How many cords of wood per winter?

This will be my first year using a new add-on wood/coal furnace. I was wondering how much wood (roughly) I can expect to use during the winter. I live in Ohio, I have an 1800 sq. ft. home that is well insulated. I plan on using the stove as much as possible to heat the house. I'm just looking for a rough idea so I know how much wood I'll need. I have about 4 cords stacked now.

4 FULL 128 cf size cords are the average . I would want to get ahead . If you do end up burning 4 cords than i would shoot for having 6 cords on hand.

we could use a little more info. Where do you live, and is this you'r primary heat source.?

I live in Northeast, Ohio. I will be running the furnace as my primary heat source. The furnace is connected into my existing duct work and has two thermostatically controlled blowers on it.

Eric could probably answer this one better than I can, but we have a wood furance at work. I would say at least 6-8 cords or more. And thats real cords 128 cubic feet per cord.

Yeah , Its hard to say how many cords "anybody" is going to use per how there house is set up , how its insulated , full wood heat / part wood heat , what kind of wood , how dry the wood is , how cold its going to be this year over the past few years ect..ect...ect.... I know different people that have a wood furnaces and can burn from 2 cords to 13 cords per each different house . Again , really hard to say for sure. The best thing to do is have way more wood than you really need and see how much you use and go from there . The first year with our new wood stove we had 10 cords on hand and used 4 , now we know .

Roospike is right on. Have 8-10 cords on hand and if you onlyuse 6 then you'll know. But you don't want to run out.

Yeah, that is the furnace I got (US Stove). Would there be any reason not to mainly burn coal, instead of wood, in this type of furnace? I was wanting to see how much wood I could scrounge up this year and burn that and then maybe next year try to burn coal. I gues what I'm mainly concerned with is if the continual burning of coal could damage the furnace?

a friend in south central new hampshire has a wood furnace and for the most part runs 24 7 and he averages around 9 full cords a season, year old hardwood

The model I have is the 1557. It's designed to use both coal and wood and is labeled so on the side of the furnace. The reason I asked about burning primarily with coal is because someone told me I shouldn't burn it all the time, that it could damage the furnace.

If I had room in my garage, I'd try an add on. no such luck.I'll just have to keep on using the old appalachian and see what the new gas furnace does for me.

You tend to burn more wood with a furnace or a boiler than you do with a woodstove. So I'd say 6-10, depending on many variables too numerous to mention. I don't know what a good rule-of-thumb for the amount of wood to equal a ton of coal, but I'm guessing a cord of wood per ton. While there's nothing wrong with burning coal, you should refrain from burning both coal and wood at the same time, since any moisture in the wood will react with any sulfur in the coal, creating sulfuric acid that eats chimneys and liners.

That's an interesting comment. Wouldn't coal stored in a basement or garage (and likely a big pile at the distribution points) have a moisture content as well? Small, but in the same ballpark as wood stored similarly? Maybe 10%?

Steve

I installed an add on wood furnace last fall and pretty much used it to heat the entire home all winter. Spent about $80 on gas, mainly when we went away for the weekend. Used a little under 5 cords. I am in western Pennsylvania, not far from you. There are a lot of variables that will impact how much wood you use. Last winter was fairly mild, my home is very well insulated and we kept the temperature in the mid sixties.
One thing you will learn is there is a learning curve with heating with a wood furnace. You don't just set the themostat and walk away. It took me a couple months to get to the point that I could maintain a constant temp in the house. I almost drove the family out of the house on Thanksgiving with to much heat!
This winter I want to try to get a better balance between my gas and wood furnace. If the weather is mild I intend to let the gas do the job. Use the wood when outside temp is below 40.

Thanks for all the info. I'll keep adding to my wood pile as much as I can.

No, Coal is a sort of rock and not a cellular structure that can absorb moisture like wood can. Coal is what it is now, in the rain, or submersed in a lake. Well, at least Anthricite.

2000 SqFt home. I burned 5+ full cords last year and it was a mild year.