Halfway there. How's your wood pile?

Into the second year with the clean burn stove, transitioning from an open fireplace. I am running short on well seasoned hardwood. I am burning a lot of pine that has been down for two years, split, stacked, and drying for about six months. The pine is burning better than I had imagined. Trying to save the seasoned hickory and oak for when it gets into single digits. Working on my get years ahead stash.

First year burning with gasifier.
Had no idea how much I would need so I had 11 cord C/S/S ready to go for Oct of 2012. I was hoping that I would only need about 6 cords.
So far I have used about 2.5 cords.
I have about 3 1/3 cords in the garage for the rest of this season. Should make it through without getting into next winters pile.

Put 4 cords in shed, see avatar. Already used 2.5, mostly shoulder season quality wood. 1.5 cords left is all 2+ yrs red oak.

We burn 24/7 and have had the furnance off since 2010.

Stacks are at 16 cords as of today and growing. Yeah I'm addicted.

Burn Safe
Frank

First year with this stove and at about 1 1/2 cord so far with a full time burn. Started with about 8 cord and am still in scrounge mode. I hope in a normal winter I can get away with 3 to 4 cord max.

Sitting at 1.5 cords used burning 24/7. Its been a lot colder than last year, so my estimate on my usage was low. Have about half a face cord of SURPRISE ash I am now using, then it's back on gas at the end of the month. Surprise ash as I didn't think it would be ready to burn this year. It was a dead tree that I c/s/s this summer. Moisture's were running about 16 percent.

SURPRISE!

We have probably burned about 1 3/4 cord of Red Oak so far....and some propane this week! I have about 2 1/2 more cords of Red Oak and about 4 cords of Black Locust ready to burn. Three years ahead is wonderful place to be especially when about 1/2 of my wood is faster drying Black Locust some of which was probably standing dead for many years before I cut and split it.

I've been into about 2 cord of shoulder wood in the 18. Fired the big guns up on Dec 20 and have run about 2/3 cord and about 500 lbs of coal through it.
Supposed to get a thaw here next week. If so I'll load the wood room with tarped wood and leave the shed full again another year.

I'd say we've used up about 2 FACE cords of hardwood, and at least a FULL cord, maybe a cord and a half of box elder/willow mix. And maybe 5 or 6 packs of ecobricks as well as one big tote of driftwood. Most of the stuff we have used has been box elder and willow we CSS last season that was rather poorly stacked next to a shed we want to rebuild, so we've been working through that since we're going to have to move it anyway. Burns well, just not very long so we tend to burn through it pretty quickly.

I don't have much "good stuff" this year, since all my wood was purchased late and the stuff that's driest tends to be the lower-density species. I've been wondering how much "shoulder season" wood to keep on hand for next year, so here's my question: how cold does it have to get before the low-density woods get tiresome and you'd rather be burning high-btu stuff like hard maple, mulberry, locust and oak?

I also happen to know you gave some ugly guy some black locust. I also know he greatly appreciated it.

I normally save the densest stuff for temps under 30 degrees.

This morning I filled the wood rack on our porch. Half of it is filled with good oak. The other half is a mix of partially punky oak and ash. Could not help but notice that there is still enough oak in the barn so if we have an extended cold spell we will still have plenty. Also expect to have plenty of ash left in the barn. So I'll probably again cut down the amount we put in the barn next October.

Im at 6 cords now...but we have been burning all box elder in the boiler so we cant expect much. Cant complain when it's all free !

agree with thistle under 30 is when I burn the good stuff. But I will still burn lower btu wood like cherry and maple during the day until its under 20. Then burn the good stuff all day long.

I burn a lot of silver and red maple all winter... works for me... I leave the sugar maples standing... I'd rather tap them then cut them

Anytime my friend. Ill be in your neck of the woods Saturday, Ben has a basketball games at the Chesaning Middle School.

Would that 30 degrees be the high temperature or the low? Or maybe the average? Sorry to be specific, but I downloaded some local climate data and am having fun with a spreadsheet. (Apparently I'm currently 53.4% of the way through the heating season)

When the daytime high is expected for the next day or week etc expected to be 30 or less.

I'm going to have to find some more detailed data for my spreadsheet. The numbers I have now are the temperature normals, i.e. typical temperatures for each day of the year. The challenge is that there is no day of the year on which it's normal for the high to be below 35F here in Pittsburgh, but in any given year it's normal for there to be many days which are much colder than that; they're statistical outliers but they happen a lot. I'm wishing I'd taken a statistics class when I had the chance.

I usually throw in a load of good stuff overnight it temps are going to dip into low 20s overnight. You will learn how your house and stove work and what you need to burn at different temps. That all can change depending on your house and insulation, also depending on how you get your wood the species may change year to year.

We just reached three cords burned. Last year we burned 5.75 and I know we're a bit past our seasonal halfway point. So, we're right on schedule.

Thanks, Sean.

To answer the original question, I think I'm going to come up about half a cord short. My gas bill in April may be the same as it was in December.

Still sitting on about 25 cord, and processing another 3-4. I'm good.


KC

I would guess we used about 2 1/2 cords of our original "purchased" 5 cords. I was thinking we have used alot more than we should, but reading this thread I realize it varies by quite a bit. I replenished that 2.5 cords already with new scrounged stuff. I wish I had more in reserves for next burn season.

Just thought of it Sav and I am surprised nobody said it before now. We are not quite halfway there my friend but close. Old timers always said "You should have half your wood and half your hay at Ground hog day"