner stoves (often a Ben Franklin sort but there were other than the pot bellies). The pipe comes up then angles out to the wall exit. That way heat leaches all the way along it but the slight angle 'upwards' means apparently it doesnt soot up as fast?
Cleaning was done real simple. Take pipe down (normally lifts off from bottom then pulls out from wall) and I saw a combination of garden hose and a stiff bristle brush with a bit of 'soap' (not sure kind of soap, may have been 'dawn dishwishing type' for all I know). Rinse and repeat til it runs clean.
If it helps, you'd have a kid with a ripped up towel or really old blanket-rag who'd be at the ready as you lifted the pipe up as soot would fall down. They'd grab it so Mom didnt have to clean much and wrap it then run to the other end and help Dad keep it up so none fell out from that end as it was moved to the yard.
That's how SWMBO's uncle (he owned cabin with a Ben Franklin stove in the Sierra-Nevadas) did it. He'd also use his 1-hp Genie shopvac to clean up any soot that dusted the floors on the way outside.
It was a filthy job and one not performed by the faint of heart but, as you noted in an earlier post, better than the alternative. He used Ajax but Dawn would work, too, I'm sure.
The chimney sweeps (professionals) would come out to my Sainted Mother's(tm) home annually for chimney cleaning. Best US$39.00 she'd spend because he had the tools to scour the inside (and then he'd clean up the mess!) That was over two decades ago so I'm sure they're charging more nowadays.
It's much less important now, because I've decided to make a firewood rack and keep the wood until fall, but earlier I was wondering:
What do you all think about burning a cut-down tree in a fireplace in the summer when the heat is of no value*** and after a while I only get moderate pleasure from watching the flames, or I might even sit where I can't even see the flames, VERSUS just throwing the logs in the brush and woods next to my house, where it will rot eventually (10 years or more). I guess letting it rot is better for the environment, but the hardwood logs are so nice, they seem to call out to me to be burned. Which is better?
***(but no problem either the fireplace is in the basement which is always cool and since I run the AC at most one month a year and wouldn't burn a fire when I was running the AC)
It's a steel fireplace, that's used in place of a brick fireplace. That is, it's shaped the same, is metal on the sides getting slightly narrower towards the metal back. Open in the front, with a fireplace screen. Heavy sheet metal. And an iron rack for holding the wood 3 or 4 inches above the fireplace floor.
No matter what I'm burning, if I put enough in at the same time it gets hot enough to make bumping noises, mild pounding noises, as parts expand, and convex areas suddenly become concave. At least that's what it sounds like. Then when it cools off, it makes similar noises but not as loud. I run the fireplace 2 to 10 times a year. Is this bending back and forth going to cause the thing to break at the seams or somewhere? How many years have I got until this happens? :)
I have one of those, or maybe I used it. I guess I should buy another.
Last fall I cut up a much bigger pine limb that had broken off the tree, and threw the pieces in the woods when my townhouse neighbors weren't looking. I think it's better to throw it in the woods than put it out for garbage where it will go to landfill, but this year I guess because of the firewood race, I'm inclined to save it and burn it. I guess I shouldn't.
They also said we might want to have it cleaned twice a year.
I used to use a little pine to start a fire, some fat lightered splinters with a small piece of pine to get things started easy. I still do this on campfires that I dont plan to cook on.
That's debatable. Burning puts CO2 in the atmosphere but plants convert that to oxygen which is good. Throwing the wood out makes it food for termites which produce methane which is a serious greenhouse gas. So it's probably a toss up for the environment.
Just letting it rot produces CO2, in fact burning or rotting with produce the same amount of CO2 the only difference is how much time it takes to produce it.
OK. I was wondering if it took a couple gallons of paint thinner or something. If that was the case, it seems burning pine would be a pain in the neck, at least with my attitude toward using that much paint thinner.
Al Gore seems to think that carbon dioxide is going to kill us all. Guess he didn't go to school? My class learned about plants using dioxide, and releaxing oxygen.
As firewood, I've heard plenty of people say pine is a bad idea. Not much heat, and plenty of creosote, to coat the lining of your chimney. And lead to chimney fires.
That is just another old wives tale. The fact is that _all_ wood has approximately the same BTU pound for pound. The difference is only in "how much does it take to make a pound?"
If it weren't for pine/fir/spruce and the like, a whole bunch of people in th west, north, Canada, Alaska etc would not be burning wood at all. If all the tales about creosote and chimney fires were true houses would be going up by the dozens every winter.
The truth is that if the pine, fir, etc. is properly seasoned and the stove burned properly, i.e., not a 'cold fire' it is no more prone to chimney creosote than are the hardwoods.
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