Black poplar firewood: BTU, weight and seasoning

Heat per cord

Black poplar is a hardwood. At 20% moisture, a full cord holds about 14.1 million BTU of heat (14.8 gigajoules). Wetter wood gives less, because part of the heat goes into boiling off the water.

That ranks black poplar 548th of the 558 species in our tables, from the hottest down.

Weight and density

A full cord of seasoned black poplar (20% moisture) weighs about 2,280 lb (1,040 kg). Freshly cut, the same cord weighs about 3,110 lb (1,410 kg): the difference is water you don't want to burn.

Its specific gravity, a measure of density, is 0.39. Denser wood packs more heat into each cord.

Seasoning time

Split and stacked off the ground, black poplar needs at least 10 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 black 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 black poplar:

• Balsam poplar: 13.5 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