Does it make a difference what kind of wood you burn in a standard home fireplace? Are some types harmful, as for as producing more soot? Or smell bad? Or just not worth the burning quality?
Here’s an article that talks about choosing wood to burn in your home fireplace:
http://www.service.com/PAW/morgue/real_estate/1996_Dec_20.HOME20.html
Some get really hot & you don’t want to set the furniture/floor aflame, so it does matter. Also, make sure most of all that it’s dry.
The page linked to is fairly good. Of course, high quality wood costs more than lower quality stuff. When I was in BC, I had a woodstove for heat and used almost nothing but fir - lower quality and not so clean-burning… but I was moving out in 6 months so I didn’t care. Although it can be contaminated, a lot of people burn wood from construction or tear-down sites. If the fire is sealed, it’s not so bad but if it’s open to the room, watch out. Another thing to watch for is the guys who sell wood - I don’t know if you have an interest in this or not, but they can be rather stingy - firewood selling isn’t exactly high profit so many will try to scam you just to make ends meet. Never pay for a full cord of wood that all shows up in a pick-up; there’s no way a full cord could fit in the box. They also tend to stack it fairly loosly to make up the 4X4X8’ dimensions, so make sure it’s packed really tight or tell them to f-off. You can go to certain places to cut your own wood and that’s cheapest - but you gotta spend half a day doing it. Lastly, do make sure the wood is dry. When I first started using the stove, I had never done it before. It would take me almost an hour to get the damn fire going with wood that looked dry on the outside, but really wasn’t. It depends on where you are for the cost of good or just any wood. In BC it was not that bad, but here in Alberta it’s noticably more expensive.
Thanks for the info! I hit the jackpot yesterday. An apartment complex is taking out a couple of trees and cutting it small enough to be useful. Now I just got to get it home and wait for it to season!
Have anyone used fake logs? (like Duraflame)
I saw some in a restaurant a few years ago, that burned for hours with nice flames, low heat, and required minimal attention.
It would be a nice thing for those long evenings when you’d rather sit in that comfy chair with a glass of your favourite beverage and a good book, rather than poking in the fire / adding more logs etc. every few minutes.
Or for those dinners when a burning fire in the corner fireplace would add a nice touch, but a fullblown inferno in there would make the room stifling.
Does anyone have any firsthand information?
I have a good friend who tried to burn real wood, and the smoke didn’t draw properly, apparently because her chimney wasn’t high enough. The fake logs were the only thing she could burn; they worked just fine.
Don’t burn eucalyptus. It smells nice, but it burns so hot that it’ll burn the grout out from between the firebricks.
Ethilrist, my college, UCSD, was initially planted as a farm for those but they found out later that they are too hot for firewood.
I get one of those fake logs, chop them up into 2"x 2" pieces & use them to start a fire. They work great for this. Try not to use the cheap ones.
Don’t burn your leftover Christmas trees (if you celebrate Christmas.) They typically burn hot and can cause chimney fires.
Well, at least the ones that we get. I think they’re just your typical pine tree.
My father in law burns fake logs all the time, for exactly the reason you suggested (easy to start, low maintenance to keep it going, easier cleanup when done).
I’ve also lived in a house where if you got a roaring fire going in the fireplace, the paint would peel on the wall of the room behind the fireplace. The choice was either keep the fire really small and be very very careful, or just throw artificial logs in there and forget about it.
Hints on wood. Look in the paper for wood for sale, compare prices. Oak is great but costs more. Pine is nice, I prefer it cause I live where there are a lot of pine trees.
Ask them if the wood is dry & also how big the pieces are. Usually 18" but you want to ask them if they split them too. One guy I bought from would split his wood into like 8ths & I would have to put new wood on every 20 minutes, that sucked.
I think Ash can be used without drying. But we don’t have ash here so i can’t test it.
If you live in the western US where Eucalyptus, manzinata, and Madrone are available, DO NOT burn them in your hearth. They burn way too hot, and will burn through the mortar or metal liners in your chimmney.
Hardwoods burn best generally speaking, but they are always in short supply.