Many suburban and residential buildings are still heated with wood, so the question arises which firewood is better choose that they give maximum heat transfer and burn for a long time. Since tree species differ from each other, when choosing firewood, you need to pay attention to the following characteristics:
- flammability. Some firewood burns well, while others burn badly;
- heating capacity. A lot or little gives firewood heat;
- smokiness. Smoke firewood or not;
- ash content (amount of soot). When soot accumulates in the chimney, soot can ignite, so if the firewood has a high ash content, then this is a minus for them.
When choosing which firewood is better, you should remember the general rule: they must be very well dried, since freshly prepared firewood from any type of wood will burn badly.
Birch firewood gives a lot of heat, but the resinous substances contained in the birch bark release a large amount of soot during kindling. Therefore, if you often heat with birch wood, you must not forget to clean the furnace firebox and chimney in time. Best to use birch firewood within one to two years after harvesting, if they are stored longer, then they begin to paint due to the fact that birch wood is short-lived.
Pine wood is very suitable for stoves, especially from old resinous trees.
It is much worse to use larch and spruce for firewood. Although there are many resinous substances in them, just like in pine, their fibers are twisted. When burning, spruce firewood cracks, and larch has too dense wood. Such wood gives a good heat, but does not burn for long.
There is almost no resin in alder wood, and when burned, they practically do not smoke, for this they are called "royal wood". Alder ash contains a lot of calcium, which makes it useful for gardeners.
Aspen wood is considered the worst for stoves, they give little heat and burn very quickly. But they are recommended to be used when cleaning stoves from soot; when kindling them, they are poured into the stove along with potato peelings, which loosen a dense layer of soot and it evaporates itself.
It is believed that firewood obtained from small-leaved species (poplar, mountain ash, willow, bird cherry) is of low quality.
The highest quality firewood is obtained from broad-leaved wood species (chestnut, maple, elm, oak, linden). However, it is now an unaffordable luxury to use such valuable tree species as firewood.
The wood of fruit trees (pears, apple trees, plums) also has high qualities, but often it is not necessary to heat the stove with such wood only when the garden is rejuvenated or the trees are pruned.
Often the owners burn various garbage in the stove (old newspapers, magazines or waste paper), while black thick smoke comes out of the stove.
Which firewood is best for stoves: pine, birch or alder.
For the bath, it is better to use aspen and alder ones, since they almost do not give soot and burn out, clean the stones in the bath from burning and soot, and also give useful clean steam.
For fireplace best of all those firewood that "do not shoot", that is, birch.
Stocking of firewood.
December is the most favorable for the preparation of firewood. Indeed, at this time all the trees are sleeping (except for the pines), they have very slow sap flow, which means the firewood will dry well. In addition, it is easier to carry firewood from the forest in winter. It is especially recommended to harvest alder firewood in winter, since it is difficult to get to alder during the rest of the year due to the fact that this tree grows mainly on swampy soils.
Knowing the features of your oven, you can choose which firewood is better suitable for her, the main thing is that they warm and fill the house with warmth.
