# How much wood is equivalent to a wood pallet?



## kingston73 (Sep 30, 2011)

I don't know why I never bothered to ask before but I realized today my work has a constant supply of single use pallets that they throw out each week, so I'm planning on taking home a pickup load every day, or at least as often as possible.  Some of them I'm going to use for stacking wood, a few I'm going to make into a temporary motorcycle shelter, but the rest I plan on burning.  Approx how much wood does a single standard sized pallet give you?  A pallet a night?  More?  Less?  I know I'll find out once I start using the stove, but I'm just curious and want to get an estimate for how much I'll go through in a month.  I won't be burning pallets exclusively, but I only have 2 cords of well seasoned wood with maybe 3 or 4 more cords of Irene wood which I figure I'll use next year.


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## My Oslo heats my home (Sep 30, 2011)

You have a bunch of variables to consider. The type pf wood the pallet is made of, the size of the pallets, how you burn wood in your stove and if you are a 24/7 wood burner to answer some of your own questions. Won't hurt to get as many pallets that are free from paint and other materials to help make your wood supply last through the winter. You just have to labor them apart and prep them for the stove.


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## CTYank (Sep 30, 2011)

Overall, a good idea feeding pallets to stove, IMHO. Great pricing. BTDT.

Hard part is getting them apart quickly & cleanly. I made a couple of wooden fixtures to hold stacks of similar pieces, so I could cut them quickly & safely with saber saw.

Good choice for shoulder season, because of good kindling properties. Some report fire getting out of control- no air control?

You might want to store thinner section stuff for kindling, and burn the thicker as fuel.

Pallets generally put together by power-nailer machine-gunners. Ashes will have lots of nails/staples- magnet will remove. With iron included, ashes are good stuff to scatter in the woods, since iron is a valuable nutrient for most trees.


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## bogydave (Sep 30, 2011)

The BTU in wood is by dry weight. : (0% moisture content the BTUs are 8660 BTUs/lb)
6928 btu/lb  (Theoretical Heat Value of Fuel Wood) (20% moisture) (8660 X .8 (80% wood)
7620 btu/lb at 12% moisture content (8660 X .88)
Example:
Pine when dry is lighter per volume than oak. 5 pounds of dry pine hast the same BTUs as 5 pounds of dry oak (equal moisture content). The volume of the pine is more but the btus are equal.

Now the efficiency of the stove plays a major role in how much heat you get inside your house,  some heat goes up the chimney, (catalytic stoves produce more heat into the house. less up the chimney)
Some of the BTUs are used to boil off the 20% moisture in the wood. (The Dryer the wood means you get more efficiency, ie usable heat)
Moisture in the air is a factor also but not as controllable as the dryness of your wood.

ANSWER:: for a pallet: weigh the wood, assuming 6928 BTUs per pound @ 20% moisture ( pallets are normally dryer but it varies so you could use 10 - 15% for better accuracy but then the 6928 BTUs per pound changes)
Of course you have to then figure out the average weight of the nails & staples  in a pallet to get a more accurate BTU.

With other variables, you will just have to experiment with your set up. 
But the dryer the wood, the more heat you get into your home.

Ref:
http://chimneysweeponline.com/howoodbtu.htm


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## kgrant (Oct 22, 2011)

During the cold months I burn 4-5 "standard" pallets a day between the two stoves.  I use a circular saw and a chop saw to break them down, goes pretty quick once you get the hang of it.  The Princess gets the clean boards, the King gets the boards with nails.


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## Wood Duck (Oct 22, 2011)

I think I could load most of a pallet into my small stove, so maybe you should think about it in terms of stove loads. With a pallet per load I guess I might end up the 4 to 5 pallets per day range like the previous post says.


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## Woody Stover (Oct 22, 2011)

I've heard the term "one-use pallet" but not sure I know what it is.
I've got a few pallets that someone gave me that are made out of some sort of plywood. The veneer peels off as soon as it get rained on. I wouldn't want to burn that plywood through my combustor...might have glue or other harmful stuff.


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## bluedogz (Oct 22, 2011)

bogydave said:
			
		

> ANSWER:: for a pallet: weigh the wood, assuming 6928 BTUs per pound @ 20% moisture ( pallets are normally dryer but it varies so you could use 10 - 15% for better accuracy but then the 6928 BTUs per pound changes)
> Of course you have to then figure out the average weight of the nails & staples  in a pallet to get a more accurate BTU.



For some reason, i have a visual of someone cutting up a pallet, running it through the microwave, then weighing it on a balance scale.


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## billb3 (Oct 22, 2011)

I used to bust up 15-20 on a Friday night at work and they'd be gone by Sunday afternoon.

It's a bit of work, but beats trying to burn green wood.


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## Battenkiller (Oct 22, 2011)

bogydave said:
			
		

> ... weigh the wood, assuming 6928 BTUs per pound @ 20% moisture ( pallets are normally dryer but it varies so you could use 10 - 15% for better accuracy



Sitting out in the driveway, maybe.  But take those pallets apart and stack that thin wood in the same room the stove is in and they will go down to about 5-6% MC within a couple days.  Way too dry.

Awesome kindling, but ridiculously inefficient for heating the home IMHO.  

I could have all the kiln-dried pallet wood I want for free (delivery included)... remnants of my buddy's pallet making operation.  No nails, no disassembly required, just random boards and (mostly) shorts.  I pass on the opportunity every year, and he is stuck chipping the stuff up and blowing it into the nearby woods.  I prefer to buy cordwood.

Compare that deal with transporting 15 pallets at a time (mostly air) and taking them out of the truck, stacking them up, running a chainsaw down through the stack (hoping you don't hit an errant nail), trying to find a way to neatly stack the loose boards, keeping them dry (rain will get in between the boards in a flat-stacked pile and tends to stay in there and freeze them together), packing the stove correctly, monkeying around with the air, feeding it every hour, then having to deal with a mess of iron that you can't just throw out on the lawn or put in the garden.  All in the name of "free wood".

Not for me.  Why bother with pallets if you have a truck and a saw already?  Plenty of free scrounge wood all over the place.  You can carry a half cord stacked neatly in the bed of a full-size pickup.  Why run it with mostly air in the bed?  Sure, if you are there at work and they are tossing the things out and you don't mind filling the truck for the ride home (hopefully you don't pass by a stack of free  rounds sitting by the side of the road), hell yeah... go for it.  I'll bet it gets real old after you are done processing 5 or 10 loads.

But if anybody local to Saratoga Springs, NY wants at all those free pallet-making scraps, PM me and I'll be more than glad to refer you to my friend with the pallet shop. :cheese:


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## Hass (Oct 23, 2011)

Pallets from my work usually weight about 35-45lbs.
Takes me about 2 minutes to clamp and cut each one if I'm taking it easy.
I haul about 90 pallets per trip (trailer+truck).
Pallets are mostly all oak.

Most definitely worth it to me.
It's not as nice as the rough sawn 1x6 and 2x4 oak lumber that my old work used to make pallets out of... But works just the same.
I keep cut straight down the runners and then burn those in the garage since no nails go in the BK!
They've probably been galvanized, so I don't mess with them and chance screwing the cat.

I see some flat beds around here with pallets stacked 10-14 high on a 8x12 bed. 90+ pallets on just a truck! Someday... :]


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## Ken S (Oct 23, 2011)

I got through a couple winters about 1991 with mainly burning pallets in a wood furnace in my basement.Had limited income,all the free pallets I wanted and time at night to process them and they got me through but I don't really want to do it again.


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## Battenkiller (Oct 23, 2011)

A 42"x48"x6" pallet takes up 7 cubic feet and weighs 45 pounds.  One cubic foot of oak weighs about 45 pounds.  I know which one I'd rather have my truck filled with.  :coolsmile:


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## Hass (Oct 23, 2011)

True BK.. but that pallet is free after the drive time which I would have to do anyway for cord wood... My trailer is already at max cap with the pallets I can load on it weight wise... so I couldn't cram in any more cord wood than pallets.
Versus the non-free Oak... Hum....
I do have to consider gas time on the saw, plus chain sharpening once in a blue moon.. But that's pretty miniscule.

I'd much rather have cordwood, but pallet wood is free.
and stacks soooo lovely in a wood stove :]
Until I can get an ideal setup for scrounging downed trees, this is the way for me.

Plus I'm pretty tempted to get a load of logs this winter... Figure that'd give me 2-3 years of wood if I get 7-8 cords.
I don't even know what I'm doing 10 minutes from now, let alone later this winter!
I do whatever I feel like doing...


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## Stevebass4 (Oct 23, 2011)

a buddy of mine just dropped off a huge box of  hard wood pallet scraps - ie one of those watermelon boxes you see at BJ/ Costco - anyway i  hit them with my chop saw and will use it for kindling - i suspect it will be a month's worth of kindling but then again this stuff is full of nails so i might need a big magnet for my ash bucket


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