6 Cords Ready

[Bubbas Boys]

So, we now have 6 full cords split and stacked under a cover I slapped together. We have a 2000 sq ft new home with 6 inch walls and thick blanket insulation in attic. Very open floor plan. Have a new Kitchen Queen wood cookstove as ONLY heat source. Would you feel comfortable with 6 cords or nervous that more is needed? We are in Central Illinois!

[littlebitfarm]

I never went through more than 2 cords in central Illinois. 1300sq ft, tight house. Had a Vermont Castings Stove in the living room that worked very well. Did have backup heat but that was set at 50° and wouldn't come on unless I was out of town.

[Danaus29]

You can never have too much wood. I wish I had 6 cords ready to go.

[Nimrod]

You really want to get ahead of your projected use by three years. If you put up a years supply every year after that, it will dry for 2 years before you have to use it.

A cook stove would not have a big enough firebox to hold a fire through the night here in MN. I don't think it would work in IL either. You may be getting up a few times during the night to fire the stove.

Have a place to keep 3 days worth of wood in the house. You could have a 2 day blizzard followed by a day of digging out before you can get back to the woodshed.

I strongly recommend a second source of heat. If you have electricity get several electric heaters. If not, I would use a propane heater or 2. You can get them that don't use any electricity. I recommend the ones that have the exhaust vented outside. I don't trust the unvented ones to produce safe levels of CO2 and they will certainly produce a lot of water vapor.

I just got over a bad cold that lasted 2 weeks. I have a propane furnace as backup to the wood stove in case I get incapacitated to the point where I can't haul wood in from the woodpile.

[Dixie Bee Acres]

Central Indiana here, and I went through about 7.5 cords last winter. That said, I have a very inefficient burner, a fireplace insert. With a good efficient burner I could likely keep the house warmer with less wood. Of course my house is also 1900 sqft built in 1938.

I agree that the cookstove might not be enough. Durring the day, when you are awake and can keep it stocked it might be fine, but at night you will have to get up several times to restock the fire.

Also, if, for any reason you have to leave home for half a day or more, the house could get cold quick. An out of town emergency in the winter could equal busted water pipes, etc. I think i would consider a vent free gas heater, even an lp fireplace. If it never gets used, it might seem like a waste of money, but the one single time it is needed, it will be worth its weight in gold.

[7thswan]

Yup, even I have a gas heater, a nice little "fireplace" just incase it gets too cold and I can't feed the woodstove. I'd never try to heat with our cookstove, the firbox is way to small. But it does help if it's extra cold and windy to keep it going and cook or cann all day.

[Vahomesteaders]

Here in the mountains of va I went through 5 cords last year. We have 2600sf house. But I also keep 3 wood stoves going. Ours upstairs. My father's stove who lives in our basement and my workshops stove. But I burn pine in that one so it's no bogie since we have dead Pine all over. I would prefer at least 6 to 7 cords fir this winter so I don't have to go cut any in the snow like last year. Lol we also have a vent free gas fireplace we use on very cold nights bur it week eat the fuel of you don't watch it so it only runs at night.

[badlander]

We are figuring at least 6 cords this winter to heat our 1200 square foot home, 1400 if we eat the upstairs also. We went to a Century EPA stove two years ago and love it. Last year we went through every piece of wood we ad stored and had to go out to harvest more due to the harsh winter. Not fun when the temps are in the teens during the day. So we bought a Huskee 28 ton splitter two days ago to do the job for u s. This is our first full winter here at the farm. We retired in January after just being here on 4 day weekends/holidays and vacations for a few years.

We were splitting by hand till this year but 6 cords is a big jump up from 3 cords and our backs are not getting any younger, LOL. The way I look at it, better to have too much then not enough.

[Bubbas Boys]

Thanks for all the comments. I want to feel good about 6 cords but really don't yet. Maybe after we have burnt wood for a couple years. The stove we have is "suppose" to have 10-14 hour burn times. It is not just a regular cookstove. I did a lot of research and talked to lots of folks who have them. We are hoping we made the right choice. haha. Thanks.

[badlander]

Originally Posted by Bubbas Boys

Thanks for all the comments. I want to feel good about 6 cords but really don't yet. Maybe after we have burnt wood for a couple years. The stove we have is "suppose" to have 10-14 hour burn times. It is not just a regular cookstove. I did a lot of research and talked to lots of folks who have them. We are hoping we made the right choice. haha. Thanks.

I think you will find that it will depend on the temperature outside and the wind chill. Days where it is 10 degrees outside and the wind is whipping snow around at 30MPH, you are going to be using more wood than on days where it is in the 30s and the winds are calm, just like with any other source of heat. Saying that your stove has a max 14 hour burn time doesn't mean that the fire will 'blaze' for 14 hours. It means that it will die down and you will still have hot coals at 14 hours that you can stir into a fresh fire but it will not be putting out maximum heat for 14 hours. To that, you have to, as I phrase it, "feed that dragon till it breathes fire!".

A lot of the Amish around us heat their homes with their wood burning cook stove. Most say that they are up during the night stoking it also. If we get up, we will throw a log or two in our Century. If we don't the house temp is usually down in the 60s in the morning but recovers quickly.

I would suggest looking for a heated mattress pad for your beds. They are the greatest and as your house cools down over night, you will stay toasty warm in bed. DH and I usually find ourselves elbowing one another and saying 'your turn to get up and get the fire going' in the mornings during the winter months.

But I think you will find that due to the size of the firebox on your stove, you will have to be on it a lot to keep the temp up on really cold days.

You are right though. After this winter you will have a better feel for what your wood stove can do for you.

[Dixie Bee Acres]

If you have to refill the stove throughout the night, you aren't alone. All winter long i sleep in my chair in the livingroom. Our very inefficient insert will only last about 3 hours at best once filled.
I wake up a few times every night to fill it up.
That said, I also have a gas furnace with the thermostat set at 60, so if I fail to wake up and the fire goes out completely, at least the house doesn't get too cold, but all last winter, from October to March, we only used $67 in propane, and that was at $3.50 gallon. That was furnace and kitchen stove, so not too bad.

[mrs whodunit]

We heated a single wide 60's trailer with a old wood cook stove. We where nice and toasty. Never did need another heat source while using the wood cook stove.

If I used black locus as the night time wood I could find a nice bed of coals the next morning.

With a wood cook stove you will get to know your woods very well. Its quit the art to cooking with wood. My favortie woods are thornbush, black locus, cherry and tamarack.

If you can get more wood in it never hurts

[Bubbas Boys]

Its funny that you mention 60s because all the past 5 or so years we kept our gas furnace in our last home at 65 through the whole winter. People always thin k we are nuts but we don't like it hot. Time will tell I guess. I am really excited to be heating with entirely wood but am getting kinda nervous as the time is getting close too starting. haha

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by Bubbas Boys

Its funny that you mention 60s because all the past 5 or so years we kept our gas furnace in our last home at 65 through the whole winter. People always thin k we are nuts but we don't like it hot. Time will tell I guess. I am really excited to be heating with entirely wood but am getting kinda nervous as the time is getting close too starting. haha

Well...............you face the option of being out there during February and March with the sleet and rain hitting you in the face, cutting up more....

geo

[maddy]

My primary source of heat is a Kitchen Queen wood stove, and I heat a 2,200 SF open-floor-plan home with about four cords a year. I have back-up heat set to go on at 60 degrees, which is mighty nice mid-winter when constant babysitting of the wood stove makes you feel like you're joined to it at the hip. On really cold days (20 degrees F. or less), it's difficult to keep even a well-insulated 2,200 SF house comfortably warm with just the stove.

I'm a little concerned that you're just getting your wood put up now. Unless the wood has been on the ground for quite a while, I'd be concerned that it has not had adequate time to dry. (I usually give it at least one year after splitting into 5" diameter pieces.) You'll know you have a problem if the pieces start hissing while they burn. In any event, burning wet wood is especially dangerous in a wood cook stove because of the configuration of the venting system, which allows the fire to reach right up into the flue, potentially igniting the creosote within the stove pipe and setting off a chimney fire. So it will be important to keep your stove pipe squeaky clean, and that's nearly impossible to do when you're burning less-than-completely-dry wood. Wet wood is a real creosote-producer.

Splitting your wood into smaller-than normal pieces not only aids drying, it helps keep the fire burning vigorously. My rule of thumb is to split pieces no larger than I can pick up with one hand.

You'll also want to resist the temptation to choke down the air in the stove at night to keep the fire burning longer. Don't do it. Choking down the air causes the fire to smoulder, which is another major cause of creosote build-up and chimney fires. A rule that has worked well for me is to keep the fire burning as vigorously as possible at all times, and adjust the heat output by either increasing or decreasing the amount of wood you have in the firebox.

With that rule in mind, you can see why it might be a real good idea to have a back-up source of heat. Wood stoves require pretty much constant attention, and the idea of filling them up and going to bed with the air choked off is a dangerous practice.

Get yourself two good stove-top thermometers, one for the stovetop and the other for the stove pipe. (I like the tri-colored ones, especially for the stove pipe, because you can see what's going on at a glance.) The thermometer on the stovetop should be running at about 500-600 degrees under normal conditions. Any less than that, and you're burning too cool (think creosote). I'll run mine as hot as 700 degrees, but when I do, I keep a close watch on it because when the fire gets going really hot, the temperature can rise VERY quickly. The thermometer on the stove pipe, on the other hand, should run somewhere in the range of 250-400 degrees, but NEVER more than 450. Also get yourself one of those throw-in sticks or packets that will douse the fire in the firebox if the chimney catches fire. The better ones are pricey--$25 or so--but well worth it, in my opinion.

All that said, I do really enjoy my Kitchen Queen.

[mark3885]

All very good information Maddy . The moisture content is very important not only for safety but for total heat output. Wet wood doesn't produce much heat as compared to dry (12-16% moisture ). My son and I just finish splitting our 9 cord of wood for 3 households, but I have 175 Acres of hardwood and we only cut dead standing trees. Most trees are about 16% when we split it ,so by mid winter we are at about 14% moisture.
In 2 years when the misses and I move down here , into our 3000 sf loghome , I will be on the 3 year plan for firewood.

[Bubbas Boys]

The wood we have stacked was dead standing last winter and has been on pallets all summer. It is not as dry as I would have hoped for our first year heating with wood. The highest reading I got was 20% but the majority of it was around 14-16%. I know it is not great but from what I read it is ok. So, does anyone on here heat with only wood or does everyone have a backup? I was going to put in a couple baseboard heaters but didn't get it done this year. After talking with Woody from the stove shop I was feeling ok, now not so much. haha. Thanks for advise everyone!

[Dixie Bee Acres]

In my old house, I had a back up heat source, but it never got used, in two years I think i kicked it on once or twice, but, I had a forced air wood furnace. I could fill that fire box and we were good for 8-12 hours or longer. We generally kept the house at 90+ degrees all winter.

[Bubbas Boys]

90 degrees, I would die! haha. People think we are crazy when we use to say we set our thermostat on 65 but it is true. That was a draft old house with old windows and very little insulation.

[Dixie Bee Acres]

The house we had then was very starry, my g.g.grandpa built it when "coal was cheaper than insulation"
Our first winter there, with a brand new 90%+ efficientcy furnace, it cost us $600-$700 a month for lp to get the house up to 62-64* at best.
Wood furnace starting next winter...