How much slower to process hardwood?

[neiln]

As a stove owner scrounging up and processing by hand whatever arb waste I can get, I have found myself really questioning the value of hardwood. Yes it is about half as dense again so you only need 2/3rds the volume to process and to store, and of course to feed into the stove. However when sat in the room by the stove a softwood log every 40 minutes is no more hassle than a hardwood log each hour and splitting the softwood is often far far easier. Also hardwood needs to be stored for 2 or 3 years to season, soft can usually be split in the spring and burnt the next winter. I guess I'm sold on a mix, softwood for ease and for instant high heat, a bit of hard for longer burns particularly if, as occasionally happens, you get lucky and some of the hard wood is easy to split, but I'd be happy if i got nothing but soft.