Please help me estimate wood use

[Scootermsp]

4 year old house, great insulation , double pane argon windows, I heat approx 3700sq ft, first floor t-stat sets back to 50 deg 7pm-7am (1800 sq ft), hooking CB 5036 OWB into existing hydronic system with 30 plate water-to-water exchanger. I have unlimited wood so if I have 12 full cords seasoned HW is that enough? ALSO . I have about 7 thickly wooded acres to cut from (mostly HW) and an outside supply of pine from a friend in the land clearing business is this sustainable? /.:chainsawguy:

 

[ericjeeper]

I think barely

Get rid of that 50 degree setback deal.. I feel that it takes to long to bring the dead load back up to temps.
But that is just my opinion.
I would be looking for more woodlot. 7 acres is a great size. But if you are only going to cut deadfall and damaged trees you will run out of options.

 

[twofer]

You might want to build a heat loss profile using SlantFin's free program which you can get here: http://www.slantfin.com/heat-loss-software.html. With this program you have to set down and plug in the different rooms in your house and their characteristics and it will tell you how many BTU's are lost per hour.

On a side note, since you already have an existing system have you thought about an indoor wood gasification boiler? This way you could tie into the existing system plus the gasification systems are much more efficient than an OWB. This means less wood to cut, which means more years out of your woodlot.

I may be a little biased because I was going to put in a Central Boiler unit on the new home we are building now but have now decided to go with an indoor gasification boiler due to the increased efficiency and the ability to add thermal storage(a whole another topic but interesting topic) to extend the times between burns.

Hope that helps....

 

[blackdogon57]

I think you will need more wood

12 cord doesn't seem like enough. I use a CB6048 to heat two buildings total 4400 square feet and used at least 20 cord since Nov 2007. Better to cut too much rather than too little.

 

[MS-310]

If you burn good wood, use good underground line and the house seems to be newer but its 3700sqft, my idea is 8 to 12 full cords of maple, ash, cherry,
if its all white oak then maybe 6 to 10 full cords, but my thought is a little high. I would guess at 8 full cords. I seen many houses brand new get full 24 hour burn times now, with are heatsource ones and with CB......

 

[Scootermsp]

setback

Eric, it only takes about 20-30 minutes for the first floor to come back up to temp in the morning. before doing this I used 200-300 more gallons of oil in a winter. I kept very careful records of my oil consumption and heating degree days (geek). There is no way heating my whole downstairs for an extra 12 hrs a day will save oil (or wood in this case). I found a supplier of log length oak for very reasonable money for a load (7-8) cords. I may cut my dead and crookeds but this deal will pay for itself in something none of us can put a price on .... TIME! Thank you for your helpful responses and taking the time out of yourbusy day to help me out!

 

[CharlieG]

Contact your local tree service for free wood. Around here, they pay for disposal$$$$$$$. My tree service guy drops it in my front yard away from the house for FREE-about a 30 yarder drop. Various sizes of hardwoods.Only downside is that some are huge , but I cut around the big ones till they're the only ones left, and then put the 372xp to work.Ahh, the din of hard labor.

Be an ant, not a grasshopper!

 

[Bruce Hopf]

4 year old house, great insulation , double pane argon windows, I heat approx 3700sq ft, first floor t-stat sets back to 50 deg 7pm-7am (1800 sq ft), hooking CB 5036 OWB into existing hydronic system with 30 plate water-to-water exchanger. I have unlimited wood so if I have 12 full cords seasoned HW is that enough? ALSO . I have about 7 thickly wooded acres to cut from (mostly HW) and an outside supply of pine from a friend in the land clearing business is this sustainable? /.:chainsaw guy:

If it was me, I'd have more wood cut, by at least 8 to 10 more bush cords
(4' x 4' x 8'). It is better to have more than enough wood cut, than not enough wood cut. I've had to go to the bush twice in one winter to cut up leaning trees, to make through one winter, because I had run out of wood. What a chore that was.
I had to blow snow over 2' deep, form the house to the bush, and up to a few leaning trees with my 65 HP tractor, and 7' snow blower. Now I make dang sure I have more than enough wood cut and inside the basement, and 3 bush cords loaded under the roof of my implement shed, just in case it is needed.
It took almost 2 hours of blowing snow to get out the fire wood.
Look at it this way, the wood that is left over from this winters burning, is less wood you will need for next years burning.
Because I know from experience, It takes a lot of time, fuel, extra wear and tear on equipment, that isn't needed to go through, and cost, to go through that aggravate, when it's cold out, and the wood isn't quit dry enough for burning, rather than cutting more than enough now, and having it more than dry enough for burning, when you need it most. My personal opinion anyway. Bruce.