wood consumption

[gilraine]

I'm curious how much wood you guys and gals go thru in a year.. we have 1400 sqare feet, fairly well insulated and use 3 cord a year in the fireplace.. I figure with the new stove it will go up, simply because I plan on burning 24/7.. we have 5 cut split and stacked, another 10 I need to drop and process..

 

[BarkBuster20]

here in western oregon we burn around 10-12 cord a year, in about a 2000sqft house, thats insulated

 

[Marc]

I'm curious how much wood you guys and gals go thru in a year.. we have 1400 sqare feet, fairly well insulated and use 3 cord a year in the fireplace.. I figure with the new stove it will go up, simply because I plan on burning 24/7.. we have 5 cut split and stacked, another 10 I need to drop and process..

That will depend on what your new stove is...

My father lives just a bit north of you in Woodstock in a 1970's 2000 sq ft raised ranch and goes through about 4 well seasoned cords a year with a VC Encore (cat), heating almost exclusively with the stove.

Sounds like you're on the right track, but I'd get that extra 10 down and stacked as soon as I could to be on a multi year drying cycle. Plus I hate woodcutting in the heat of summer.

 

[wdchuck]

gilraine, you are on the right track, but need to get that other 10 cord cut/split/stacked/drying so its available by Feb/Mar of 2010. If you can get 18-20 cord as a principle ready supply, then add to it at a rate 10% greater than you use it , you'll eventually just be burning interest and always have a three year principle to cover any bad years.

In our old, naturally ventilated farmhouse, 8cords is the minimum we'll burn, and we've been caught short once, even though there was 10cord ready at the beginning of that particular winter.

Now we are back on the two years supply ready to burn, and a third year in process as a minumum.

 

[CrappieKeith]

gilraine, you are on the right track, but need to get that other 10 cord cut/split/stacked/drying so its available by Feb/Mar of 2010. If you can get 18-20 cord as a principle ready supply, then add to it at a rate 10% greater than you use it , you'll eventually just be burning interest and always have a three year principle to cover any bad years.

In our old, naturally ventilated farmhouse, 8cords is the minimum we'll burn, and we've been caught short once, even though there was 10cord ready at the beginning of that particular winter.

Now we are back on the two years supply ready to burn, and a third year in process as a minumum.

Great tip!

I go through 6 cords a year and no propane heating 1400s/f here in northern Mn.
We see 10 below 0 as average

 

[saginaw22]

1400 sqft. ranch house
Build in 1978
Northern Michigan WINTER
Burned from OCT-APRIL
burned 13-16 Face Cords (16" wide wood 8ft long 4ft high)

Burned 24/7 except when I took a few trips snowmobiling
for the weekend in Da U.P. EAH.....lol

Gets a little cool in the morning 58-62 but I sleep 7-8 hours
so its not too bad. Then thats only when it gets in to the low
teen's and single's

 

[dingeryote]

2,500sq.ft. Built in 2007. 8-10 cords. But I run through April.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[046]

there's another identical thread....

to be valid, one needs sq ft, how well insulated and location.
age of home, single level?, etc. helps too

single level 1950's ranch , 2500 sf, very well insulated. double pane glass, house is very well constructed and near air tight.

located in Tulsa, OK.. we get winters with temps.. 0 to 30 range

consumption is 4 to 4.5 cords of Oak per season with JUCA insert producing 99% of heat. natural gas heater is ran only to take out cold spots.

 

[IndyIan]

Around 3 cords of hardwood, maple, beech, oak, etc.
1800 sqft 2x6 R22 walls with lots of windows.
99% of heating done with a mid size regency wood stove.
Temps around 58F to 68F.

It would be easy to burn alot more wood if we wanted to keep the house in a smaller temperature range, but we have fuzzy slippers and sweaters.

 

[ppkgmsy]

We have an 1100sq foot home in North Central VT. Or first winter here in 2002 we burned 7 cords, as it was a cold winter and my son was an infant, so I kept the temps at near 70 24/7. In the years since I have insulated the house completely and now, even in a cold winter like this past, we burn 3.5 cords. I have my wood dry a year in advance and burn about 80% maple and beech, with the rest being oak, birch and cherry. I keep the house in the low 60s during the day and except when it gets real cold at night I let the fire burn out as I get up early in the morning and get things warm before my wife awakens. It gets cold at night but it's great for sleeping. My wife would prefer it warmer, but we compromise and buy her a new sweater every year!

 

[slinger]

1650 sq ft upstairs and a heated basement. OWB, domestic hot water. Polyurethane insul in walls and ceiling. 74 degrees all winter in mild southern Il. ~bout 8 cords this year.:smoking:

 

[mga]

i burn about 6 full cords for the year, 2000 sq.ft. ranch....24/7

 

[Joshlaugh]

114 year old drafty 2 story house, 2500 sq feet. I burned just under 5 cords with natural gas as a backup. I plan to install a 2nd wood stove to reduce my usage of nat gas to near 0. I think it would be good to have "extra" wood stockpiled. I went through more wood than I expected this spring. I currently have about 14 full cords c/s/s to make sure I never am short.

 

[highpointtree]

2000 sq/ft well insulated. got down to -14 this winter but avg about 15-20 dg.. burned 10 cord and not a drop of oil. outdoor pacific western. heats house, showers, laundry, dishwasher. and kept the heat at 75 dg inside. also heated the garage (40x60x20 high) about 10 days

 

[funky sawman]

My place is 1000 sq ft on a north facing slope. I burn about 5 cords of good wood (larch, douglas fir). If I'm burning softwoods (white pine, lodgepole pine, white fir) it takes 7-8 cords to keep this drafty cottage warm.

 

[Zodiac45]

I have 3000 sq feet but only heat 2000 of that in winter. The house is also more than 200 years old, so it's not as tight as many. Using two stoves I'll use 6-7 cord of dry hardwood. 3 too 3 1/2 for each stove. One is a turn of the century (100 year old) cookstove and the other will be new woodstock soapstone.

 

[sundance]

1200 sq. ft. in southwest PA (up in the hills). Single storey, built late '60s. Not real well insulated, but we're working on it. Well over 70 most of the winter. 2.5 cords last winter, supplies over 95% of the heat. We've used less than 500 gallons of oil in the last 10 years including letting the furnace run to make sure it still does.

Sundance

 

[LazyJ]

My 20 yo VC insert burns precisely a cord per month, four splits per load, four loads per day, four cords per year, like clockwork.

 

[woodbooga]

We go through about 4.5-5, burning in an old cookstove from late Sept. through ??? (had a small fire last night to cook supper - probably several more before it's too hot to cook).

The amount is deceptive, though. A lot of what we're burning now (and back in the fall) is punky woofah wood. Not much heat nor burntime, but takes up as much space as the solid red oak, ash and sugar maple set up for next deep winter.

 

[logbutcher]

punky woofah wood

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