Quanity of wood this season
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That is a FINE wood shed. I appreciate and applaud your commitment.
It runs 24 hours regardless of the neatness of the stacking job...Nice packing job you did there.....
Im looking at 3.65 cords this year total. My original post i had burned .75 cord at December 1st i have 1 rack filled left to burn for the rest of the season. So through December, January, February I burned approximately 2.62 cords
Grand total.. 3.65 cords..
I only use about 2 cords per season more or less. Sheds hold about 2.5 cords total. That amount is already cut and split for next year and maybe a little more. I'm also going to mix in a pallet for wood bricks next year. Unless I come across a standing dead or dead fallen I'm done cutting till maybe next October.
i actually just had 2 standing dead elms blow onto my power lines right next to my wood pile the other day. and a 3rd blew down on the other side of my creek.
Then a friend called me up and asked if I wanted wood from a maple that they had to take down. I guess I just added to the 2023 pile!
I just broke into my ninth cord on Saturday, so just over 8 cords burned so far. We have another 2.5 moths of burning left, but I’m already running out of ambition. I’ll probably use the 3/4 cord that’s on the wagon now, and then be done with it. It’s almost time to start using the wagon for mulch, if it could dry out a little, here. We have standing water everywhere, after a record wet year.
I think I will be going through 1 more cord before the season is done. If I did the math right I should be around 2.75 cords burned which is a lot less than last year I was up to 6 cords by May but this year should be around 4 cords.
EODMSgt
Feeling the Heat
I'm currently a hair under 3.25cords so far, with temps warming up during the day, full sun on my south and west exposures I'm really just heating for night time at this point although I'm keeping the fire low and slow during the day time, I'll probably finish the season between 3.5 & 3.75 cords which isn't bad at all considering oil heat was only used 3 times when I was away this year.
Same our driveway is on a hill and the water is running down it and freezing every night. Kids love sledding down it but makes it treacherous when trying to walk down it. At least it thaws during the day and doesn't keep adding more ice.
Are these facecords by change? 9 cords seem like a lot.
Is your house old/drafty? Is it huge? Is your stove old?
Eureka
Feeling the Heat
12 full cords for us so far. Guessing we'll burn another 2. All low grade or half rotten softwood that most people would stick their nose up at. Heating 2 buildings 5600 sq ft and 100% of our domestic hot water in frozen NW WI. Heatmaster C Series OWB. I'll be burning more hardwoods in the years to come, went with junk wood so I could get it dry quickly. It's a lot of wood but I don't spend a lot of time cutting or splitting and I'm warm and happy. Might burn 25-30 gallons of propane this whole winter.
I've burned almost 4 full cord so far this winter. You know it's been a harsh winter when the ol' timers complain about the cold and snow. We'll be burning wood into May, and start burning again in September, roughly 8 months of heating with nothing but our Fisher Mama Bear.
That’s full cords, and I agree, it’s a lot! Too much, to the point where it’s starting to wear on me, now at the end of my 8th season.
Main part was built in 1770’s, with one corner that seems to be part of an older house that stood here in the 1730’s. All windows and doors were replaced in the 1770’s. It’s stone, so it’s actually remarkably tight for an old house, but the doors aren’t great, I can see light around a few of them. We also have 60 windows and eight entry doors.
Not huge, but it is larger than average. I’m only heating roughly half of it (less than 4000 sq.ft.) directly with wood, though.
Two BK Ashford 30.1’s, purchased 2015.
Probably much to admit, if I even had bothered to tally it. I’ll just say that I got more serious about wood burning when the general manager at my oil delivery company referred to me as, “an every 7 - 10 day’er.” The oil truck was in my driveway weekly during my first winter in this house, and I have a 275 gallon tank.
I've read that if you want to estimate, a cord of wood is roughly the same as 113 gallons of oil if you wanted to give yourself an estimate
A cord of wood can vary GREATLY in terms of BTU's between species. It needs to be a certain weight of wood equals so many gallons oil. Wood has the same BTU's per POUND, regardless of species.
I use 6,500 BTU's per LB of wood (@20% MC).
https://mha-net.org/docs/v8n2/docs/WDBASICS.pdf
140,000 BTU's/gal of #2 fuel oil.
113 gallons of oil would be equivalent of ~2,435lbs of properly seasoned wood. A cord of red oak at ~20% MC weighs 3,650lbs. So a cord of Red Oak would be ~170 gallons of #2 fuel oil. This is net BTU's, you then need to take into consideration stove efficiency.
As a comparison, a cord of poplar would only equal ~95 gallons of #2 fuel oil, while a cord of Hedge would equal ~225 gallons of #2 fuel oil.
The trouble is, while I have receipts and tracking to show exactly how much oil I’ve saved, I have kept zero records of my wood usage, over those time intervals. I know that I’m into my ninth cord this year, and I can add that to my oil usage for this year, but I’ll have to back out my heating degree days for this year versus an average winter. We have had a few screwy winters in a row, here.
Yes, I should have a larger tank. My last house was 1/3rd the size of this place, and we had 550 gallons in the basement.
I’m not sure this is accurate, either. But you’re right, closer than just 113 gal per cord. I’ll burn about nine cords this year, before I need to let the stoves go cold and get on with spring time stuff. It’s about 90% oak, with other misc. hardwoods, but without knowing the MC% of each species (namely the oak), you’re still guessing at BTU’s. It’s just not worth the effort to figure it out, IMO.
Ok... Im guessing 4000 to 4500 for an oil bill. Thats not terrable..
I have a friend that has a propane bill of over 5k.... in a modern home.. so looking at it that way ASH your not doing that bad...
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