How much wood?

[davenorthshorema]

I have the Regency I1200 and was wonder how much wood should I really have to heat this winter if I were to burn 24/7. The home is roughly 800 sqft. Thanks all

 

[Joey Jones]

3 cord ought to do ya, but buy as much as you can afford...because we ain't seen nothing yet with the price of firewood for next season and also for late starters this year

 

[davenorthshorema]

I have about 2.5 cords so I assumed 3 cords aswell but maybe a little more wouldn't hurt.

 

[davenorthshorema]

by the way...luckly for me I get my wood for free....i had a neighbor pay 400 for a cord last week. What a ripe off

 

[davenorthshorema]

Please all chime in with your opinions...Thanks

 

[ControlFreak]

I have the Regency I1200 and was wonder how much wood should I really have to heat this winter if I were to burn 24/7. The home is roughly 800 sqft. Thanks all

Hi Daven,

Be sure to assess the moisture content of your wood. If your wood was cut just this summer, you'll have trouble getting much heat out of it. You'll mostly be burning wood to evaporate all the moisture in it.

If your wood is fresh, you might consider supplementing your cordwood with some of those big pressed logs that are being sold. I don't know what they're called, but you can search around for them. They're not terribly expensive and they will be crispy dry.

Gee, an 800 sq ft house will be quite toasty. Better to vent some heat than to freeze.

Dan

 

[InTheRockies]

I'm hoping by the time I finish cutting, splitting and stacking the dump truck of wood I bought from a nearby saw mill that I'll have about 4 1/2 cords. (So far, I've got 375 cf processed and I still have quite a pile of 3-5 ft logs left to cut and split. I'm sort of glad that we had rain today--my wrists and hands needed a break.) I'm hoping this will be enough wood with my new stove. My old stove ate wood like crazy. Most of this wood is pine, although there's a little bit of fir. Price-wise, the cost wasn't bad--$175 for the whole truck load.

 

[rich81]

800 sq ft ranch???????? i'm guessing??? i think ur stove should heat the place might well, especially if its a ranch dcoesn't sound like tooo much square ft to heat

 

[davenorthshorema]

It is a ranch and the fireplace is interior so we should be okay. The only issue is the home was built in 1950's so they never placed insulation in the walls. Another project....My only concern is how to keep the pipes from freezing but after reading through this forum i have discovered that running the circulators a few times during the day should be suffiecient. My worst worry is the space that is under my two bedrooms which happens to be a garage...this is unheated space so circulating the forced hot water looks to be the way to go. Thanks all for you helpplease keep em coming!

 

[SteveT]

What kind of fuel were you using previously? If it was oil, figure that every cord of hardwood you burn will replace 130 gallons or so.

 

[davenorthshorema]

I had oil for my old forced hot water. It would be nice to only burn wood....i cannot believe i spent almost 2400 on oil last year. Which is why i decided on wood since my dad can get it for free and we have all the equipment out in central mass to provide us with cord wood. Whatever it takes to save money and not depend on oil. I don't think this country realizes the crisis we are in....we will see!

 

[SteveT]

I had oil for my old forced hot water. It would be nice to only burn wood....i cannot believe i spent almost 2400 on oil last year. Which is why i decided on wood since my dad can get it for free and we have all the equipment out in central mass to provide us with cord wood. Whatever it takes to save money and not depend on oil. I don't think this country realizes the crisis we are in....we will see!

I'm guessing you paid between $3.00 and $4.00 per gallon. So $2400 means you used 600 to 800 gallons. You could probably burn 4 cords, replacing roughly 520 gallons. You won't get to zero oil use (hot water and very cold days or when you are not there to stoke the stove) but I'd say that would be a good goal. And you should have a warmer house too!

You might also want to see if your electric utility participates in any energy savings plans that subsidize insulation. Stove or no stove nothing compares with better insulation for a good ROI.

 

[davenorthshorema]

I have the Regency I1200 and was wonder how much wood should I really have to heat this winter if I were to burn 24/7. The home is roughly 800 sqft. Thanks all

Hi Daven,

Be sure to assess the moisture content of your wood. If your wood was cut just this summer, you'll have trouble getting much heat out of it. You'll mostly be burning wood to evaporate all the moisture in it.

If your wood is fresh, you might consider supplementing your cordwood with some of those big pressed logs that are being sold. I don't know what they're called, but you can search around for them. They're not terribly expensive and they will be crispy dry.

Gee, an 800 sq ft house will be quite toasty. Better to vent some heat than to freeze.

Dan

My wood is about two years seasoned so I believe we should be fine. We are cutting next years wood now and the next month.

 

[davenorthshorema]

I had oil for my old forced hot water. It would be nice to only burn wood....i cannot believe i spent almost 2400 on oil last year. Which is why i decided on wood since my dad can get it for free and we have all the equipment out in central mass to provide us with cord wood. Whatever it takes to save money and not depend on oil. I don't think this country realizes the crisis we are in....we will see!

I'm guessing you paid between $3.00 and $4.00 per gallon. So $2400 means you used 600 to 800 gallons. You could probably burn 4 cords, replacing roughly 520 gallons. You won't get to zero oil use (hot water and very cold days or when you or not there to stoke the stove) but I'd say that would be a good goal. And you should have a warmer house too!

You might also want to see if your electric utility participates in any energy savings plans that subsidize insulation. Stove or no stove nothing compares with better insulation for a good ROI.

My wife stays home during the day and she is capable of stoking the fire while i am at work. This should help avoid using the oil. I have capped the oil hot water storage tank and converted to electric. These are also preliminary trials so for the first year we will see how we do and what we will need to do for years to come. Thanks again and keep them coming!!

 

[Joey Jones]

People may say 130 gallons of heating oil is equal to 1 cord of wood, but in my 10 year experience with burning fire wood I think the more likely ratio of 200 gallons of oil equal 1 cord seasoned hardwood. It is just the way it has worked out for me as I did burn oil before I switched to wood...Plus I was 15 degrees warmer in the meantime. So science vs reality.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

That ratio of cord to gals of oil depends, of course, on the stove efficiency, wood species, and dryness. If you're burning black locust or red oak- then a cord is worth a lot more gallons of oil than if burning red maple or white birch (or especially softwoods).

 

[Joey Jones]

Good point A.P. the local newspaper has said twice a cord of dry hardwood does equal 158 gallons, and someone on this forum has said it is 130 gallons that equal a cord... My calculations come out much higher...close to 200 gallons of oil equaling 1 cord of good seasoned hard wood... I have no empiracle tables or stats but it is just the way it has worked out...Burning both exclusively, it does seem to be an easy comparisom... but I'm no scientist and can only evaluate how much I have paid out to others for these 2 types of fuel.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

There are charts of the BTU's per cord for various species, as well as for oil. The efficiency of turning it into heat in the house is the unknown there I guess.

A cord of white oak is like 26 million BTU, a cord of white pine is like 14 million BTU. A gallon of heating oil is 139,000 BTU. So that would be 187 gallon per cord of white oak, or 100 gallon per cord white pine. For a middle of the road species- like cherry- at 20 MBTU, it would be 143 gallons per cord. That's raw heat, not counting efficiency diferences in delivery.

 

[davenorthshorema]

I have the Regency I1200 and was wonder how much wood should I really have to heat this winter if I were to burn 24/7. The home is roughly 800 sqft. Thanks all

Hi Daven,

Be sure to assess the moisture content of your wood. If your wood was cut just this summer, you'll have trouble getting much heat out of it. You'll mostly be burning wood to evaporate all the moisture in it.

If your wood is fresh, you might consider supplementing your cordwood with some of those big pressed logs that are being sold. I don't know what they're called, but you can search around for them. They're not terribly expensive and they will be crispy dry.

Gee, an 800 sq ft house will be quite toasty. Better to vent some heat than to freeze.

Dan

Dan,

I am hoping with the insert in the center of my home the heat will disperse throughout the two adjacent bedrooms and open kitchen

 

[Shipper50]

I would ask how warm do you like your house? I have a buddy who keeps his house 78-80 in the winter and I couldn't live in a house that warm. He has wood burning boiler system and has the wood to keep him warm.

I would take 68 in the dead of winter instead of the 62ish I had last year until I bought the furnace for the basement.

Shipper

 

[davenorthshorema]

That ratio of cord to gals of oil depends, of course, on the stove efficiency, wood species, and dryness. If you're burning black locust or red oak- then a cord is worth a lot more gallons of oil than if burning red maple or white birch (or especially softwoods).

Wouldn't this also depend on the effeciency for the Oil burner that you have? My furnace is about 50 years old and oil burner is atleast 25 years old. So I'm thinking that the the 200 gallons of oil is close the the one cord mark.

 

[SteveT]

Yes. The efficiency of the oil burner can make a huge difference. But you'd need an efficiency down around 65% before you'd get to 200 gallons per cord (with oak). As others have said you have to consider the type of wood.

Hopefully your furnace isn't that bad. The efficiency is a number you should be able to get (I think). At least with my dealer the oil company technician does an efficiency test each year when they clean the furnace. And they record it on a tag that they hang near the furnace. You should find one at your furnace too. Having an older furnace doesn't mean efficiency will be terrible. I get efficiency readings of 81% - 82% each time and the burner is 25 or 30 years old. (The efficiency won't stay that high throughout the year, but that is where I start each heating season).

I think it probably drops to around 75 % or so before the cleaning so I might get 77 or 78% overall. A woodstove runs in about the same efficiency range. So I just look at BTU/dollar for oil vs. wood and ignore efficiency as a cost factor.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I agree with EngineRep's figures and assumption there. My burner is a 30 yr old Weil McLain that measures at about 80-82%.

 

[davenorthshorema]

My oil furnace must be 50 years old...American standard is the Manufacturer

 

[egghead2004]

Over the last 4 years I have been burning 24/7. 2+ years with an old clunker probably getting 160 gallons per cord. Since 12/2006 with my Oslo I am at or slightly over 200 gallons per cord. I only burn hard woods (oak, cherry, maple, hickory, etc) for the most part. I mixed in with some poplar that I drop on the property. When I bought the Oslo, I did insulate the basement walls with 1" Poly, so that could account for a lot of the 160-200 gallon jump.

We used to go through 1100-1200 gallons from October through April before burning. Last year was 240 from October to mid April, and burned 4 cords.

My Oil burner is running at about 84-85%.