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Post by willowways2 on Dec 31, 2011 22:04:10 GMT -8
not sure if you guys want to pin this thread or not. but this is going to be able fire wood.
so here in Colorado i have found that the majority of our tree species are of the following:
bristlecone pine, Colorado blue spruce, Douglas-fir, Engelmann spruce, limber pine, lodgepole pine, narrowleaf cottonwood, quaking aspen, piñon pine, plains cottonwood, ponderosa pine, Rocky Mountain juniper, subalpine fir and white fir.
out of that i know that trees with a highly flammable resin such as most pines tend to be bad fire word simply cause of the creosote that can build up.
so what wood here and other places are good woods. like i believe furs are a good species, with may include the non-true fur known as the Douglas-fir.
from what i have read pinyon pine is a good 'soft wood' to burn in that it has little to no popping but is a conifer so it burns better then other woods.
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Post by peterberg on Jan 1, 2012 2:26:01 GMT -8
...out of that i know that trees with a highly flammable resin such as most pines tend to be bad fire word simply cause of the creosote that can build up. Looking at its combustion value, all wood species are equal within a few percentages. That is to say, by weight. Density is another thing, obviously a cord of oak will be heavier than of cord of poplar. And about that few percentages, the combustion value of the resinous specimen is a little bit higher. Burn properly, no creosote will be building up, despite the bad name of coniferous woods. The crux is: burn properly, which can be done in an excellent way by means of a well-built rocket mass heater. The only negative point for conifers would be the low density. Rocket mass heaters using soft woods have got the tendency to let the fire creep out of the feed tube more often. So, when you have the choice, use the hardest wood species you can lay your hands on. Happy new year! |
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Post by machinemaker on Jan 1, 2012 9:48:50 GMT -8
willowways2, I used to live outside of Idaho Springs and heated with wood. Two of my best sources of wood for heating when we lived there was the wood pile at the cherokee power plant. The power company contracts out all the tree trimming in the area and dumps the wood in the employees parking lot. the other place is the maintenance yard for arvada parks department. they dump all the wood they cut out of the parks and open spaces for people to haul away. I used get several cords from them each year and most of it was cotton wood, but there was a some was better hardwoods and fruit woods.
kent
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Post by pasto76 on Jan 1, 2012 11:21:42 GMT -8
I think cottonwood smells really bad when its burned. I live in Colo Springs, and get firewood permits every year to harvest wood form the forest. Mostly I take furs and ponderosas. I took aspens two years ago, but it's hard to finding standing dead aspen that is not already decaying in middle. The standing dead ponderosas I took this year are burning very well. No popping, little ash, and my wife has commented on how far the heat radiates into the family room.
As far as creosote, if you burn in the right temperature range, it shouldnt build up much. Creosote is a product of incomplete combustion, and being in the Rocket stove forum, we are all attracted to the rocket stove because it has better combustion than a regular fireplace.
One thing I am going to try as soon as I can get my hands on some is the gambel oak. It's an oak, described as a hardwood. Anyone know any downside to burning gambel oak?
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Post by canyon on Jan 6, 2012 12:04:12 GMT -8
I feel the need to stress that whatever variety of wood (it is very interesting to get to know the characteristics of local varieties) for RMH's it is crucial that the wood is really dry. REALLY DRY!  |
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