900sq ft w/wood stove = how much wood?

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toonces

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Nov 7, 2011
158
Farmington Valley, CT
just curious to see apprx. how much wood people are burning with a 900sq ft living space. also what type of wood, outside temps, and how well the house is insulated. trying to get an idea of how much wood i will need next year in case i can't scrounge enough by myself. thanks!
 
Figure on 3 cord for your area and size house...maybe more or less.
Better yet 6 cord cause you need to get at least a year ahead.
 
Figure on burning extra the first winter, until you figure out how to use the stove.

Just keep cutting. It never ends.
 
If decent insulation I would say around 2-2.5 cords. I heat ~1400 sq ft on about 3 cords. Far amount colder here too.

Though if would be smart to be 2-3 years ahead so when it gets time to burn the wood will be well seasoned plus it's money in the bank. Never know if it will be a really cold winter or maybe you get hurt and can't cut wood for a year..
 
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Like others are saying, it depends on where the house is.

Phoenix, 0.25 cords
Anchorage, 3 cords
Winnipeg, ~ 5.5 cords.....:lol:
 
I would go twice as much as you think you need. This way you know you have really seasoned wood for the next year.
 
Get ahead.

If you don't you may end up like me out of wood in the middle of a mild winter. I mean out of seasoned wood.
 
As others suggested, get as much as you can reasonable afford to buy or have the time to cut - this will get you (hopefully) 2-3 years ahead and get you ahead of the drying curve. I'd guess 2.5 cord, assuming a well insulated house - I burn 5 cord to heat 3000sqft in NH - no other heat used. Good luck! Cheers!
 
Jimbob said:
Like others are saying, it depends on where the house is.

Phoenix, 0.25 cords
Anchorage, 3 cords
Winnipeg, ~ 5.5 cords.....:lol:

And the house size. I dont live any where near Anchorage, Alaska, but I burn well over 3 cords... more like 5, give or take, and thats mostly oak and locust. Its also going to matter if you use the furnace or not. I solely heat with wood and keep the furnace off all winter.
 
It surely is nice seeing so many people recommending people get their wood well ahead of when they are going to burn it. If folks did that, most problems would disappear.
 
In the past I've burned about two cords but this year I've got a different stove and the temps have been mild, so probably less than a cord so far. I have been keeping it at about 70* most of the time, warmer than in the past. 980 sq.ft. but only logs and thick wallboard...no real insulation except in the ceiling. With this kind of a house I think you would need a stove with a minimum rating of 1000 sq.ft. heating capacity.
 
The size of your stove puts a maximum limit on the amount of wood you can burn - there is only so much wood you can put thru a stove even at maximum burn all the time. I presume your stove won't be bigger than mine and I don't think I could burn much more than about four cords in a winter. Maybe if I start early, end late, and really let 'er rip all the time I could burn five, but realistically I think four is a likely maximum amount of wood I'll ever burn. If you put up four cords per year you should be fine.
 
I have a 792sq/ft house... R13 walls, Only 6" of cellulose in the attic (so like R-20-25 or so... well below the recommended!), no basement/crawlspace... just sitting on a foundation of a single stack of cinder blocks. Insulated that with R10 foam the blocks and sealed what crawlspace was there when I gutted it this year.
I'm just under a cord of softwood so far for the year.... Been burning Catalpa/Willow/Cottonwood mix. Burning 24/7 with a Chinook. House is usually 72-74, might go a bit higher on reloads but generally right around there. Outside temps haven't been bad this year... 20-30s for the most part of this winter. Pretty mild winter for Buffalo.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
It surely is nice seeing so many people recommending people get their wood well ahead of when they are going to burn it. If folks did that, most problems would disappear.
BWS, If everyone would get ahead what would we talk about here? How else would we look like experts? :smirk:
 
I burn 3-4 cord for 2200 sq. ft with 9' walls. It's a ranch and insulated as good as a house could ever be. You will burn 1-2 cords if it's insulated really well.
 
i have a 900 sq ft house i burn 3 chords a season i start end of oct early nov and go all the way to april maybe may if cold mornings my house is insulated excellent no drafts or leaks i have a jotul f3 cb i burn black locust, swamp maple, and oak. if its really cold winter like last yr i do 3.5 cords. i burn 24/7 and is how i heat my house. my house is easy 80 to 60 degrees. but 72 is the norm.
 
I have 1600 sqft and burned about 4 cord last year. This year in November I blew more insulation into the attic, went from R-25 to R-50. I insulated the basement and half the crawlspace to R-10. So far I have burned 1.5 cords. My wood usage went way down after the attic insulation and after insulating/air sealing the rim joist and basement my wood usage went down even further. Now when we get a strong south wind I don't feel a breeze in the basement.

Of course this has been a mild year and we get a lot of sun during the day. On cloud free or partly cloudy days I light a fire about 8:00 PM when the temp drops to 72 and before bed I load up the stove. In the morning I build a small fire to get the temp back up to 74.

On cloudy days I have to build a small fire every 3-5 hours to maintain a comfortable temp.
 
Burleymike, it's nice to hear ya insulate the crap out of your house. Now think if everyone would do what you did. We would reduce our heat load 30% in our country. I just bid another attic 2 weeks ago. a 1200 sq ft. attic to put in another r30 for 1,100 bucks. They said thanks but I'll pass. A house with r19 in the attic for 40 years. Just think the wasted heat in that house all these years. Insulation is really cheap in the long run.
 
To be honest I never really believed that insulation made that big of a difference in comfort or fuel usage. As I have gutted each room over the years I put new R13 and 6 mil air barrier sealed with mastic. I did not notice a large improvement from the old 1950s fiberglass/kraft paper other than the wind would no longer blow out of the electrical outlets and switches.

I have been presently surprised at how much of a difference insulating/air sealing the attic, rim joist, basement and crawlspace walls made. When the wind would blow hard I could smell fresh outside air and feel the temperature in the house start to drop. Air sealing and insulating is one improvement that will certainly pay for itself even for a guy like me who gets his wood for the price of a permit and fuel.

I agree 100% with you, we certainly could lower our energy usage a lot in this country if we insulated new and existing homes better. Most people just don't realize how much it will pay off and how cheap it is to do. A good friend of mine had to refinish his basement a couple years ago due to a water heater flood. He did not see any point in air sealing anything, even the old coal chute door that you can see day light around the sides. He put fiberglass batts in the walls. He does not believe in air sealing, no EPS or XPS on the walls he did not even bother with the rim joist. His basement is just as cold on windy days as it was before with no insulation. He spent more money running wiring for his theater than on proper insulation. At least he should not have any mold problems since he has so much air moving thought the fiberglass.
 
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i have burned close to 1.5 cords probally less.
750sqft in northern maine with above average insulation.
in a mild winter. so i would think get atleast 4 cords and maybe you'll burn 2-3 and have a really good seasoned cord for the next year
i bought 4 cords and had one cord that i did my self amd only brought in 2.5 under cover. and i think i should be ok. might have to brush some snow off some more if i need it late winter

just wing it man thats what i do. dont over think it.
if you get to much you will have it for the next year
 
True insulating walls doesn't make a huge difference with fiberglass bats. The reason is cause batt insulation doesn't stop air flow. A wall needs to be sealed from air leaks before it gets to the insulation. What happens when air gets in to the wall cavity is cold air moves down, then warms up and moves up. This creates cold drywall and insulation value is a fraction of R13. If you spray foam @ R13 a big difference is noticed. It stops air flow 100% and then the insulation can do it's work.
 
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Everyone here sells FACE cords. We bought 6 face cords and are a bit more than half way through them, plus about 40 packs of ecobricks. Our wood is ehhh...not that great, but not the worst I've seen either. Next year will be better, since that's been CSS'd since the summer. It's been atypical this year weather wise (way warmer than norm), but I imagine we're going to use about the same amount next year if we can't get the insulation done, if the weather is more average (colder). If it does get done, I imagine a pallet of ecobricks for filler and about 1-1.5 (full) cords of woods. We've got more than that CSS'd and another huge pile already started for the spring.

The Cottage=700 Sq Ft former summer cottage. Walls probably have insulation, ceiling...well...not really. It's hit or miss, some spots is probably R0 and some up to R30, depending on where they felt like putting down some batts. We'll deal with that next year. We also have 2 sliding glass doors, and mostly old/original (leaky) windows (some will be replaced, at least two will not be because I like them and they have storms). No basement-original cottage is on a slab, living room addition is a crawl space with cinder block foundation on the outside, dirt floor with some insulation inside. We live between open fields and a lake, so we are open to the elements.

We heat with wood, and use a vent free as backup, but that was just installed earlier this month. We have no furnace/boiler.
 
Sorry for reviving an old thread. I'm looking at buying a wood stove to supplement / replace my gas furnace. I live in an end unit 1024 foot 2 story brick townhouse ( unfinished basement ) and am looking at the England 2000 wood stove ( 50-SHSSW01 ). Theres zero insulation on the exterior walls as they are plaster on brick. This wood stove is rated at 50,000 btu and up to 2,000 Sq foot heating. Being that the house I'm heating is half that in size, I'm trying to figure out if 1) Is this model overkill? And 2) roughly how many cords of wood will I need. I will leave my trane xr80 35,000 btu furnace installed just in case but want to try setting it to 50 so it doesn't kick on all winter hopefully. I will likely have to remove the thermostat and place it elsewhere since it's on the wall where the wood stove is going lol.

Looking at all the parts for the wood stove and wall chimney piping, I figure I should come out around $1500 with self installation ( looks easy enough ). At 250 / cord in MD at a minimum of 2 cords, that's another $500. Heating kills me every year and I'm thinking this will pay itself off in 1-2 yrs. Should I make this investment?



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