How many people really know how much wood they burn/have?

[cptoneleg]

Maybe I don't understand the first post/question but, I have 20 cords (128 ft) of CSS wood on hand . Ten of them at least two years CSS. There was a time that I weighed and recorded the weight of wood I burned during the winter so as to know how many BTUs I went through and given winter but I stopped that practice after I got a girlfriend

Maybe I don't understand the first post/question but, I have 20 cords (128 ft) of CSS wood on hand . Ten of them at least two years CSS. There was a time that I weighed and recorded the weight of wood I burned during the winter so as to know how many BTUs I went through and given winter but I stopped that practice after I got a girlfriend

There it is a cure , get a girlfriend, gonna go tell the wife that a cure has been found.

 

[rdust]

Maybe I don't understand the first post/question but, I have 20 cords (128 ft) of CSS wood on hand . Ten of them at least two years CSS. There was a time that I weighed and recorded the weight of wood I burned during the winter so as to know how many BTUs I went through and given winter but I stopped that practice after I got a girlfriend

Only question was how many people really know how much wood they have. It's just a conversation piece for the dead time of the season than anything else. 128 cubic feet of wood would be impossible for me to figure out with the varying lengths of wood I have in my stacks, some splits are 14 inches some may be 18 inches.

If you used to weigh your wood you obviously don't qualify since you're well beyond most of us with your level of dedication given to your wood piles. If you weighed each piece I'm sure each piece is also cut to a precise length which make for easy calculations. Of course even weighing doesn't show the exact picture unless you know the exact M/C of ever stick being burned but I'm sure it's pretty darn close.

 

[xman23]

I have 100 ft, 2 rows, 6 ft high. I burn 20 ft, 2rows, 6ft high. Some years the reserve is bigger or smaller. Most of the time I'm burning 5 year old oak. Don't need any other method to measure the wood as I don't buy any, just cut up stuff from my house, my fathers and the woods out back of the cabin in the woods

 

[Jags]

Rdust - you might need two girlfriends.

 

[JP11]

Somebody check my GUESS.

First year with wood. SO......

If I burned about 1500 gallons of oil. Now there's a SWAG in here because it was about 70% my home brew and 30% heating oil. I guessed 120k btu's per gallon.

That means I needed about 180 Million BTUs for the winter.

I found a site that showed different woods, and BTUs per cord. Looks like 19 to 20 million BTUs per cord. (not claiming that's accurate.. I don't know if my gasser would be better or worse than that number) That means around 9 cords for the year.

????
Some of my pallets hold a third of a cord. Some hold a quarter. I've got 42 pallets at the moment. about a third of them are ash. A third a mix of maple and other hardwoods. A good third are hemlock blowdows.

JP

 

[Ashful]

Somebody check my GUESS.

First year with wood. SO......

If I burned about 1500 gallons of oil. Now there's a SWAG in here because it was about 70% my home brew and 30% heating oil. I guessed 120k btu's per gallon.

That means I needed about 180 Million BTUs for the winter.

I found a site that showed different woods, and BTUs per cord. Looks like 19 to 20 million BTUs per cord. (not claiming that's accurate.. I don't know if my gasser would be better or worse than that number) That means around 9 cords for the year.

????
Some of my pallets hold a third of a cord. Some hold a quarter. I've got 42 pallets at the moment. about a third of them are ash. A third a mix of maple and other hardwoods. A good third are hemlock blowdows.

JP

I've seen estimates from 18 to 29 million BTU's per cord, depending on species, etc. I've seen type 2 heating oil listed at 135k BTUs per gallon.

Also, don't forget to factor your appliance efficiencies into the equation. I know nothing about wood boilers, but assuming an 85% average efficiency oil boiler vs. a 70% average efficiency wood stove, we would have:

135,000 BTU/gal * 0.85 = 114,750 BTU/gal oil
114,750 BTU/gal * 1500 gal = 172 million BTU's

Assuming the 18 - 29 million BTU / cord estimate is correct, for the full range of wood you might burn, and you have:

low: 172M BTU / (29M BTU/cord * 0.70) = 8.5 cords
high: 172M BTU / (18M BTU/cord * 0.70) = 13.7 cords

Before anyone goes claiming their stove is more than 70% efficiency, keep in mind I'm quoting average efficiency for the entire duration of the burn cycle, not peak efficiency during one portion of the burn cycle. I have no idea what the real number is, but suspect 70% is very generous.

 

[JP11]

Thanks.. So my swag isn't far off.

I was not figuring on efficiency at all, on either appliance.

My heating oil WAS mostly homemade. B100 canola based biodiesel is closer to 119k btu's per gallon Gross.

I probably won't blend in much bio this year. I'll be using it for backup.. but the bio is only good for around 6 months. I'll probably fill both 275s this summer with straight number 2

With a high estimate of 13 cord.. and much of my current stuff hemlock... i'm still nervous and cutting. Got to get more ahead. Logging winch coming this week. That will let me get out into the wet areas along the driveway. I'm not counting my red oak. Got probably 2 or 3 cords of that.. but i'm waiting another summer for that.

JP

 

[TimJ]

Jags, if Rdust needs two girlfriends, what would you recommend for JP11

 

[Jags]

Jags, if Rdust needs two girlfriends, what would you recommend for JP11

Whiskey.

 

[rdust]

Rdust - you might need two girlfriends.

I have a wife and two young kids so one girlfriend would probably do the trick!

 

[JP11]

Whiskey.

lol.. It doesn't go well with the job. Hate these work days where I spend most of the day in the hotel... then fly late at night.

JP

 

[smokinj]

I have 10 rows 20 foot long 16 inch ave wide. Pretty simple even for me to count to 10!

 

[rdust]

I have 10 rows 20 foot long 16 inch ave wide. Pretty simple even for me to count to 10!

They would need to be 24' long to equal a cord "if" stacked 4' high!

 

[bluedogz]

This strikes me kind of like asking "How much bourbon do you put in a glass?"

We could answer in fingers, inches, ounces, or milliliters... but in the end every person knows- "THIS much" and that's that.

 

[woodchip]

I reckon I burned about 2 cords of decent wood, and about 30 pallets last burn season. I have about 7 cords in hand, and will have access to as many pallets as needed if it's a longer colder winter than anticipated this year. Quite a bit of my wood (3 cords) is oak, and will not be ready for another 2 - 3 years (css a year ago), so I expect a few pallets will be burned in the meantime.........
Unless any more silver birch trees fall over nearby.............

 

[smokinj]

They would need to be 24' long to equal a cord "if" stacked 4' high!

I go over 4 ft and need to stop that got one half row down now. I think thats fire pit and shoulder season wood though!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We cut out wood to 16". However, some will be a bit over and some will be a bit short. On average, it is 16" and that is the figure we use. Who cares if we might be a cubic foot off the mark? We still burn an average of 3 cord per year. Or is is 9 face cord? Who cares. We stay warm.