How much wood per day?

[begreen]

I'm trying to get a handle on our wood consumption with the new stove. Wood consumption for us is running approximately 7 cu ft per day. This seems higher that we are used to. It would be helpful to know what others are using per day. Please copy and paste my info into your post and replace the data with yours.

Stove brand: Jotul F400
Hours burning: 18
Outside ave. temp: 37
Wind speed ave.: <5mph
Inside temp ave.: 70
House size: 2000
Insulation: moderate
Glass area: med-high
Wood Consumption: ~7-8 cu. ft.
Wood type: mixed soft maple, madrona, and a little hemlock
Fill frequency: ~3 hrs.

 

[Greg123]

Stove brand: Napoleon 1100
Hours burning: 16
Outside ave. temp: 35
Wind speed ave.: <5mph
Inside temp ave.: 74 to 76
House size: 1050
Insulation: good
Glass area: mde-high
Wood Consumption: 4-5 cu. ft. (approx)
Wood type: maple,Ash, and for when the real cold days gets here Oak, Beech

 

[Roospike]

Stove brand: Pacific Energy Summit
Hours burning: 8-18 *
Outside ave. temp: 30°-60° *
Wind speed ave.: <5mph
Inside temp ave.: 74°
House size: 1800sf
Insulation: moderate
Glass area: high
Wood Consumption: ~1-4 cu. ft.
Wood type: Oak, Elm, Hedge, Hackberry, Mulberry

NOTE: Will update when we have an average outside temp *

 

[Todd]

So far this fall the weather has been so up and down, sometimes I burn 12 hrs, sometimes 24. I'll just give you my 24 hr burn, which is packing the firebox full twice per day. Once it really starts to get cold I may load her up 3 times per day, or 6 cu ft.

Stove brand: Woodstock Fireview
Hours burning: 24
Outside ave. temp: When the highs are in the 30's or lower I usually burn 24/7
Wind speed ave.: ?
Inside temp ave.: 72-75
House size: 1800 sq ft
Insulation: good
Glass area: moderate
Wood consumption: 4 cu ft or 2 full firebox loads
Wood type: Red and white oak, some maple

 

[Corey]

Good thought for a thread, but cubic feet isn't a very good way to measure wood consumption. Are you talking tightly stacked, loosely stacked, solid wood, etc. Plus, it doesn't really account for the wide range of density in the different woods people burn One guy burning oak or hedge may do 4 cf per day an another burning pine or poplar may be 7 cf per day, but the guy burning oak may be getting more heat.

A better way would be to do it by pounds. As all wood has roughly the same BTU by pound, it takes out a couple of variables right there. Plus, it would be pretty easy to put a log on a simple bathroom scale before burning and keep a tally. Also, the pellet guys could jump right in, too. As they probably have a pretty good idea of how many pounds of pellets they go through.

The other key piece of info would be the heating degree days for the time period the wood was consumed. That would tell how much the poster really had to heat.

Just a thought,

Corey

 

[bruce]

Stove brand: harmon tl200
Hours burning:12
Outside ave. temp:00
Wind speed ave.: <5mph
Inside temp ave.: 74
House size: 2100
Insulation: r-19 walls r-50 attic
Glass area: average
Wood Consumption: 1 stacked tight wheel barrow = 4 fills morning noon night and next morningoak
Wood type: oak cherry maple

 

[johnsopi]

Is a full cord 128cu ft? If it is then using 8 cu ft a day is all most a cord every two weeks. That seems a lot.

 

[jldunn]

I use three blue recycle bins full a day when I'm going 24/7

 

[precaud]

Yes, I agree, weight would be a better measure, as it would normalize out the effects of wood species. I have a little portable 10 lb. scale so I'll check it over the next few days. We're about to have a cold snap that may skew the results...

 

[Willhound]

Stove brand: Pacific Energy Summit Insert
Hours burning: 24
Outside ave. temp: 5 F
Wind speed ave.: 12 mph
Inside temp ave.: 72
House size: 1800
Insulation: moderate
Glass area: mde-high
Wood Consumption: ~5 cu. ft.
Wood type: white birch
Fill frequency: ~3 hrs.

 

[Rhone]

Something's wrong. You sounds worse than my 1976 steel stove, in the basement, heating 3 floors.

Stove brand: Hearthstone Clydesdale Insert (I've modified)
Hours burning: 8-12
Outside ave. temp: 32
Wind speed ave.: <5mph
Inside temp ave.: 70
House size: 1400
Insulation: below average
Glass area: low
Wood Consumption: ~4 cu. ft.
Wood type: almost all red oak
Fill frequency: ~6-8 hrs

 

[begreen]

It's almost impossible to normalize wood type across the country, as it would be to normalize the house type. I'm just after the big picture. Rhone's stats are impressive. I'll also track my neighbor's consumption with his new PE classic if he is burning steadily in this cold snap. They have very young ones, so they may not burn 24/7 but we'll see.

 

[Rhone]

Well, it's always been my idea we're all getting pretty much the same thing. I never understood the, "If you had my unit you'd be using less wood" argument or things of that nature. It's been my feeling my insert in Willhounds, or Warrens house will be burning the same amount as they're currently using, and likewise theirs in mine. I'm not a believer much in that different units produce significant differences in btu's.

But, I think if you compile what's been provided here, you'll see there is certainly a discrepancy with your situation because that's a lot of wood, for that house.

 

[wg_bent]

I use 2-3 of the black plastic tubs you get at the borg for mixing small amount of cement in. I agree that the best way to do this is by weight. I've been meaning to do this anyway, so a good topic. I've got some interesting ideas on that..

Like: Weight of my tub with Oak, with Ash, with Pine, with Elm...

How long a tub buns. (A single tub of wood is about 1/2 an Osburn 1800 full or about 1.8 cuft of space into which I can creatively stuff wood)...I can see a need for the hearthnet division of weights and measures to create a standard "load" of wood, and an associated container or measuring device with possible built in optional scale.

A "Load" of wood might consist of 1 cuft of wood, so a my Osburn in theory would take 1.8 loads of wood.
The value of this would be discussions on efficiency of load packing, load weight, load heat value, green vs seasoned weight, the possibilities are endless.

 

[begreen]

Agreed, and there is no question that our wood consumption is up significantly from previous years. Last year our consumption with a leakier house was less.

I think there is a notable difference in the amount of heat that goes up the stack vs into the room from stove to stove. Also one's buring techniques will alter the equation. I'm learning that some stoves are well balanced and achieve great burn efficiency almost by themself. Others need a greater degree of manual intervention to achieve this. Some never will, especially unbaffled, pre-EPA models.

Yesterday I had a breakthrough with the Castine. On Saturday the stack probe arrived. This has helped. It took some experimenting, but I found the stove's sweet spot.

Previously, trying to follow advice of the forum, I would feed the stove almost full with about 3-4 medium sized splits. Then I would run wide open on stack damper and air control for about 15 min. When the wood was charred and stovetop temps were over 450. Then I would close the stack damper and close the air control down to about 50%. The stove would find it's crusing temp of about 550 and that would be it. Reload two hours later.

Now, I am packing it to the gills with a combo of small and large splits. I run it with air control wide open and stack damper open only if the flue temp is below 250. It takes about 5-10 minutes to blacken the wood. At this point, the firebox is a ball of big orange flames, secondaries working overtime. Then I damper almost all the way closed forcing almost pure secondary burn. Voila. The stack temp settles at about 400 degrees and stays there, but the stove top temps keep climbing. Last night she cruised at 625 for about an hour. This is getting me more heat over a longer period of time. If all is right, maybe 3 hrs. Not good for the glass which has a grey-bown haze, but a lot more heat.

But of the 4 cast iron stoves I've owned this is the fussiest stove so far. I've also pulled off the rear heat shield and placed it on bricks about 3" back from the stove. That seems to be helping it convect better. But with all this, our house is only 70 in the living room where the stove is located and 68 in other rooms. So I am looking hard at real world efficiencies vs specs.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I use more wood than you guys can imagine.

Rhone & BG are right--it's all situational and I'm not about to start judging people on how little wood they consume--regardless of how miniscule it is in comparision to what I burn.

People have all sorts of helpful suggestions when they find out how much wood I burn. "Spend $10,000 on a new boiler" is one. Or, "Spend $30,000 on new windows to replace the old double-hungs."

To save a few cords of free wood that I enjoy cutting? I don't think so.

 

[begreen]

Wish you were my neighbor Eric. I'm getting too old to cut alot of wood. Getting a new stove that seems to have increased wood consumption was not part of the plan. I have to work full time, so spliitting is a weekend deal. For me, keeping consumption reasonable is both and economic and time consideration. Any spare time is spent working on the house or I hope by next summer, in the garden.

 

[Eric Johnson]

In my experience with various woodburning appliances, BG, it takes awhile to get the hang of what you're trying to do, whether that's controlling the heat output or figuring out how to keep your wood consumption down. You've got plenty of opportunity to practice in the coming months, though.

The garden always eats up most of my spare time and since I tend to obsess on it, I gotta draw the line somewhere. Then you have to live with the guilt that comes from whatever degree of neglect you perceive.

But, getting back to wood production, I could earn enough extra income to buy gas instead of burning wood, but that would involve sitting in front of a computer during some very nice weather, and I'd rather be out cutting wood. And then I'd be a miserable, out-of-shape SOB.

Anyway, good luck with your new rig--I bet it works out just fine.

 

[BrotherBart]

Now, I am packing it to the gills with a combo of small and large splits. I run it with air control wide open and stack damper open only if the flue temp is below 250. It takes about 5-10 minutes to blacken the wood. At this point, the firebox is a ball of big orange flames, secondaries working overtime. Then I damper almost all the way closed forcing almost pure secondary burn. Voila. The stack temp settles at about 400 degrees and stays there, but the stove top temps keep climbing. Last night she cruised at 625 for about an hour. This is getting me more heat over a longer period of time. If all is right, maybe 3 hrs. Not good for the glass which has a grey-bown haze, but a lot more heat.

Pretty much what I have done the last two nights with the Englander and getting five hundred to five fifty for a couple of hours and 400 for a while on its way down. Blue flame coming up from the middle of the pile and baffle explosions and flue gas temps pretty much following stove top temps. After twelve hours, a warm house and enough coals to kick start it again.What is making me cringe is wondering what is happening in the pipe. I looked today and their is a layer of soot. I will go a few more days to see if anything starts looking like it wants to stay in there and glaze over.

Can't get over being edgy about closed down air after all of the years with the old stove. Even with its secondary air intake I never shut it down below 25%.

That and trying to figure out if that stuff coming out of the stack at night is condensation when the hot exhaust hits the night air or if it is smoke.

 

[begreen]

I hear ya. Our stove pipe cap is blacker than our previous Jotuls ever were. Has me wondering about how cleanly we're burning as well.

Eric, thanks for the good words. I'll persist with the F400 the way I did with the 3CB. Once the issue with the 3CB was found, it worked like a charm. Unfortunately there are less variables with the F400, so at this point I am perplexed. Next weekend, after this cold snap passes, I am going to figure out how to pull the top off the stove. Will do a thorough inspection to see if anything is amiss.

 

[quads]

My wood consumption varies greatly from one day to the next. Depends on many things, the sunshine and wind being as big a factor as temperature. Over the years, I have used an average of 4.67 cord per year. I burn 24/7 for nine months of the year. That amounts to something like 270 days? About .017 cord per day. 2.2 cubic feet per day? I also burn occasionally in the summer, on the coolest nights etc.

I have an old 1975-ish thick steel stove.

House size is roughly 1000 sq. ft. or so, not very big.

Insulation is not too good. Had frost on the inside of the walls near the floor when the outside temperature was -45*F a few times. Although, at that time we were relying on forced air LP gas furnace running constantly, and not the stove. If the stove had been going, that never would have happened.

We keep an average inside temperature of 75.

Wood is mostly black oak, a little white oak, once in awhile some cherry, and rarely a burr oak or two.

Fill frequency is about every 3 hours when I'm home, which is most of the time in the winter, except when milking the cows. I use the term "fill" loosely though, because the firebox is huge! If I was to fill it up, the heat would drive us right out of the house, even with the drafts closed tightly and the stove just "idling". It's very dependent on the outside temperature/conditions as to how much wood I put in it during a fill. Usually not more than 4 or 5 fist size splits in the colder weather, less when it's above freezing, maybe more when it's below zero.

As a side note, I never pay attention to the pipe temp. I only go by house temp. If I ran that thing at a pipe temp of 400+ all the time, the window shades would start to roll up all by themselves! So, I run it according to how warm/cold it is in the house. I don't care if it makes creosote. What it makes in the warm spells, it burns out in the following cold spells. Creosote really isn't that scary, as long as you know what to expect/look for, don't let it build up huge amounts, and I clean the chimney once a month regardless.

 

[ChrisN]

So far this year my burning in Ct has been intermittent at best. last year in the dead of winter, here were my stats:

Stove brand: Jotul Oslo
Hours burning: 24
Outside ave. temp: probably around 25f
Wind speed ave.: <5mph
Inside temp ave.: 68
House size: 2200
Insulation: moderate
Glass area: med
Wood Consumption: 130lbs / day
Wood type: mixed oak / ash / hickory
Fill frequency: ~5 hrs.

I think I ended up burning a total of about 7 cords last year.

 

[begreen]

Creosote has been a non-issue for us for years. Each time the pipe was cleaned, it barely yielded a handful. Finally stopped cleaning and just eyeballed it anually. 5 yrs and no accumulation. But a new stove and a new stack bears for careful watching until one learns its habits. I appreciate BB's concerns and just went out with the binoculars to check the cap screen. It looks fine, no accumulation.

 

[Tendencies]

Stove brand: VC Dutchwest Insert
Hours burning: 24
Outside ave. temp: 37
Wind speed ave.: <5mph
Inside temp ave.: 76
House size: 1850
Insulation: moderate/severe
Glass area: med
Wood Consumption: 12-15 phone book sized splits
Wood type: mixed red/white oak and some white pine
Fill frequency: ~6 hrs.

 

[JBinKC]

Be Green I hadn't had an opportunity to burn 24/7 very often and wanted to give you a decent comparison

Stove brand: Jotul Castine F400
Hours burned: 24
Average temp: 23 degrees Farenheit
Wind Speed: 18mph
Inside temp: 71 degrees F
House size: 1100 sq ft
Insulation: average
Glass area: above average
Wood consumption: 65-70 lbs
Wood type: mixed red maple, red oak, white oak, mulberry
Fill frequency: roughly every 4 hours