How many cords do you burn

[lampmfg]

"I have a 3200 square foot home and usually buy 5 cords of birch and maple wood a year. The cost is $75 - $100 per logger's cord and I cut and split it myself. My total cost then is about $500 per year or less and this is approximately 1/4 to 1/3 the cost of using another fuel such as gas, oil or electricity. The heat is much more constant using wood, that's why I like it. Our backup heat is electric baseboard." says Lamppa Manufacturing Incorporated Owner Daryl Lamppa

Fun Fact
-The electric bill actually goes down for us in the winter because we use the H20 tank on the VaporFire 100 to heat our domestic water.

 

[aforbes100]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Yes, I am talking true cords, not craiglist measurement. hahaha.

 

[mole]

I did just under 4 cords last yr for 99.9% of heat and hot water. This year is looking a bit better with warmer weather.
1870's house, 2400sqft, kept at 70deg daytime /63deg setback at night.

 

[velvetfoot]

I put 5 cords through my little insert last year, and it definitely didn't heat the entire house and hot water!

The gasifier approach might be worth looking in to!

 

[Tennman]

About 4800 sqft of leaky house about hour south of Nashville. Keep downstairs (~3000 sqft) at 68F and the upstairs at whatever rises (probably mid-60's). Actually very confortable and healthy. Into about 2-2.5 cord at the moment. Burned a good many pallets from work also. Looks like storage is in my future. With the mild winter been idling a lot, but ain't calling the propane man. Three years in and I'm pretty close to the break even point since our primary was propane. Yep.... trying to decide where to put that 1000 gal tank.

 

[Clarkbug]

I did just under 4 cords last yr for 99.9% of heat and hot water. This year is looking a bit better with warmer weather.
1870's house, 2400sqft, kept at 70deg daytime /63deg setback at night.

Mole, your house must be very nicely insulated or air sealed to only go through 4 cords and keep those temps... Are you sealed up good, or is there some secret Im missing? Our 1880's house is about 2700 SF, but we kept it at 60 last year to save on oil....brrrrrr.

 

[tom in maine]

Use 1-2 cords per year with no backup.
About 1/3 cord so far.
Was burning every other night. Am into burning daily this time of year.
Keep house at 70-71F.
1100 sq. ft. house with 600sq. ft. heated basement.

Lotsa insulation.

 

[hobbyheater]

Biomass 40
500 gallons of storage
3000 sq foot house (5 years old)
2 adults (3 kids)
Live in Maine
Keep the house on 69 (constant) all winter
Use wood only from Mid Oct to Mid May (7 months).

Overall, I am using about 7 cord of wood. Just curious how that stacks up to others.

Yearly average is about 5 1/2 cords (128 cu ft per cord) of hemlock. I run year round for heat 72 F, DHW, and clothes drying. Early 70s house of 3400 sq. ft including full basement that is 90% below grade. R12 walls and R20 ceiling.

 

[mole]

I did just under 4 cords last yr for 99.9% of heat and hot water. This year is looking a bit better with warmer weather.
1870's house, 2400sqft, kept at 70deg daytime /63deg setback at night.

Mole, your house must be very nicely insulated or air sealed to only go through 4 cords and keep those temps... Are you sealed up good, or is there some secret Im missing? Our 1880's house is about 2700 SF, but we kept it at 60 last year to save on oil....brrrrrr.

Clarkbug,
In the spirit of full disclosure: part of the 2400ft is a big 24"x30" addition (family room) that we tend to heat on weekends or when friends come over. We tend to close this room off during the week most of the time to cut down on wood use. I like to think of it as an "adjustable living space".

It's pretty tight for an 1870's house. I've been heating solely with wood since I bought the house in 1987, so I've had a lot of time to work on reducing my wood consumption. I've got new double pane windows, plus a good 18"+ of insulation in the attic. Also repointed the stone foundation, in and out, then framed out some interior 2"x3" walls in the basement and had them spray-foamed. So my basement is pretty tight now. My walls are the weak link. I still have quite a bit of air leakage through the walls from critters burrowing through the insulation over the years!!

 

[maple1]

Biomass 40
500 gallons of storage
3000 sq foot house (5 years old)
2 adults (3 kids)
Live in Maine
Keep the house on 69 (constant) all winter
Use wood only from Mid Oct to Mid May (7 months).

Overall, I am using about 7 cord of wood. Just curious how that stacks up to others.

Yearly average is about 5 1/2 cords (128 cu ft per cord) of hemlock. I run year round for heat 72 F, DHW, and clothes drying. Early 70s house of 3400 sq. ft including full basement that is 90% below grade. R12 walls and R20 ceiling.

First the wood-fired waterbed, now the wood-fired clothes dryer - we have some real groundbreakers on here. lol.

Can you give us the quick run down the the clothes drying?

 

[hobbyheater]

First the wood-fired waterbed, now the wood-fired clothes dryer - we have some real groundbreakers on here. lol.

Can you give us the quick run down the the clothes drying?

You hit it right on about the water bed. The bag got brittle and broke at the point were the 3/4 copper return ran under it :exclaim:

The clothes drying is pretty simple, but for a couple days a week, I lose my work room. The boiler and storage tank are in a concrete room - 10'x 24' - added on to the below grade basement. The Jetstream boiler is not insulated so this room can hit 110F when running. My work room is 14'x 28' and is next to the boiler room. There is 150' of clothes line near the ceiling. This is for towels and sheets and then I have a drop down hanging frame for clothes. The laundry is hung to dry in the work room on days when the boiler is run. When the boiler has quit running, the door between the work room and boiler room is opened and the door between the work room and the rest of the house is closed with the dehumidfier turned on. The clothes dry in about 6 hours. The x-rated part of this is that I do the laundry. :lol:

 

[leaddog]

First the wood-fired waterbed, now the wood-fired clothes dryer - we have some real groundbreakers on here. lol.

Can you give us the quick run down the the clothes drying?

You hit it right on about the water bed. The bag got brittle and broke at the point were the 3/4 copper return ran under it :exclaim:

:

I heat my waterbed but I used 3x1/2in pex coiled around the bag. It is a thermo-syphen system and controled with a zone valve controlled with the waterbed heater control. I haven't had any problems with it making the bad harden probably because the pex doesn't transfer the heat as fast so it temp isn't as high at the point of contact.
leaddog

 

[maplewood]

13-15 cord. About 1/3 is softwood (poplar, fir, pine) and the rest is medium hardwood (mostly white and red maple, some white and yellow birch, a little elm, etc.)
3500 sq. ft. including the basement. Shortest ceiling is 8'. Highest is 22'. DHW too.
This is my sole heat source.
If I ever get around to putting in 1000 gallons of storage, I'll burn all year round.
(I'll take "cords" over "chords" any day!)

 

[Sawyer]

10-11 cords a year. Mixed hardwood, mostly hard maple with a little red maple and yellow birch mixed in. I do not keep track of the junk wood I burn May-October as I am only burning every five days for domestic hot water.

I am heating 4,600 sq/ft total up/down with high ceilings and lots of windows plus my 1200 sq/ft workshop with 11’ ceiling and 16’ garage door.

This is my sole heat source also.

 

[velvetfoot]

Chiming in again... That'd still be less than 5 cords or so for my 2,000 ft2 house, which is mostly just the first floor and not including dhw. Not bad at all!

 

[huffdawg]

13-15 cord. About 1/3 is softwood (poplar, fir, pine) and the rest is medium hardwood (mostly white and red maple, some white and yellow birch, a little elm, etc.)
3500 sq. ft. including the basement. Shortest ceiling is 8'. Highest is 22'. DHW too.
This is my sole heat source.
If I ever get around to putting in 1000 gallons of storage, I'll burn all year round.
(I'll take "cords" over "chords" any day!)

Whats your avatar pic. of Maplewood I can't make it out.

 

[Clarkbug]

Huff,

Maybe this will help. (Sorry for the OT!)

http://peteann.hypermart.net/freepix/Men-Women-Switches.JPG

 

[Sawyer]

Hey, I bought one of those a long time ago......never did work!

 

[huffdawg]

Huff,

Maybe this will help. (Sorry for the OT!)

http://peteann.hypermart.net/freepix/Men-Women-Switches.JPG

ROFLMAO

 

[Frozen Canuck]

Huff,

Maybe this will help. (Sorry for the OT!)

http://peteann.hypermart.net/freepix/Men-Women-Switches.JPG

ROFLMAO

+ 1 for sure, & I can never let my wife see this or it's the dog house for me. :lol:

 

[woodsmaster]

I think I'll be in the 8 - 9 cord range for the winter heating all buildings in signiture and DHW for 3 girls who take deep, long
baths and two guys. Shop is r 19 walls no outlets or holes in vapor barrior and r - 50 attick. Bigest heat loss in shop is 2 overhead doors. House is insulated fair for 110 years old but could still use improvement. Been burning all white ash. No backup heat.

Edit: I use the shop also as a garage so there is a mini van and 3/4 ton extended van parked in there each day.
the House averaged 6 -7 cord / winter when I heated it with an old ashly automatic wood stove, and now the whole
house is warm, not just one area.

 

[FarmerTan]

About 2 full cord so far, but most of that (about 2/3) was crappy soft silver maple. I've got some better stuff right now, including white and red oak, black birch, hard maple, and I'm getting much more efficient burns of 12+ hours. I'm hoping to get out of this season under 5 cord, and that means buying 2-3 cord. I've got about 8 out back, and hope to pick up another 3-5 cord befor mud season hits us.

 

[woodhawker]

I'd say I burn 8-9 full cords per year as we start burning in late September and usually stop around mid-April. I'm heating about 2500 sq.ft. and keep the temperature at 72. I burn a mix of pine and hardwood, but if I burnt only hardwood I'd probably use a little less.