[Waterfish]

We heat our house with wood; mostly Douglas fir and western hemlock, and smaller amounts of red alder, bigleaf maple, and sometimes lodgepole pine. All of those species produce good heat from the woodstove, but I've seen a noticeble difference with Douglas fir bark, which seems to put out way more heat than the other woods I burn.

I looked up the British thermal ratings (btu's) for some northwest firewoods, and here is what I found:

Douglas fir wood: 8438-9050 btu's
Douglas fir bark: 9800-10,100 btu's
Western hemlock wood: 8000-8600 btu's
Western hemlock bark: 8900-9400 btu's
Western redcedar wood: 9700 btu's
Western redcedar bark: 8700 btu's

I wasn't surprised to see the high btu rating for Douglas fir bark, however I was surprised to see the relatively high rating for Western redcedar wood. Even though it has a high rating, I don't burn cedar (except for kindling) because it burns up quickly.

This bark is about 8 inches thick. A couple of pieces like this will burn all night in my woodstove and makes for a nice warm house!

 

[Spotted Owl]

Re: Burning bark in your woodstove: High btu's

You are only the second person besides us that has said that they are willing to and do burn bark.

When we head cuttin for the wood shed we always stop and pick up the bark folks peel and leave behind. Or pick up the fresh stuff on landings that aren't used anymore. We will use it like you said, for the night run and there is always enough in the morning to start things right up. The bulk of our wood is the same soft woods as yours and unless we get an oak score we have a spot just to stack up the bark we scavenge and collect.

Keep it up we both know how good it works. I think that if you can't see a ripping flame then most think that the fuel isn't burning correctly or isn't worth burning.

Everyone that heats with wood, make no mistake, bark is good stuff.



Owl

 

[RidgeRunner]

Re: Burning bark in your woodstove: High btu's

I always burn the bark from the doug fir. We usually use it to get the fire going on top of the kindling and then add alder or ash/oak. I don't ever get thick bark like the picture above, I would sure like to try some in my stove sometime.

 

[Moe]

Re: Burning bark in your woodstove: High btu's

I though that bark has a high creosote content and burning it is ill advised. The one time I had a stack fire it was blamed on my burning bark.

 

[Dave G]

Re: Burning bark in your woodstove: High btu's

I burn it all, I just never knew the bark had a higher BTU rating. That us cool, err I mean that is hot.

 

[Waterfish]

Re: Burning bark in your woodstove: High btu's

I though that bark has a high creosote content and burning it is ill advised. The one time I had a stack fire it was blamed on my burning bark.

Bark has a high resin content, which is why it is easy to light. I don't know if a high resin content correlates to a high creosote content, but it wouldn't concern me if it did. Most softwoods like Douglas fir creat creosote in the flu or chimney, especially when you dampen the air to the stove to make it burn longer. Creosote build up in the flu/chimney goes with heating your house with wood. The solution is to clean out your flu several times each winter.

 

[chukarchaser]

Re: Burning bark in your woodstove: High btu's

The solution is to clean out your flu several times each winter.

Really??? Several times in a winter??? Are you talking around once a month, or more frequently? Just curious.

CC

 

[HntnFsh]

Re: Burning bark in your woodstove: High btu's

Back in the good ole days.Before Mt ST Helens blew.My uncle burnt almost strictly old growth bark.My Dad worked on Weycos train years before that.It went to Alder crk I believe.They would burn old growth bark in the caboose stove.

Its pretty hard to find good bark like that anymore.But the smaller stuff works too.

 

[Point-of-Sale Clerk]

Re: Burning bark in your woodstove: High btu's

We heat our house with wood; mostly Douglas fir and western hemlock, and smaller amounts of red alder, bigleaf maple, and sometimes lodgepole pine. All of those species produce good heat from the woodstove, but I've seen a noticeble difference with Douglas fir bark, which seems to put out way more heat than the other woods I burn.

I looked up the British thermal ratings (btu's) for some northwest firewoods, and here is what I found:

Douglas fir wood: 8438-9050 btu's
Douglas fir bark: 9800-10,100 btu's
Western hemlock wood: 8000-8600 btu's
Western hemlock bark: 8900-9400 btu's
Western redcedar wood: 9700 btu's
Western redcedar bark: 8700 btu's

I wasn't surprised to see the high btu rating for Douglas fir bark, however I was surprised to see the relatively high rating for Western redcedar wood. Even though it has a high rating, I don't burn cedar (except for kindling) because it burns up quickly.

This bark is about 8 inches thick. A couple of pieces like this will burn all night in my woodstove and makes for a nice warm house!

The numbers you provide BTU wise is per oven dried pound and not by volume. Basically if it takes 1 chord of wood to heat your home it would take 2 to 3 chords to heat it with bark. :excited:

 

[Waterfish]

Re: Burning bark in your woodstove: High btu's

Really??? Several times in a winter??? Are you talking around once a month, or more frequently? Just curious.

CC

I usually clean my flu about 3 times during the winter (I think that works out to once every two months). The best way to install a wood stove is to have a straight shot all the way from the stove to the top of the flu on the roof. Having a bend would make cleaning the flu much harder. I've known people who had a 90 or 45 degree bend in their stovepipe or flu, which means that they had to take apart a section of the stovepipe or flu to clean it (what a mess and hassle that would be!).

My stove/stovepipe and Metalbestos flu are installed in one straight path. Cleaning it reminds me of cleaning a rifle barrel with a bore brush. My flu cleaning set-up consists of two 10 foot sections of 1/2" dia pvc (threaded fittings link them together), with an 8" diameter stainless steel wire flu brush on the end. To clean the flu, I put a pan inside the stove and open the damper, then go up on the roof, take the cap off the top of the flu, and run the brush up and down several times. The brush pushes down all the way into the top of the stove, and the built up creosote collects in the pan. After about 2 months of using the stove, there will be about 1/2" of creosote built up in the flu. It's about a five minute job which goes with the territory of heating your house with wood.

 

[Chrome Bumper]

Re: Burning bark in your woodstove: High btu's

Your rating as noted is based on per pound. Cedar is very light so its volume is greater per pound. Bark goes in the garden if its loose to get tilled in. It helps our sandy soil hold water and nurients.

 

[Waterfish]

*** Clerk and Chrome bumper, Are you saying that wood, by volume, is heavier than bark? I don’t think there is much of a difference – old growth Douglas fir bark is dense and heavy. So to test this, tonight I compared the weight of equally sized pieces of bark and wood (from the same log). Each piece is 18" long and a little over 6 " thick, and have seasoned for 3-4 years in my woodshed.

The wood weighed 14.3 lbs on my digital fish scale

The bark weighed slightly less, at 13.9 lbs – only 4 tenths of a pound less than the wood. This difference could be because the pieces are not exactly the same size.

From over 30 years of experience with heating my house with wood, I know that with equally sized pieces; old growth Douglas fir bark puts out way more heat than the wood, and it gives a longer burn time in the stove.

 

[ampersat]

To each his own.

ps: your mileage may vary.

 

[Fish_N_Russ]

Old growth bark is very dense and thus similar to 'regular' wood weight. I would bet that old growth bark is hard to find tho....