I'm no where near my typical amount burned so far. Burning almost all chestnut oak (white oak fam) so it's really pumping out the heat keeping usage low.
It's been a mostly warm fall so far, and I got a late start, so less then a 1/4 cord used so far...did burn a lil dino juice though too...
We started burning with the occasional fire in mid to late October... normal starting time for us. We've had a number of non-burning days through the beginning of November, and have not burn continuously except for maybe a 3-day stretch in mid-November, even through someone from the family is always home. All in all, maybe between a 1/3 to a 1/2 cord of ash and maybe a 1/4 cord of chunkies.
Consumption has been light this year. Almost 2 face cords so far. Started the season with 8 face cords inside the garage.
It sounds like it's milder on the East Coast and the severe cold is isolated to Wyoming, Montana and Colorado. After this weekend, we're looking at highs of 35 with lows in the 10s for the next couple weeks.
Compared to average wood usage and HDD's from October and November of 2015 through 2021. I've used 10.7 lbs more wood in October with 4 more HDD's than average. I've used 11.8 lbs less wood in November with average HDD's. Having said that, I've burned 2,622lbs of wood so far this heating season.....or roughly 3/4 of a cord of red oak. However, I have also used 26 gallons of LP so far this year vs 12.3 gallons on average over those years. It all depends on when I decide to light my first fire and if we are home or not. This year I let the LP furnace run a bit more than typical before lighting my first fire and we were also gone over Thanksgiving weekend this year.
About half a face cord. I usually try to get rid of uglies and trash wood when it's not cold yet. Been working on some water maple that I cut 2 yrs ago. That stuff is like burning balsa wood.
With my best estimate, probably somewhere around 1 cord so far. Maybe a bit less. I figure about 7 cord was ready for this winter and will be able to tell better in the spring how much I used. Trouble is, while the weather was good, I kept adding to the wood room as I used some of it up.
I'm curious if you'd share your excel spreadsheet and if you could explain what you keep track of? The accuracy is great!
Probably about 1/2 cord way down south here. To be honest, I think I had my first burn in September. I have used some oil on the times i'm away for work
I weigh and track all my loadings in my wood furnace and have a minute counter on my 75kBTU LP furnace. So knowing those one can make some assumptions on some other parameters and use it to keep track of a bunch of things. I do it more for comparisons year to year. It's more consistent than accurate I'm sure. I don't like comparing volumes of wood (cord), as it varies so much between species, therefore it's pointless unless comparing similar species. A cord of white oak makes a lot more BTU's than a cord of poplar. However, 2,000 lbs of white oak will supply roughly the same BTU's as 2,000 lbs of poplar.....assuming similar moistures.
The record keeping here is amazing. That's almost part time work keeping up with what you load and use and weather!
Due to moving and not having the new wood stove installed yet I have yet to burn one log. Once I get the stove installed, I'll be on a mad dash to get to the point where I really don't care how much I burn or what I burn in the shoulder seasons.
Definitely have used less wood. I don't keep close track of it because I have more junk wood to burn in the wood boiler than it can handle but I know I haven't restocked my stash by the boiler yet.
I just started tracking the number of 8' racks I empty. As I empty them, I make a calendar entry of when and what racks. I like to refill as racks empty. So, it's not a simple matter of counting empty racks. The only time I don't refill, is when the emptied rack is in need of maintenance. That effort can wait until warmer temps, usually.
Actually, it's pretty simple and easy. I just access daily high/low temps from an airport near us online when I get a chance and just jot down the weight of each loading. I have a plastic tote from HD I keep on a cheap platform scale located halfway between my wood rack and the wood furnace that I use to put my splits in before I slide the tote off the scale the ~2' to the door of my wood furnace. I just enter the weight of the loadings and the high/low temps of the day and any minutes of runtime of the LP furnace and the spreadsheet takes care of the rest.
It's been a mild fall so far. Maybe one day below freezing all day. Maybe 3 weeks total of nights below freezing. Probably burned around 1/3 of a cord of oak, hickory,and ash mix. Last 2 nights were the first that required a fire to burn all night to keep the house warm.
