How much wood have you used/will you use?

[neiln]

Crystal ball gazing I know.  I'm here in south London, and last year was the first I heated with wood virtually entirely.   I burnt my way through, I estimate, almost 8m3 of mixed hard/soft wood (probably 60% hard wood) in 2 small stoves.  It was however a very very mild winter.  I think we only had about half a dozen frosts all winter.  So far this autumn and winter has been (exceedingly wet! and) colder, probably just normally cold but we've had more frosts than in all of last year.  When grabbing wood off the pile earlier I looked at what I'd used and I'd estimate its 3.3m3 so far, in about 3 months.  I reckon I'll use 10m3 at this rate, which is fine, I've got that and more seasoned.  How are the rest of you getting on so far?

[The avantgardener]

I usually burn between 12 and 15 cube per Winter, I am on the coast south of you and it has been pretty mild/wet so far so not really hit the wood store hard just yet, the burner is in night and day when the mercury finally drops.

[pancakedan]

Running two stoves and get through about seven cubes a winter. But will be increasing that once the third stove gets installed in Feb.

[neiln]

'kin HELL!  11 cube already!  Holy moly mother of !

[Matthew Storrs]

2 minutes ago, Big J said:

11 stacked. About 15 loose  

 

I have a big double wheel barrow. I get through 3-4 a week (which is about 30-40 logs per barrow - big logs) which is 3-4 cube a month. The fire has been on extensively since the start of September as it's been cold and wet.

That’s some going J! I put ours (only 5kw) on sometime around beginning of October. I reckon 2x loose cube would do us 3 months with it on every evening. Generally a ‘bag for life’ full from the shed does us an evenings burn

[Matthew Storrs]

13 minutes ago, Big J said:

It's a cold house and the stove isn't great. I had a similar sized stove from the Champion Stove Company at our old house in Scotland and it was more efficient. 

 

The stove is on pretty much 24/7, as we're not using the heating. About 17c in the morning in the living room, and 23-24c by the time we go to bed. It's not excessive

 

Urgh too warm for me! I get in a right sweat if the mercury goes north of 16c!

[Matthew Storrs]

It’s alright in a living room- but can’t stand a hot bedroom.

The Swedes love a hot house and when I’m over there i don’t get a wink of decent sleep.

[Woodworks]

26 minutes ago, Big J said:

It's a cold house and the stove isn't great. I had a similar sized stove from the Champion Stove Company at our old house in Scotland and it was more efficient. 

 

 

Sounds like it's not working right J. The Woodwarm's are about as good as they get IME. My folks had a 12kw one which was beast of a thing and chucked out the heat.

[Woodworks]

2 minutes ago, Big J said:

It's working perfectly. I have a stove thermometer, and with it being a double sided stove, an electric fan on the far side of it pushing the warm air towards the living room and up the stairs. The ash going in averages 22%, which given the 3 months of continuous rain, is pretty good going. 

 

I've put about 350 cubic metres through my stoves in the past 11 years, have sold firewood commercially, dried timber commercially and have written articles on drying timber in kilns. I know what I'm doing with regards to wood and fire. It's just a cold house and I like a warm room temperature.

I just find it hard to believe a steel box from Champion stoves can perform better or are they more sophisticated than they look?

[Woodworks]

As for logs we get through around 6m3 a year. We use a GSHP for background heating and top up the with the wood burner. Mainly burn ugly stuff or gone over logs that we wouldn't sell