Red alder firewood: BTU, weight and seasoning

Heat per cord

Red alder is a hardwood. At 20% moisture, a full cord holds about 16.4 million BTU of heat (17.3 gigajoules). Wetter wood gives less, because part of the heat goes into boiling off the water.

That ranks red alder 506th of the 558 species in our tables, from the hottest down.

Weight and density

A full cord of seasoned red alder (20% moisture) weighs about 2,670 lb (1,210 kg). Freshly cut, the same cord weighs about 3,630 lb (1,650 kg): the difference is water you don't want to burn.

Its specific gravity, a measure of density, is 0.45. Denser wood packs more heat into each cord.

Seasoning time

Split and stacked off the ground, red alder needs at least 11 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: moderate
• Coals: moderate
• Burn time: moderate

We rate red alder 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 red alder:

• European alder: 19.5 million BTU per cord
• Grey alder: 17.0 million BTU per cord
• Eastern cottonwood: 16.4 million BTU per cord
• European aspen: 16.4 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