Firewood Tracker
Standardization of Firewood Values
We built a standardized system that derives firewood heat values (BTU), weights, and burn characteristics from universally measurable wood properties, density and specific gravity. This allows us to provide accurate firewood data for hundreds of species, far beyond the handful that have been tested in a laboratory.
Last updated: May 2026
The Problem: Limited Lab Data
Of the estimated 60,000+ tree species on Earth, only a few dozen have ever been tested in a laboratory for BTU output as firewood. Most published firewood charts repeat values for the same 20–30 popular North American species (oak, maple, hickory, etc.) and leave the vast majority of the world's woods unmeasured.
This means that if you burn a less common species, or you live outside North America, reliable heat-output data simply does not exist in published firewood guides.
We are the first and only platform to offer firewood values across such a huge variety of species, made possible by our standardized calculation approach.
Why Lab Testing Is Not Required for Firewood
The Wood Fuels Handbook (AIEL, Italy) established a key finding: the net calorific value (energy per kilogram) of oven-dry wood varies within a remarkably narrow range across all species:
- Hardwood (broadleaf): 18.5 MJ/kg
- Softwood (conifer): 19.0 MJ/kg
This means that a kilogram of oven-dry oak releases virtually the same energy as a kilogram of oven-dry birch, maple, or elm. The difference in heat per cord between species comes almost entirely from density, how much wood mass fits in a given volume.
Since density and specific gravity are routinely measured and published for thousands of species worldwide (for construction, furniture, and engineering purposes), we can derive accurate firewood heat values without needing an expensive lab calorimetry test for each species.
