Same choices for me. We have a dual-fuel (propane/electric) heat, and paid 2.16 gal for propane last year, just filled last week for 1.39! So big drop there. I'm going to be very curious to see what my heating bills are like this winter with the stove.
Heat 5000 sf with radiant floor, log home, and all domestic hot water also 10/15-4/15. Family of 6 but now down to three during college season. Burn whatever is free, but estimate if i had only seasoned hardwoods, about 14 cords. Which is roughly the lean to in my avatar .
Right around 4 last year, second winter last year with the new cat stove. Old stove would have been closer to 7 with the winter we had last year. Have about 22 cords split and stacked and another 3 to split. I generally like to bless a few people with some each year and try to keep the neighbor to my west a nice pile for camping.
If I've got it to give I will too. All of my closest neighbors are retired folks. They burn shop stoves and I try to keep them stocked up
I voted for 1-3 but.... Since installing the Fireview, we've probably averaged 3. Some years less but the last 2 years a tad more. Overall, probably still average at 3. Winters like 2 years ago the average will go up though and last winter we thought we'd be under 3 but the record setting cold in February and then the slow warm-up kept us a bit over 3 cord for the winter. We've been burning mostly white ash for as long as we've had the Fireview but still burn some elm, cherry and a little oak. The ash is not as good as it was 10 years ago but still good wood. In the real cold like we had in February with -20 to -26 several nights, we could use more oak but the ash will still keep us warm. The house is just a bit cooler in the morning (can be down to the low 70's then when really cold outdoors). Good on you fellas for thinking about long term splitting and handling of wood. As we age, things get a bit harder to do and splitting is one of those things. I know that if we could not split vertically, we'd probably have to hire a local lad to come in and split for us and we don't like that idea at all. Rather do it ourselves.
Oh sorry, I knew you had an NC13, confused your stove with my NC13 insert. Either way you are a diligent man putting all that wood through a small stove !!
I was quite excited to show you my milk crate, an old metal one that I found here in a shed on the property. My handyman used it to haul junk from the previous and previous before him owner's stuff. I saw him using it and neglected to see if he took it to the dump too. He did. Sorry, I though you would have got a kick out of it
1 1/2 cords here. I can only cram so much stove in the fireplace opening. Our house had a gravity coal furnace back in the day, so it circulates air pretty well. I am limited on firebox capacity and burn times, but we do well. Never a complaint of being cold around here.
1.5 cords here. Small older house....under 1000sf. Doing my best to make it more energy efficient through insulating, better north door and plugging leaks but still plenty to do. My bride use to have $300 to $400 per month heating bills in the heart of winter before I met her. She used electric heat to supplement an ancient furnace. Now we have tiny natural gas bills just to heat the water and pick up the slack when the fire isn't going ( she is still a little scared of using the stove)
6 cords last year, mostly spruce, heating 3000 sqft colonial (2003 construction) burning in an unfinished but insulated basement When we burned oil it was 1200-1500 G, and we played the yo yo game with the thermostat constantly, the house was rarely above 70, now it's rarely below 70
I burn between 4-5 cords per year and run it all thru my pre EPA Earth Stove Hotshot insert. Have to cut the wood to about 12 inch length. Burned about 129 gallons of fuel oil this past winter as well as the wood.
