Plants & Trees (Q&A)

Answer:

Osage Orange produces the most heat when burned, approximately 33 million BTU’s per 20% air dried moisture content per cord. A cord of wood is 4 feet wide x 4 feet high x 8 feet long (128 cubic feet) and has on average 80 cubic feet of burnable wood; the rest is air space. The heat content of any fire depends on wood density, resin, ash, and moisture. A rule of thumb often used for estimating heat value of firewood is: “One cord of well-seasoned hardwood (weighing approximately two tons) burned in an airtight, draft-controlled wood stove with a 55-65% efficiency is equivalent to approximately 175 gallons of #2 fuel oil or 225 therms of natural gas consumed in normal furnaces having 65-75% efficiencies.” Generally, hardwoods, which provide long-burning fires, contain the greatest total heating value per unit of volume. Softwoods, which produce a fast-burning, cracking blaze, are less dense and contain less total heating value per unit of volume. All woods dried to the same moisture content contain approximately the same heat value per pound—from 8,000 to 9,500 BTU for fully dried wood and 5,500 to 8,500 BTU for air-seasoned wood.

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