6 Cords Ready

I lived in Maine with only 2 wood stoves (no backup) and if we didn't want to wake up to a cold house we definitely had to feed the fire during the night. Also, one February we went to Florida for a week. It took 3 days to really get the house back up to warm. Those were a long 3 days…brrrr. I also agree with the 3 day/2 day thing. You do not want to haul wood during a blizzard or when you are sick. Good luck

I heat strictly with wood. No backup source. Of course, this is in OK where it doesn't usually get very cold for very long. I also have the K Q 480 and used 4 face cords last winter. I kept my house at an average 80 +. Some nights when I overloaded the firebox, it would get over 100. Always had a good bed of coals with the stove top at around 200 in the morning, or when I got home in the evening. A super insulated home would have no problem staying comfy with just a good quality fire stove.
I also only cut standing dead timber and have had no creosote issues.

I'm in Northern New England, and I heat solely with wood! The main house (40X20, with three little lofts) is heated using a very old cookstove with a pretty small firebox. Our bedroom (down a hallway through the barn) and attached greenhouse are heated by another random woodstove. Not sure what kind, but it has a much bigger firebox.

Last year, we went through four cords in the main house, and maybe another two in our room/greenhouse? The greenhouse heats the bedroom during the day if it is sunny, so I rarely fire that up during the day unless it is storming.

The cookstove in the main house occasionally will have coals in it from the night before, but not usually. The house can get a bit chilly, but I just get it going again when I get up, and it gets pretty toasty in no time.

I do have back-up propane in both areas, but haven't used them in years.

My house is a renovated barn/garage (20 years old?) with cement slab floors. It is insulated ok, but no Tyvek or anything like that, so it isn't as tight as a new house. We keep our main house wood stacked on our screened-in porch, which we plastic in the winter, so we don't have to go outdoors to get it. Our bedroom wood was in the greenhouse last year, but I'd like actually USE the greenhouse to grow food in, so we're considering adding a lean-to outside our room to store wood.

Also, I, personally, would use less wood in our bedroom, but my partner LOVES a nice warm bedroom, so we probably used at least a half cord more than what I would have! :P

Hope this helps!

Yes-we heat with only wood. But we have a small gas heater for emergency. Our house also has a furnace,but no sourse of "Fuel" is hooked to it.

I was feeling really good about my wood stockpile for this winter, but now that winter is approaching, I am getting nervous. I have about 7 cords, or very close to it and two good sized trees yet to cut up, one standing dead, the other has been dead for a year or more, but recently fell when hit by another tree that got taken out in a storm.
Today I will be cutting wood from my dads place, but it won't be burnable this winter, mainly hard maple that isn't a great wood for heat, but there is a lot of it and its free. Of the 4 trees we dropped saturday, one walnut will give about 3/4 of a cord to one cord, a catawba tree will easily give a cord, but it isn't great wood, gets hot but burns up fast. Then two hard maples, each will give over a cord. So a decent start for next winter. Once those 4 trees are cleaned up, I have a huge ash tree (2+ cords), another hard maple, and 2 soft maples to drop on dads place.
I didn't make my goal this year, but hope to go into mext winter with 2+ years worth of wood. It might very well happen easily too, people that own some woods across from me are thinking about having them logged, just 7 or 8 large white oaks, a few red oaks, and a few hickory. If they do, I will be able to go in afterwords and cut up any cull logs and tops.

Farmer, yes that does help a lot. Thanks. I am like Dixie I am now nervous that the time I have been thinking about is almost here. I am sure we will do fine with it but am ready to get it started to get rid of the newbie nerves. haha. I also have about 4 cords cut in pieces but not split that I got from a tree guy last month. That is what I plan on cutting this winter for next. I hope to be able to go by the old timers rule and have all that wood for next year split and stacked by Easter.

We just started stockpiling. This last week we split a cord using our new log splitter. Man does that make life easier! There are at least a dozen trees on the ground that we have to process, chain and split yet and a walk through the woods last night gave us several more standing dead trees to drop. Last year we had a company come in and trim back trees that were growing near the house so we have that pile to chain and split also.

I don't think we will have much trouble reaching our goal of 6-7 cords by the end of the month. It's just a matter of getting it done at this point.

I find it interesting that most of us plan to have at least 6 full cords on hand by the time winter hits.

Given last winter and the predictions for a colder than usual winter this year for our area, I told DH that 6 should probably be our minimum.

I'd breathe easier with at least 7 stacked and ready to go.

__________________
I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here!

I quit cutting firewood early today. I stirred up a nest of yellow jackets, they made themselves quite clear that they wanted that space more than I did.
Two stings on my chest, one on my back, one on my ARM, one in my armpit, and one on my face....they were quite convincing.

Ouch ! Sorry 'bout the stings

I live in a old, poorly insulated 700 sf two story house. I usually use 4 cords , last winter used almost 6.

I have this years 6 cords stacked since last year and am working on the 6 for next !

I go through about 6 cords in a winter but my house is only 1200 sq ft and fairly new and tight. I'd want more like 8 cords with a larger house, at least until I got a feel for my usage.

I would feel comfortable .
We burn about 4 cord in a 1500 sq ft house 25 years old, that is on a bad winter in Maine but we do have some passive solar assistance . No back up petroleum heat of any kind.
That said, we have 7 cord firewood and a cord of kindling under cover.

Good luck !