Here in Northern lower Michigan there are a few different types of fire wood that you will most commonly encounter. We will cover the most common ones and explain the pros and cons of each.

Hardwoods Including Oak and Maple.

Oak and maple are the most commonly burnt fire wood types around here. There are some others but we will stick to the most common here with the leading one being oak.

Oak and other hard wood species are your best burning fuel with the longest overnight burn and the most BTUs. Some people will only burn oak in their wood stoves for home heating.

This is a great overnight firewood because you can load up the wood stove, damp it down and let it slowly burn all night.

For identification, oak has a more reddish brown color and a tighter grain. It will feel quite heavy in your hand.

Soft Woods Including Pine

Pine and related softwood species are often frowned upon by some people for use in home heating. Many people refuse to use pine at all. But the pioneers often used whatever was available to them at the time. Many of them used pine to heat their cabins. Loggers used what they were cutting at the time. When they were in pine forests, that is what they burnt.

When properly dried, pine burns quite well actually. The key is to have dry pine. Wet pine will cause creosote buildup, which may be what gives it a bad reputation. Pine has a lower BTU rating compared to hardwoods so keep that in mind.

Pine has a yellowish white color. The grain is not as tight as hardwood. It will feel light in your hand when dry.

Poplar

Poplar deserves a section of its own since it shows up so often around here during winter months. Many people refuse to burn poplar as well. But poplar has some advantages when used for home heating.

Poplar burns hot and faster than oak. This makes it a great wood species to use in the morning to heat up your house quickly after a cold winter night. This is also what makes most people refuse to burn it. It also has fewer BTUs than oak. You do not want to use poplar for overnight heating because it will likely burn out too fast. Poplar does create noticably more ash than pine and oak.

Poplar has a more white color to its wood. When dry it can feel quite light in your hand.

Combining All Three Wood Types

We like to use all three types of wood in our home. With many years of experience burning wood for home heating, we have found a routine which works for us using oak, pine and poplar.

We like to use poplar in the mornings, as mentioned above, to take the chill off our house after a cold night. It burns hot and fast which is great to get the fire going.

During the day we use pine becuase it is common and cheap. You can often get pine for free because nobody else wants it. And it is for this reason that we use pine during the day. It burns well, gives off a nice amount of heat and its cheap.

We save our oak for extremely cold winter days and for overnight heating. At night before bed we load up the wood stove to the top with oak, damp down the stove and let it burn. In the morning there are still coals left to stoke up the fire again.