How do you all estimate your firewood in cords/BTUs?

[Matthew7]

I’ve been working on a little firewood measuring calculator tool, but I’m running into one question I can’t quite settle:

When adjusting for stacking factor (tight vs. loose stacking), I’ve been using these ranges:

• Loose stacking: 70–75% of full volume
• Average stacking: 80–85%
• Tight stacking: 90–95%

Do those numbers seem right to you folks who’ve stacked and burned a lot of wood? Or do you find your actual usable wood volume comes out different?
I’m trying to make my calculator as accurate as possible, so any real-world input would help a ton. Here’s the tool if you want to see the whole calculation breakdown: https://woodstovehub.com/cord-of-wood-calculator/
Also curious, how do you factor in moisture content when estimating BTUs? I’ve been applying a percentage reduction based on MC, but maybe there’s a better approach.

 

[bigealta]

save yourself some time it's already done.

Office of the Maine AG: Firewood (Cord) Calculator

 

[Matthew7]

save yourself some time it's already done.

Office of the Maine AG: Firewood (Cord) Calculator

Thanks for sharing, I hadn’t seen this calculator before!
Looks like it’s solid for just figuring cords from measurements, but I was kinda messing around with extra stuff like BTU estimates by species, adjusting for moisture, how tight the stack is, and even a rough cost value. Mostly for my own curiosity (and because I overthink firewood way too much 😅).

 

[johneh]

Many years ago, my Father-in-Law told me that when stacking firewood, make it squirrel tight
mouse loose for best drying and Max BTU . That's the way I have done it for the last 55 years
no matter how you stack it, a cord of firewood is 8x8x4. Here is a chart already done for you

BTU Values of Wood Species

Wood species type BTU values of a cord burning wood in a wood stove

www.wood-heating-solutions.com

 

[ABMax24]

If you know the woods average moisture content, BTUs can also be calculated using the weight of the stack of wood.