How Much Firewood

Guaranteed to Warm You

When my wife and I were dating, we’d walk around Boston neighborhoods on winter evenings and occasionally see the flicker of firelight from the windows of a home, and we’d always comment that we wanted a fireplace someday (queue the Beach Boys “Wouldn’t it be Nice”).  

Here are a few tools to help

Firewood Calculators

• Compute the Cords of Firewood in a stack.
• Compute the Cost of Firewood based on a stack and the paid price.
• Estimate the Time to Stack Firewood
• Estimate the Calories burned Stacking Fire wood
• Energy in a Stack of Firewood (BTUs)
• How Long Firewood will Last
• Firewood Cords in a Loose Pile

How Many Cords is this stack?

When you get firewood, you can either leave it loose in a pile or you can stack it.  A cord is 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long.  But unless you're pretty anal, you'll stack the firewood in the dimensions that make sense to you (e.g. between your fence posts or along the wall).  So the question is, how many cords are in that stack.  If your stack is close to rectangular, the How Many Cords calculator will answer the question for you.   Simply enter your dimensions and it will tell you how many cords you have.

What is the Price per Cord?

Unless you paid a premium for your firewood, chances are that an old pickup dump truck came to your house, and the bearded mountain man said, "Where do you want it?"  He then proceeded to push the buttons and dump your firewood in a heap.  Of course you trust the guy and write the check, but in the back of you're mind, you're really wondering how much per cord did you really pay.  The How Much You Paid per Cord calculator answers that question.  Once you've stacked your wood in a fairly rectangular stack, you can measure the stack and enter the price you paid.  The calculator will tell you the REAL price per cord that you paid..

How long to Stack the Firewood?

Stacking wood takes about 90 minutes per cord to stack (average speed) assuming the loose pile is nearby.  I use a wheel barrel to shuttle the wood from the pile and the stack and it cuts a ton of time off of the project.

How Many Calories Did You Burn Stacking Firewood?

Face it.  Stacking firewood is a satisfying chore.  You turn the chaos of a pile loose wood into a nice orderly stack that you'll admire every time you pass it.  You prepare your home for the cold winter, and in the back of your mind, you're saying, I can eat that chocolate pie tonight, because I'm burning some serious calories.  Now that's a Grand Slam in my book.

Burning calories stacking good, but the How Many Calories Did You Burn calculator will actually give you a good estimate.  Just enter the size of the stack and your weight, and the calculator will tell you approximately how many calories you burned.  Your weight matters, because bigger people burn more calories.  The estimate is based on 90 minutes to stack a cord and following calorie profile:

• 300 calories per hour if weigh under 130 lbs
• 375 calories per hour if you weigh between 130 and 180 lbs
• 445 calories per hour if you weigh over 180 lbs

Firewood Poetry

No doubt the product of restless minds during the labor of stacking firewood: some cute sayings have come out regarding firewood:

• Firewood is the only fuel that will heat you several times: once when you cut and split it, once when you stack it and once when you burn it.  (Hal Ammann's grandfather)
• A cord of wood is 4' high, 4' wide and 8' long and stacked tight enough that the squirrel can scurry through it but the puss that's chasing it can not.  (Unknown)