So this may sound bizarre or maybe its normal and I am hoping to feel out the group. I am somewhere between the 2 and 3 year plan based on what I have stocked. What is odd is that I filled up my new shed with old stacks I had around this summer. It is near capacity and close to as full as it can be. My struggle is that as I removed wood from the shed, I start to feel like I am short for the season. The empty space drives me crazy even though I am confident I have enough. I burn .5 to 1 cord per week, so the void grows at a good pace. I love the heat and obviously use the stuff up, but the empty racks bother me.....Am I alone with this bizarre struggle?
I worried the first year or 2 that I burned, but now that I'm doing the 3 year plan I don't even think about it. Even if we have a particularly cold winter I can always start using next years wood since it's already been drying 2 years.
When it gets to subzero nights, I keep the stove full and burning hot at all times. Plus someone is there all day, and I have to leave smaller wood for them to fill it. Takes a lot of smaller wood to feed the beast!!
My racks hold 56 cubic feet of wood each; just under 1/2 cord. I'm going through 1 rack/week. I was panicking, but when I think about having 18 racks ready for this year I think I'm good. I hope.
I think you might have a hoarding problem.... But I feel your pain : I do enjoy burning it, but whenever there's an empty space I want to fill it back up. That seems like a whole lot... Do you mean "face cords"? I'm probably a little over 1 full cord for the entire season so far. Course I have a 1300sqft ranch with an oversized stove, but I like to keep it around 80 in there. Just spitballing here, but how about another stove to complement the furnace? If it was located near where you spend the most time in the house, then you'd still have plenty of heat where you mostly want it, and you'd probably get away with burning a lot less wood. Or you could just go all ScottyOverkill and get your hoard up to 100 million cords of oak and locust.
Unfortunately i do not mean face cords. I go through 1-2 racks per week of wood, which is all around 22 inches in length ( some longer some shorter). I have a 3400 sq ft house with a finished basement also. I have considered putting in an insert on the first floor where I have a nice fireplace. The thing is, the stove keeps the house very warm, and I like to cut wood a lot, so it works out. I just seem to hate seeing racks opening up.....
I've got the opposite problem: no empty space left to fill. I haven't used even 1/2 cord yet this year, and that's been mostly pine. My designated storage areas are about full although with a bit of reorganization I can probably get a few more cords in there. I got used to a certain pace of cutting a splitting while I was trying to get ahead. Now I'm ahead but I still like to cut and split. But there is little space left for the wood. I really don't know how far ahead I am, but when I set up my 3 year plan it was looking like 3 cords/year. Last year I burned one. When I started, I stocked up on pine and other quick-drying wood. Now that I'm ahead, I am preferentially hoarding slower-to-dry but higher-BTU wood. So I'll be burning even less volume in upcoming years. I suppose it isn't a terrible problem to have.
You are keeping a big space warm with your stove, Woodsnwoods . Glad you enjoy keeping up with the demand. I bet it does look like it's disappearing quickly. All the more fun you can have refilling those voids.:stacke:
Sounds like you could really benefit from a gasification boiler/storage setup. Big outlay of $$ initially but could get your wood consumption down to manageable levels and still keep you comfortable. If you haven't already, look for ways to improve your home's air leakage and insulation.
So would I... yikes... :stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke:...
At the end of the day, I go through a ton of wood compared to most, but again its a pretty large house. The guy that built it did a phenomenal job and almost every room is within a degree of the others. This is a $8,000 forced air wood oil combo unit. I can nearly fit most peoples entire stoves into the firebox. I am certain there are ways to cut down on the wood consumption for certain. Getting rid of six sky lights would be a good start. I love to cut wood, so this house and stove are a good match for me!!! When I get older, maybe not so much. I have purchased some larger equipment (Skidding winch, big splitter, and saws) so I am loving life right now
I learned pretty quickly how much we burn every year, so I always put more than that in the shed. By late March, early April, if we need more (unlikely), I can always grab a little from next years stacks. So, to recap, I know we burn about 5 cords/yr., and the shed will hold 6-7, so I try to put that much in. If I burn that much more in a winter, I figure the world is coming to an end and it really doesn't matter anyway.
I go maybe a a little under a face cord a week when it stays cold 16-18" stuff of all varieties and I just have the problem of wanting to burn it faster so I can split and stack in its place. :stacke:Empty racks make me anxious not because of worrying about being short but because I'm a Firewoodaholic now just can't rest as long as there's wood to be had
No problem here looking at empty sheds. We move enough or close to enough wood into the barn in October to last out the winter. Occasionally we might have to get a little bit more depending upon how cold the spring is and along with putting wood in the barn in October we also have a small wood rack on the porch that I fill in the fall right off the trailer. 2 1/2 cord goes into the barn. We used to put 3 cord in the barn but a few years we had wood left over and I like it out of the barn during summer months as I can use the space. We don't worry about not having enough. Although we don't have the amount of wood stacked that we used to have we do try to keep 3-4 year's worth of wood on hand. Sadly though, I'm not sure how much longer I can continue putting up wood. Hate to think of those times, but if it does come then we'll probably have to put in a pellet stove. I hate to think about getting locked into propane or fuel oil. No natural gas in this area and I don't expect there will be in my lifetime. So, we may begin looking at pellet stoves. I have considered putting one in, perhaps along side of the wood stove but undecided about that right now.
