Year End Survey

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Mid Michigan

Member
Oct 20, 2009
71
Mid Michigan
Ok, This should be fun. I would like to know how much wood you burn through in a year. Now to get this even close to work with all the variable lets have a few rules.
1. Must be a boiler.
2. Must be your only source of heat. So if you have a fire place or fossil boiler helping out once in awhile convert your number to if you never used them.
3. Does not matter what kind of wood you are using. Takes about the same effort to cut, split, stack, carry, and finally burn whether it is oak or maple or pine.
4. Must burn for a 6 month season. So you southerners make a monthly average and add to it. Those of you burning all year, eliminate the summer months.
5. Lets all work in the same unit of measurement. A CHORD. 4' X 4' X 8'.
Did I miss anything?
List your location, square footage heated, DHW (yes or no), and Chords of wood

I am still using that nasty OWB and can't wait untill next year to upgrade.
So here goes. Michigan, 2700sq.ft., DHW, 12 Chord
 
Based on what we have used this year(our 1st yr):

Northcentral PA, 2100 sq ft, yes DHW, 4 to 5 cords

There are a lot of variables...two big ones are how well insulated(poor, fair, good) is the living area and what temp to you keep the house at (under 65, 65-70, 70+)
 
Northern Ontario, 2400 sqft, yes DHW, 6-7 cords last year, looks like it will be 6 this year.
 
Central CT, 3000 sq. ft. 1986 construction. DHW yes. Last year (first year) burned 6-7 cords.
This year added the hot tub and will probably burn an extra cord.
 
SE Indiana

Heat 2050 sq ft ranch house (upstairs) via water to air HX in furnace plenum (70 degree TX setting). House has a full basement.

Heat 1550 sq ft detached garage with three roll up doors via radiant heat off boiler (mid 60's average).

Heat DHW via sidearm.

Used maximum 8 cords last year - lost count.

At the current rate should use around 7 cords this year.
 
Merry Christmas!

Coast of Maine
1,100 sq. ft. house

All heat and hot water 1- 1.5 cords. All from the boiler.
 
First year with my Econoburn 100 (no storage,) 1700 sq. ft. Log Home , Been keeping the house about 72 degees at least all over and DHW included in system. Zero oil use . Looks like it will be in the neighborhood of 6 or 7 cords. Western New York area
 
First year with GW 100. 1500 sq ft approx. House set at 74(feels like an oven but thats what she sets it at). DHW yes approx 8 - 10 cord it looks like, but again a mild fall and then BAM zero degree temps.. o well.. Good luck with survey
 
Last several years with my old Aquatherm "wood gobbler" was always about 11-12 cords. So far this winter with my home-built Seton 130 I've used only 1+ cord ! I would estimate that I will use no more than 5 cords thru the end of March. Amazing difference in the amount of wood use between the 2 units.

Forgot, 3,000 sq ft brick home w/ additional 286 sq ft sunroom. I live in the UP of Michigan. DHW is NOT on the system yet.

Pat
 
List your location, square footage heated, DHW (yes or no), and Chords of wood

2005 Tarm Solo 30 (no storage)...I keep the btu's stored in the wood till they're released in the boiler. :)

Southern WI, HWBB heat in a 1967 vintage 2500SF ranch w/ walk out basement + two car garage, DHW, 6 cords give or take a 1/2 cord.

Stay warm.
 
nofossil said:
3500 square feet in Vermont, DHW and 550 gallon hot tub, 4.5 cords

WOW NOFO to what do you attribute your low wood usage? What am I doing wrong?


3400 sqft, DHW, 70 °F, 4-5 cords
 
Tarm solo heating 2200 square ft. ranch. Burn year round to make DHW. Burn approximately 10-12 cord of wood of which is 50% pine. Location central Massachusetts. 1000 gallon nonpressurized storage.
 
Tarm Excel 2200 with storage heating 4,000 sq ft + garage. DHW. House is at 65*. Last year (our first year) 6.5 cords. No oil used since 9/08!
 
ohbie1 said:
WOW NOFO to what do you attribute your low wood usage? What am I doing wrong?


3400 sqft, DHW, 70 °F, 4-5 cords

As someone mentioned earlier, there are way too many variables for this poll to be allow accurate comparisons. My house is reasonably well insulated. I've also spent a lot more time than any sane person would trying to figure out how to get the best performance out of my system.

My burn pattern is different than some - I burn short hot fires once a day. Average is seven hours of burn time per day. The rest of the time I live off of storage. I also get a fair amount of solar gain on the rare days when it's not cloudy. I do keep the house 70 - 72 degrees most of the time.
 
Last season... 4100 sq-ft, no DHW, 72*-75*, no storage, 5.5 cords (nov. 1 through April 1)

This season... 4100 sq-ft, yes DHW, 72*-75*, 1000 gallons thermal storage, just shy of 2 cords so far (started measuring oct 12)

... to be continued. Hoping to have a Froling Turbo 3000 in service before the end of this heating season.

cheers
 
Lots of responses so far. Great job guys. Keep them coming. The more input the better.
There definitely are a lot of variables in this heating with wood. But I think that is some of the reason we are doing it. Nothing like a challenge on how to make your car go faster, your golf ball go further, and your boiler burn longer and hotter. Only with this "hobby" hope fully we are spending less $$$ in the end.

I do still believe there is a bit of information cleaned from this thread even with all the variables. Lets face it cutting, splitting, stacking, and burning is a lot of work. There is a threshold or a magic number where on one side we think this is to much work and not worth it and the other side were we are satisfied with the benefit/work ratio. It appears so far I burn more wood than most and I know I am tired of it and am looking for ways to improve with efficiency. I think you can begin to draw an average of wood consumption for a year from this thread. Absolutely everyone's set up is different. But it gives us an idea of how we are doing.

From this unscientific pole I can take hope in the fact that there are ways to improve and become more efficient. Keep in mind I am new to this forum. We all travel in our own circles and mine never crossed gassification boilers until I found this forum. I like the fact if I can cut my wood consumption in half at $1000.00 a year right now that would be sweet. I would love to only spend $500.00 on wood next year and love it even better to be able to cut the wood and not go through it so fast and be able to stock it up for the following years.

If I didn't burn I would go through 1700 gal. of propane a year. At $2.00 a gallon I am saving some serous change. But we all want to save more and be able to do what we want with our money.

I better stop there or I may fall into the health care issue talking about my money and spending it how I want too. That's a can a worms for another thread. (Moderator might want to remove this line to keep all the Libertarians from hijacking thread. Even though that may be what we need. Darn, there I go again.)
 
6 months = 180days
my firebox = 5cu. feet.
1 cord = 128cu. feet.
180X5=900cu. feet
That's over 7 cord of wood right there.
Cut that down to a 5month heating season.
Almost 6 cords.
That's one load a day. Many load twice, once every 12 hours.
 
So far I have not had to load more than once per day... but it's been a mild fall thus far. When it gets very cold, -10 to -15, I suspect I'll burn twice per day, but not necessarily completely full loads.
cheers
 
Interior Alaska

2,500 sf, very well insulated 2001 construction

DHW yes

estimated 6 cords/winter (3 cords in summer 6-months)
 
sgschwend said:
Are you going to summarize, graphs would be nice too?

Eventually, my goal will be to install the software and sensors necessary to provide more precise and accurate records of each firing... similar to no-fossils system of data tracking, but there are quite a few things I need to accomplish before I get to that. Sorry... no graphs as of yet. At some point I should organize all the little scrap papers and 2x4's with system numbers scribbled onto them into some spreadsheets for you all, but for now, taking a few measurements now and then to get a rough idea of system performance will have to do. I recently just posted some info on my storage tank standby loss measured over several days while I was away on business. Nothing recorded by a computer in real-time or anything, but it gives you a basic idea.

Thus far heating requirements have not exceeded one loading per day of the 8 cu/ft firebox... as I said, however, it's been mild, and I don't think we've dropped below 10* F yet, and if we have, it hasn't been for but a few hours in the early morning. I am burning extremely dense, finely split hardwood this year, mostly hickory with some white oak and beech mixed in... at around 20% average moisture content. Good stuff for sure... and just one of the seemingly infinite number of variables that makes it almost impossible to compare wood usage between the respective systems being used by members of this forum.

The next thing I want to quantify before I switch boilers is the delivered Btu's/hr into the tanks. I plan on shutting the heating zones off for about 2 hours in the middle of a good hot burn, and with the tanks unstratified (pumps running constantly) at 140 degrees. This will be a fairly easy calculation, and I will post my findings when I get the information quantified.

cheers
 
Northeast PA (POCONO'S) 2200 square foot stone farmhouse no insulation in walls (17" solid stone), new windows, blown in fiberglass in attic floor. Heating DHW and house from Nov. 15 to April 1. Last year 8 cords but last 2 cords were unseasoned which killed the btu's and performance. Hope to get away with six this year. So far looks possible. House temp. 68-70
 
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