How much have you burned?

[bigealta]

We built our house with the wood burning furnace in mind. The firewood comes in through a 1/2 height door in an egress well with a chute installed that the firewood slides down.
The wood is stacked in this area right next to the Caddy. I pile about 4 1/2 cords down there, more than enough to heat the house for the full season.

Nice clean ,dry,, open basement loaded with wood love it.

 

[bigealta]

I think I'm closer to 2.5 cords, and it's not as cold as usual. I haven't had the stove off since mid October, also have not had the furnace/gas/heat pump kick on since October.
I've burned about 2.5 cords but I've restocked about 1.5 cords of it. Pic from yesterday.

Those are some tall stacks. Do u use a mobile platform to stand on to stack them that high?

 

[Todd]

Just about at 1.5 cords burned so far. On pace to burn roughly 3 cord.

 

[EbS-P]

Not much. I haven’t even loaded the wheel barrow. I just bring in one bag one big load. At a time.

 

[GG Woody]

Those are some tall stacks. Do u use a mobile platform to stand on to stack them that high?

Nothing fancy, whatever is around, sometimes a 5ft ladder.
Stacks are 9ftish on one end tapering down to under 8 on the other, I can just reach 8ft flat foot.
The interesting thing is how much the piles can shrink as they dry, sometimes almost a foot of vertical. And once every few years that shrinking will cause a topple over.
One day I'll figure an easy way to secure from the topple over using scrap off another project.

 

[vatmark]

We built our house with the wood burning furnace in mind. The firewood comes in through a 1/2 height door in an egress well with a chute installed that the firewood slides down.
The wood is stacked in this area right next to the Caddy. I pile about 4 1/2 cords down there, more than enough to heat the house for the full season.

That is impressive.

 

[Max W]

Filled our 1/2 cord rack on the porch today. We’ve got some real low temps coming this weekend and it looks to be pretty cold for the rest of the month. It’s forecasted to be -12 F Saturday. This year we’ve only burned about 1/2 cord so far. We’ve been relying more on our main floor’s mini split heat pump. Looks like that’s about to change.

 

[Hobie55]

About 1 1/4 cord so far. It’s been colder than it has been the last few years.

 

[jblnut]

Started with around 11ish cord piled loose and 12ish cord in totes by the boiler this fall.

This is where we’re at as of yesterday. Center has been emptied and I hauled some more up as well as filling a few more totes and bringing them up there. It was chilly the last two weeks and I went through around 2.5 cord in those two weeks alone. The boiler is heating close to 10,000sq/ft so it’s got its work cut out for it for sure.

 

[EbS-P]

The boiler is heating close to 10,000sq/ft so it’s got its work cut out for it for sure.

And you will too to replace all that wood! 1+ cord a week. Wow!

 

[jblnut]

And you will too to replace all that wood! 1+ cord a week. Wow!

It’s okay. I need the exercise. It was on a diet of pretty crappy stuff. Boxelder, cottonwood, soft elm, sugar maple, willow and a little ash mixed in. Not a high BTU/cord fuel source.

I have an estimated 3yrs of wood on property in lengths that are waiting to get cut up and split. When we make wood we’ll cut the tree down and bring it home in 16-20’ lengths and cut it up here. I can get a cord of wood cut and put into totes in about an hour alone or half that time with another human helper. I try to do a cord a week all year long and have almost a full seasons worth ready to burn.

 

[Jsjac1]

It has been pretty cold here this winter.
We have burned about 3 cords so far.
We typically would have about two to three months left of wood stove heating.
We should end up with burning around four cords.

 

[bigealta]

It’s okay. I need the exercise. It was on a diet of pretty crappy stuff. Boxelder, cottonwood, soft elm, sugar maple, willow and a little ash mixed in. Not a high BTU/cord fuel source.

I have an estimated 3yrs of wood on property in lengths that are waiting to get cut up and split. When we make wood we’ll cut the tree down and bring it home in 16-20’ lengths and cut it up here. I can get a cord of wood cut and put into totes in about an hour alone or half that time with another human helper. I try to do a cord a week all year long and have almost a full seasons worth ready to burn.

If you are cutting live trees u can try girdling them well before u cut them down. It will save u a lot of "Drying" time.

 

[EbS-P]

If you are cutting live trees u can try girdling them well before u cut them down. It will save u a lot of "Drying" time.

Really? Let’s quantify “a lot” and “well
Before”.

 

[bigealta]

Really? Let’s quantify “a lot” and “well
Before”.

Impact on Drying Time and Quality

• Faster Drying: Girdling kills the tree, halting water transport from the roots, and causes it to die slowly, allowing the leaves to continue drawing moisture out of the sapwood, which aids in seasoning.
• Significant Moisture Reduction: One study on 8-month-girdled wood showed a 50.8% reduction in green moisture content, falling from 122% to 60%. While 60% is not ready for a stove, it is considerably lower than the 80-100%+ moisture of freshly cut live wood.
• Timeframe: To see significant benefits, the tree should be girdled and left standing for at least 4 to 8 months before felling.
• Improved Quality: Girdled wood is generally lighter, stronger, and more stable than wood cut directly from a live tree. It also reduces the risk of splitting, checking, or warping when finally cut and seasoned.
• When to Girdle: Fall is a good time to girdle to prevent the tree from attempting to heal over the wound.
• Proper Technique: Cut a 12-20 inch ring of bark and at least 0.5 inches into the sapwood to ensure the tree dies.
• Species Differences: Oak and other dense hardwoods may still require significant drying time after being felled, even if they were girdled.

 

[EbS-P]

falling from 122%

Wait wait it can be more than 100% Did we just invent it matter wood. You dry it out and its weight can be negative! What The BTU content of negative weight wood? Did you AI that response?

All kidding aside I find that helpful. Let’s just round that and say girdled late spring felled the next year take a year off drying time vs a live tree felled at the same time. But tree felled in the fall or winter and split and stacked could have a full summer of drying before the girdled tree even gets felled. So you save how much time?

It’s all preplanning just builder a bigger woodshed and plan a year ahead of what your plan is now.

 

[bigealta]

Wait wait it can be more than 100% Did we just invent it matter wood. You dry it out and its weight can be negative! What The BTU content of negative weight wood? Did you AI that response?

All kidding aside I find that helpful. Let’s just round that and say girdled late spring felled the next year take a year off drying time vs a live tree felled at the same time. But tree felled in the fall or winter and split and stacked could have a full summer of drying before the girdled tree even gets felled. So you save how much time?

It’s all preplanning just builder a bigger woodshed and plan a year ahead of what your plan is now.

Yes AI but the info gives the correct general info. I saw that 122% and left it in just for you guys to say WTF.

It's really more of a woodlot management strategy.

You go girdle trees for the next few years on the cutting schedule.

So if you have your 3 years css and no more room for stacks. You go girdle next years trees you plan to cut down.