Live oak firewood: BTU, weight and seasoning

Heat per cord

Live oak is a hardwood. At 20% moisture, a full cord holds about 36.5 million BTU of heat (38.5 gigajoules). Wetter wood gives less, because part of the heat goes into boiling off the water.

That ranks live oak 77th of the 558 species in our tables, from the hottest down.

Weight and density

A full cord of seasoned live oak (20% moisture) weighs about 5,930 lb (2,690 kg). Freshly cut, the same cord weighs about 7,120 lb (3,230 kg): the difference is water you don't want to burn.

Its specific gravity, a measure of density, is 1.00. Denser wood packs more heat into each cord.

Seasoning time

Split and stacked off the ground, live oak needs at least 12 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: low
• Coals: very high
• Burn time: very long

We rate live oak 8 out of 10 as firewood: one of the best you can burn.

Similar firewood

Other species to compare with live oak:

• Black oak: 26.1 million BTU per cord
• Bur oak: 26.4 million BTU per cord
• California black oak: 22.6 million BTU per cord
• Cherrybark oak: 28.6 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