Only been heating with wood for 5 years in our new (6 year old) house. It's hard to say for sure what we will use as an average. The first two years we used my dads old Fisher Grandma, great stove but burned a lot of wood 5-6 cords.New Harman TL300 the past three seasons great stove with a tuff learning curve but once I got it figured out even with the bad winters we have been having only 3 1/2 + - cords.
Past winter was probably 4ish cords. Pretty cold here for extended periods- like most of us here. Need to update ext wall insulation, but way too much $$$ that we don't have...
I know literally nothing about pellet stoves. Do they work on the same concept Asa corn stove? You gotta get a pic of that 400k miles blazer up. That sucker deserves some love. That's pretty cool That sugar maple is hard dense stuff I hear(never been lucky enough to try any) I imagine it would take a couple years at least to dry. I burn a little silver maple here and there for shoulder season. It dries quick. I imagine sugar maple is a whole different animal
800sq ft, roughly 10,000 heating degree-days from oct-may last year. Burned 4 cords of pine in a smoke dragon.
Awesome reduction in consumption with the new stove. That's gotta make you feel good. All the sudden your wood supply just doubled!
It my way our only choices are propane, electric and homemade(wood). There no longer such a thing as reasonable propane. As far as electric? It's not cheap and it doesn't make very cozy heat. And the wife loves wood.....wood heat you pervs!
I'll be lucky to have a full cord really ready for this winter so that is all I can use. I am trying to work ahead but right now my focus is on getting the darned house built.
Good thread! I went through 5 last year, heating a 1300 sqft ranch exclusively with wood in a pre-EPA stove. Went through almost 2 in February alone. The house was built in 1986, and the insulation is so-so. I'm still working my way towards a full 3 year plan, so it was a lot of soft maple and poplar, and around 1.5 cord of ash. I still have a little over 5 cords of black locust CSS that I haven't touched. I have a bit more ash in the mix this year, and I think the locust might be ready too. I'm hoping my usage will go down as my more primo stuff comes online.
Do you have a previous home to stay in this winter, or another heat source in the new house your building?
Don't know where you are in Illinois but if you have any reason to be out Kansas City Way, I'll be happy to gift you some more. I have way more than I'll need ready to go. You'd be welcome to it.
In Vermont it's our state tree and lots of it! I put moisture meter on it in march and it said 24% but ya burn what ya got! This year more popular and elm saving sugar maple for January and February. hoping and praying only use 5 or 6 in new IS.. oh your new that's a Woodstock soapstone Ideal Steel. but 4 foot diameter trees are a witch to get on splitter my new one will be a vertical cause I am getting smarter I hope
Last year was my first year burning in an insert, and I started in mid November, it's hard to say how much we went through, but it was probably 2 cords. I was running around in January and February looking for anything I could burn,since I ran out of seasoned wood. I'm sure I burnt a lot of unseasoned wood, but I'm a little better off for the upcoming winter. I have 2 cords of cherry and some beech and black locust, plus a little maple. Looking forward to burning instead of sweating in the record heat here in nj today..
My splitter is a tip model. I took a lesson from backwoods savage and don't chuck the big stuff on the horizontal anymore. Even though I could. I still hope to be doing this when I'm in my sixties and beyond.
