how far into your pile are you?

[sweedish]

About 7 cords

More than last year, but about the same as previous year. Been colder this year, a lot thicker ice on the lake than last year.

 

[stoveliker]

About 1 and 3/4 of a cord. And no oil used (said he, foolishly determined for this year). I did use solar electrons on the minisplit when it was above 40 F for more than 24 hours.

 

[NickW]

Rough guess about 4 cord including what's been taken up to the northwoods because my wood up there was iffy.

Consumption is slowing down with the longer warmer days. Electric bill is way down all winter from any other year thanks to better seasoned wood and the flue probe 😁. Home is 2400' with electric baseboard heat, Dec & Jan electric bills were both only about $200 and are usually closer to $300... Feb was under $120 and is usually over $200! electric baseboards, water heater, clothes dryer, stove, 2 freezers, 2 fridges, hot tub...!

Last year was the first full season with the new stove and used 3 7/8 cord total (2 3/4 hardwood, 1 1/8 softwood). This year is more of a guess as the wife & boys filled the garage wood storage area so I never got an accurate measurement and hauling some up north. Feel like it's comparable usage.

 

[Ashful]

Last year was the first full season with the new stove and used 3 7/8 cord total (2 3/4 hardwood, 1 1/8 softwood). This year is more of a guess as the wife & boys filled the garage wood storage area so I never got an accurate measurement and hauling some up north. Feel like it's comparable usage.

Glad it's working out for you. That's the type of success story we all love reading.

But when you're quoting usage to within ±1/8 cord, it makes me wonder how you get so accurate. Even my "10 cords" estimate could be off more than a cord, as I lose at least that much volume from my stacks in 3 years of drying. Put otherwise, I might split 11 cords to end up with less than 10, at the end of three year's drying. Sometimes I'll call that "11 cords", other times "10 cords", it depends on whether I was more recently looking at new or old stacks.

My old stacks were all 6 feet high, as tall as me standing on the pallets upon which I stacked them. But by the time I use the wood three years later, I could see over the piles, and my eyeballs are not on top of my head.

So, aside from the "green cords" vs. "dry cords" question, how on earth are you measuring to ±1/8 cord accuracy, over a span of nearly 4 cords?

 

[NickW]

Stacks are measured after stacking outside for my "original" count. In fall when moved inside the garage I have marks in my storage area indicating how much is in each side.

For example... I just finished css some softwood. 2 rows of 16" splits 4.25' x 28', so 4.25x28x2÷4÷8=7.4375 face cord÷3=2.4792 full cord. I get between 1 3/4 & 2 cord (depending on who stacks how high...) in the softwood storage side.

Now.... I might get it all in at the 2 cord mark. My sons and wife might get to the 2 cord mark and still have 1/2 cord outside...😉

I might have to go check next time I'm back home to see how much smaller my older stacks are compared to when they were green.

 

[NickW]

And.... for those who insist on arguing there is no such thing as a "face cord"... if you had 18" lengths instead of 16" lengths, the stack would be 2.789 cords (dimensions÷16"x18" or ÷1.3333×1.5). Or 20" lengths would be 3.099 cords (dimensions÷16"×20" or ÷1.3333×1.66667).

🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[Bobbob]

I have used about 3.5 cords of mostly silver maple. Down about 3 cords since changing out the Hitzer 983 for a Buck model 81. What a difference! Instead of being a year ahead on my stash I'm instantly 2 years ahead. My back thanks me😁

 

[kennyp2339]

Under 3 cords so far, stove is going cold from now till the foreseeable future due to temps in the low 60's and higher now, maybe just small fires for rain days here on out (hopefully) It was a cold and fairly snowless winter here, yet my wood usage has dropped again. Crazy to think because we had some thick ice on the lakes this year 13" was the thickest which is sort of unheard of in NWNJ, the little bit of snow we did have, did stick around for about 9 weeks which is also pretty good.

 

[Ashful]

And.... for those who insist on arguing there is no such thing as a "face cord"...

I don’t think anyone’s arguing that there’s no such thing as a face cord. The trouble is, it’s a measure of area (32 sq.ft.), whereas a cord is a measure of volume. There’s no guarantee of the volume of wood being discussed, when using “face cords”, which is why it is outlawed as a unit of measure for the sake of firewood in many states.

 

[NickW]

I don’t think anyone’s arguing that there’s no such thing as a face cord. The trouble is, it’s a measure of area (32 sq.ft.), whereas a cord is a measure of volume. There’s no guarantee of the volume of wood being discussed, when using “face cords”, which is why it is outlawed as a unit of measure for the sake of firewood in many states.

Was attempting to be amusing... I personally find some of the arguments about face cords funny and was anticipating someone arguing my calculations because I get to face cords and divide by 3.

 

[kennyp2339]

Was attempting to be amusing... I personally find some of the arguments about face cords funny and was anticipating someone arguing my calculations because I get to face cords and divide by 3.

Thats how I think of it, also its a geographical thing, upper mid west and central Canada does a lot of measurements by face cord or bush cord, out in the East we primarily use the term full cord in our descriptions. No big deal in my book.

 

[MissMac]

I think i'm somewhere around 2 cords in, and 200 gal of propane. Lots of wood to keep me going for the rest of the heating season - certainly don't plan on blowing through much propane if I can help it. That stuff ain't getting any cheaper!

 

[zmender]

Probably 2.5-3 cords, plus maybe 500lbs of biobricks, plus about 300-400gals of oil since November. First year in the house and spending a lot of time figuring out optimum way to heat.

I'll end season with about 1~1.5 cords of wood remaining .. need to take in about 3~5 cords of wood in spring to get ready for upcoming 2 years.

 

[2drx4]

She's done as of tomorrow. I brought the last of the wood in last night and will only have enough for one more burn.

So that's about 4 cords. I guess I need 5 or 6 for next year if I want to have almost zero use of the NG furnace.

 

[Caw]

I've used about 3 cords in the house and another 0.25 cords ish through the evaporator this season. Almost exclusively red maple this year with a little bit of oak/ash mixed in. Overall it was a very light season. I have enough left in my basement stack for the last few fires of the season here (included as burned already in my above estimate). Stove has been cold all week but I think we'll have a few overnight fires this week as a few of the nights are dipping back to 28-32 degree range then we'll call it a season. Sweep coming out mid April for the annual cleaning.

Total usage: 3 cords for heat, 0.25 cords for maple syrup. Ended up with about 80 oz of the sweet stuff!

 

[mynx]

I have burned just about 10.5 full cords, and still burning…… It’s still getting down into the 20s at night :-(

 

[Ashful]

I have burned just about 10.5 full cords, and still burning…… It’s still getting down into the 20s at night :-(

That's a lot of wood, esp. considering it's only March. What are you burning it in?

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I think we have burned around 6-6.5 cord. Most of it was silver maple, so it went fast.

 

[Ashful]

I think we have burned around 6-6.5 cord. Most of it was silver maple, so it went fast.

I have several absolutely enormous silver maple trees across my rear property line. At some point, one or two of them will surely die of old age, so I was wondering how they'd burn. So far, the only things coming off of them had been either due to rot or infestation, and not worth splitting and stacking.

They do grow impressively large. I'm guessing some of these are nearly 5 feet diameter and 150+ feet tall. They're 2x - 3x taller than all the surrounding walnuts, ash, and evergreens.

 

[SpaceBus]

This year we added a portable AC/heating unit (heat pump) and that has really cut back on our wood consumption and I no longer have to get up in the night to load stoves. Usually we burn four cords a winter, but we are down to just under three cords this season, which has ben admittedly mild overall even with some cold snaps. Not only did we burn less wood overall, nearly two whole cords were slab wood. I'm happy to be burning cordwood again!

 

[stoveliker]

Why do you not like slab wood?

 

[SpaceBus]

Why do you not like slab wood?

It can be tricky to load into my stoves. Slabs are easy to pack too tightly preventing enough air between fuel for a good burn, or on the other hand they can be too loose and burn too fast. Most slabs are fairly thin, flat, and wide, and makes it tricking for a good hot reload, at least with my cookstove. I do split the big slab chunks from the butts of the logs, and sometimes I will resplit them with a hatchet when it's time to load. Cord wood is just better fuel, but the slabs do dry very fast, especially CSS in a shed.

 

[mynx]

That's a lot of wood, esp. considering it's only March. What are you burning it in?

You’re telling me it’s a lot of wood! I heat about 4000 ft.² of house and a 700 square-foot shop exclusively with wood. I have a Garn 2000 boiler. While my house is very well insulated and I have great windows, it gets really cold here and my house is exposed to a lot of wind

 

[Ashful]

You’re telling me it’s a lot of wood! I heat about 4000 ft.² of house and a 700 square-foot shop exclusively with wood. I have a Garn 2000 boiler. While my house is very well insulated and I have great windows, it gets really cold here and my house is exposed to a lot of wind

I'm always interested to see the processing, moving, loading processes of others who are using this much wood. You're actually a bit ahead of me, I had been averaging 10 cords per season between two wood stoves, but have started scaling back on running the second stove. Hauling that much wood up a flight of stairs and thru a very long house gets tiring, after more than a decade of doing it, especially with knees complaining more each year from over-use/abuse. I assume you can load the boiler from outside or walk-out access to the firewood?

I believe I'm getting close to 60% of my heat from wood, but I don't keep enough data on electric usage to really nail that down. I know I use about 10 cords of hardwood + 1000 gallons of heating oil, and estimating these make about 60% and 30% of my total BTU's, with an approximate remainder of 10% being a few minisplit systems and random electric baseboards. My climate is milder, my average January lows are 2F above yours, but my space is larger and likely less efficient. I'm burning primarily red oak, the last several years, but now starting to get into some piles of shagbark hickory and ash collected in more recent years.

 

[bigealta]

Hard to track as i have a bunch of small stacks vs long, easy to keep track of, stacks. Guess about 3 cords plus or minus 1/2 cord, and just under 100 gal. oil. Plus A bit of electric oil filled plug in radiator to keep basement warm enough in 1 area to keep pipes from freezing.

Will be doing "inventory" of current stacks, about 90% filled now, to see if i'm good for year 2, or possibly even year 3. (Ha...Good luck with that)

90% oak