In the previous installment we went through tips on getting that wood stove fire started. This time we’ll talk about how much wood you need to put up for the winter.
Time seems to have wings. Thats why spring is a great time to consider how much wood to prepare for heating your off grid home this winter. Its getting nice enough round here that a sweater in the morning replaces the fire. Without a winter’s experience, the question of how much wood you will need is complicated. I’ll try to provide some useful guidelines here.
Let’s cover the variables that will help determine your specific winter needs.
Location:
Where you live will help determine your heating needs. Northern locations will always require more wood for heating under all circumstances.
Home Size:
How many square feet is your home. Larger homes may require more wood for heat if the structure is only headed by wood. If you have a large home and consider two stoves, consider it it thoroughly first. (I’ve been there and done that.)
Home Construction:
Home or structure construction can play a big factor on your heating needs. A home with standard construction and 6″ framing will do much better than one made with 2×4 framing. Our house has both, and you can really tell the difference in the cooler kitchen. If you have straw bale home, or one with a significant underground section, your needs can be much less!
Stove type:
You can heat with a fireplace, a fireplace insert, an open wood stove, or a sealed wood stove. Don’t try to heat your home with a normal fireplace, they’re terribly inefficient! Using a fireplace insert will capture and put more of the wood heat into your home. An open design wood stove like a box stove is still better because the wood heat can radiate from all sides. The best in my opinion, is a sealed wood stove. These usually have insulating bricks inside and allow you to control the air into them, which lets you control the burn rate.
Wood type:
There are three basic types of wood that used for heating, hardwood, softwood, and green wood. Green wood is freshly cut wood with sap in it. It contains less heat because it burns and steams out the sap creating smoke and creosote buildup. Real wood has been cured, or dried for 6 months to a year, so the sap is all dried up. Here are the various wood we use and their heat content:
- Western white pine, soft wood. Easy to light and burns hot and fast. Contains 14.3 million BTUs per cord. A dry cord weighs about 2200 pounds.
- Douglas Fir, harder wood. Not too hard to light when split. Burns longer and gives off steady heat. Contains 18.1 million BTUs per cord and weighs about 2900 pounds.
- Apple wood. Hardwood, very difficult to split and hard to start alone. When added to a good fire these burn a nice long time and leave coals for the morning. These leave more ash behind than others. Contains 26.5 million BTUs and weighs 4100 pounds per cord.
Our "leftover" starting wood stack for next year!
Heating habits:
How to you use your wood heat? Is it to supplement other heating sources? Is it the only heating source? Do you keep the fire active all night, or do you let it burn out every night? These factors really are hard to plan for.
Our Suggestions:
The engineer in my head really wants to give you “the formula” to get this right. The human in my head knows this is impossible. What do you do for your first unknown winter? Here’s a few suggestions:
- Ask neighbors that are somewhere near your new home. Note the construction type and size of their home so you can factor this in when they say 3 cords. Ask what kind of wood do they use?
- If you have good access in the winter, you may want to start with 2 or 3 cords. After the first part of winter (6 weeks) re-assess your needs, and purchase more.
- If you have poor winter access, like us on snowmobiles, store as much as you can cut and or purchase. Just think of your first year requiring 2 years of wood on site. There is No problem having Too much wood, real problems happen when you are short on wood!
Just for reference, we have used as little as 2+ cords some years, and other years it went up to nearly 5 cords.
Are you preparing for your first winter? What are you basing your needs for wood on? What is the best firewood you like? Why? Tell us in the discussion below!
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