How Much Firewood Does Your Home Need?

Running out of firewood in January is miserable. Buying too much means wasted money and a pile of wood rotting behind the garage. Whether you heat your entire home with a wood stove or just enjoy weekend fires in the living room, knowing how much firewood you actually need saves both money and headaches.

Your firewood needs depend on four main factors: climate (a home in northern Minnesota faces far more heating days than one in Tennessee), home size (more square footage means more BTUs to maintain temperature), insulation quality (a drafty farmhouse burns through wood much faster than a modern tight-envelope home), and stove efficiency (an EPA-certified stove can extract nearly twice the heat from the same log compared to an open fireplace).

The species of wood you burn matters just as much. A cord of Osage Orange packs around 30 million BTU, while the same volume of Basswood delivers only about 14 million. That means you would need more than twice as many cords of Basswood to produce the same warmth. Our BTU comparison chart ranks all 70 species side by side so you can see exactly what you are getting per cord.

Our free heating calculator walks you through a few simple questions about your home and gives you a personalized cord estimate for any species. No sign-up, no email required. Just enter your zip code and get an answer in seconds.