How much firewood do you use in Kentucky?

[ripcat-ranch]

We are moving (in 10 days!! yippee!!!)close to the Danville area in Kentucky and I was wondering how much wood I will be burning a year. In northern Idaho we would use six cord or more easy but that was all soft wood (tamarack and red fir) that we would burn. I'm not real familiar with burning hardwood. We will be heating with all wood. The house is a ranch with 1800 square feet and well insulated.

Thanks, ripcat

[Freeholder]

I'm not in Kentucky, but I can tell you that it's going to depend on several things:

1. The size of your house

2. How well insulated and weather-proofed your house is

3. What kind of wood you get to burn (should be able to get plenty of hardwoods in Kentucky, I would think)

4. What kind of stove you have.

So, in other words, you need to know your answers to all the above criteria, and then talk to someone with similar answers to the same questions.

One person in a huge, old house with no insulation, burning slash pine cut off their place, with a leaky old parlor stove, might go through six or eight cords a year and heat nothing but the room the stove is in. Another person, with a small, passive-solar, super-insulated house, burning seasoned hardwoods in a masonry stove, might only need a cord and a half for the whole winter.

Kathleen

[Cindy in KY]

Welcome to KY! Danville is about 1.5 hours straight east of us. Been thru there a few times. What kind of woodstove are you going to have? It really depends on the stove. Did you get a place in the country? It's pretty over there.

We have a Kitchen Queen wood cookstove, and it heats our 1500 sf farmhouse very, very well. We are so pleased with this stove, it is just wonderful. We heat our house entirely with the stove, no electricity at all. Around November, sometimes December, we'll have to close up and heat.

We have our windows and doors open all spring, summer and fall. We have the stove going now, for about this last week of cold snap. December, January, February and March is our main heating months. February being the coldest. December and March is on and off warm/cold. A few seasons we didn't even fire up till the second week in December. Years ago we used to have ripe tomatoes way up in December too, but the last 3 years or so, we are getting frosts earlier. Friday of this week, we should be in the clear for warm spring days to stay!

[ripcat-ranch]

Originally Posted by Cindy in KY

Welcome to KY! Danville is about 1.5 hours straight east of us. Been thru there a few times. What kind of woodstove are you going to have? It really depends on the stove. Did you get a place in the country? It's pretty over there.

We have a Kitchen Queen wood cookstove, and it heats our 1500 sf farmhouse very, very well. We are so pleased with this stove, it is just wonderful. We heat our house entirely with the stove, no electricity at all. Around November, sometimes December, we'll have to close up and heat.

We have our windows and doors open all spring, summer and fall. We have the stove going now, for about this last week of cold snap. December, January, February and March is our main heating months. February being the coldest. December and March is on and off warm/cold. A few seasons we didn't even fire up till the second week in December. Years ago we used to have ripe tomatoes way up in December too, but the last 3 years or so, we are getting frosts earlier. Friday of this week, we should be in the clear for warm spring days to stay!

Thanks for the welcome!! We were supposed to get our moving truck tomorrow but our closing was delayed by a week so it will definately be next Monday. What a HUGE blessing the delay was......if you look at the weather for tomorrow along the coast of Maine you will understand!! 6 inches of rain along with 35 mph winds with gusts up to 70 or 80 mph. That would have been fun trying to load!! Praise the Lord for the delay......He always knows best!

I'm not sure what the wood stove will be yet........we bought an Amish farm on 32 acres and it had a coal stove in it at the time but they took that and were supposed to replace it with a wood stove. So I'm not sure what they put in......I guess I messed up there a little by not having some input on what they put in. Chalk that up to a lesson learned but one that I hope I never have to use. We decided that this was our last move so hopefully it will be.

How many cords of wood do you use in your cook stove? Do you have a picture of it? Would love to see it.

thanks, ripcat

[Suttholio]

Thread caught my eye: I'm moving to Kentucky in a couple weeks if all goes according to plan. I'll be in Lewis County, south of Danville, If it's the same Danville that's on my map (I'm in Ohio right now where there are more than one town with the same name in manycases, so I never know if I'm talking about the same one some else is! lol) I will be heating with wood as well, so I appreciate the answers given!

[Cindy in KY]

It's an Amish made stove, we shipped it down from MI. We read and read all the posts here, and actually got this one from the high recommendations from the folks here. Best 3K we ever spent! But if you look at the cost of heat pumps or other heating methods, this was not much, plus wood is everywhere in KY. Our electric bill runs around $60 a month year round for the rest of the stuff.

We are burning wood boards untill our old big barn is gone. The barn is falling down so we started taking it apart with the chainsaw, and using the wood in the cookstove. The big poles are ok to keep, but the wood is probably 60-70 yrs old, so its hard to re-use, but most excellent as firewood. This stove loves oak boards, and they last a long time for a fire. We also burn 2x4's, scrap lumber, broken pallets, anything not treated. We tried the split logs, but this way is so much easier. We have 3 metal barrels outside the back door kept filled with boards. Steve works construction also, so he brings home truck fulls of scrap lumber. I have a little battery-operated skill saw, and it's perfect for cutting pine lumber. Plus, slab wood is always free here from the Amish sawmills, all you can truck away. You can also buy it allready cut up for really, really cheap. Here is a pic of the stove. It is very large, 800 pounds. We put it in an add-on with cement floor.

Stove picture

Sounds like you got a really nice place! Over there in KY, they have the neat fences made out of stones, so pretty. Suttholio, I have only heard of one Danville in KY. The weather here is great for growing anything, and not too hot, and short winters and very nice people.

[bachelorb]

I'm here in the northern border where Alabama meets Tennessee. We probably go through 2 cords of wood a year ( true cords;4x4x8). Our woodstove is a $99 dollar one bought 20 years ago and we heat 1000 sq ft house. I hear tell the newer ones are a lot more efficient.