The Last fire of the season. How much did you burn?

[Motor7]

I don't think it's over either. I burned about 7 cords of hardwood last year...barely 3 this year and half of that was cedar an hemlock.

7 cords of wood...in TN...how big is your house??

Not a house, a uninsulated metal Quonset Hut...30x50. I should be finished with the cedar log house in about 3 months & I just moved the Hearthstone to the basement a little over a week ago.

 

[embers aplenty]

Getting down to 30 here tonight but it's suppose to warm up a good bit next week. I never turn on electric heat unless it's just a bathroom heater or a hair dryer, so I know I'm not done yet. Still looking for that freak 16" snow in early April :cheese: .

I didn't burn much in the garage this winter so I've probably just went through a bit over 2 cords. I've cut, hauled, and split off and on all winter and figure I've got enough for at least 3 to 4 years worth of oak, hickory, and maple on hand. Just need to finish stacking on pallets and get some metal over the top of it.

I normally have fires off and on at least through April and more often then not a few chill knocker fires in May even. I guess if I had a heat pump it might be different but then again, that's what Super Cedars are for.

 

[ohlongarm]

Still burning 22* here tonight with wind. Haven't even burned 2 full cords yet not even a dent in my wood supply,I'll burn till it stays in the mid 50's overnight small fires though.Always helps to be 5 years ahead.

 

[BrotherBart]

70 here yesterday and going into the low twenties tonight. Let wood burner's hell begin. The only thing that is going to save everybody's new plants is the wind. Without it the temp would go even lower.

 

[seeyal8r]

Apparently its way too cold North of the Oklahoma Kansas state line for me. We almost turned the AC on this last week. My house sits with full sun and almost no wind due to local terrain. Even when its windy its pretty calm at my house. If the average temperature is over 40 degrees between the highs and lows I have no reason to burn. The heater might kick on for a few minutes but its honestly probably cheaper than running the blower all day on the insert and its honestly hard to keep a fire at 300 degrees.

For the Okies and Texans, my B-day is at the end of the march and I know we've had snow on my birthday before. But usually in Oklahoma when it snows on one day the next is 60 degrees. If it keeps cold for a couple days I'll run the heater. Between my attic fan and the geometrics of my house I can go several months during spring and fall with no AC or Heat. House may fluctuate between 65 and 75 degrees but thats easily tolerable to me.

Happy weekend. Its beer thirty.

 

[seeyal8r]

The Engineer came out in me. I decided to use Accuweather recorded highs/lows and average highs/lows to analyze the temperatures that I experienced this year. As I've said before I pretty much only burn on days when the average high/low is below 40 degrees. If a day is unusually warm preceded by a cold day and followed by a cold day then I burn straight through so there are multiple variables. Basically I only looked at December, January, and February this year even though I burned a week or so in November I think and a few days in March.

Average high between December 1st and February 29 was 54.3
Average Low was 29.7
Normal average high 50.5
Normal average low 27.5

There were 54 days of the 91 days that were definite burn days. Probably another 20 days that I burned through even though the temp was pretty warm. So all things being equal I burned about 75 days consuming roughly 2.5 cords. About 1/4 cord per 7 days of burning.

Lots of averages here and some stretching of true numbers. Maybe I'll keep a tally next winter for better analyzation. In the mean time I'll be spending tomorrow cutting in the morning and splitting in the afternoon getting ready for 2015/2016 season.

 

[LLigetfa]

The end is near. I cleaned out the ashes, cleaned the glass, and made what I think will be my last morning fire. From now on it will just be a few evening fires as they are forecasting above freezing overnight temps. The snow is melting fast.

Speaking of melting snow, I was remiss in not removing the snow from the metal roof of my woodshed and it all slid down at once, creating a dam that then flooded the slab, soaking the bottom course of wood. I took out the wife's mini-cultivator to chip away at the pile of ice. It worked well but not quite fast enough cuz she caught me and shut me down. I had to finish the job with my clay pick.

All in all, it looks like I burned about a cord less than anticipated.

http://growabrain.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/31/the_end_is_near.jpg

 

[KaptJaq]

I am finished with 24/7 burns and any chance of the two stoves going at once. Now it is mainly evening fires and not even a full load in those. Keeps the house warm until the sun comes back up. Burning sugar maple, fast, hot, and gone.

I expected to burn 3 full cords and maybe three quarters of a ton of coal. I burned a little less than two cords of red oak and maple mix and maybe 500 pounds of coal. The oil fired heat has a total of 46 minutes from monthly test runs (once a month I let the radiators start to warm up then shut it down again).

KaptJaq

 

[begreen]

Looking like a normal winter's amount of wood for us, maybe a little more because we are still burning. 39F this morning and some cool weather forecast for this week. Looks like there is going to be a major wind event off the coast with hurricane force winds tonight. I am hoping that it stays offshore here. If it stays on track, northern Vancouver Island is going to get hammered. So far they are forecasting gusts up to 70 here. I guess I best get the genny ready.

 

[BrotherBart]

Looks like seventies all week and maybe tagging eighty Thursday. Burned the last two nights but I am gonna take a break. Well, if ya call cutting and hauling three or so cords of big red and white oak rounds up from the neighbors house and taking delivery of five hundred pounds of wood stove taking a break.

 

[begreen]

That depends on what you want to break!

 

[DanCorcoran]

"The Engineer came out in me....Lots of averages here and some stretching of true numbers. Maybe I’ll keep a tally next winter for better analyzation."


...for better analysis. (Sorry, the English major came out in me).

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

and taking delivery of five hundred pounds of wood stove taking a break.

What's this??

 

[GAMMA RAY]

and taking delivery of five hundred pounds of wood stove taking a break.

What's this??

Yeah Kat....BB is hoarding 30's now...... :-/
The one he's got will "outlive" him..... :lol:

To stay on topic I burned just under 3 cords this winter....

 

[firefighterjake]

Still burning . . . but it's nice to get outside and just have a sweatshirt or light jacket on.

 

[btuser]

Probably 2 cords max. Couple times I was burning fires with all the windows open just for kicks.

 

[rdust]

Not done yet but hope the end is near, looking at the 10 day probably just need some small chill chasers for a while. Not sure what the count is right now but it's less than 3 cords, past years I'm usually 5 or just over. A typical winter I'll burn around a cord just finishing out from here. I loaded a 1/3 cord into the garage a few days ago and wonder if I'll even use that up now.

 

[lukem]

I'm probably done for the season. Maybe one or two more fires if we get some cool nights before April...but I've never burned into April. We get a lot of solar gain so sunny day heats things right up.

I burned about 4.5 cord this year, half of which was punky slabwood or punky cordwood. If all my wood had been what I'm burning now, that probably would have been closer to 3.75 cord. Either way, it takes a lot of wood to heat 3400 total sq ft from the basement using a pre-EPA stove.

 

[xman23]

Last Friday night it was 19. Monday it was 60. Not done yet, we normally burn to late May. Mostly evening and morning fires to take the chill off. During the day now with no leaves on the trees and the sun low in the sky we get good solar thru a lot of glass. So far we burned about 1/2 of other years.

 

[ecocavalier02]

just let my fire die out as well. first time since october. only burned bout 2 cords maybe a little more . plus lots of puglies. probably will have to light the stove again but not this week with 72 out today. and looking the same for the next week.

 

[westkywood]

I don't think it's over either. I burned about 7 cords of hardwood last year...barely 3 this year and half of that was cedar an hemlock.

WOW!! 7 cords?? How do you keep up with that? How much space are you heating? When I first read this I looked at your profile name to see where you lived. I thought it must be Alaska LOL. Was surprised it said Tennessee. I live in Ky and what a mild winter we had this winter.

 

[westkywood]

I think I've burned 3 cords, but half of it was softwood which burns about 2/3 less time that hardwood. I'm hoping to get by with a little over 2 cords next year with all hardwood. We'll see.

 

[ailanthus]

So far for my first year of burning (started Mid-January) just over 1 cord of quality oak + a small amount of cedar/walnut that I've had stacked around here for awhile. Last week or two has been mainly small, fast (top down all the way!) morning and evening fires with 2x4 scraps for which I have a good source.

Bad thing about this mild winter is I still don't know how well the castine will heat this old house when we're down in the single digits.

 

[lopiliberty]

I'm not even close to being done burning yet. As BB said this is wood burners he**. Forecast calls for 70s and maybe 80s but 40s and 50s at night. It was 73 today so I decided to not full with a fire tonight. Had a fire last night and it go up to 93 in here which is just a little to hot for me. Its only 73 in here and I am freezing so I'm going to bed soon and pull the covers over my head and try to get warm. I would estimate that I have almost 2 cords left and hopefully most of that will be added to next years pile

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Tonight will be the last fire we burn for the season. The next couple weeks show highs in the 60s and 70s. Today though sunday will only be in the 50s so it give me a chance to burn some ugglies and use up the last of what I brought up to the house about a month ago.

In total for this year I burned only about 2/3rds what I burned last winter. Most of my wood was pecan, elm, and white oak. The pecan and elm were great for the shoulder season we had most of the winter and the oak I burned was really a waste most of the time but I kept it burning pretty slow. I'd say I burned a good 2 cords and never had the heater kick on except for a couple cold mornings. When it kicked on I promptly got out of bed to turn it off and add some wood to the fire. I'm a cord ahead of where I thought I needed to be this time last year.

How much did you get by with this year?

I got another month (at least) of burning. Probably I'll get through 3.5 cord of Doug Fir.