News from Mountain West Sales - Fireplaces and more

Now that fall is on its way, we will be open on Saturdays to better serve you.  Our new hours of operation are MONDAY- FRIDAY 8-5 and SATURDAY 9-1.  Please come see us!

Contrary to popular belief, all seasoned firewood contains about 8,000 BTUs per pound.  The important factor is that hardwoods have a greater density than softwoods.  Therefore, a piece of hardwood will contain about 60% more BTUs than an equal size piece of softwood.  Since firewood is commonly sold by the cord, a volume measurement, a cord of seasoned oak (hardwood) would contain about 60% more potential energy than a cord of seasoned pine (softwood).  Regardless of which species you burn, the single most important factor that affects the way your fireplace or stove operates is the amount of moisture in the wood.  The majority of problems fireplace and stove owners experience are caused by trying to burn wet, unseasoned, wood.  Freshly cut wood can be as much water as it is wood, having a moisture content of around 50%.  Imagine a wooden bucket that weighs about 8 pounds.  Fill it with a gallon of water, put it in the firebox and try to burn it.  This sounds ridiculous but that is exactly what you are doing if you burn unseasoned wood.  Dead wood lying on the forest floor should be considered wet, and requires full seasoning time.  Standing deadwood can be considered to be about two-thirds seasoned, if cut at the dry time of year.

The problems with burning wet, unseasoned wood are two-fold.  First, you will receive less heat output from wet wood because it requires more energy in the form of heat to evaporate the water trapped inside.  This is wasted energy that should be used for heating your home.  Secondly, this moisture evaporates in the form of steam which has a cooling effect in your firebox and chimney system.  When combined with tar and other organic vapors from burning wood it will form creosote which condenses in the relatively cool firebox and chimney.

People often say that our local pinon and ponderosa pine (which is plentiful) are “dirty” fuels that are more likely to create dangerous creosote in the chimney.  In fact, you shouldn’t worry about burning it in your fireplace or wood stove at all, as long as it has been cut, split, and properly seasoned.    Seasoned firewood is nothing more than wood that is cut to size, split and air dried to a moisture content of around 20%.  The time it takes to season wood varies from around nine months for softwoods to as long as eighteen months for hardwoods.  The key to seasoning wood is to be sure it has been split, exposing the wet interior and increasing the surface area of each piece.  A tree that was cut down a year ago and not split is likely to have almost as high a moisture content now as it did when it was cut.