How Much Firewood Do I Need for Winter?
Most answers online are one-size rules of thumb ("3 to 5 cords") or converters that only tell you what a cord is. This calculator estimates how many cords your winter will actually burn — from your heated area, climate, stove, and wood type — and gives you an honest range instead of a false-precision number, plus what it should cost and a full-cord vs face-cord check before you buy. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Your home & climate
Count only the rooms the stove actually warms, not your whole floor plan. Heating degree days measure how cold your winter is over the whole season; the presets are rough US anchors (mild ≈ Gulf South, moderate ≈ mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest, cold ≈ New England and upper Midwest, severe ≈ northern Minnesota and colder). Your utility bill or a weather site can give your town's real number — type it in.
How you burn
Efficiency is the share of the wood's heat that reaches the room instead of the chimney. The presets are typical figures — your stove's manual or its EPA listing has the real number. An open fireplace is far lower still (often 10–20%).
Your wood
Heat-per-cord presets are typical values from university extension BTU tables (see the FAQ) — real cords vary with species mix, how tightly they're stacked, and how dry the wood is. Seasoned hardwood commonly runs roughly $200–$500 per delivered cord depending on region and year; get local quotes and type yours.
Result
Before you buy
Only burn seasoned wood (under ~20% moisture). Green wood wastes its heat boiling off water and coats your flue with creosote — the fuel of chimney fires. An inexpensive moisture meter settles it at delivery: split a piece and test the freshly exposed face, not the weathered outside. We don't sell or link to any meter — any basic one works.
Buy early. Properly split-and-seasoned stock is what sells out first each fall. Buy in late summer or early fall and you choose your seller; buy in December and you take what's left — often green wood sold as "seasoned."
Treat every number here as an estimate. Insulation, drafts, thermostat habits, and how cold the winter actually turns out swing real use enormously — that's exactly why the result is a range with a built-in buffer, never a single "precise" figure. Running out in February costs more than a little wood left over in April.
Assumptions & FAQ
What exactly is a full cord?
A full cord is a tightly stacked pile measuring 4 ft × 4 ft × 8 ft — 128 cubic feet including air spaces. It's the legal unit for firewood sales in most US states, per the model regulations maintained by NIST's Office of Weights and Measures (Handbook 130). If a seller can't state the stacked dimensions of what they deliver, be careful.
What's a face cord, and why the warning?
A face cord (or "rick") is a stack with the same 8 ft × 4 ft face but only one stick deep — with common 16-inch sticks that's about one third of a full cord. It's a legitimate unit when everyone knows what's meant, but "a cord" quoted at a face-cord price (or delivered as one) is the classic firewood rip-off. Confirm dimensions before you pay, and measure the stack after delivery if in doubt.
Where do the BTU-per-cord numbers come from?
The presets are typical mid-points from published university extension firewood tables — for example Utah State University Forestry Extension's wood heating tables, which put dense hardwoods like oak and hickory in the mid-20s of million BTU per cord and light softwoods in the mid-teens. They are estimates: heat per cord tracks wood density and moisture, so a loosely stacked or half-dry cord delivers meaningfully less. Edit the number if you know your species.
Why does moisture matter so much?
Wet wood spends its energy evaporating water before it can heat your house, burns cooler and smokier, and deposits creosote in the chimney. The EPA's Burn Wise program recommends burning wood dried to below 20% moisture, checked with a moisture meter. Freshly cut wood typically needs 6+ months split and stacked to get there — dense oak often a year or more.
How should I store it?
Off the ground (pallets or rails), top covered against rain, sides open to sun and wind. A tarp wrapped over the whole pile traps moisture and defeats the purpose. Stack close to the house for winter access, but keep the main pile a little away from siding to avoid inviting pests.
How is the estimate calculated, and how accurate is it?
Season heat demand is estimated as your heated area × your heating degree days × a typical heat-loss factor of ~5 BTU per square foot per degree day (an average-insulation assumption), scaled by usage type, then divided by the heat your stove actually delivers per cord (BTU per cord × efficiency). The ±15% band is deliberate: a tight, sunny house can beat the low end and a drafty farmhouse in a brutal winter can blow past the high end. Treat it as a planning range, not a guarantee.
Do you earn anything if I buy firewood or a moisture meter?
No. This page currently has no affiliate relationship with any firewood seller, stove maker, or retailer, and contains no tracking links to any of them. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed here.
Do my numbers get uploaded?
No. The page is fully client-side; everything is calculated in your browser.