With temperatures cooling down, a lot of homeowners use wood to stay warm. There are a lot of choices, but Gary Nunn with A1 Firewood of Lubbock said it just depends on what you need it for. He said the most popular choice is mesquite wood.
“Mesquite burns about the same temperature as oak. It puts out more BTUs it lasts longer. It leaves coals. It puts less deposits in your chimney and it has a better aroma,” said Nunn.
Firewood is sold by the cord which is roughly 128 cubic feet. You can measure it yourself. That’s what Stewart Hicks did when he noticed a wood supplier accidentally gave him he wrong amount.
“They filled the backend of my pickup, when they filled it up, they didn’t quite fill it up either,” said Hicks.
The company Hicks bought his wood from tried to fix the problem, but Hicks said people should still learn how to measure wood themselves, just in case.
“I just think that if you’re going to buy firewood, which a lot of people do, every winter, you should, if you need to, take a tape measure and make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for,” said Hicks.
Nunn said another thing to lok out for is moisture content.
“If you’re cooking with it. You would want a little more moisture because a lot of the times. They’ll take that same wood and they’ll soak it in water so it’ll smoke more. So if you’re getting a lot of smoke from your firewood or out of your fireplace..Your wood is probably wet or it’s not seasoned,” said Nunn, “It will cause more creosote buildup in your chimney and creosote buildup could lead to a chimney fire.”
Other types of for cooking fires are maple and fruit wood. Nunn said he suggests hardwood, oak and pecan are good choice.
