While the importance of selecting good firewood is the same everywhere, not all firewood produces the same results, even when seasoned properly.
When picking firewood, you not only need to go with seasoned wood but understand how the wood burns.
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In This Regard, Is Cypress Good Firewood?
Well, cypress wood is fairly mediocre, meaning it is serviceable firewood. However, like most other softwoods, cypress burns relatively quickly, meaning it offers little long-lasting value.
If you are considering cypress, keep in mind that its resins can produce a lot of smoke. While this makes it a poor choice for a home fireplace, it is a good option if you intend to use it in an outdoor campfire or cooking fire.
This post will discuss everything you need to know about cypress to help you make an informed decision before picking it.
Eight Things To Consider When Choosing Firewood
When weighing options on which firewood you should buy or use at your fireplace, you may make use of some factors that can direct you to choose the best firewood.
Obviously, depending on your preference, space, and finances, you will need to buy firewood fit for you and your needs.
Some of the factors are:
- Moisture content in the wood
- The volume you expect to get
- Your budget
- The species
- How you wish to use the wood
- The amount of smoke
- Ease of lighting up
- The amount of heat the wood can produce
Cypress As Firewood
Cypress is easily found in many states and is one of the softwoods with a vast range of functionalities.
Apart from being timber for carpentry and wood art, cypress trees can also be used as firewood.
Even though it is not the best firewood tree, it is cheap and seasons faster than other woods.
Burning cypress is not restricted as long as you are doing it in regard to the outlined environmental protection regulations of your state.
However, before deciding to use cypress as firewood, keep in mind that it does not light up for a long time.
It burns faster, produces a lot of smoke and soot, and does not leave behind coals.
Using cypress in a fireplace is only effective if you need heat for a short time. Otherwise, it is not firewood to be left in a fireplace over a long cold night.
Four Burning Characteristics Of Cypress Wood
Burning cypress, especially dry cypress, is easier and takes very little time.
Even though cypress is not always the best wood to burn, there are circumstances where it might be the only option available.
For this reason, you may need to know the characteristics of burning cypress.
1. Easy To Ignite
One thing about cypress is that it is highly resinous.
It ignites quickly, produces a hot roaring flame, and burns very fast. The wood produces very large flames accompanied by crackles and sparks.
Therefore, it is advisable to burn it in an enclosed place, away from any combustible material, or outside in the open air to enhance safety.
Otherwise, just a little fire spark can accidentally cause a huge house fire that might lead to life loss or property damage.
When burning cypress in the open, be cautious if fire sparks do not fall on the grass and start a fire.
Put off any visible fires on the nearby grass as early as you notice it.
2. Creosote Build Up
Cypress has a lot of resin which creates a lot of smoke when burning.
For this reason, the amount of creosote build-up from cypress is very high compared to other firewood trees like oak and locust wood.
The higher the amount of wood you burn in a chimney, the higher the number of creosote layers that will form in the chimney.
For this reason, you should regularly clean the chimney to remove the creosote.
Otherwise, if you fail to remove the accumulated flakes of creosote, they build up, forming a dangerous tar-like substance that might be very hard to remove.
3. Smoke Production
Generally, cypress produces a lot of smoke when burning.
The smoke is continuous and dense due to the characteristics of cypress that hinder complete burning.
First off, the sap in cypress is too high, thus hindering effective wood combustion.
Additionally, cypress is known to be less dense because of the minimal organic matter it possesses.
Wood with fewer organic components has less fuel, and whenever burned, the combustion process is usually incomplete.
Incomplete combustion leads to high smoke production.
4. Less Heat Produced
Compared with other trees used as firewood, cypress has fewer BTU units.
This means that the heat produced when burning this wood is usually very low.
Therefore, it is not good firewood for use over long hours, especially if you need a consistent heat supply.
Seasoning Cypress
Before using cypress as firewood, you need to prepare it, and seasoning is part of the preparation process.
Luckily, cypress timber seasons faster than most soft and hardwoods.
Try to put down the tree early winter when the moisture concentration in the tree tissues is minimal.
Doing so will take a shorter time for the wood to dry up and be ready to be used as firewood.
Split the woods into small but sizable pieces upon cutting.
Arrange the logs in a stack slightly above the ground in a systematic but loose way to allow airflow within the logs.
You can also add an open roof woodshed to the logs to avoid precipitation.
Depending on the amount of water in the wood, it will take an average of six to twelve months to completely dry up.
Three Pros Of Using Cypress As Firewood
1. It Is Relatively Cheaper To Purchase
Cypress can easily be found in the woodlands and tree gardens.
Purchasing cypress firewood is, therefore, cheaper than other rare wood species.
2. Produces Hot Flames
Cypress burns faster, producing hot flames.
Even though it does not burn for long, the hot flames are efficient if you wish to use the fire for a short time.
3. Seasons Faster
Cypress takes a relatively shorter time to dry compared to other woods.
Five Cons Of Using Cypress As Firewood
- Burns quickly
- Does not leave coals
- It repeatedly sparks when burning
- Produces less heat
- Produces a lot of smoke
Conclusion
Using cypress as firewood is quite economical because of the piercing but can be expensive because you will need to use many pieces of firewood to get enough heat.
