How to figure how much wood will I need to last a heating season?

[Blueox4]

Excuse my ignorance on this but I’m having a Osburn 2400 insert installed in the next couple weeks and am trying to figure out how much wood I’ll need to last a heating season here in upstate New York? I figure 6 months I’ll want to heat mostly with wood if I can. I have a heating oil furnace but it’s so expensive I can’t afford the oil anymore. I want to heat maybe 1300 sq.feet, a living room and family room. I have zero experience burning wood but have been reading a lot here. I have a really good chimney sweep installing the insert and I’m sure he may be able to give me some idea on how much wood I’ll need but would like or be able to figure out roughly myself. I know I’ll have to buy seasoned wood this year but I was thinking it may be cheaper to buy a bunch of logs and cut and split it myself. Thanks for any pointers in the right direction to figure out how much wood I’ll need.

 

[begreen]

In upstate NY I would have at least 4 cords of fully seasoned wood ready by October with another 4 cords seasoning for the following winter if the goal is to heat fully with wood. If you can only get 2-3 cords ready by that time don't sweat it. Run the oil during the coldest weather to supplement the wood heat. You'll still be coming out way ahead.

Note, the stove is going to need fully seasoned wood. That is hard to come by if buying. Most sellers will tell you it's seasoned when it's not. If you can get ash, that seasons more quickly and would be your best bet.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

In upstate NY I would have at least 4 cords of fully seasoned wood ready by October with another 4 cords seasoning for the following winter if the goal is to heat fully with wood. If you can only get 2-3 cords ready by that time don't sweat it. Run the oil during the coldest weather to supplement the wood heat. You'll still be coming out way ahead.


Note, the stove is going to need fully seasoned wood. That is hard to come by if buying. Most sellers will tell you it's seasoned when it's not. If you can get ash, that seasons more quickly and would be your best bet.

Soft maple is also a good fast drying wood with a bit less BTU’s than ash firewood. Pine as well, although the BTU’s are even less still.

 

[Dolphus Raymond]

You will learn that there are two types of "seasoned " firewood: fireplace seasoned and wood stove seasoned. It takes me two years to season thin split wood for my stove.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

How thin of splits are you talking about and what species of wood? That’s a long time for wood to get down to 20 percent moisture content.

 

[nrford]

Just keep cutting and stacking...it's fun and good for you!

 

[coaly]

There is no figuring. There are too many variables. There are winters that seem to go forever requiring much longer burning, mild winters that can use half or less, wood species vary output, and experience with the stove prevents wasteful use. Bottom line, you can never have too much, but you can have not enough...... Stored correctly it doesn't go bad.

 

[Blueox4]

All good advice taken. Thank you. Was thinking of buying about 7 1/2 facecords delivered for around $500 cut and split 16”all hardwood and then maybe a tri-axle truckload of logs dropped in the yard for me to cut and split and season for the winter after next. I’m in the can’t have enough camp too. I just didn’t want to be light going into winter.

 

[begreen]

Go for 9 face cords at a minimum, but investigate the source first. Learn how to test wood for moisture correctly. Get a moisture meter and a sharp axe. At their site of before the wood is dropped off the truck, test a few random splits by resplitting them in half, then testing moisture on the freshly exposed face of the wood. Push the contacts in firmly. If it tests at >22%, reject the load.

 

[kennyp2339]

Buying 2 pallets of compressed wood blocks to mix in with regular firewood can also help, like others have said, you want a average moisture content of 20% or less.
If your buying compressed wood block 1 ton of blocks equals about a cord of wood, and in your area, you will probably burn close to 5 cords a season if winter was like this past winter.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Go for 9 face cords at a minimum, but investigate the source first. Learn how to test wood for moisture correctly. Get a moisture meter and a sharp axe. At their site of before the wood is dropped off the truck, test a few random splits by resplitting them in half, then testing moisture on the freshly exposed face of the wood. Push the contacts in firmly. If it tests at >22%, reject the load.

You will find most tree services selling wood will be much higher than 22%. Be prepared to decline wood. Try asking wood sellers about softwoods and the lesser dense hardwoods.

 

[Lakeside]

Syracuse New York location - you may be blessed with some Black locust in your area. Even better dead Black Locust, I was lucky to find a half dozen fallen down years ago no bark & very low moisture. Easily in the stove with less then ten handling. So I very much like black locust - find some a you to will feel the heat & long burn times. Remember Backwoods Savage's advise get three years ahead and you will have drywood.

 

[thewoodlands]

Excuse my ignorance on this but I’m having a Osburn 2400 insert installed in the next couple weeks and am trying to figure out how much wood I’ll need to last a heating season here in upstate New York? I figure 6 months I’ll want to heat mostly with wood if I can. I have a heating oil furnace but it’s so expensive I can’t afford the oil anymore. I want to heat maybe 1300 sq.feet, a living room and family room. I have zero experience burning wood but have been reading a lot here. I have a really good chimney sweep installing the insert and I’m sure he may be able to give me some idea on how much wood I’ll need but would like or be able to figure out roughly myself. I know I’ll have to buy seasoned wood this year but I was thinking it may be cheaper to buy a bunch of logs and cut and split it myself. Thanks for any pointers in the right direction to figure out how much wood I’ll need.

We live in the foothills of the Adirondacks in NYS, our wood stove is in the basement so we burn more wood compared to a person with the wood stove on the main floor.

For shoulder season wood we burn pine and hemlock (each year we burn around 1.86 cord or 6 face cord) once the weather gets colder we switch to our better wood we can burn around 4 cord or 12 face cord.

 

[Ashful]

All good advice taken. Thank you. Was thinking of buying about 7 1/2 facecords delivered for around $500 cut and split 16”all hardwood and then maybe a tri-axle truckload of logs dropped in the yard for me to cut and split and season for the winter after next. I’m in the can’t have enough camp too. I just didn’t want to be light going into winter.

If you’re having it delivered, just get your first three years’ worth now, and then get an additional years’ worth delivered each year. That way you’ll always have three-year seasoned wood at the ready (starting in 2021). If you want to soften the financial hit, get 2 years’ worth now, and another 2 years’ worth next year.

There are all sorts of ways you can estimate your wood usage. One reasonable place to start is to look at your central heating usage (eg. Oil gallons per year), determine what fraction of that load you want to replace with wood, and buy the commensurate BTU’s in wood (20 - 30 MBTU per cord, dep. on species).

In the end, most full-time burners do somewhere around 3-4 cords per stove per year, and most part-timers do 1 - 2 cords per stove per year. This may be dictated more by what the average person is willing to push thru a stove of a given size in a years time, more than actual heating needs of your house.

... and finally, drop the “face cords”, they mean nothing. A face cord is a unit of area, as in 32 square feet, or 4 feet x 8 feet x whatever the hell you want (2 inches or 2 meters?). A “cord” is a unit of volume, 128 cubic feet. It is illegal to advertise or sell “face cords” in many states, including my own, for this reason.

 

[blades]

Rule of thumb - tight stacked cord of splits volume wise would cover 128 cubic feet, but due to gaps you can figure apx 10% reduction or possibly a bit more, tossed or loose stacked could be 25% or more of the volume being nothing but air. One cord tossed will not fit in an 8' pick up box even with 2ft side boards, can't get it in a baby dump either with out at least 2ft side boards. ( just a word to the wise).

 

[Ashful]

Rule of thumb - tight stacked cord of splits volume wise would cover 128 cubic feet, but due to gaps you can figure apx 10% reduction or possibly a bit more, tossed or loose stacked could be 25% or more of the volume being nothing but air. One cord tossed will not fit in an 8' pick up box even with 2ft side boards, can't get it in a baby dump either with out at least 2ft side boards. ( just a word to the wise).

All gub’ment estimates I’ve seen (dept weights and measures) use 85 cu ft of wood per 128 cu ft “tightly stacked” cord. That’s a packing efficiency around 66%.