Firewood loads and weights

Yes, I pointed out earlier in the thread there is not much to choose between logs of the same moisture content, though the bulk can be pertinent. Certain species are slower to dry though, try taking cut and split oak and sycamore into a dry room and note the rate of weight loss.

Matches are made from aspen, but wax is added to sustain combustion and one, I believe the UK's biggest, supplier of kindling, uses oven dried poplar

AJH

Reply to
Andrew Heggie <andrew.heggie
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Yes it has a high initial moisture content and low oven dry bulk density. Hybrids can be very high yielding in trials of arable short rotation coppice, transport costs are a hindrance with water and density considerations.

AJH

Reply to
Andrew Heggie <andrew.heggie

Not a hard wood but a hardwood ;-) the trade differentiates between softwood and hardwood, more properly conifer or broadleaved. Willow and poplar are hardwoods/broadleaves but of low strength.

Was it drying as cordwood or split and stacked?

Elder is hardly a wood, did you mean alder?

This is also a disappointing wood to burn, I have not tested it for green moisture content. Along with birch this is a wood that can actually rot within it's bark if stored outside as roundwood.

AJH

Reply to
Andrew Heggie <andrew.heggie

Yes, since the 70s a lot of elm has been available as dead standing wood, also the beetle forms galleries under the bark which bird subsequently knock off in their searches, so the pole desiccates standing. Green elm has a 140% water content dwb (IIRC).

Yes. You can make a fairly good estimate of the heating value of wood by first subtracting the ash weight then multiplying the remaining dry wood weight by 18MJ and subtracting the water weight times 2.7MJ (this makes fairly broad assumptions about flue temperature).

To refine this a bit you need to treat the proportions of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose separately, lignin has the highest calorific value and forms a larger portion of conifer wood.

Ash by a long margin then probably birch and sycamore.

AJH

Reply to
Andrew Heggie <andrew.heggie

Willow is apparently the fastest way to acumulate combustible biomass. What it lacks in density it more than makes up in speed of growth.

ISTR from a county show some years back that you can actually get heating plants designed to burn relatively wet willow cleanly..

..in case anyone is faintly interested.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Well, ash - good it seems. Hawthorn...not bad. Blackthorn/damson/wild cherry/all fruit trees - slow to catch and slow to burn, makes great charcoal. Oak - thats OK, but spits even when dry sometimes Poplar? Mmm. Think its good. Haven't burnt any for some time tho. Beech. Ditto. None around here. Leylandii - fantabulous stuff, but somehat TOO inflammable. Willow? Too wet to burn green easily, and may spit, but dries fast. Elm? what elm? :-) Elder. Good kindling once dried a bit. Sycamore. Mmm. Think its dense and slow burning. good. Field Maple. See sycamore. Very good. That's pretty much all I have in the woodpile right now. All basically burns once the fire is hot enough.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Actually its a lot easier. Run the CH at a given setting, and light the fire. Room gets warmer. QED.

Prat.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Aspen is poplar.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I have seen no elm worth burning standing since the 70's. Maxium height before infestation kills is usually less than 30 ft, and that usually corresponds to a bole of no more than 6" diameter.

I'll add field maple to that, otherwise basically that is my impression from here as well, tho we have very little birch.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I have never paid cash for firewood, as its amazing how much you can collect from various places. The quality depends on how fully you are. Not paying of cource means you have to work to collect it, so you fetch and carry & chop and dry and carry - all of which is joyy good exercise. I will chop peoples trees down for free, take the big logs and put the small stuff in a skip they provide.

I have recently discovered a saw mill that dumps the stuff next to the road for you to take, of cource is still wet, and it needs cutting but its cheep

Rick

Reply to
Rick Dipper

And lime can be burnt green

Reply to
Wheelbarrowbob

???? can anyone explain that?

Reply to
usenet

It was from memory so I did not refer it back to wet weight basis. The dry weight basis refers the water content to the oven dry weight of the wood so if the oven dry weight is 1kg the water content is 1.4kg and the total weight is 2.4kg. As a wet weight basis percentage this means the mc would be 1.4/2.4=58.3% hic :-)

AJH

Reply to
Andrew Heggie <andrew.heggie

OK, makes sense, though it's a confusing use of a percentage.

Reply to
usenet

Hello Bob

Depends on the size of vehicle. It's like a spoonful - the actual quantity depends on the size of the spoon and whether it's heaped.

What you get from that supplier.

It's all very vague I'm afraid. The weight depends on how wet they are, how many there are, what sort of wood and so on. The quantity depends on the supplier and local demand. Cowboys will stack the logs to take up more space, so look more impressive. Good guys will stack the logs to take up less space. The middle ground guys just check 'em in and let 'em fall.

As to what vehicle - a Hilux is generic, expect around half a ton (wheelarches inside remember, and if it's panelled you'll lose a lot of logs). Transits more, usually a tonne (ish).

Sometimes hard to find a decent, honest and reliable supplier - so most folks hang onto them when they do.

Reply to
Simon Avery

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