How do ya'll track your wood usage?

[kennyp2339]

I have a wood shed that I divided up into 4 bins, 2 bins are 2 cords each, 1 bin is 1 cord and the last bin is 3 cords. I burned a half a 2 cord bin so far, very easy to keep count.
When I first got into burning I would load racks from the back and bring a load up to the house when ever I had the time, it became very confusing towards the end of the year to judge what I burned, this method is way easier.

 

[jwfirebird]

I think I may know where the name recognition came from......how about the Can Am forum(s)??? I see you have an Outlander, as do I.

yup (i work on quads too) but that site is the same as fsc bunch of know it alls get on there and the loudest one is apparently right, but not really. fsc was really good they had a bunch of real good guys on there, helped keep my old junk going and when i had something i couldnt figure out. people bring me stuff alot of times its electronic stuff the dealer cant figure out or gave them some stupid quote because they didnt want to spend the time. sorry off on tangent, but reminds me why i dont bother helping anymore, the know it alls drive the people that do away

 

[heavy hammer]

I use to try and count and figure out what I burned and had left. But as a few others have said earlier once you get 2 or 3 or even more years ahead it kinda can get difficult. I try to always have 2 to 3 years cut split and stacked, just because you never know what kind of winter you will have. A couple mild winters could really help you out in getting ahead but if u have a couple real cold winters those numbers could be out the window. I just say u always need more, u can never have to much. Just like money in the bank you can never have to much.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

was never on that one, only car forum i cared about was the gmforum, was on fsc and a couple other things, not that one though, worked up to mod there but had a disagreement with the admin about being able to answer how i like instead of his pc dribble tech answers so now i dont help anyone with the car stuff really, he only kept wanted the people who go along with his beliefs on how things should be done, which was like 50/50 right. i have been a electronics tech for about 20 years and did car stuff on the side about 25 years. but i dont help people on the internet anymore because its not appreciated when you give your time free

Some appreciate it! I definitely do, and while not 100%, I'd say that generally the fine folks on Hearth appreciate guidance from the pros and others with experience.

 

[jwfirebird]

this site doesnt seem that way so far

 

[saewoody]

Some appreciate it! I definitely do, and while not 100%, I'd say that generally the fine folks on Hearth appreciate guidance from the pros and others with experience.

I agree with this statement. I’ve been on this site for almost three years now and generally find it to be a positive atmosphere. I joined another site not so long ago (just to widen my horizons a bit) and have already left due to way too much negativity. Keep up the good work everybody!


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[Ctwoodtick]

I use an abacus and then divide what I come up with by Pi. After that I figure I went through 79 cords last winter. I’m still fine tuning my math.

 

[firefighterjake]

How do I track wood usage?

Simple . . . I don't. Any guess as to how much wood I use is usually speculative based on how many rows I have used up in my woodshed.

Truth is I'm right-brained . . . or is it left-brained . . . I forget . . . my wife is the more logical, analytical one . . .

The thing is . . . I figure I have enough wood in my woodshed to last at least two years and outside stacks which should last me another two or three years so I don't worry too much about running out of wood or needing to know how much wood I've burned.

 

[WiscWoody]

How do I track wood usage?

Simple . . . I don't. Any guess as to how much wood I use is usually speculative based on how many rows I have used up in my woodshed.

Truth is I'm right-brained . . . or is it left-brained . . . I forget . . . my wife is the more logical, analytical one . . .

The thing is . . . I figure I have enough wood in my woodshed to last at least two years and outside stacks which should last me another two or three years so I don't worry too much about running out of wood or needing to know how much wood I've burned.

I’m the same way, I don’t want to put too much thought into my wood burning. I’ve never ran short of good dry wood and I just try to keep a few years ahead. I scrounge all of my wood which is easy up here in the north woods. If I think I’m a little behind I keep a lookout a little more for trees that have been dropped by the power company or for dead and or fallen from natural means or a wind storm. That’s about it. And you don’t need to have a shed, ( but yep, it would be nice...) all I do is rack the wood like you can see in my avatar and I cover the racks with good quality canvas tarps that I get from Menards on sale. Easy shmeasy.

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

I have 4 rows of stacks. Each stack is approximately 4 cords, which is an average winters worth. I try to put hotter wood on one end and the lighter stuff on the opposite end. That way i have acces to both and can fill the 2 cord staging shed based on long term forecasts. If i dip into next years stack i have enough "burn now" wood to cut that replenishing it to 4 again is easy. I pretty much always know hiw much ive used and what i have left. Works for me.

 

[Soundchasm]

My two seasonal burning supplies (one for each stove) are stacked in rows front to back that are around .75 cords each. Per stove, I expect the first row to be empty by the end of December, and the next row empty by Jan, and then hope the third row holds out for the season, or probably break into the 4th.

The carport has four rows for the basement stove, and the woodshed has five rows for the upstairs stove. My other "parking area" holds two cords that are seasoning.

So if I have 9 cords on hand, I get worried if I have less than four leftover. That's a lot of scrounging and barely enough time to season. So I'm essentially on the Two Year plan. One cord gets burnt early.

I keep a spreadsheet of a different sort. I track my KWH and avg monthly temp. I record stuff like insulation, new wood stove, white shingles and the like to see how they affect KWH. Luckily, most everything was in place before I got the upstairs stove. So it's fairly clean for me to look at a pre-upstairs-stove avg. monthly temp and see I used 4340 KWH for a 24 degree avg.month, and see now I used 1984 for a 22 avg degree month. That's 2356 x .12=$283 savings. And it was colder. And I was warm.

I think it's an axiom that one cord of wood equals 100 gallons of fuel oil. You can always multiply the number of cords you burn against the cost of 100 Gal. of fuel oil to get a measure of the savings.

But don't tell your wife. She'll expect dinner and a movie

 

[kennyp2339]

I like to track my usage just to stay busy, I try to keep metrics in my head, like at the end of December I should have used..xyz amount, also it helps with checking on the chimney, every 2 cords the chimney should be checked for buildup. It also gives me an indication of how much I need for my stand by pile (years 3 & 4) a mild winter like last year meant that I didn't have to work as hard to refill my supply, this winter has been pretty chilly and I might have to make plans to get more wood, this could be the difference between me going in the woods with my tractor and sawing / hauling wood out which takes more time, or needing enough wood to justify calling in a log truck which would drop 6-7cords worth of logs. The key with the log truck is to call it as early as possible, early to mid spring is good cause the tree guys are working again, wood is coming into the shop yard and the price is cheaper.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I kept track. Not so much now. I have my wood in wood sheds so its pretty easy to keep track of. I will look and do a little figuring out at the end of the season. I know what my average useage is. I started with 12 cords this year.. my usage is way less that that.

 

[Toomb]

I have 3 piles. Each pile about 3 cords......this year, next year, and the year after that..........I don't think it needs to be much more complicated than that.

 

[Hasufel]

I have about a half dozen single-wide stacks so it's easy to see at a glance how much is left in each. I also stage wood close to the house so the refill rate is a good indicator of how fast I'm burning.

 

[kennyp2339]

I kept track. Not so much now. I have my wood in wood sheds so its pretty easy to keep track of. I will look and do a little figuring out at the end of the season. I know what my average useage is. I started with 12 cords this year.. my usage is way less that that.

I hear ya, I'm only 1 cord burnt so far, it was a slow shoulder season here, but since this cold has settled in, I'm ramping up usage. Last year I only burnt about 3 cords for the whole season, I'm thinking if the cold sticks around I should be around 4.5 cords or so, which isn't bad at all. I cringe when I hear members say they burn 8-10 true cords a season, I couldn't imagine doing that every year.

 

[fishki]

The simplest way to properly calculate wood usage is figure your volume, then divide by zero.

 

[Sawset]

Early on when the stove was new I would analyse a lot of that kind of thing. Not so much now. Try plotting usage along with heating degree days. Comes out to an almost perfect bell curve. I would segregate types of wood, the amounts, and locations for different seasons. And knew how much for each based on areas under the bell curve. Being the analitical type thats just what I do, with just about everything, at least once. Plotted stovetop, stack, inside and outside temps for a while. Come up with all kinds of rube-goldberg ways of getting rounds out of the woods. Etc. In the end that all goes away, go cut wood, buy a winch, stack a bunch inside and out, burn it and move on. Oh wait, what's with those capstan logging winchs - I could use one of those, hmm ---

 

[St. Coemgen]

After the winter, I just buy enough wood to replace the stacks I used. Then I weigh my wallet to know how much wood I burned....

 

[Dobish]

very impressive spreadsheet. I don't track it that closely at all! i bring up what I think I will use for the winter and if i look like I need more, I will go down with the truck and pick up another load, or do a lot of loads with the log carrier and ikea bags....

I like the spreadsheet idea though, so I am going to make a quick one just to see how much I go through...

 

[twd000]

I weigh every loading and enter it into a spreadsheet. This is the summary part of the spreadsheet for this year so far:

View attachment 219056

how do you collect data on LP furnace runtime and consumption? Do you have a valve metered somehow? My 500-lb bulk tank gage is pretty crude...

 

[JRHAWK9]

how do you collect data on LP furnace runtime and consumption? Do you have a valve metered somehow? My 500-lb bulk tank gage is pretty crude...

I have a minute timer wired to the HUM circuit on the LP furnace which records how long the thermostat calls for heat. I then simply use the 75KBTU/hr rating of the furnace and 91,500 BTU's/gal to compute gallons consumed over that timeframe. Is it 100% accurate, probably not, but it's close enough and it seems to compare well with what LP I have topped off every year in fall. As long as I'm consistently inaccurate to be able to compare from year to year or month to month.

 

[xman23]

I don't track much. The worst case is If don't have enough wood under the side porch for the year. In the early years I ran out and I has to shove out paths in the snow to the stacks.

My wife told me it takes 25 pieces a day. That does sound right.

 

[Dobish]

I don't track much. The worst case is If don't have enough wood under the side porch for the year. In the early years I ran out and I has to shove out paths in the snow to the stacks.

My wife told me it takes 25 pieces a day. That does sound right.

i am about 12-18 pieces per day... that being said, it is 60º today, so it might be closer to 4

 

[saewoody]

i am about 12-18 pieces per day... that being said, it is 60º today, so it might be closer to 4

60! Wow! I felt like I won the lotto today because we broke freezing! I think we are going to hit the upper 40s on Thursday. Time to replace the window regulator that broke in the 0 degree weather on Sunday.


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