Was watching Yukon Men a few nights ago and a few questions popped into my head....1. Both Charlie and Stan (main characters) said during a bad Alaskan winter they could go through 10 cords of wood.....Do you think they mean 10 face cords(1/3 of a cord) or 10 real cords which would mean 30 facecords......Thats alot of wood in one winter season.....2. There seemed to be a stack fire in one of the episodes....Charlie took a roll of paper towels..soaked them in a bucket of water and threw it into the stove to put it out...Any one ever hear of doing that before????
I could see 10 cords in a bad winter. I've never seen the show so have no idea what type of stove they're using, what size house they're heating, and how well it's insulated however even where I'm at, I was into my eighth cord of wood a couple winters ago. Normally I use 4-5 cords however it snowed in mid-October and that snow was there until early June. I had started burning in September and had the wood stove going at some point over a ten-month period. Everything I burned was hardwood so if they're burning softwoods, I can easily see ten cords.
Went down at 0 dark thirty to load up and noticed something didn’t look right. Yeah, it seems to be a known issue. They sent me a new door, the tabs that hold the glass in were longer. I didn’t use the stove with the new door.
Sorry that happened, hope the new one works out. Figures i pumped it up so much cuz i really love mine and then you have that issue
1o cords seems possible if they are using an old school stove...especially with softwoods. Yeah, the wet paper towel trick is an old one...I have heard of the same with a bunch of wet newspaper too...
Hard to say. Lot of factors at play. I wouldn’t be surprised if their homes aren’t very well insulated. They may figure it’s cheaper to pour wood into the stove than to pay the I can only imagine costs of building materials there! That’s still about three times more than I burn here, which is a ton of wood. I’m sure their burning season is the majority of the year, so that would mean more firewood too. Maybe Rope can weigh in on this?
Yes its easy to 10 cords in a small cabin. Yes we burn mostly softwood, however due to the cold and short growing season the rings are super tight and last longer than one might think. Think about how much wood you burn in 24 hours on your coldest day add some wind in there. Now try to apply that amount to a -20*-50* day. Now add that to 100 to 150 days. add shoulder season on both sides. I don't keep a log, but think its reasonable that I heat around 200-225 or so days a year. I burned 15-20 cords with wood stoves. Its my first year with a outdoor wood boiler and am sitting on 23-28 cords now. Our dry white spruce is listed at 28 pound per cubic feet vs oak @ 44-48 pounds per cubic feet. So we will burn about 1/3 more than most of you lucky hardwood hoarders.
Rope wins My grand fathers farm close to well seasoned used to burn 25 cord for heat and cooking another 8 cord in sugar house. Someday I will figure how to digitize reel to reel
Thanks Rope! I figured you’d have the insight on the topic. I may burn 4 cord per year here in southern Michigan. Putting up 4 cord per year is a far cry from the 25ish cords you’re figuring you’ll need per year! Tougher in Alaska, right?
I was going to chime in on my vast knowledge of Alaskan winters based off of a few shows of "Life below Zero" that I watched, but I suppose Rope is probably a better source if you want to go that route. I do always wonder why they go cut and split wood to use that night. I suppose it makes for "good" TV. I like the show, but I can't stand all the dramatic music in the back ground when nothing is really happening.
With dead standing stump to stove... In all seriousness gathering wood feels like a full time job. Most of you have seen how I get the vast majority of my wood with a snow machine and sleigh, it add up and takes a bit to collect what you burn much less get far ahead.
