wood-btu-heat-per-cord

Best Wood For Heating

Have you ever wondered what is the best wood to use for heating and burning in a wood stove? Ever wondered how much heat that a particular wood species will provide when burned?

Did you know that one cord of firewood provides the heat equivalent to that produced by burning 200 to 250 gallons of heating oil, depending on the type of hardwood you are using?

A cord of Oak will burn about 29 Million BTU’s, and is one of the better (more efficient) types of wood to heat with. Oak is very hard and dense, and will burn for a long time compared with many others.

the-best-firewood-is-oak

On the flip-side, a cord of Pine will only provide 60% of the heat as Oak, while Cedar will provide less than half the heat as Oak.

If we compared the wood burning capacity by weight, instead of by cord, most wood would produce about the same amount of heat. The difference is that dense hard woods are heavier, pack more heat, and therefore a cord (or any quantity) of hard wood will produce more heat than the same quantity of a softer wood.

For heating, in general it is best to consume dense hard woods. Hardwoods, or woods from broadleaved trees, tend to be denser than softwoods or woods from conifers.

In case you wondered, a standard cord of wood is 128 cubic feet – 8 feet x 4 feet x 4 feet.

Really though, the best firewood is going to be whatever is locally available to you, so long as it’s dry and fits in your stove. If you have a choice though, choose a hardwood for fewer trips to the log pile.

List of wood species, heating BTU’s per cord, from most to least,

Note: This list of wood species is not all inclusive, but is what I could find data on – so as to sort most to least BTU’s per cord.

Oak
Beech
Apple
Mulberry
Maple
Walnut
Juniper
Birch
Douglas-fir
Cherry
Ash
Elm
Sycamore
Hemlock
Aspen
Chestnut
Willow
Alder
Pine
Cottonwood
Spruce
Cedar

Large Heat Powered Wood Stove Fan

Wood Stove Temperature Meter | Best Temp Zone To Minimize Creosote

In case you were wondering about those waxy energy ‘Duraflame’ type fire-logs…

Typical Oak firewood has about 8,500 BTU’s per pound.
A typical wax-fiber firelog has about 14,000 BTU’s per pound.

While energy logs might be a nice quick fix for a fire, it’s an expensive fire…

NOTE: Be wary of using soft and oily woods like Pine in a stove or fireplace due the buildup of creosote (a residue that is highly flammable) in the flu over time, especially if not fully dried. Pine makes for a great firestarter because it burns very hot and fast, but not good for long-term use.

Let’s hear from you – what wood do you heat with? What’s your experience?

77 Comments

  1. Tulip trees (poplar or boxwood), common in the northeast, should be on the list, albeit very low down, like next to cottonwood…

    Also, elm is nearly impossible to split, but even large logs will burn (hot and slow) if seasoned for 3-4 years (kept dry, they don’t rot. Ash is also highly rot resistant).

    Hickory should be in there too, up near the top.

    Anything burns; I guess if you live way up north in Alaska that spruce is your first choice?

    1. I agree about Hickory not being there. it’s my most abundant wood. Crazy hard to split, but it’s doable. It also smells great.

    2. i agree with the elm… not sure about poplar… and frankly not sure about this article for two reasons…. locust and hickory…didnt see either one on here

      1. this is a joke, right? ASPEN is on your list? Aspen AKA Poplar? Absolutely not good firewood for heat. ANd where is black locust? It should be in the top 3. Get your shit straight, ameteur.

        1. Your head exploding will make up the difference when you start rubbing brain cells together.

  2. Forgot to add: Red Maple (also know as Swamp Maple) is very common in wet, low-lying areas, and burns very fast (too fast, but hot) compared to the other members of the Maple family, like Sugar Maple.

  3. okay, yes to all above, but i NEED to say this, before anyone else (GRIN)

    when all else fails, and SHTF,

    the best wood to burn,

    is “whatever you can scrounge”

    grin

  4. Good reason to encourage the wife to only purchase wood furniture. If all else fails, you can at least stay warm.

  5. Let me try and dispel the myth one more time…PINE does not produce any more creosote than any other wood. Wet wood is the reason for creosote buildup.Pine might not produce coals and will not have as many btu’s as hard woods but is no more dangerous to burn (well seasoned) than any other wood. If pine built up creosote so bad how do people out west and up in canada not burn there houses down every other year…because for the most part, pine is all they have to burn. If you burn wet unseasoned wood ,any wood,including pine, it will build up creosote and can cause a chimney fire.

    This is how I believe this ole wives tale got started. Pine is a soft wood and will dry much faster than say oak or hickory. Most people mix their wood in their stacks. so a stack of really unseasoned oak will have well seasoned pine in it if it was all stacked at the same time as split. So you start burning this oak,that was cut and split 6 months ago(that really needs about a year and a half to be seasoned properly)and it starts building up creosote in your chimney. You burn it for a few months and then get to the place in the pile that has, the by now, well seasoned pine in it. You fill your whole fireplace with pine because,just the oak, you think it will take a while to get going(BECAUSE THE OAK WAS UNSEASONED, THIS PINE IS NOT!!!)and the pine just roars away inside.You neglect to/or dont change the damper from the unseasoned oak because that needed it full open to even burn the unseasoned oak and the next thing you know you have a chimney fire! And the good, well seasoned pine wood that was ready to burn gets the blame for the creosote that the unseasoned oak really was the culprit for the build up.

    Anyone from a all pine wood area that burns it every year please chime in and dispel this. (I am from Michigan and have ten acres or hardwoods to burn) but I would burn pine in a second if that was all I had…its easy to split light weight and seasons in a few summer months. I get white or red pine once in a while and it burns great if only being gopher wood.

    What is gopher wood? when you burn it it wont be long before you have to Gopher more.

    1. I purchased a 5000 square foot home two years ago and it has an outdoor wood boiler.

      I also have tons of timber with oak, walnut and plenty of hardwoods. But the problem is that I can’t get to them until after the corn comes out so I can’t get started cutting until Nov.

      So what I started doing is going about 1/4 mile down the road to a pile that is used by local tree services to dump pine, cedar and some oak.

      I know it is not ideal for heat, but my theory is that if I can heat the house in Nov, 1/2 of dec, and Feb-April 1 with pine then I can get about 2 months of hardwood later.

      It just seems like such a waste to let that pile sit there when I can drive my pickup and trailer about 15 feet from the pile and start filling the shed now.

      1. I own 250 acres hardwood bush in southern Ontario most of it is sugar maple and beech little bit cherry , hickey , oak & ash some popular, basswood . But without a doubt dry maple , oak & beech are your hottest burning wood .also the loggers around this area leave popular & basswood in the bush they call them weeds it’s a garbage wood we heat a huge stone farmhouse 7 bedrooms around 15 bush cords per winter . That being said u have to burn seasoned wood maple & beech give off tons and the coals last .

    2. I agree. Living in the Northwest 99% of available wood is pine. I never have to purchase it because a trip through the forest gets me a couple cords of just limbs that have broken off. Clean the chimney and wood stove every year and the creosote build up is minimal. Of course like everyone else is saying make sure to burn dry seasoned wood.

    3. I’ve had more than a handful of oldtimers out here in socal mountains tell me that burning a few scraps of plywood now and then will “eat up that creosote.” Not too sure on the truth of it, but in my last house with a 1951 brick chimney I burned almost nothing but pinion pine and scrap doug-fir from work. Never saw much build up in the 6 years living there, and never once had it cleaned.

      1. I have also had old timers tell me to throw a handful of rock salt on the coals every few weeks to take care of creosote

    4. For a very smart guy, you have to realize that most of the wood we burn is hardwood. not because of any difference in creosote,but it means less wood we have to store in our Igloos.

    5. Thank you finally someone who knows what causes the most creosote. And unfortunately or not pine will burn when it is wet. There are over 100 different speacies of pine here in Calif. and some will out do most Hardwoods. It seems that these charts are all based on eastern locations. Olive is going to have the highest BTU count and don’t forget Almond. I saw Birch on one of these lists and I can only assume that it is much denser than what we have here in Calif. Also dry/seasoning time will very do to your weather and or place of storage to dry.

      Just saying..

    6. You are obviously not familiar with Grey Pine or Digger Pine tat folks burn and even bone dry has tons of pitch in in that does build up and cause flue fires. The other types of pine out west do dry well and burn good without all of the pitch. The best firewood of all is Olive as I have burned it along with oak, eucalyptus, fir and many pines and it puts out the most heat and little ash.

    7. Hello, I am going to be a first time user of my home fire place and want to use it because I’m told it’s great to decrease high gas bills. On fixed income and have had the chimney checked out that I can use it. Bu I am stuck on the size of the rack I should purchase, the type of wood. My reason would be to keep my home warm and not have to turn on my gas heat??

  6. Oh and the undisputed king of hardwoods in the USA is …Osage Orange at 32.9, second is american hornbeam,both as high as coal! hickory and I love it and is even above oak but I have lots of oak and it is a hot burner too,it just takes longer than hickory to season well. But osage takes a couple years also, so its all good.

    Good info Ken, and the best part is when you said the best wood is whatever you can get AS LONG AS IT IS DRY!!! How do you tell? harbor frieght sells moisture meters that you can use, just resplit a piece of your wood and stick in the probe where the newly exposed wood is,should be below 18% and 15% is better.By the way furnature…wink… and kiln dried is below 10% and can cause an overfire…myself I just clack two splits together and listen to the sound, should be a high crack and not a dull thud. If when you are cleaning your chimney you see gooey black tar or resonous black glassy stuff that wont come off inside, that is the dangerous creosote and BAD,however brown/black fuzzy stuff is soot and is normal and not dangerous and is good.

    1. Thanks for the insight. I like your method of clacking two splits together vs. today’s high-tech ;)

      1. Also, if you are burning wood that really hisses (my dad was notorious for this) that wood is too wet and is going to produce creosote…You will need to clean the chimney multiple times over the burning season, I only clean once a year and get about 5 cups of fuzzy soot when I do.the hiss you hear from your wood is the water boiling and evacuating the pores of the wood.

        Well seasoned 15-18% wood does not hiss when burnt.Water hisses… and cools the flue temp depositing the creosote…its resin that pops and snaps…resin is normal and fine(sassafras really pops). Also well seasoned wood barely needs any kindling to get started…I can get a fire going in my furnace with 3 or 4 crumpled newspapers and full splits, I do the top down method and rarely take more than a couple minute each morning.

        Also if putting in a new fireplace locate the chimney, if at all possible, on the peak side of the room and not the eave side. The longer your chimney is located inside the warm house before emerging the better your draft will be. My chimney runs from my basement right up thru the peak of the house over 25 foot run and will just about suck your watch of your arm. Never run your stove pipe and the triple wall pipe out the side wall of your room and up the outside of the house …the cold chimney pipes draft will be awful and you will have nothing but problems. You might think it looks better and cleaner to have that ugly pipe outside but believe me it will work much better on the inside and a real bonus to an inside straight run chimney is you can clean it from the inside too.

        I made a few 10′ flexible pvc rods for my sweep brush with screw fittings on each end.I then take the black stove pipe off the back of my furnace in the basement and run the brush right up to the cap on the roof,attaching each new 10 foot section as I go. Catching all the soot in a hd garbage bag tied to the bottom of the stove pipe with a hole in the side to accommodate the rods. Beats risking life and limb on a snowing roof (and saves 100 bucks per the sweep charges ).

        I save over 3200 a year in propane we used to burn in our “high” 93% efficiency 5 year old Hier gas furnace and keep the house much warmer too. My tank of propane lasts years now and is just for kitchen stove and near future backup genny.

        If you do it right and do some research you will love burning wood and will not ever go back to being a slave to “the man” paying those unpredictable energy prices. I just love giving the propane truck the finger as he blows past my house to go fill someone else’s tank.

        1. I finally made the best chimney cleaning methods.

          After climbing on the roof and rattling a chain down the chimney and then getting a brush, I tried the following.

          Above the stove and below the ceiling (the insulated chimney goes through the inside upstairs) I put a T in the simple stovepipe with a cap over it.

          Cut a small indent in the edge of the T so the brush rods can get close to the pipe as seen in the next sentence.

          Push the brush into the T (cap removed) and then up the chimney and place the brush rods in the slot cut above so the rods point up the chimney as straight as possible. Brush away and add rod sections as needed.

          The top edge of the pipe, where the smoke meets the sub-zero temps, under the shanty top, a rim of thick creosote forms. This needs vigorous brushing.

          Then, remove brush and rods and replace cap on cleaned chimney.

          Fill holes left by the notch and between pipe sections with aluminum foil as room air leaking in will create creosote in the pipe.

          No roof trips needed. Most of stuff falls into the stove. Can be done often.

    2. We mostly burn osage orange. (we call it hedge in these parts) It gives off some awesome heat. Love our wood stove!

  7. Most here in the upper Midwest believe Shagbark Hickory is the best wood to burn. “Unfortunately” all of mine is nice and healthy (as is the black walnut) and I only burn the dead stuff.

    In order of preference that is Red Oak, Apple, Cherry, Red Maple, American Elm, Box elder.

    One not mentioned which is great is Black Locust, but as has been said, the best if what you have.

    1. We live in Missouri and buy firewood to keep our wood furnace going.

      Hickory was the hottest firewood we used..it heated our house amazingly well.

      Our regular furnace is fueled by LP and it is crazy expensive and if we only used that we would have to have our tank refilled 2x just in the winter months–out of our ability to pay.

      However firewood is also getting more expensive due to the rising cost of gasoline.

      I wish we had a log splitter and some trees to cut down!

  8. Eucalyptus is a common firewood here in California. As a matter of fact it is what’s growing in my wood lot. Eucalyptus burns very hot, but at the same time it lasts a lot longer than some other woods, making coals that are still live the next morning. It needs longer to cure, 18 months to 2 years is best. But you almost have to split it when it’s fresh, the grain is real twisted, making it almost impossible to split by hand when it is dry. It is an extremely fast growing tree, as some seedlings that were planted in my lot 25 years ago have turned into some truly huge trees, 3-4 foot thick trunks and 80 or so feet high.

    1. Sounds a lot like rock or red elm which grows in southern Ontario. IIt’s really hard to split doesn’t matter if its green or dry wood splitter is the only way . How is the eucalyptus for drying .

  9. For Montana it is mostly pine. $125 a cord, delivered. $150 if you want it split.

    1. Mike you burn mostly pine…do you have issues with creosote because of the “high creosote” in pine wood??? or is that a myth and it does burn just as well, if not shorter, as hardwood(birch in your area?) as long as its seasoned well that is.

      1. I think if Pine is dry enough, it doesn’t build up any more creosote than other woods. Where you have problems with Pine is when you burn it before it’s dried properly.

        1. Put a box someone inside to put used soda or beer cans. Every couple good hot fires work a dozen through. When burnt they release aluminum sulfate which breaks up any creosote.

  10. Learned a lot from the article and from those who shared their information. It’s definitely something that I will be sharing with family and friends! Thank you!

  11. I burned a lot of Locust one year because I had access and found out it’s a lot hotter than the oak I usually burn. I actually warped some of the parts inside my stove.

    Whatever you burn, be sure to clean your chimney and get a feel for how often to check/clean. I clean mine 4 to 5 times a year and I heat with only wood in the north of the midwest. Heating with wood is an art and newbies can get in trouble.

  12. i burn eight to ten cords of the driest mixed woods i can find in central british columbia…i accept that there is going to be a creosite buildup and find that for the past twenty years the best and most effective insurance against not having a chimney fire is to clean my chimney twice a year with one of the cleanings during the christmas /new years period whenever you consider it safetest to get up on the roof and the other cleaning being anytime before the next fall heating period…i leave a rope attached to my chimney so i have something to hang on to if things get a bit slippery

  13. I have been using wood for heating a cabin when it is cold enough (stove gets cabin too hot in mild weather) for thirty+ years, it has a straight short triple wall through the attic with single wall inside chimney. I burn several breeds of oak with red oak my favorite, wild cherry, popular, with some hickory and as little pine except for starter as possible and so far I have never had to clean the chimney. These are the type of wood most common here in the southern Appalachian mountain area. If you cure your wood properly and mix it up with some hot stuff then you will keep any creosote buildup burned out of the chimney. I pretty much burn whatever is blown down by storms or dies and rarely have to cut green so it helps if it has already been down for a while.

    Dampers in the flue or too long of a chimney, or too many elbows in pipe system can cause of a lot of the creosote buildup, when you slow down the gas the chimney does not stay hot enough to draw properly and condensation occurs which causes buildup. Keeping as much of the chimney inside where it stays warm helps a great deal as one other person mentioned.

    I agree with the clapping two pieces of wood together to check moisture content, if it makes a distinct crack when slapped together it is cured, if it thuds then leave it in the pile longer under cover from the rain.

    Bottom line is if you have as short/straight of a chimney as possible and only burn cured wood you should not have to worry about cleaning but do check it yearly to make sure if it needs maintenance.

  14. I am a potter and I have a large wood kiln I have fired for years to cone 10 which is 2,350 degrees F. Popple/ aspen is by far the best wood. it produces a very long flame which tops my 25 foot brick chimney another 25 foot plume of fire. Oak burns slow and does not burn with a big flame and will not work. People are amazed that popple can get a kiln that hot, but it does so extremely easily. I burn it in my woodstove and it heats as well as any other wood. All this talk of how many million btu per cord to me are ridiculous. I live in Minnesota where it gets 40-50 below zero, and I like using popple because it is cheap, it burns really hot, and quickly heats up the place when needed. No matter what wood you use you have to stoke the fire frequently to keep your place warm. The difference is oak at $200 a cord or popple at $100 a cord. Do the math. Most articles claim oak as king, and most people buy into this nonsense. Amy flame burns at 5000 F If you want a cheap reliable wood that burns really hot, it is by far popple is king.

  15. For those of you that burn elm, try splitting it when the temperature is single digits or below. The moisture freezes in the wood and it splits easier. I like beech for the heat and burns complete to ash.

  16. What about willow ? A friend has willows he wants me to cut .
    Black willow to be burned or not ?

    1. Willow will burn with minimal heat value and is incredibly hard to split. If you want to help your buddy out by cutting the wood, that’s great, but leave the willow wood to rot.

  17. What about fig ? We have to take down one and we hate to waste. I know it’s soft, but I have a HUGE one that we’re taking down.

  18. I have mostly red Oak, Sycamore & hackberry ,some red bud smaller stuff. ” Sweet Gum ” a waste of time.

  19. I have a large wood stove in a cabin with at 30 square sheet metal flu. I currently attempt to remove ash and creosote buildup with a sectioned scraper that goes from 3 foot in length to 15 feetin length (5 sections) It is time consuming and difficult to get all of the creosote build up removed. Is there a “spray on” material available anywhere that will Remove or eat away the creosote build up?

    1. Lots of chemical products that claim to change creosote to a powder that is easier to get rid of. Google ‘creosote removal’. Still need to use a brush or vacuum to get rid of the residue. Might take more than one application if the goo is thick.

    2. Chimney sweep logs give off aluminum sulfate to dry up creosote. So does a dozen aluminum cans. Another reason to drink beer

  20. I mostly burn oak. I cut some around my house and also go to a nearby pallet plant where they will let you have a truckload of oak blocks(cut off scraps) for $20.00.

  21. Best wood for heat? Any that is split and stacked in my woodshed! Weather it be oak, hickory, yellow poplar, cherry, or maple

  22. As a person that has burned green oak and hickory for over thirty years,
    I have to weigh in on this…I always open my damper and let it roar for
    about ten mins. every morning, to keep the triple wall flue clean.
    I have cleaned my flue twice over the years and only gotten about a tea cup
    of creasote out of the flue. I think that you get more heat out of green
    wood…works for me

  23. This will be my first winter using wood heat and I might have to buy a cord since I don’t have time to season any. Also I don’t see a many oaks on the land more cedar than anything.

  24. OSAGE ORANGE!!! HOTTEST BURNING WOOD! A BITCH TO SPLIT, BUT HEATS LONG AND HOT. AKA “MONKEY BALLS”…ALSO BEWARE OF THORNS.

  25. I prefer a mixture of everything Oldgrowth doug fir and hemlock are the best in my neighborhood (vancouver Island) They are considered soft woods but are really dense and last longer than hardwoods big leaf maple and alder, apple,cherry and maple. Cedar goes up in a flash and burns hot but doesn’t last long. Having a mix is great you get all the different aromas and characteristics. I use the different types at different times of the day or night If I want a fire to start quick and heat fast I use the cedar and sitka spruce. At night put a giant block of fir that barely fits the fire place on a bed of coals it will heat the house all night and still be burning in the morning size matters. The best wood is the closest to the house instead of driving up the mountain doesn’t matter what kind it is gas is expensive.

  26. Here is how a softwood can give you more heat than a hard wood: Say a 600 year old doug fir grows slowly at elevation in low light dense forest in a cold climate the rings will be tight the diameter could be smaller than the same species at only a 100 years old but this wood is 3 times more dense. This wood probably doubles the btu/cord of its average. Then take a hard wood that grew in a open field not competing for light or water at sea level in a warm more southern (longer growing season) it will burn like paper compared to the soft wood. So it is not about the species of wood it is the conditions the tree developed soft and slow is better than hard and fast in some cases but our wives might not agree hahahaha

  27. I live in Cordova,AL . A few years ago a large Hacaberry tree had been cut down. My grandmother told me that it burnt cold. It seemed like the fire got colder when I burnt it. Has anybody else had any experience with burning Hacaberry ?

    1. Its like burning cottonwood not much bang for your buck. Not a very dense hardwood but if it is free and close by go for it you never can have too much fire wood. I tend to save the crappier wood like that for campfires and cooking outside where heating is not the goal.

  28. For the last 4 years I have been buying firewood for my work shop from a local sawmill. 7 full cords cost me $200.00. Mostly it was white ash which burns very good even when green.

    The last load I had was most of it red oak. In mine opinion ash gives more heat than oak.I live in Southwest Ontario and here it can get cold like today minus 20 Celsius

  29. Burning wood 50 years or more,nothin better than Hickory,if timing is right like a weekend I put a grate on top of the chimney,wrap a big ole ham in metal screening so birds cant get it,put it on the grate,ya don’t get much heat,just smoke,nothin better or easier,just don’t fall off the roof!

    1. Well done, Any other chimney recipes? That sounds like something I want to try. Does that work with a tall chimney? and how long does it take?

  30. Shagbark Hickory cant be beat. The smell and the btu…is just wonderful. 22 years heating with wood here..

  31. In Oregon our top firewood is Madrone. The smooth red bark is less messy than oak and it leaves minimal ash in the woodstove!

    1. Is Madrone the same as Arbutus, which is the top firewood here in British Columbia. It has a high BTU, and burns fairly slow. It can be expensive, $350 a chord. However it lasts longer than Fir, the most plentiful wood in this area, @ $200/chord.

  32. When my I was a kid of course the emissions have probably changed since then he would take a logging chain and turn it around and hit the side a couple of times. And then with heavy gloves we had a door at the bottom I would shovel out the debri.

  33. After trying to heat this drafty 2000 sq ft double wide withpropane furnace and have water pipes freeze I took a 120 gal propane tank and built a wood stove I cut it in half used 4 in truck exaust pioe to go thru the wall and sch 80 6 in oil well casing for a chimmney it works great and a chimmney fire will onky burn itself clean I used 1in thick insulation duct board going thru the wall. I have been burning old fence posts juniper and hedge apple I also burn a lot of hackberry as we clear ed 3/4 mike of fence line the hackberry burns hot and very clean nothing keft but fine ash but it takes twice as much wood as the bo dark I load up the stove and leave very little air at night and it keeps the house around 55 deg in the morn ooen the air shutter and it takes off then liad again and let it burn wide open until the house gets up to 70 I say the best wood is whatever you can get free

  34. Informative post, thanks.
    When it comes to price though which wood would you deem to be the most cost effective? Thanks.

  35. We burn casuarina trees in California , commingly called She-oak native to Australia. It produces more btus than oak with little ash. It is a beautiful dark reddish hardwood that splits fairly easy

  36. I’ve been heating with wood since the mid 70s and a trick that I learned long ago to cut creosote down to a are minimum are…

    The first thing in the morning when I shake down the ashes from my Ashley wood/coal burning heater and start up the fire for the day. I leave the ash door on the heater open for an extra few minutes to get the chimney really hot which burns out any creosote built up during the previous nights dampened down, cooler creosote producing fire.

    Don’t try this with a dirty ,heavily creosoted chimney or you’ll start a roaring chimney fire reminiscent of Mt Vesuvius during a full tilt boogie eruption. I’ve been using this tactic every time I refuel my wood heater and I haven’t cleaned my chimney in many years now.

    My heater is located in the basement of my log house and I learned of this tactic after I had a metal roof installed on my log house’s very steep roof. Back when I had asphalt shingles I could get up on the roof and straddle the peak of the roof and clean the chimney. But he metal roof is far too steep and slippery for an old guy of 75 to even consider trying and navigate up there with the use of ropes.

    What I do is remove the cleanout from the bottom of the chimney in the basement and shine my rechargeable police Maglight up the chimney and the sides of the chimney show absolutely no creosote build up. But I do have a large 60X30′ pole barn with plenty of space to store many cords of wood in the dry and out of the elements.

    Furthermore when it comes to wood heating,…

    I have burned enough free pine cut from my land to build a large subdivision and I have never culled free loads of Pine. I’ve found that it is the moisture content of the wood that causes the problems with creosote build up. Pine is no worse than any hardwood provided the moisture content is as low as can be achieved by several years of dry storage prior to its use for heating purposes.

    Pine is great for getting the chill off the house in the Fall or Spring on cool mornings when you need just a little heat. Plus it’s very easy to light with a few small pieces of “lighter knots” (Heart Pine) that’s full of pine rosin. Like all else in this life check out the validity of this and any information before attempting to try it since your mileage may vary.

    But in validation, many years ago Auburn University did some in depth research on this matter and came to the came conclusion. Not that I have much for Auburn, except in this case even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then.

    Roll Tide!

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