alder/ seriously under valued

[Stubby]

If you can't get oak, or ash, or beech, or pear, or plum, or maple, or hornbeam, or a host of other woods with a better BTU than alder, then you are right. Meanwhile I'd burn any of the above in preference.

 

How do you determine what British Thermal Unit ( BTU ) value a certain wood has then ? As I understand it all wood has a very similar calorific value for a given weight . Say one Holm oak log has the same calorific value as three similar size poplar logs . How do you find the BTU ?

[openspaceman]

How do you determine what British Thermal Unit ( BTU ) value a certain wood has then ? As I understand it all wood has a very similar calorific value for a given weight . Say one Holm oak log has the same calorific value as three similar size poplar logs . How do you find the BTU ?

 

The standard way of determining calorific value is by burning the substance in a bomb calorimeter. The whole apparatus is immersed in water and enough oxygen to burn the wood is in the vessel. The rise in temperature of the lot is used to calculate the cv.

 

All plant matter has a similar cv at a given moisture content and after the ash is subtracted, softwoods tend to be a bit higher as they have higher lignin and resins which have a higher cv than cellulose and hemicellulose.

 

The thing I like about alder is it dries easily, keeps well and is easy to light. It grows straight and is easily processed. Oak takes a while to dry, it is used for barrel staves because it resists moisture movement tangentially plus the sapwood is about as perishable as poplar.

[wrsni]

Traditionally used on poor sites to improve the soil by fixing nitrogen in the soil therefore improving soil quality for other trees.

 

I've a few specific blocks of it in the woodland for coppice but the majority of it is dispersed throughout the entire area to act as a nurse in the way you describe.

 

The soil is not poor by any means, but the nitrogen they fix should still help to bring the other stuff up with it hopefully,

 

................and, if you want another plus for it, rabbits don't like them so tend to leave them alone. Which I can also testify to be correct.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Juniper makes the highest quality Gun powder, at least thats what were told via the ATF during our field trip to Cumbria a few years back

[Stubby]

The standard way of determining calorific value is by burning the substance in a bomb calorimeter. The whole apparatus is immersed in water and enough oxygen to burn the wood is in the vessel. The rise in temperature of the lot is used to calculate the cv.

 

All plant matter has a similar cv at a given moisture content and after the ash is subtracted, softwoods tend to be a bit higher as they have higher lignin and resins which have a higher cv than cellulose and hemicellulose.

 

The thing I like about alder is it dries easily, keeps well and is easy to light. It grows straight and is easily processed. Oak takes a while to dry, it is used for barrel staves because it resists moisture movement tangentially plus the sapwood is about as perishable as poplar.

 

Yep that I understand as I said . Tree boys referred to BTU ( British Thermal Unit ) I thought that was to do with gas . Just wondered how you determin what BTU wood has .

[MattyF]

Juniper makes the highest quality Gun powder, at least thats what were told via the ATF during our field trip to Cumbria a few years back

 

 

Juniper looks interesting when it's milled and carved as well!

The juniper is in the middle.

 

I was not overly impressed with alder in a wood I used to manage ,it grew to quickly dominating and killing off the other broad leaves planted , lots died off naturally falling and damaging the surviving trees of other species it had not smothered and a lot grew badly formed and didn't respond well to formative pruning rotting quickly and it suckered like crazy when thinning attempts where made, I would plant it but very sparingly if I had to design my own wood.

 

 

 

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[Ashes_Firewood]

All the Alder we've got seems to have grown very tall and straight with most of the branches at the top. Makes it quick and easy to sned and knock up into lengths compared to most other hardwood

[openspaceman]

Yep that I understand as I said . Tree boys referred to BTU ( British Thermal Unit ) I thought that was to do with gas . Just wondered how you determin what BTU wood has .

 

BTU is just the old imperial measure of heat energy, possibly in use before Joule demonstrated that motive energy and heat energy were the same. It is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one pound of water through one degree Fahrenheit. All energy units are interchangeable so using madisons handy converter:

 

1 kWh=3412.142 btu=3600000 Joule=907184.7 kilocalorie

 

1kg of bone dry wood contains between 18.6 and 20 MJ or 5.166667-5.555556kWh which is 63465.83-68242.83 btu.

 

There is only one imperial power in the world today and they still use imperial units.

Edited April 1, 2014 by openspaceman

[felixthelogchopper]

Juniper makes the highest quality Gun powder, at least thats what were told via the ATF during our field trip to Cumbria a few years back

 

Juniper looks interesting when it's milled and carved as well!

[ATTACH]152640[/ATTACH]

The juniper is in the middle.

[ATTACH]152641[/ATTACH]

 

 

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More importantly, we couldn't make Gin without it.

[MattyF]

Ha ha forgot that one , yeah the futures in gin not fire wood

 

 

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