Can someone point me in the right direction?

[enigmablaze]

We are looking to install a small wood stove (Morso 1440) and I called the local place for firewood since we have very little seasoned wood (city lot, not a lot to choose from). They sell full cords or 1/3 cords (face).

I have no real idea of how much we need, the stove doesn't even have a cubic foot of space and we will NOT be heating 24/7. Realistically this is more for family time in the evenings and emergencies, so likely one or two loadings a day on average. Any thoughts on how much we might need for one winter? We live in Illinois, it gets super cold here and this is in a pretty drafty room. Thank you for any thoughts!

 

[LondonNeil]

The small morso stoves are great but being small ( it's a 5kw stove) you'll get no more than a couple of hours burn time off a load at the most.
If you are sat by the stove for the evening, you'll put a small log or 2 on it every hour.
As to wood use, it varies so much, but I have a similar 5kw stove and run it hard, average about 180 hours use per m³ of mixed hard and soft wood. A cord is about 3.5m³. if you run the stove 5 evenings a week for 4 hours plus a little line at weekends you might average 30-35 hours a week, 18-20 weeks per cord. Maybe start with a couple of cord and see how you go.

 

[peakbagger]

Make sure you measure the firebox and buy wood that is the right length!. Its PITA to have to shorten firewood one piece at a time.

 

[Squirrel]

The biggest problem I have had using a small squirrel stove is the wood. My wood needs to be a maximum of 10" long and a max side or diameter of 3.5". In my area you cannot buy wood cut this small, the average length being 16" with a width of around 8". So I usualy buy or scrounge 4 or 5 foot logs and cut and split for myself which takes a lot more time than "regular" wood. Squared off splits fill the stove much better than the triangular variety and give much better burn times. One advantage of the small splits is that green wood split early in the spring is usually dry enough (20% moisture is the max 15% is better) to burn by fall. (Except this year maybe as it will not stop raining!)

I light my stove in early October and it burns fairly steadily untill April and I usually get through just over two full cords of good hardwood a year. My primary heat is electric and maybe costs $100 a year so the fresh air and excercise from cutting and splitting for a couple of days is fairly well paid but my face does hurt sometimes from smiling when it's - 40.

 

[Poindexter]

You might call your local suppliers to see if you can come pick up some short pieces.

Every time i cut 16" rounds off a log there is a left over piece. The 14 to 17" ones i process with the 16 inchers.

If someone showed up at my driveway and offered not much for a trunk load or minivan load or whatever for my shorts and cookies i would help them load. Maybe 5 bucks to dill the trunk of a honda civic, maybe 20 bucks for the bed of a ranger/tacoma... i would be glad to be rid of them.

 

[peakbagger]

Its a pain in the butt to stack shorts, unless they are supported from the sides, the stacks fall over very easily. My friend used to get "lilypads" from a dowel mill, they were the left over ends after the logs were cut to length. They dried quick but didnt stack well. He made up cribs out of pallets and just threw them in until he used them.

 

[enigmablaze]

The small morso stoves are great but being small ( it's a 5kw stove) you'll get no more than a couple of hours burn time off a load at the most.
If you are sat by the stove for the evening, you'll put a small log or 2 on it every hour.
As to wood use, it varies so much, but I have a similar 5kw stove and run it hard, average about 180 hours use per m³ of mixed hard and soft wood. A cord is about 3.5m³. if you run the stove 5 evenings a week for 4 hours plus a little line at weekends you might average 30-35 hours a week, 18-20 weeks per cord. Maybe start with a couple of cord and see how you go.

Thank you for this! Just to be clear, is the 3.5 square meters a full cord or a "face" cord?

 

[enigmablaze]

You might call your local suppliers to see if you can come pick up some short pieces.

Every time i cut 16" rounds off a log there is a left over piece. The 14 to 17" ones i process with the 16 inchers.

If someone showed up at my driveway and offered not much for a trunk load or minivan load or whatever for my shorts and cookies i would help them load. Maybe 5 bucks to dill the trunk of a honda civic, maybe 20 bucks for the bed of a ranger/tacoma... i would be glad to be rid of them.

interesting, I forgot to ask them about lengths, perhaps I can get some shorts from them, though they process major wood into multiple applications so I doubt they have much waste...

 

[enigmablaze]

The biggest problem I have had using a small squirrel stove is the wood. My wood needs to be a maximum of 10" long and a max side or diameter of 3.5". In my area you cannot buy wood cut this small, the average length being 16" with a width of around 8". So I usualy buy or scrounge 4 or 5 foot logs and cut and split for myself which takes a lot more time than "regular" wood. Squared off splits fill the stove much better than the triangular variety and give much better burn times. One advantage of the small splits is that green wood split early in the spring is usually dry enough (20% moisture is the max 15% is better) to burn by fall. (Except this year maybe as it will not stop raining!)

I light my stove in early October and it burns fairly steadily untill April and I usually get through just over two full cords of good hardwood a year. My primary heat is electric and maybe costs $100 a year so the fresh air and excercise from cutting and splitting for a couple of days is fairly well paid but my face does hurt sometimes from smiling when it's - 40.

Haha, I love it So if you use two full cords a year, how many hours a day would you say you burn?

 

[Poindexter]

3.5 cubic meters would be a full cord, 4x4x8 feet.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

Thank you for this! Just to be clear, is the 3.5 square meters a full cord or a "face" cord?

Firewood is a volume measurement. So it's not square meters, it's cubic meters. And, yes, 1.5 cubic meters almost a cord (closer to a cord than 1.6 cu. meters.).

What's a "face cord"? Is that if you get firewood delivered and you realize it's nowhere near a full cord and you put your face in your palms when your wood guy says "I said it was a "face cord"?

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

3.5 cubic meters would be a full cord, 4x4x8 feet.

3.5 cubic meters = 11.8 cords.

 

[beatlefan]

3.5 cubic meters = 11.8 cords.

According to google 3.5 cubic meters is equal to 1 cord (give or take).

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

According to google 3.5 cubic meters is equal to 1 cord (give or take).

Oops, correct. A cube ~1.5 meters/side = ~1 cord. A cube ~3.5 meters/side=~11.8 cords.

 

[enigmablaze]

Haha math was never my strongest suit I'm guessing a full cord would probably be a good place to land here...though storing it is going to be another can of worms

 

[LondonNeil]

you guys and your feet and inches! 25.4mm per inch, a full cord of 128cuft is just over 3.5m3

small logs are the problem. My stovax stockton5 will take 14" (if its just an odd point, otherwise 13") and almost 5" diameter....I have had to carry a smoldering log out the house after finding one end was too fat on more than one occasion.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

you guys and your feet and inches! 25.4mm per inch, a full cord of 128cuft is just over 3.5m3

So what is the standardized firewood quantity in the UK?

 

[LondonNeil]

Ooh wood sellers here are worse than there! They use very vague descriptions for a load, a pickup bed full is common or a builders bag, dumpy bag. Volume of those if square is a cubic yard (we still cling to some Imperial measures!) But the amount of firewood in one varies massively. Most sellers will say their load is about 1m³ usually, loose, not stacked.

 

[LondonNeil]

Oh and because builders dumpy bags are often referred to as 1 tonne bags, some sellers claim to deliver a tonne! Nearer a third of that even if it actually has a good amount of seasoned wood, possibly 300kg

 

[billb3]

When I had a little 0.6 cubic foot stove, I burned mostly on weekends and mybe during the week when I got home and was going to watch TV in that room and would feed the stove every 2-3 hours with cherry and maple. I burned maybe a half a cord. Pretty much Winter only. It was mostly set up for emergency heat and cooking, but once it's there .......
A fire is kinda nice and really not that much work especially just trying to heat one small corner of the house.
I never bought wood but cut a rather standard 16 inch log length which the stove took.

The 1440 takes 12 inch logs, which works in many places in Europe that has smaller harvested trees that are split in 4 foot lengths, stacked to dry and then cut in 4 during the Winter as needed. Just a different way of doing it, just not very common here stateside.
If you cut your own wood you can approach what your firebox needs. What length wood are you going to find locally ? The more typical 16-18" ?

I would want two cord and a chop saw and cut to fit a bunch at a time.

One nice thing about 24 or 48 inch logs is the stacks don't fall over any where near as often as a 12 " stack would. Or even sixteens. Although you probably won't stack 12 inch logs you're more likely to have them in boxes, cages or bags.

 

[LondonNeil]

I stack on pallets, about 3'6 wide and 4'6 high, along my fence. I've not had a collapse so far. I do a crisscross stacked section every 8' or so. I think it dries fine, I think the short cuts and thin splits needed for a small stove dry pretty fast in anything but poor conditions. I put a slight slope to the top of the stack, and tarp the top for mid September to May.

 

[enigmablaze]

I'm wondering, if it is supposedly "seasoned" already, can you store small splits in bins in the garage or will the lack of airflow make a difference?

 

[LondonNeil]

If it is seasoned, properly dry, below 20% MC, bins in the garage would be ok. If it in't and is still wet then it'll start to go mouldy, which isn't a problem in the short term but it also won't dry any further so it won't burn well. Bringing seasoned wood inside to a cellar or garage is common practice though.

 

[beatlefan]

I'm wondering, if it is supposedly "seasoned" already, can you store small splits in bins in the garage or will the lack of airflow make a difference?

I store wood in my attached garage during the burning season, but only after we've had a hard frost to eliminate the bugs. I personally don't think it's a good idea to store wood close to the house year round. Too many bugs.