Lots of wood stacked here in the shed, but how much will you use?

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jstellfox

New Member
Jul 15, 2010
97
PA
How much wood do you use on a typical year? Type of wood burned, type of stove and length of season....

For me this is my first season and I hope to burn no more than 4.5 cords. I will be burning a mix of Ash, Beech, Locust and Oak. I have an Englander 30nc and I plan to start burning mid October until April. I'd be interested to hear what everyone else has going on!
 
With it being your first season and not knowing how dry your wood supply is. Me thinks you will use most if not all of that wood you got. If you have the means to get another 4 or 5 for next year. It would be wise to do so now and have much dryer wood that will give more heat!
Good luck and welcome!
BTW What kind of stove you got?
 
Bubbavh....I do have another 4.5 cords for next year cut split and stacked. I currently have a total of 9 cords. I am just hoping that 4.5 will last me a year but only time will tell. My stove is a Summer's Heat 50snc30 (Englander 30). If I can get by on 4.5 cords of wood per year I have enough room on my property for 2 years worth of wood, so I am crossing my fingers. I will replace what I burn this winter in April so that my wood will always have 2 summers to dry. At least thats the plan!
 
I figure on burning 3 cords at the most.

My folks have a bit smaller house but old homemade stove and then usually burn about 3 cords a winter... have been for the last ~20 years.
 
8 down from 10-12 a couple years ago.
 
I figure 4-6 cords . . . never been too exact in figuring out the amount since I have plenty of wood and in the Fall and Spring I often use my chunks, punks and uglies which I have in a heap hausen so I don't have an exact figure . . . as long as I don't run out of stove fuel I'm happy.

Mostly I burn hardwood in my Jotul Oslo . . . burn on and off with morning and/or evening fires in September and October . . . transition to burning 24/7 sometime in October or November and then go back to the daily fires in April and May.
 
NATE379 said:
I figure on burning 3 cords at the most.

My folks have a bit smaller house but old homemade stove and then usually burn about 3 cords a winter... have been for the last ~20 years.

Nate, I used to live in Anchorage. We went through about 3-4 cord, but had cheap natural gas as our main heat source.
Will 3 cord be your main heat source, or secondary?

I've got a large house now: 3500 square feet, with 7.5', 8', 9', 12' and 22' ceilings. I haven't had a full winter on my new Econoburn yet, but last year I went through about 11 cord: 9 cord of red and white maple hardwood (not sugar maple), and 2 cord of poplar and fir softwood. This year I have 8 cord of maple and 4 cord of softwood already in the basement woodroom.
 
We've had this stove for 3 full winters now and it is 100% of our heat as we have no furnace (I sold it). We've burned 3 cords each winter since installing the stove. Well, we were a little under 3 cords last winter but it was a relatively mild winter for us. On the other hand, we used to average 6 cord per year.

Our heating season begins in September and usually ends sometime in May with an occasional fire in June.
 
I have no idea as this is my first full season burning.

I started the fire 1/23 last year and let it go out about 3/23. I'm doing the mental (fuzzy at best) math and figure I burned 7 pickup loads at 1/3 cord each...so 2 1/3 cord during the coldest days of the year. Last winter was extremely cold too.

I'm hoping not to have to light the fire until nearly November and let it go out mid-March again. Best guess is that puts me about 4.5 cord. I've got 7 that I could burn...but don't want to if I don't have to.

If I had a better stove I would prob burn a lot less. But wood is free...and I'm using a "nearly new" 25 year old stove...so there's no payback in an upgrade...
 
Mostly Oak here, with some spruce and maple. Stove is an Ashley steptop from 1985. I start almost every burning season the last week of September. That's evening fires, then maybe one in the morning. Pretty much burn 24/7 through March/early April, and then drop back to the morning/evening fires at that point. Sometimes have a fire into the first week of June. I don't like to be cold.
Usage has been pretty consistent at close to 5 cord/year since buying this house in Sept., of '06. That doesn't include all the uglies, bark, twigs, and splitting scraps.
House is a smallish ranch at about 1250 sq. ft., and the stove is in an addition at one end.
I like to have more wood ready than I think I'll need.
I could have cut and pasted Jake's response, except I don't have an Oslo. :-/
 
We have no idea what amount of wood we will burn this year as it is our first full season coming up.

We have 7-8 cords dry and ready to go for this winter with another 6-8 for next winter. We are also cutting more standing and fallen dead right now to make sure we have enough for the last part of the season.

Our little drolet is a non-epa stove and we have an open throat fireplace. It will be interesting to see how much we chew through from our wood piles. We are supplementing the forced air electric for our 1400 square foot log home with the same number of square feet in the basement.
 
JOTUL F600 and I burn late Oct thru to late Mar. I heat a 2500sqft colonial and burn 24/7 and go through approx 4.2cords.
 
I guess one of the few things good about being stuck in a 900 square foot house is that I'll only go through 2.5 cords of wood. Late Oct to Early April.
 
Heating 1800-2000 sq ft and burn through 3 cords of hardwood per year the last 4 years with my Fireview but with the newly procured Keystone this year I figure to burn a little more.
 
Burned 24/7 from 9/29 to 4/7 last year and we used 7 cords. Never used the furnace and we have 2900 sq ft to heat. I have 12 cords ready so I am slowly getting a reserve so I don't have to stress. Stocked the front row of my shed with spruce for these shoulder months and will get into the ash as it gets to 24/7 time.
 
We burned 3 cords last year. I have budgeted 4 for this year just in case. Burning hardwoods for the most part but a good bit of this years supply is less dense hardwood so lower heat value - last year was almost all oak and hickory, but not quite as dry. Will be interesting to see how it all measures out. Being second year I'm also a bit more patient and I expect I'll be less inclined to over stuff the stove and/or light up as fast during shoulder season (still holding out for first fire this year) so that should keep burn volume down for the year.

Of course - mother nature has a lot to do with things, never know how cold it will get or how long the cold will last eh?
 
Heating a ~1,500 sf place at 6,000 ft elevation, we used about 2.5 cords of oak/pine mix last year. It was our longest winter in the 7 that we have had the place.

This year we are putting zooper dooper argoniom encrusted windows in, so maybe a little improvement.

We will also be burning more oak, less pine this year, so perhaps we will get by with 2 cords. Have about 9 sitting around the property, just in case. Will grab a good sized standing dead mullbery that has been dead a few years and waiting for us down in the desert valley at a friend's place. (110 deg summers with something like 20% humidity and high winds) It may move to the front of the dry wood line!
 
Bigg_Redd said:
I've never burned less than 3, never burned more than 4.
DITTO. I have been burning my old Buck Stove for 30 years and I know it isn't as efficient as the new ones you guys all have, but it has always heated 1500 square feet burning 24/7 November through March. A little in October and April, just hard to keep it from getting hot in the house during those shoulder months and I am not much for letting the fire go out. Never burned more than 4 cords, ash, oak, hickory, honey locust, birch, elm, hackberry, walnut, hedge, and anything else I can get. Central IL isn't as cold as some of the places on this forum so naturally they are going to burn more in the North and Northeast, but the low last winter here was -9 so it does get cold, especially January and February. Happy burning, just cut more wood! :)
 
Got about 8 pallets worth in the back of the garage ready to go. Last year went through about 7 so I think that works out to about 3-4 cords.
 
Lots of good information here on wood consumption. It seems as expected that there is a wide variety of wood volume burnt due to the many variables, but 3-4 seems to be pretty standard for the newer stoves from what people are saying here. How many people (Like myself) have the wood stove in the basement to heat the first floor? And how many cords do you burn to accomplish this?
 
Currently I live in a two story 1500 sq. ft. house and last couple years we burned between 3-4 cords and almost never turned the furnace (heat pump) on, except to check and make sure it was still working. Usually start burning in earnest in Oct. and shut it down the end of March. Oh, and I'm burning 90% lodgepole pine.
Only place I burned more than that was a 2000 sq. ft. home where I had the stove in the basement and heated the whole house from there. Was always hot in the stove room, but upstairs was the most comfortably heated house I ever lived in. Nice warm floors. I think I burned between 4-5 cords through the winter in that place.
 
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