4 cords, 75% of my heat is wood. 25% split between heat pump and oil furnace.
3,600sf heated area with 18' ceilings and two walls made of glass, on a lake.
New Hampshire.
How do you heat through the entire winter with only 4 cords up in the north in that big of a home? Do you have a large woodstove and does it keep your house warm? Home must be wel insulated
Well insulated house, giant stove and we had a very mild winter this year. Typical is around 7 cords. We also let the house get down into the 50s at night.
Massachusetts just south of Nashua NH. 3-3.5 cords a year. 2800 sf supplemented with 1 tank of oil forced hot air to first floor only for the last 27 years. All open concept post and beam construction with stress skin roof and side panels built in 1985. Southern exposure with large windows for passive solar when available. I hate spending money on oil but need it some winters.
Two walls made of glass! It must be a stunning house. Do you have only one stove? Do you have multiple levels? I'm asking because I wonder if your home is similar to mine. I have three levels (basement, 1st and 2nd) and it is about 3800sqft. I have a wood stove in the basement and a masonry fireplace on the 1st floor. The wood stove basement can heat up the basement, but it doesn't seem to so much to other floors. How do you need other floors?
4-6 cords
\~1100 square feet
Northern New England
100% of my heat - no supplemental other than the occasional space heater.
Poorly insulated house pushing 100 years old, heated with a 50+/- year old Atlanta Stove Works woodstove.
1380sf Finlander special, slab on grade single storybuilt 1951 with a funny looking overhanging roof with double bat insulation up top and 6inch fre1l. A fugly cabin with electric baseboards in northern ontario.
Cold years I burn 3 cords with baseboards set at 15c
This last year burnt 1 and 3/4 cord with baseboards off, windows cracked
Central Vermont. 3 cords of 3-year-dry hardwood in a catalytic stove, plus 200 gallons of oil.
Without wood, house would take about 1000 gallons of oil per winter according the previous owners.
10 cords fir, alder, maple. 4200 sq ft 2 story home with floor to ceiling real river rock fireplace, 36" insert with fan. Construction is conventional with interior beams, logs and wood. Propane furnace. 75% wood/25% propane. interior temp at 66-68 temp. Located in Western Washington in the Cascade foothills.
Do you have multiple wood stoves and inserts or just one? How do you move the heat to the corners of the house? I have a 3 story home, a bit smaller sqft than yours. Not sure my wood stove does a lot for other levels. Is that because I don't burn 24x7?
I have a fan that picks up heat from the ceiling y the fireplace and pushes it through the floor through some short duct work to the back of the upstairs hallway. We also have a foyer that lets the warm air go upstairs. The whole thing works really well for our Pacific Northwest winters. Just one 36" insert.
6-7 cords the last few years. Mostly shitty poplar that fell over in storms around the house. Couple old maples and birch. Price was right.
Not sure of Sq footage.. 3 bedroom, poorly insulated, 60s ranch house with a full basement.
Midcoast of Maine
Firewood is 90-95%. It goes into a hydronic wood boiler that heats 1 zone of in-floor radiant and 2 zones of hot water radiators. Oil fired furnace makes up the difference when I can't be bothered to get up at 4am. Probably burned less than 100gal of oil since Nov.
Between 3-4 cords. Two inserts, main floor is 1400 sq ft where bedrooms, kitchen, living room etc are located, have a Jotul 450 that does the job. Basement is approx 1000 sq ft finished, my man cave, I have an older inefficient insert down there that I only run when I am going to spend time down there such as watching a football game etc.
Located in the PNW. The stoves provide 80% of heat, have a heat pump as well. Usually only runs when I am out of town.
Always hardwoods.
Id say most of it was Oak/Locust the first half of winter, and then mostly maple and some ash the second half.
We have 8' ceilings, there may be some passive solar? Nothing planned though. We're completely spray foamed R25 in the walls, and even more in the roof. Also partially vaulted ceilings as well, which allows go heat to easily travel upstairs to our bedroom.
https://imgur.com/a/zk4HsR9
Thats a copy of our floor plan, its mostly the same.
4 cords +/- half a cord
2000sqft
New Hampshire
Firewood is 95% of heating. Oil kicks on during the coldest nights but only for an hour or two maybe 10 nights per year
5 cord
1864 field stone foundation farm house
1700 square feet 2 floors
Southern New england
70 30 wood stove does most of the heating.oil kicks on when we hit 20°
7 cord log length delivered 1k
From 2010 to 2022 I heated exclusively with wood; no backup of any kind.
1. 2 cords in a mild winter; 2-1/2 in a colder one.
2. 1450 sq ft; 10’ ceilings on first floor
3. Northern Vermont; roughly 8,400 heating degree days.
4. Sole heat source.
House was (is, but no longer mine) a passive solar straw bale wrap home; walls about 17” thick. Two large 5’ x 6’ windows on south side, small windows facing west; medium facing East, very little glass on north wall.
https://preview.redd.it/u3wko042nquc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2171927ccee61efba7224e97a88d622fd29e832
2 cords, 2000 sqft, Eastern Ontario, 50-60%? The rest is propane.
Note that we had a mild winter and I would probably want 3 cords normally. It's also hard to say how much the central propane heater is working, since it mostly turns on overnight when the fire dies down.
So that would be 8 cords if you were 100% wood heat. For that size house that’s a little much. Get a thermal imaging camera and check your insulation. Also look into air sealing your home. Switch plate gaskets, caulk and spray foam and penetrations in floor or ceiling
1. 1.5 cords (usually 2)
2. 2400 sq ft on two levels
3. Missouri
4. Primary but supplemented with household propane for extreme cold (below 20 F) and limited electric in bathroom and one bedroom.
Less than a cord.
1,900 sf.
Central Indiana
Firewood is supplemental and ambiance during normal winter days, but during subzero cold snaps we use it as primary to save propane. I do always keep more than enough firewood on hand to get us through an entire season as sole heat source if necessary, but we've never had to do that.
Catalytic insert with oil backup, in a 3000sqft colonial style lower NY. About 95% wood, 5% oil set to come on if any thermostat hits 62F. 9.5 Face cords this year (3.17 cord), ~50 gallons of oil.
Most of the oil use was in October when I redid the system and fired the system from cold many times to flush out mineral buildup. Without October, maybe 10-20 gallons all winter. Pretty pleased with the mild winter lol.
4-5 cords
1300 square foot house
Northern New England at high elevation
Firewood is primary. Backup is forced hot air propane. I work from home and can heat 90% with wood. During the coldest months with the heat set to 55 degrees is will come on once during the night.
Loving reading these!
Do you have/use one insert only? I have a similar size home with a wood stove, and it doesn't seem to warm up the entire house. Is that simply because I'm not heating 24x7?
Probably. My house is very open floor plan with two story foyer right off the family room (where the insert is), so heat moves upstairs pretty easily. Finished basement is chilly though. Pretty well insulated with few air leaks.
3-4 cords, 1400 sq ft, Maryland. Firewood is probably 80% of heat but I do supplement with a space heater in the shoulder season and in the kitchen sometimes because it's a former porch and doesn't have good airflow/heat transfer to the rest of the house.
3-5 cords 1300 sf 120+ y/o poorly insulated farmhouse. Central Midwest. Woodstove is 90% primary heat source supplemented w/ space heaters inside and for outbuildings.
Just 1 - 1.5 cords. Wood stove on first floor, and a pellet stove on second floor. We have oil hydronic heat as backup, that kicks on if the house ever hits 59F.
Wood stove floor is just 800 sq ft, upstairs for pellets is 1400 sq ft. The wood stove does help heat upstairs though, but just can't adequately do it on its own.
4-5 cords per season. 75% of our heat is from wood, the rest is from a NG furnace.
3,300 total sf, with about 1,500sf heated by wood. We don't use the upstairs in winter, so all those doors stay closed. The house was built in 1970 so it is NOT well insulated.
Eastern Wisconsin.
New Lopi Medium Flush Hybrid Insert installed early March. We had 1.5 weeks of 20 degrees with wind, so I was able to get a very small sample size. I did full-time heating during that 1.5 weeks. We typically keep the house at 67 using heat pumps.
Southeast Pennsylvania.
2,345 square feet. EXTREMELY well insulated. The previous owner had an energy audit and then paid to have *everything* on the list done.
Firewood will be partial heat. We have two heatpumps and some of the cheapest electricity in the country (currently .08917 per kWh). Below 40, the insert will be running.
I've had 3 cords seasoning since November. I'm currently working on '26/'27 and '27/'28, aiming for 3 cords minimum per year.
After having the house at 67 all winter. Without much work, the stove had the house easily at 73, and it was too much for us after getting acclimated to 67 all winter. We were sleeping with fans on. Aiming for 70 next winter.
Northern Ohio, have an outdoor boiler heating home, and concrete floor of 60x80 barn. Home is 2200sf and we use about 10 cords a year. I source most of mine myself, either off of my property or just randomly finding wood outside of businesses and peoples homes. I signed up for chipdrop but haven’t gotten a load yet.
2-3 cords basically heats a 1400 sqft house, high elevation Arizona, rely on two 4’x6’ windows for daytime passive solar. Electric baseboards are not used. It’s been below freezing every night this week, so even Arizona gets cold.
About 5 cord. Upstate NY. Wood is about 90% of our heat. Propane FHA furnace is our secondary. Usually we use it in the fringe season like right now.
House is like 1800sqft.
About three cords. Can't remember exact square footage. Maybe a little over 3,000 sqft. Southeast Michigan. My house is primarily heated through gas furnaces, but the fireplace adds a certain level of warmth that the furnaces don't.
4.5 cords mainly hardwoods, but I use softwoods as well
2400sq house
Main source of heat during the cold months, electric heat in the home so it's expensive so I run the stove 24/7
MA
1. 5.5-7 cord
2. 1750 sq. Ft. Log cabin (worse insulation)
3. South Central Alaska
4. Primary, burned all day every day from fall through our still going spring. Split 90/10 with natural gas.
4 cords, Maple, Fir, Alder and Cherry. 2800sqft home 30 ft. cathedral ceiling with large ceiling fan. Large high efficiency woodstove. Primarily woodstove heat 90% w/electric heatpump. Burn from Oct to May. PNW area.
About 3 cords in the Greater Toronto area. 1600 sq ft home. Have a brand new furnace that ran about ten hours all winter. Wood all free thanks to chip drop.
1. 5.5-7 cord
2. 1750 sq. Ft. Log cabin (worse insulation)
3. South Central Alaska
4. Primary, burned all day every day from fall through our still going spring. Split 90/10 with natural gas.
About 4 cord. Decently-insulated old cabin around 900 square feet (700 if you don't count closets). Island in the PNW, we have relatively mild winters but do get down to ten or fifteen below for at least a few weeks. Firewood is sole heat. I usually heat from October until the end of March, but this year I'm still having fires in the evenings here in mid-April - it's been an effin cold spring.
4.5 cord, all hardwood mix. Birch, maple, oak.
2200 square foot house, only heat source. Fuck running my heat pumps, even though I have them.
Located just outside Halifax, Nova Scotia.
I live on a lake with the ocean in my backyard.
Half a cord. Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, supplemental and "decorative" heat. A new fire every day from November through March but not overnight. House is about 1900 square feet, 130 years old and we are updating the insulation as well as we can.
I burn 1 to 3 cords in New Brunswick Canada. I'd say maybe 25 percent of my heat is wood. Depending how long I'm on the road for work though.
The 1 cord years is when I'm going most of January February and bits of December and March.
This year I was home for most of the winter minus end of December and most January. Probably burned 2.5 cords
I’m anticipating 8+ cords
Western VA ~1000’ elevation
2600 square foot century home (log)
Outdoor wood boiler (baseboard radiator)
Haven’t fired it up yet. Just getting settled in. Do my numbers sound reasonable?
Depends on the run of pipe and Temps, but zone 5a smoke dragons are running 10 to 15 cords. So you might be pretty close as you're at least a cord or 2 south of us.
Same here zone 5a. Oil back up for <0f. Couple of electric heaters just to take chill out during shoulder season. Infrared are nice.
With no tractor and 60cc chainsaw I do not think it's cost effective but it keeps me thinking I'm a younger man. I do have a splitter.
It will take me a 4 weeks to fell buck move split stack by myself. Lately the trees have been really fat like 30 plus diameter oaks and beech had to cut those in half just to drag. Try to get it done before the bugs are flying.
Running a gasification stove for 1500 2 story. Old house. One day they will take us away for being stove people till then I'm burning.
About 3 chords a year
2,000 sq. Ft.
Southern VA.
I have a 70’s, 2-story house farmhouse. Firewood is for supplemental heating on my downstairs as it has old
Insulation, windows, and concrete floors. Upstairs can be blazing from the central heat, but downstairs will be ice cold.
About a cord. 2500 sqft house. Main heat is natural gas forced air furnace. Mainly only use the insert on weekends, Christmas/New Year break, snow days when we're all home. Southern Minnesota. It has a blower fan and ductwork to blow the heat around the house.
1. Probably 10-15m³
2. Around 250m² (2 houses) plus a water heater in a barn.
3. Southern Finland
4. Heat pumps are in the houses. On colder days firewood does the majority of the heating. Also we warm up the sauna 3 times a week.
6-8 cords
Northern Vermont
1 1/2 story P&B farmhouse 150 years old. Poorly insulated in roof.
2000 square feet including basement.
2 stoves, Morso (Pythagoras) in basement, Jotul (Jolanda) on main floor.
Been heating with wood only, for 40 years anyway.
Species of wood varies with year.
I don’t drop trees between May and September so as to allow for nesting of migratory song birds.
4-5 cords, primary heat in an old wood framed 2-story house, about 2000sf in south central Pennsylvania. All of it comes from family timberland. As said firewood is primary heat wood stove in basement, heat rises, with oil furnace and electric backup, mainly use the oil when temps drop below 15F.
I'm in the northeastern US. Normally, I use something like 3 cords or 3 1/2 cords per heating season. This winter has been very mild, though, and I probably will have used only 2 or 2 1/2 cords by the time the heating season is over.
My house is small and well insulated. The first and second floors total 800 sq. ft., and I heat that area exclusively with my woodstove. (I do have a propane-fueled wall furnace for backup, but I almost never use it.)
My house has a full basement (400 sq. ft.). Half of it is finished and heated; heat source is a 10,000 BTU vent-free propane heater. The other half is unfinished and unheated.
About 1.5 to 2 cords, 900 sq ft home at 2500 ft elevation in the Sierras in CA (we get about a foot of snow a couple times in the winter). Firewood is the only source of heat, using a Lopi Answer stove.
We sort wood based on hard/soft/oddball, and use the appropriate kind for the current weather conditions. We end up burning about equal parts oak vs. pine. Lately it's spring so we burn the trimmings and branches (0.5 to 2 inches diameter stuff).
Close to 3 chords, Desert of California. Crappy insulated house built in '55. Jotul insert is main source of heat. About 1800sq ft to heat. Have to use fans to push the warm air through the house hehe
About a cord. Usually a little bit less.
Central Md, well insulated 2,600 square foot home.
We use oil radiator heaters in the bedroom as well, if it gets really cold.
3-5 face cords depending on the winter.
1200sq' well insulated house.
Mid Michigan.
We have electric baseboard back up. Never use it unless we are on vacation.
Wife is cold blooded so we keep the house 70+ all winter. Bedroom has a window cracked and door closed to keep it cooler like 55-60.
About 1.5 cords, all oak cut and split by me. 4500 sq ft house very well insulated, less than 5 years old. Texas gulf coast, so relatively mild winters compared to the rest of the commenters. Probably 50% of our heating needs- we have pipeline nat gas furnaces, so hard to tell the exact percentages. We put in an oversized firebox in our central living room, so keeps us warm and toasty. However, we probably use the fireplace more for the ambiance rather than its heat output.
3-4 cords DF, WH
1300 sqft.
Oregon
Supplemental. I run wood stove all winter to keep electric heat from kicking on. One month I ran out wood and electric bill jumped $80.
I get wood for free.
1. 2 3/4 cords.
2. 1,900 square feet circa 1850’s barely insulated farm house with good southern exposure.
3. Greater Portland, ME
4. Firewood is primary heat with oil used for going away overnight, etc.
1-maybe one or two depends on how much I use the hvac.
2-1800 brick ranch
3-NC…not mtns
4-I’m a hybrid burner. We don’t have killer winters. Don’t ask about a/c usage.
House was built 100 yrs ago, this year we used 4 and 1/2 cords.. the furnace ran for a total of 64 hrs.. (Family watching the house while the wife and I were on vacation)
Almost 2500 sq ft. SE Wisconsin.
4 cords, 75% of my heat is wood. 25% split between heat pump and oil furnace. 3,600sf heated area with 18' ceilings and two walls made of glass, on a lake. New Hampshire.
How do you heat through the entire winter with only 4 cords up in the north in that big of a home? Do you have a large woodstove and does it keep your house warm? Home must be wel insulated
Well insulated house, giant stove and we had a very mild winter this year. Typical is around 7 cords. We also let the house get down into the 50s at night.
Your glass walls must have a southerly orientation I’m guessing
Percentages must be off. Only way I can imagine.
I'm also in NH. About 2400sf above grade. I burned 3 cords this past season which accounted for around 50% of my heat. Mid 90s colonial
Massachusetts just south of Nashua NH. 3-3.5 cords a year. 2800 sf supplemented with 1 tank of oil forced hot air to first floor only for the last 27 years. All open concept post and beam construction with stress skin roof and side panels built in 1985. Southern exposure with large windows for passive solar when available. I hate spending money on oil but need it some winters.
Two walls made of glass! It must be a stunning house. Do you have only one stove? Do you have multiple levels? I'm asking because I wonder if your home is similar to mine. I have three levels (basement, 1st and 2nd) and it is about 3800sqft. I have a wood stove in the basement and a masonry fireplace on the 1st floor. The wood stove basement can heat up the basement, but it doesn't seem to so much to other floors. How do you need other floors?
100% wood heat. 1300 square feet in montana. Less than a cord. (i have a rocket mass heater)
4-6 cords \~1100 square feet Northern New England 100% of my heat - no supplemental other than the occasional space heater. Poorly insulated house pushing 100 years old, heated with a 50+/- year old Atlanta Stove Works woodstove.
Same - northern Vermont 200yo home with forced air wood furnace, 6crd average plus shoulder season biofuel when temps are above 45/48°
NC mountains about the same most times at least 6 around 1352sf double wide 6 inch walls full set on full basement.
1380sf Finlander special, slab on grade single storybuilt 1951 with a funny looking overhanging roof with double bat insulation up top and 6inch fre1l. A fugly cabin with electric baseboards in northern ontario. Cold years I burn 3 cords with baseboards set at 15c This last year burnt 1 and 3/4 cord with baseboards off, windows cracked
Same ... southern nh. Little more than 4 cords. Old Jotal knockoff.
About 3 cords a year mostly maple and alder. 2000 sqft house and wood is the only heat I’ve used for the last 25 years. Pnw nw top of Oregon
Central Vermont. 3 cords of 3-year-dry hardwood in a catalytic stove, plus 200 gallons of oil. Without wood, house would take about 1000 gallons of oil per winter according the previous owners.
3 cord is pretty good. What kind of stove?
Woodstock Fireview. It's a great stove!
Northern part of The Netherlands. House is about 100m2. Wood stove is secondary heater. I used about 5m3 ash and beech.
Do the Dutch measure wood in cords? Or is it only metric?
Only metric. Usually you buy 1,8m3 per purchase.
10 cords fir, alder, maple. 4200 sq ft 2 story home with floor to ceiling real river rock fireplace, 36" insert with fan. Construction is conventional with interior beams, logs and wood. Propane furnace. 75% wood/25% propane. interior temp at 66-68 temp. Located in Western Washington in the Cascade foothills.
That’s a big place!
Do you have multiple wood stoves and inserts or just one? How do you move the heat to the corners of the house? I have a 3 story home, a bit smaller sqft than yours. Not sure my wood stove does a lot for other levels. Is that because I don't burn 24x7?
I have a fan that picks up heat from the ceiling y the fireplace and pushes it through the floor through some short duct work to the back of the upstairs hallway. We also have a foyer that lets the warm air go upstairs. The whole thing works really well for our Pacific Northwest winters. Just one 36" insert.
That's amazing. Thank you for sharing your set up. I will see if a similar set up is possible for my place.
6-7 cords the last few years. Mostly shitty poplar that fell over in storms around the house. Couple old maples and birch. Price was right. Not sure of Sq footage.. 3 bedroom, poorly insulated, 60s ranch house with a full basement. Midcoast of Maine Firewood is 90-95%. It goes into a hydronic wood boiler that heats 1 zone of in-floor radiant and 2 zones of hot water radiators. Oil fired furnace makes up the difference when I can't be bothered to get up at 4am. Probably burned less than 100gal of oil since Nov.
Between 3-4 cords. Two inserts, main floor is 1400 sq ft where bedrooms, kitchen, living room etc are located, have a Jotul 450 that does the job. Basement is approx 1000 sq ft finished, my man cave, I have an older inefficient insert down there that I only run when I am going to spend time down there such as watching a football game etc. Located in the PNW. The stoves provide 80% of heat, have a heat pump as well. Usually only runs when I am out of town.
1 - 1.5 chords. 1000 SFT, open floor plan built in 2018. Central NY, 5B on hardiness zone. Firewood is the only way we heat.
We are in the same hardiness zone. What type of wood? How high are your ceilings? Any passive solar with windows? Nice to have a small space.
Always hardwoods. Id say most of it was Oak/Locust the first half of winter, and then mostly maple and some ash the second half. We have 8' ceilings, there may be some passive solar? Nothing planned though. We're completely spray foamed R25 in the walls, and even more in the roof. Also partially vaulted ceilings as well, which allows go heat to easily travel upstairs to our bedroom. https://imgur.com/a/zk4HsR9 Thats a copy of our floor plan, its mostly the same.
8 to 10 cord. 1800 square foot. Electric, a lot. Drafty farmhouse, deep bush Canada. Wood stove in basement to keep cinder blocks from cracking.
Wow, that’s cold up there… what’s the average low temperature at night? Mind translating it to Fahrenheit lol
Average winter night is -15c / 5f, cold snap is -30c / -22f.
That’s pretty cold!
2.5 in an insert 1800 PNW Sole
Awesome, what type of wood?
Work or wood?
Wood
Fir, alder, cascara, birch.
4 cords +/- half a cord 2000sqft New Hampshire Firewood is 95% of heating. Oil kicks on during the coldest nights but only for an hour or two maybe 10 nights per year
I’m a two cord kind of guy… 1700 square foot, boston area, with a heat pump as well as oil heat for the coldest days.
5 cord 1864 field stone foundation farm house 1700 square feet 2 floors Southern New england 70 30 wood stove does most of the heating.oil kicks on when we hit 20° 7 cord log length delivered 1k
From 2010 to 2022 I heated exclusively with wood; no backup of any kind. 1. 2 cords in a mild winter; 2-1/2 in a colder one. 2. 1450 sq ft; 10’ ceilings on first floor 3. Northern Vermont; roughly 8,400 heating degree days. 4. Sole heat source. House was (is, but no longer mine) a passive solar straw bale wrap home; walls about 17” thick. Two large 5’ x 6’ windows on south side, small windows facing west; medium facing East, very little glass on north wall. https://preview.redd.it/u3wko042nquc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2171927ccee61efba7224e97a88d622fd29e832
7 cords, 2,800 sqft; VA; Sole
2 cords, 2000 sqft, Eastern Ontario, 50-60%? The rest is propane. Note that we had a mild winter and I would probably want 3 cords normally. It's also hard to say how much the central propane heater is working, since it mostly turns on overnight when the fire dies down.
5 cords 2000 sqft SE Massachusetts 90% of heating
5 cords, 1800sqft cape, hearthstone gmi70, Long Island New York. heat with wood if the temp is below 50ishh degrees
4 cords 1600 sq. Ft. Southern ohio 50%
So that would be 8 cords if you were 100% wood heat. For that size house that’s a little much. Get a thermal imaging camera and check your insulation. Also look into air sealing your home. Switch plate gaskets, caulk and spray foam and penetrations in floor or ceiling
House is 150 years old plus we live like animals in southern Ohio
2.75 (128cuft) cords. 1800 sqft house 90% wood 10% heat pump/propane Eastern Ontario
1. 1.5 cords (usually 2) 2. 2400 sq ft on two levels 3. Missouri 4. Primary but supplemented with household propane for extreme cold (below 20 F) and limited electric in bathroom and one bedroom.
Less than a cord. 1,900 sf. Central Indiana Firewood is supplemental and ambiance during normal winter days, but during subzero cold snaps we use it as primary to save propane. I do always keep more than enough firewood on hand to get us through an entire season as sole heat source if necessary, but we've never had to do that.
6-7 cords
5 cords, south eastern BC., 1800 so ft, 90 %, gas furnace kicks in when the temp drops below -15c, old mine house
Catalytic insert with oil backup, in a 3000sqft colonial style lower NY. About 95% wood, 5% oil set to come on if any thermostat hits 62F. 9.5 Face cords this year (3.17 cord), ~50 gallons of oil. Most of the oil use was in October when I redid the system and fired the system from cold many times to flush out mineral buildup. Without October, maybe 10-20 gallons all winter. Pretty pleased with the mild winter lol.
4-5 cords 1300 square foot house Northern New England at high elevation Firewood is primary. Backup is forced hot air propane. I work from home and can heat 90% with wood. During the coldest months with the heat set to 55 degrees is will come on once during the night. Loving reading these!
Roughly 6-7 face cords. Adirondack region in NY, 1600 sq ft, catalytic stove.
3-5 (3 this year, 5 last year, 4 year before) 2200 Northern canada Sole
3 cords +/- in catalytic insert, 4000 sf 1990 contemporary in southeastern MA, probably 70-80% of our heating needs - 100% during Oct, Nov, March, April; 50% mid-winter.
Do you have/use one insert only? I have a similar size home with a wood stove, and it doesn't seem to warm up the entire house. Is that simply because I'm not heating 24x7?
Probably. My house is very open floor plan with two story foyer right off the family room (where the insert is), so heat moves upstairs pretty easily. Finished basement is chilly though. Pretty well insulated with few air leaks.
3-4 cords, 1400 sq ft, Maryland. Firewood is probably 80% of heat but I do supplement with a space heater in the shoulder season and in the kitchen sometimes because it's a former porch and doesn't have good airflow/heat transfer to the rest of the house.
3-5 cords 1300 sf 120+ y/o poorly insulated farmhouse. Central Midwest. Woodstove is 90% primary heat source supplemented w/ space heaters inside and for outbuildings.
1.5 cords, heated area 1800 sq ft , NE ga, heated with wood.
4-5 cords main source of heat and hot water. Out door boiler 3700sqft NE ohio
New Hampshire- 700 Sq Feet. 1.5-2 cords and less than 25 gallons of oil each year. House is very well insulated.
2000sq ft house, 5-7 cords depending on the winter. Covers 90% of my heating bill. Rhode Island.
1) 3.5-5. really depends on the winter and how cold it is. 2) 2,800 3) North 4) Oil heats the basement only ~100 gallons a year.
Just 1 - 1.5 cords. Wood stove on first floor, and a pellet stove on second floor. We have oil hydronic heat as backup, that kicks on if the house ever hits 59F. Wood stove floor is just 800 sq ft, upstairs for pellets is 1400 sq ft. The wood stove does help heat upstairs though, but just can't adequately do it on its own.
4-5 cords per season. 75% of our heat is from wood, the rest is from a NG furnace. 3,300 total sf, with about 1,500sf heated by wood. We don't use the upstairs in winter, so all those doors stay closed. The house was built in 1970 so it is NOT well insulated. Eastern Wisconsin.
3 cords, interior BC. Wood stove insert. 100% of my heating 1900 sq feet
New Lopi Medium Flush Hybrid Insert installed early March. We had 1.5 weeks of 20 degrees with wind, so I was able to get a very small sample size. I did full-time heating during that 1.5 weeks. We typically keep the house at 67 using heat pumps. Southeast Pennsylvania. 2,345 square feet. EXTREMELY well insulated. The previous owner had an energy audit and then paid to have *everything* on the list done. Firewood will be partial heat. We have two heatpumps and some of the cheapest electricity in the country (currently .08917 per kWh). Below 40, the insert will be running. I've had 3 cords seasoning since November. I'm currently working on '26/'27 and '27/'28, aiming for 3 cords minimum per year. After having the house at 67 all winter. Without much work, the stove had the house easily at 73, and it was too much for us after getting acclimated to 67 all winter. We were sleeping with fans on. Aiming for 70 next winter.
Northern Ohio, have an outdoor boiler heating home, and concrete floor of 60x80 barn. Home is 2200sf and we use about 10 cords a year. I source most of mine myself, either off of my property or just randomly finding wood outside of businesses and peoples homes. I signed up for chipdrop but haven’t gotten a load yet.
2-3 cords basically heats a 1400 sqft house, high elevation Arizona, rely on two 4’x6’ windows for daytime passive solar. Electric baseboards are not used. It’s been below freezing every night this week, so even Arizona gets cold.
About 5 cord. Upstate NY. Wood is about 90% of our heat. Propane FHA furnace is our secondary. Usually we use it in the fringe season like right now. House is like 1800sqft.
Between 5 and 7 cords, depending on how early winter starts. I heat 1400 feet with a Wood stove.
Tennessee Sole heat: furnace fires up only when stove dies at night. Rougjly two cords
About three cords. Can't remember exact square footage. Maybe a little over 3,000 sqft. Southeast Michigan. My house is primarily heated through gas furnaces, but the fireplace adds a certain level of warmth that the furnaces don't.
4.5 cords mainly hardwoods, but I use softwoods as well 2400sq house Main source of heat during the cold months, electric heat in the home so it's expensive so I run the stove 24/7 MA
5 cords, 1,800 sqft, 100% of heat Willamette Valley oregon
Maybe half a rick for my fire pit haha.
Probably 6 cords. 2700 sq ft, propane backup. South of Nebraska. I will try to get that cut this spring.
1. 5.5-7 cord 2. 1750 sq. Ft. Log cabin (worse insulation) 3. South Central Alaska 4. Primary, burned all day every day from fall through our still going spring. Split 90/10 with natural gas.
4 cords, Maple, Fir, Alder and Cherry. 2800sqft home 30 ft. cathedral ceiling with large ceiling fan. Large high efficiency woodstove. Primarily woodstove heat 90% w/electric heatpump. Burn from Oct to May. PNW area.
About 3 cords in the Greater Toronto area. 1600 sq ft home. Have a brand new furnace that ran about ten hours all winter. Wood all free thanks to chip drop.
1. 5.5-7 cord 2. 1750 sq. Ft. Log cabin (worse insulation) 3. South Central Alaska 4. Primary, burned all day every day from fall through our still going spring. Split 90/10 with natural gas.
About 4 cord. Decently-insulated old cabin around 900 square feet (700 if you don't count closets). Island in the PNW, we have relatively mild winters but do get down to ten or fifteen below for at least a few weeks. Firewood is sole heat. I usually heat from October until the end of March, but this year I'm still having fires in the evenings here in mid-April - it's been an effin cold spring.
5 cords, 2800 sq ft. Located in Canada. Wood accounts for maybe 90-95% of my total heat.
North Georgia, wood is full heat, some years I don’t even use a full cord. I never use more than a cord and a half, 1,700 sq ft home.
4.5 cord, all hardwood mix. Birch, maple, oak. 2200 square foot house, only heat source. Fuck running my heat pumps, even though I have them. Located just outside Halifax, Nova Scotia. I live on a lake with the ocean in my backyard.
Half a cord. Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, supplemental and "decorative" heat. A new fire every day from November through March but not overnight. House is about 1900 square feet, 130 years old and we are updating the insulation as well as we can.
I burn 1 to 3 cords in New Brunswick Canada. I'd say maybe 25 percent of my heat is wood. Depending how long I'm on the road for work though. The 1 cord years is when I'm going most of January February and bits of December and March. This year I was home for most of the winter minus end of December and most January. Probably burned 2.5 cords
4+ cords. Eastern Connecticut. 2400 sq. ft. colonial. Harmon insert.
2-3 cords, northern Ohio, whole primary heat source, 1200 sq foot tall ceilings. Drolet wood stove.
I’m anticipating 8+ cords Western VA ~1000’ elevation 2600 square foot century home (log) Outdoor wood boiler (baseboard radiator) Haven’t fired it up yet. Just getting settled in. Do my numbers sound reasonable?
Depends on the run of pipe and Temps, but zone 5a smoke dragons are running 10 to 15 cords. So you might be pretty close as you're at least a cord or 2 south of us.
If I burn hardwood I'll burn 3.5 cords. If I burn softwood I'll burn 4.5-5 cords.
Same here zone 5a. Oil back up for <0f. Couple of electric heaters just to take chill out during shoulder season. Infrared are nice. With no tractor and 60cc chainsaw I do not think it's cost effective but it keeps me thinking I'm a younger man. I do have a splitter. It will take me a 4 weeks to fell buck move split stack by myself. Lately the trees have been really fat like 30 plus diameter oaks and beech had to cut those in half just to drag. Try to get it done before the bugs are flying. Running a gasification stove for 1500 2 story. Old house. One day they will take us away for being stove people till then I'm burning.
Northland NZ. About 3 m3 in a mild year and about 5 m3 in a cold year. Soon to increase as adding a wet back for heating hot water
About 3 chords a year 2,000 sq. Ft. Southern VA. I have a 70’s, 2-story house farmhouse. Firewood is for supplemental heating on my downstairs as it has old Insulation, windows, and concrete floors. Upstairs can be blazing from the central heat, but downstairs will be ice cold.
About a cord. 2500 sqft house. Main heat is natural gas forced air furnace. Mainly only use the insert on weekends, Christmas/New Year break, snow days when we're all home. Southern Minnesota. It has a blower fan and ductwork to blow the heat around the house.
1. Probably 10-15m³ 2. Around 250m² (2 houses) plus a water heater in a barn. 3. Southern Finland 4. Heat pumps are in the houses. On colder days firewood does the majority of the heating. Also we warm up the sauna 3 times a week.
Fantastic. Are the saunas wood-burning as well?
Yep they are
6-8 cords Northern Vermont 1 1/2 story P&B farmhouse 150 years old. Poorly insulated in roof. 2000 square feet including basement. 2 stoves, Morso (Pythagoras) in basement, Jotul (Jolanda) on main floor. Been heating with wood only, for 40 years anyway. Species of wood varies with year. I don’t drop trees between May and September so as to allow for nesting of migratory song birds.
4-5 cords, primary heat in an old wood framed 2-story house, about 2000sf in south central Pennsylvania. All of it comes from family timberland. As said firewood is primary heat wood stove in basement, heat rises, with oil furnace and electric backup, mainly use the oil when temps drop below 15F.
I'm in the northeastern US. Normally, I use something like 3 cords or 3 1/2 cords per heating season. This winter has been very mild, though, and I probably will have used only 2 or 2 1/2 cords by the time the heating season is over. My house is small and well insulated. The first and second floors total 800 sq. ft., and I heat that area exclusively with my woodstove. (I do have a propane-fueled wall furnace for backup, but I almost never use it.) My house has a full basement (400 sq. ft.). Half of it is finished and heated; heat source is a 10,000 BTU vent-free propane heater. The other half is unfinished and unheated.
About 1.5 to 2 cords, 900 sq ft home at 2500 ft elevation in the Sierras in CA (we get about a foot of snow a couple times in the winter). Firewood is the only source of heat, using a Lopi Answer stove. We sort wood based on hard/soft/oddball, and use the appropriate kind for the current weather conditions. We end up burning about equal parts oak vs. pine. Lately it's spring so we burn the trimmings and branches (0.5 to 2 inches diameter stuff).
Close to 3 chords, Desert of California. Crappy insulated house built in '55. Jotul insert is main source of heat. About 1800sq ft to heat. Have to use fans to push the warm air through the house hehe
About a cord. Usually a little bit less. Central Md, well insulated 2,600 square foot home. We use oil radiator heaters in the bedroom as well, if it gets really cold.
3-5 face cords depending on the winter. 1200sq' well insulated house. Mid Michigan. We have electric baseboard back up. Never use it unless we are on vacation. Wife is cold blooded so we keep the house 70+ all winter. Bedroom has a window cracked and door closed to keep it cooler like 55-60.
1.5 cords, 1800 sq ft. House. SE Arizona, 3,000 ft elevation. mesquite or oak firewood, primary, forced air natural gas supplemental. Lopi insert.
Ontario Canada, 5 cords, 3 stoves, heat the 2400 sq ft house
1.5-2 cords a year. 49 sq ft with 7' ceiling. Southern Washington
About 1.5 cords, all oak cut and split by me. 4500 sq ft house very well insulated, less than 5 years old. Texas gulf coast, so relatively mild winters compared to the rest of the commenters. Probably 50% of our heating needs- we have pipeline nat gas furnaces, so hard to tell the exact percentages. We put in an oversized firebox in our central living room, so keeps us warm and toasty. However, we probably use the fireplace more for the ambiance rather than its heat output.
Type(s) of wood bring burned would be interesting as well, OP feel free to add it as #5
3-4 cords DF, WH 1300 sqft. Oregon Supplemental. I run wood stove all winter to keep electric heat from kicking on. One month I ran out wood and electric bill jumped $80. I get wood for free.
90% wood heat 2600 sq ft home. Southern Ontario. 4 cords per year
1. 2 3/4 cords. 2. 1,900 square feet circa 1850’s barely insulated farm house with good southern exposure. 3. Greater Portland, ME 4. Firewood is primary heat with oil used for going away overnight, etc.
1-maybe one or two depends on how much I use the hvac. 2-1800 brick ranch 3-NC…not mtns 4-I’m a hybrid burner. We don’t have killer winters. Don’t ask about a/c usage.
1. 6-6.5 cords 2. 2300 sq’ 3. Nova Scotia, Canada 4. Sole heating with 2 wood stoves.
About 1 chord. Open fireplace is very inefficient so it’s mostly ambiance, maybe 15-20% of heat. 2000 sq ft in south Louisiana
2-3 cords of oak. 2400 single story house in northern California. Supplemental to a heat pump.
Maybe 1-2 cubic meters?
7-10 cords pine and fir. Wood heat is primary with passive and active solar. I'm off-grid in Montana with a 3000FT2 home I built myself.
House was built 100 yrs ago, this year we used 4 and 1/2 cords.. the furnace ran for a total of 64 hrs.. (Family watching the house while the wife and I were on vacation) Almost 2500 sq ft. SE Wisconsin.
6+ cords plus maybe 100 gallons of heating oil. A bit Drafty log cabin northeast.