How Much Firewood Does It Take To Survive Winter?

[@jamesedwards9610]

Impressive stacking!

[@samsiryani9023]

Great advice for us dummies trying out wood burning.

[@tjinnes]

Lots of good common sense in this video, thanks. One point...the amount of wood you use in a winter and the amount you use in a year are quite different. I am always surprised how often (and therefore how much wood we use) outside of winter. (We are in the South Island of New Zealand.) Cheers.

[@skeets6060]

One can never have to much wood !

[@fredericktownhomestead8094]

In New Hampsire we figured a cord a month, or 12 cords a year. We did sometimes have a bit left, but not alot. Our cord were 128 cubic feet of tightly stacked stove length dry firewood. That could be a 24' long stack of 16" stacked 4' high or any equivalent amount. We considered 148 feet of tossed in wood to be a "short cord" In NewHampshire if you use the term "facecord" you are right away a flatlander and will be charge at least double.

[@HonestHomesteading]

It certainly gets colder in New Hampshire than it does here in Indiana! Thanks for sharing!

[@fredericktownhomestead8094]

@@diann9159 A cord won't last a week in February.

[@edsmith4414]

You need at least 2 sheds I've found ...one for this year, one for next year, re-fill this year next year for the year after and so on. I've since built 4 sheds that hold 4 cords each.....the amount we typically burn in a year, so I have 2-3 years cut ahead at any given time. I burn hardwood and it needs a year bare minimum to season, and 2 is better.

[@Mark300win]

Well done

[@TheHonestPeanut]

In Massachusetts it's about an average of just over 1 cord per month per if you're heating entirely with wood. 7 cords is pretty safe for us.

[@TheHonestPeanut]

@@diann9159 ours is. Our last one wasn't but putting up curtains to rooms you don't use in the winter helps keep heat where you need it. Insulation is SUPER important though. It can cut your usage noticably. Also a high efficiency stove helps a lot. For the price of a years wood you can get a nice stove. I don't know if Maine is offering energy efficiency incentives but MA is doing heat loss estimates and insulation updates for free if your house is poorly insulated.

[@cabbyhubby]

Takes me 1.5 cord ... I like to go into winter with 3-4 in the shed

[@scottbaican9566]

There’s a lot of variables in burning wood Where u live What your burning it in What temp u want the house How many sq foot your heating What kind of wood your burning I live in East Tennessee with a 4000 sq foot house burning in a Firechief 1000 wood furnace running heat at 72 and I burn like 5-6 cords a year and keep 8-10 cords on hand

[@johnmoyer5515]

I use about 8 cords

[@38below39]

depends on how cold it is ...

[@nathanpepper6293]

I know you said oak was higher, but What kind of moisture content would Maple, Pine, or poplar have compared to the ones you mentioned?

[@HonestHomesteading]

So for us, ash is definitely the go-to. Since the borers killed so many of them, there are plenty of standing dead ones in our woods. I've cut some down and found that immediately after cutting and splitting it's been in the 20-25% range. Even if cut while living, ash is usually going to be no higher than 35%. Cherry around 40%, Maple around 40-45%, and Oak and Pine closer to 50%. Check out this site and look for their chart on excess moisture to dry weight (20%): mb-soft.com/juca/print/firewood.html

[@pyroman6000]

Poplar, and similar species, like Aspen or Birch, are VERY wet when cut green. No idea as to percentage- I don't have a meter. you can feel how wet they are, and can almost squeeze the water out of them. That's the bad news. The good news, is that those woods dry out FAST, once they are split and stacked. That's because they aren't very dense. They need splitting ASAP, as their bark is very good at holding water in- so good they can only evaporate water from the cut ends. ESP Birch. Pine is less wet, usually, but sappy. Maple is middle of the road. Silver maple likes wet places to grow, and is juicier than hard sugar maple.

[@JMo268]

So what state are you in and what is the sq ft of your house?

[@HonestHomesteading]

I'm in central Indiana and I think we have a 2750 sq ft house.

[@oldmanpatriot1490]

I just installed a wood stove.. Ive never owned one before so Im a little new to how to run it.. Im not one of those retards that knows nothing about it so I have the basic principle but I am having problems finding a video showing how to run the stove over long burns.. I would appreciate and Im sure others would if you could do a video on how to regulate your stove as it burns.. My first few break in burns I noticed that I really had to shut down the air almost all the way to keep it at the temp that was recommended,, but then I had smoke coming out of my chimney and no secondary burn... Then when I pulled the damper all the way out,, the secondary burn was great and no smoke out of the chimney but it was getting almost 600 degrees according to that crappy magnetic temp gauge I dont trust.. Now i did order a temp reading gun, still waiting for that to come but the question still stands.. From what I understand, smoke equals creosote and no smoke equals efficient burn... So how do I regulate it? Now,, It could be that these were just break in burns and I did not have much wood in it.. And not a big coal bed.. but even after the coals were set, if I dampened it down,, I would get smoke out the top.. Can you do a video on that for me (and others)??? to help us understand how to run it,,, I would appreciate it if you could... Thanks and God bless.

[@mason9175]

We've been using a wood stove for about 7 years now and its been great. Your best bet is to make sure there's no bark, dry and no wood thats rotting. If you run the stove at its recommended temps you'll burn a lot more wood and probably over heat the house. Now I dont know how easy it is to clean your stove pipe but for me I don't worry about it. It only takes about 5 minutes to clean so we constantly turn down the vent once the house hits temp and can go several hours on only a few pieces. Keep in mind you can also they make stuff that can be occasionally added to the fire to keep things clean.

[@TheHonestPeanut]

Creosote ignites at about 550f and as long as you don't have a thick build up in there from a few months of 25-30% wood you shouldn't be in trouble. I've had a wood stove all my life and we've always done a few over burns on rainy or heavy snow days to clean out the chimney. You'll get embers flying out the top. That's a double wall metal pipe to code though which is rated to 2500f with high temp insulated gaps between any structural wood or low temp insulation. If you're venting through a mortar chimney too that's a big no no. Your infrared temp gun is a HUGE help in learning your heat flow and finding hot spots. Get that stove up to 500 and draw it back with the stoves air inlet and you'll find your stoves steady burn. With nice, dry wood and an efficient stove you'll be able to damp it all the way down. Toss in a cup of creosote buster and let it tick over all night 👍

[@HonestHomesteading]

I'll see if I can put something together to help! My stove is quite old though - a non-catalytic that doesn't have any additional burning systems. For my stove, getting the moisture content down is the most critical, as I need to slow the airflow considerably if I want a fire to last. If the wood is very wet at all, the fire can easily turn to a smolder. To prevent creosote buildup, I start by getting the fire hot as quickly as possible so that the entirety of the chimney gets up to temperature. If it's a nice day out, you might be able to use your new temperature gun to check the exit temperature from your chimney and correlate that to the temperature on your stovepipe thermometer reading. That way, even if it's off on the exact temperature, you can use it to gauge whether or not the temperature at the exit is hot enough to prevent the creosote from condensing. I hope you are enjoying your new stove!

[@rastagrastag7784]

Part of the region do you live

[@HonestHomesteading]

We're in central Indiana.

[@genocanabicea5779]

Climate is changing. Winter may be harsh or longer than normal.

[@HonestHomesteading]

It's always good to be prepared with extra! Every winter seems to have unique challenges!

[@brianellis4964]

You don't need a shed to stack your wood in. Go with Chris 'In The Woodyard'.

[@HonestHomesteading]

Yup! As long as you prevent the wood from having direct contact with the ground and allow for good airflow there are a lot of options out there!

[@noahkirkpatrick8912]

Holy crap dude if my gas goes im gonna die....how about building underground

[@HonestHomesteading]

Well if you build deep enough it should help stabilize your temperature, is that what you mean? You could also consider a geothermal solution as that pulls in the underground temperature, somewhere around 45 degrees, and then use your woodstove or furnace to get you from the 45 to a comfortable indoor temperature.