Woodburners, how many cords do you use?

We use about 8 1/2 cords of hard wood. Only heat with wood too.
We have a house built in the 1830's 1450SF. But we insulated and put new windows and doors.

I think it has a lot to do with local conditions as well as the length of the heating season. For instance we had our last fire in late May for 07 and our first fire this last week. So we burn a very long time. So we use quite a bit of wood. Of course the room with the stove is warm but like has been noted above the farther you get from the stove the colder it gets. Sometimes the DW bakes bread to warm the kitchen. lol

We heat 2 buildings and do all of our cooking with wood. In a typical we'll go through 10 cords 70% beatle killed spruce and 30% birch that has dried for a year.

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I think the amount of wood used a season is dependent on the stove used and the area being heated and the seasoning of the wood. We haven't heated by wood only for several years but hopefully we will use about 3 good with our newer stove. We have in the past burnt about 5 cords a winter here in Maine. If we have a lot of snow that tends to insulate the house a little more which should help a little. When we first started burning wood I never thought about wood having to be seasoned and we did not get the heat we should have and had a lot of creosote in the chimney. This wood is well dried.

RenieB

North East Ohio last year and we used about 4 chords, 1800 ft. house. 123 years old.


NW pa. this year, interested to see what we burn, much more open and compact house. I am sure it's not the tightest house, but I think we may do pretty well and only use 2 - 3 cords We'll see. I may need 10, who knows.

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I have a 3 bedroom mobile home that is well insulated with good tight windows. I use on average 3 cords of seasoned pine. Less if I can get Tamarack. It usually gets around -11 for a week or two in the winter but other than that is usually above zero. Last year was mild and I only used a couple cords with my heat pump as a backup will I was at work during the day.

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Eternal Optimist

Going just by the math, it's an average of 4 3/4 full cords per home. But, with so many different locations, types of stoves and furnaces, varieties and condition of wood and sizes of homes, there are way too many variables to come to any conclusions.

A lot of what you said is very interesting.

With 1-2 cords for a 3,000 sf house in Ohio, goatsareus is the big winner! ( or just a very warm dresser : )

That post, and a few others, seem to tell that superinsulation, and a way of ducting heat or distributing heat so that it reaches all rooms, work best.

Woodburners are much more in touch with energy usage than most homeowners. Someone should do a survey of what you know works best. All homeowners could learn from it.

Thank you all.

Don

NW Ohio, no more than 4 cords of wood, 1800 sq. ft., approximately 100-year-old farmhouse, 2 story. This is our only source of heat other than an electric heater in the bathroom when it's really cold.

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NorthCentral WI here. 2800 sq. ft. home built in a "square" with heat registers on each floor. The envelope is mostly windproof. We use a single -large- woodstove in the center of the home and burn 5-6 cords in a rough winter. It gets to -20 normally, and sometimes hits -30.

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We have heated solely with wood for 33 years, cut our own wood, season it two years or more and designed and built this house for wood heat. Besides being superinsulated, it has air lock entries on both entrances. So we are never opening our living space to the outside air. One air lock entry is the garage and the other is the green house. The house is airtight with the draft draw right by the stove, so the draft air is not the inside air. Built this house in 1986 so have forgotten all the design elements for using little wood.

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goatsareus - Nice! Think of all the work that you saved yourself over the last 33 years.

So, it's superinsulation, air lock entrances and outside, combustion air delivered right at your stove. Anything else that you can think of?

What is your site like? Is the house in an open field, or protected in a valley or by trees? Is it conventional stick-frame construction?

Thanks for the help.

Don

LOL, I am trying to remember all the work we have saved cutting, hauling, splitting and stacking wood for 33 years...me thinks we have saved more money than work


yes, I have thought of something else.... the green house is passive solar, it has a 12 inch over hang on the roof so we get no summer sun but we get full sun in winter. We do get some solar gain from the greenhouse in winter, to the first floor only. We have a basement with two floors above. It is cheaper to build up than out. I believe the foot print is 30x40 but we do not have full use of the top floor because of knee walls. The wood burning wood stove does not keep a fire over a few hours. It is pert near impossible to keep a fire overnight. We only try that when it is -10*F or colder. Otherwise the fire goes out before midnight. The temp in the house drops to about 60 to 65*F overnight. The house will not freeze when left alone. That was one goal of ours in this design, to be able to leave the house unoccupied with no resulting damage. We actually capture heat from appliances, that is why the house can not freeze.

The house sits high on a hill, and is surrounded by trees. Dh felled 11 trees closest to the house 2 years ago, we were surprised how much they had grown since we built the house. We have been having terrible wind storms the past few years so he wanted those trees gone. So now there is a small buffer of no trees, but the house has a large buffer of trees on the east, north and west side. The house is oriented due south with no trees directly in front, except for two hugh blue spruces.

It is conventional stick framing, except for the balloon(?) framing. There are two 6 inch stud walls built right next to each other, studs off center so there is no wood conduction of heat through the walls, to house the insulation. First floor walls are 12 inches thick.

Any more questions? I'll be around a few more hours until I help get in the last cutting of hay today...

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opps, remembered the basement....poured concrete floor with concrete block walls. I believe there is rigid insulation under the floor and I am positive there is rigid insulation on the outside of the walls, covered with stucco.

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My issue with passive solar is that if it warms you in the winter, it warms you in the summer too. Firewood is free, AC is not.

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In our case, this is not true. We have blinds in the greenhouse over all the glass and two doors on both ends of the greenhouse for ventilation. And we keep the doors from the greenhouse into the house closed. So there is no effect of heating the house in the summer from the greenhouse.

And firewood is NOT free! We pay taxes on the land, buy and maintain chainsaws, buy oil and gas for the chainsaws and tractor to haul the wood, not to mention our time.

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Northern California encompasses a large amount of territory, going from the beach to over 10,000 feet in elevation.. I am interested in what part of Norhtern California that is????

At the old place, I used about 2 and 1/2 cords per winter in a 2 story, 13 room, over 2000 sq.ft. victorian house built in 1891. That was at sea level, in a drafty house for over 17 years.

Here at the new place, an 1000 sq.ft. one story house at 1,800 feet in elevation. I burned around the same amount the last two winters - 2 and 1/2 cords of wood. It does snow here, I had up to 6 inches of snow, at four different times last wiinter.

Firewood is free?? Geeeez - I thought my chainsaw, extra chains, chain files, 2 cycle mix, gasoline, bar oil, splitting maul, sledgehammer and wedges, chimney brush and cresote destroyer, and leather gloves cost money. Not to mention using one of my trucks, and that fuel used for moving the wood.... Firewood is going for over $350 per full cord (or not quite - depends on who sells it), for hardwood in this area now!!!!

I was out cutting Doug Fir and Sitka Spruce this afternoon. A couple of 2 year old winter storm blow downed trees, each about 100 feet in lenght and over 3 feet in diameter near the base/ rootwad. Tomorrow I get to go split and haul it out. Maybe it might get stacked into the woodshed, if my leg pain levels don't go throught the roof!!!

It is oh so much fun doing firewood by myself...... But I will be warm and toasty this winter, when it is raining sideways here.. I was working in the trees/ shady, with a temperature of almost 70 degrees here today..

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Our little place in the Sun is about 1,600 sq ft and we use about 3 cords of wood a Winter. We also have propane as there is no gas available in our area. And, we sure can't afford electric heat in this old poorly insulated house. We insulated what we could but not the area under the foundation. It is very large cut stones. But, we don't complain. We love our life here. jklady

If the home owner and home builder are smart, this is definitely NOT the case. Proper orientation, deep overhangs (and/or porches), appropriate plantings, etc. make ALL the difference in a well-designed passive solar home.

I also have to agree with the others that firewood is definitely NOT free! Maybe things are different in KY, but here in Wisconsin, unless you have a managed woodlot (that you don't have to pay taxes on) and the strength to be able to use a decent chainsaw (that you had to buy), gasoline and oil (that you didn't have to purchase), not to mention all the maintenance and repair issues (that of course never happen!) and lots and LOTS of time to cut, split and stack the wood, then firewood is NOT free. Oh...and did I mention trips to the Dr. in case of an accident (which also never happens!) Yep...firewood is sure free.

RVcook

we easily went through 6 cords of wood last year plus over $2000 in propane and we froze our tushies off...... moved in in early november and had the joy of discovering how incredibly energy inefficient our house is. Draft city.

hoping to keep it to 5 cords this year and improve drastically next year.

I own a sawmill, buy the logs, sell the lumber, burn the sabs and butt ends, write off the gas, oil, chains, files, etc..... yup, firewood is free and it has nothing to do with location....it was free when we lived in Vermont, and Maine as well

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we dont bother to measure our wood in cords we haul by the 4 horse trailer load an open stock trailer and the back of the pickup full to counter balance the trailer weight usually 4 of these loads each fall a mixture of cotton wood and pine hoping to get started soon but right now its 95-100 degrees and its not much fun to cut wood in the heat so will wait a couple of weeks till it cools off