Pine as a fuel ?

Hi All,

I've got a couple of pine trees that were blown down in last winters storms cut up and laying around the yard.  I don't burn pine in my woodburner because of creosote build up in the chimney.  Given the nearly total consumption of wood in a rocket mass heater, can pine (other soft woods) be safely used? 

Don in the Mountains of West Virginia

That is a good question. I am starting to build a Rocket stove today, (the portable kind), and would love to find out. It seems that they use pine in the video.

We go through 8 to 10 cords of spruce a year with no problem, I wouldn't think pine would any different. That said you still need to keep a clean flue.

I burn pine in my cast iron stove simply because I have a lot of it around on the property. It doesn't burn as hot or as long, but I've never had any problems. Then again, I tend to keep my fire burning hot when I have it on (lot of airflow). I also check the chimney regularly for buildup, just in case.

Not sure how it would work in a RMH. Curious to see what folks say.

if you damper down an airtight the pine pich will condense on your chimney like creosote but much faster putting you in danger of a chimney fire when you open it back up.
newer stoves have catalytic bits that may be damages by the resin

keep an eye out for that and you should be fine

When I lived in Colorado I burned a lot of pine in our wood stove. All we had on our property was pine and aspens, mostly pine. It did foul up the chimney, but when that is  what you have you find ways to deal with it.
kent

Build hot fires and you'll have no problem.

Paul talks with Ernie and Erica about rocket mass heaters in this podcast: rocket mass heater podcast

They also talk about burning pine in a rocket mass heater.

When in doubt, water curing pine is a good way to limit creosote (pine pitch) deposits. It takes at least a year to season pine this way but you can limit pitch issues. Paper mills use this method, either by floating logs in a shallow pond or using sprinklers to keep the wood soaking wet for six months, then they pull them from the pile or pond and let them air dry another six months.