Balsam poplar firewood: BTU, weight and seasoning

Heat per cord

Balsam poplar is a hardwood. At 20% moisture, a full cord holds about 13.5 million BTU of heat (14.2 gigajoules). Wetter wood gives less, because part of the heat goes into boiling off the water.

That ranks balsam poplar 554th of the 558 species in our tables, from the hottest down.

Weight and density

A full cord of seasoned balsam poplar (20% moisture) weighs about 2,190 lb (1,000 kg). Freshly cut, the same cord weighs about 2,990 lb (1,350 kg): the difference is water you don't want to burn.

Its specific gravity, a measure of density, is 0.37. Denser wood packs more heat into each cord.

Seasoning time

Split and stacked off the ground, balsam poplar needs at least 9 months to dry to about 20% moisture.

Wood dries faster once it is split and stacked with air around it. A moisture meter on a fresh split face tells you when it is ready.

How it burns

• Ash: high
• Coals: low
• Burn time: short

We rate balsam poplar 1 out of 10 as firewood: it burns, but denser species give more heat for the same work.

Similar firewood

Other species to compare with balsam poplar:

• Black poplar: 14.1 million BTU per cord
• Tulip poplar: 16.6 million BTU per cord
• White poplar: 16.1 million BTU per cord
• Black cottonwood: 14.1 million BTU per cord

Where these numbers come from

The heat and weight figures come from our firewood tables, worked out the same way for every species at 20% moisture. See how we calculate them.

Questions