E-classic cords burned

[spankyreal]

Hello All,

Looking to get some "real" numbers on cords burned this year so far.  Please provide date you started burning this season, amount of cords burned to date, and State you are located in.

I started November 15th and to date have burned in the neighborhood of 7 cords already.  I am in CT.

Thanks

[beenthere]

WOW!

I take it you are only interested in the E-classic users.

'cause I started Oct. 1, and prolly have a max total of 2 Wisconsin cords so far. Have used no back-up gas so far.

[island]

Since Oct. I've burned almost 4 cords,northern ohio

[thecfarm]

Candle mist day,Feb 2 is not even here yet.This is when half your wood,half your hay and half your food should be gone.I live in Maine and started heating the house before you,probably steady by Oct.I use mine for hot water all summer.Not the best way,but I burned pine branches for hot water.It was going into the brush pile at first,than I thought I might just as well use it in the OWB for hot water.I have a Heatmor and I know I have not used that much wood.I don't really keep track.But I am cutting wood for it each week.I can keep up easy with the in take of it.And I burned mostly dead wood this year.
Are you heating a big house?Measured wrong?That sounds like alot of wood to me.

[tonto]

WOW, that's a lot of wood. Is that full cords or face cords? I have a CB 5036 that I started running Nov 08 and I have burned about 8&1/2 cords and that's running all year for hot water also. Granted , I have small, well insulated house - about 1100 sqf. Tonto.

[Highlander]

spankyreal,
 I started about oct. 1st and right with you at 7 cords. I heat the hot water and about 3500 sq ft which includes the basement. Im in mass so not to far away. Im burning alot more than i expected but im still extremely happy with the system. So much better than hauling wood into the house everyday and then still listening to the furnace run all the time.

[muckamuck]

Hi Spanky,
In order to get a good sense of efficiency you need to compare the cords burned to the heat delivered to your house.  In my case I am heating an ancient double farmhouse of about 5000sf in central Massachusetts and I made note that I used to burn 1600 gal of oil +2 cord in stove in previous years (including summer hot water).  I think I burned 8 cords in the e classic last winter (Dec-late March) (plus some summer oil for hot water).  This year I started Oct 13, and I have burned about 4-4 1/2 cord of maple.
-Muckamuck

[firechief]

I started on November 15th also and have burned about 2 1/2 cords.

I'm in northern Indiana close to the Michigan border.

Jim

[wi woodcutter]

I have a CB5036 that I started on Nov. 27 for the first time. I am heating 2,000 sq./ft. I have used 2 to 2 1/2 cords so far and I am in Wisconsin.

[woodmills1]

I have the second sized free heat machine, heat 4300 sg ft of less than well insulated space and have used at least 10 cord so far.  Started heating in september.  As soon as the night temp falls below 70 the house cools off, though we leave windows open till it get real cold and windy. I am in southern NH.

[ken999]

We burn about a full chord of hardwood every two weeks. Our 2300 didn't get installed until mid Dec. so we are hoping that the comsumption will get better come warmer weather.

We are heating the domestic water and 2400 sq feet including an unfinished basement. We replace 5 chords burned in a Pacific Energy Summit insert and 200 gal. of heating oil a month during the heating season. The house has never been warmer either, so I'm not going to gripe about the wood consumption.

[stumper]

I am in Central Maine and since late Septemeber I have burnt 2.5 cords heating a 3200 square foot home and hot water for 5.

[ral]

I dump mine in a bin so this is a measured best guess, 6 - 7 cords using an e-classic. Started Oct. 1, two hot water heaters, 3500 sq. ft. house main level and basement (pretty well insulated) plus a 900 sq. ft. garage set at 50-C. Live in Wisconsin, been cold until this week. I thought I would burn less but had a mix of wood, ash, boxelder, elm, red oak and some cherry. Starting next year with all Oak so I can measure better, this is my first year.

[MudBud]

E2300 classic, Southern Maine burned 1.5 cords of oak and approx. 4 cords of kiln dried pine scrap wood, ie 2x4's, 2x6's and all other crap. 

Last year I burned 2 cords of oak and 8 cord of the scrap I talked above.  I am heating about 3900 sq ft, 3 floors and average 72 on all 3.  Also 80 gallon super store hot water with 3 people including 2 women that love their 35 minute showers...thank god for a well!

[bandmiller2]

Spanky,your probibly about average,of course depending on sizes.I have a heat storage water tube outside boiler, I built, and I 'am right around your usage.Lets face it a fire 24/7 for 6 months is going to burn some wood.Frank C.

[spankyreal]

Hello All,

Thanks for your responses.  I heat 4400 sq feet NOT including basement (another about 300 sq feet). 

Maybe we should talk about set up.  My outside pump runs the heated water inside to my heat exchanger and back out -  basically it circulates through the heat exchanger.  THe other Taco pump I have runs water through my boiler.  So the water from the E-classic is heating the exchanger which is heating the other side. 

That being said I am not really sure the size of my home, etc. makes as much of a difference as how cold it is outside.  I also use it to heat my water but once again same concept.  Water is always circulating and if it was 30 degrees the boiler would not kick on as often as the temp would stay up longer.  That is why I feel with this set up size of home is not as relevant.

I have gone through almost 7 actual cords, not face cords.  Example - Sat 1/09 started burning a new cord section.  I will be done with this cord tomorrow night 1/18 and it has not been as cold this past week.

Your thoughts?

Thanks

[woodmills1]

my set up is similar, water circulates all the time through exchanger on hot water heater then through exchanger in hot air furnace then back to stove.  My large house isa heat monster and I will burn around 30 cord half of it pine.

[sd locke]

i started mine in july when i hooked it up for hot water never let it go out yet temp set at 79 degrees but feels like 72 . real drafty house and i mean real drafty . i have went through 15 face cord so far .

[ldcub56]

I started my stove up for first time oct 10, as of jan 22 just over 6 cords.I live in missouri area.I heat 3500 sq, ft.I'm still learing how to use stove. I think i might have a draft problem, when i have very much wind, i don't get a good burn out of stove.

[doctorb]

I started my E-Classic on December 10 and have burned about 4 - 4.5 cords so far.  I heat a 4000 sq. foot house, and it's been great.  I have one strong suggestion....DO NOT USE THIS STOVE WITH RADIANT HEAT.  I know that radiant heat is great, but, since my pipes are in a poured concrete slab below a brick hallway, the max temperature that's supposed to run through the concrete is about 130 degrees (cracking).  This is significantly below the 185 in my oil burner jacket which is the exchanged heat from the stove.  I burn much less wood when I am not returning this lower temperature water back to the furnace, as it then requires more energy (wood ) from the E-lassic to bring it back to 190 degrees (temp at outdoor furnace).  Closing this one heat zone has not negatively affected the comfort in my home, but the bricks are cool.

Fortunately, the radiant heat area in my house is small and does not require heating by the radiant floor heat alone, so I have stopped using it.  It is not efficient to lose so much of the wood's heat into the radiant system.  I can not accurately estimate how much of the 4 cords burned so far went into the radiant heat portion of my system, but it could be as much as 20% - 25%, judging by how much less wood I seem to use with it turned off.

Finally, the month from Dec 15 through jan 15 was very cold for Maryland.  we only had 2 days during that stretch with high temps over 40 degrees.  Now I know that's warm for some of you folks, but I think that my wood consumption was also increased due to the cold weather.

I am pleased with the E-Classic so far.

DoctorB

[superwd6]

....DO NOT USE THIS STOVE WITH RADIANT HEAT. 
  You have plumbing issues, Not wood boiler problems. If your oil boiler hooks directly into the infloor with no mixing device to lower temp, you have problems. Your oil boiler should also be protected against cold water returning to it as "shocking" boiler with cold water causes condensation with high acid content.

[renegadecj]

I have one strong suggestion....DO NOT USE THIS STOVE WITH RADIANT HEAT. 

I am pleased with the E-Classic so far.

DoctorB

I would disagree with your statement about not using this with radiant heat.  My radiant system is in concrete (and some gypcrete as well), but my radiant system regulates the temp of that water.  I have a main loop which goes thru a heat exchanger, to pull heat from the E-classic.  It drops that water temp only a little bit...maybe 10-15 degrees or so to keep the radiant loop up to temp.  The water returning to the e-classic is lower, but still quite warm, and the wood boiler has no problem keeping up, even on the coldest of days.  The exception would be when we are on vacation, and shut the system down, and turn the heat in the house way down....it takes some time to recover that temp again!

[irallen]

5 cords since mid-October to heat a drafty circa 1850's farm house w/ 2500 sq ft. Using seasoned maple and birch cordwood, (although a bit damper than I was expecting). Heat exchangers on domestic hot water tank and in forced air plenum. The electric hot water tank never comes on anymore and I'm down about 350kwh every month. The boiler is running at 185 degrees. We're keeping the house at 70 degrees which works until the outside temp goes below zero. Then we light the old parlor stove in the living room to keep house temp up. Same scenario as our old oil burner system.

Except the oil burner never comes on anymore.  : ' )

[doctorb]

Thanks for your input on radiant heat.  I do have the remixing system as you described.  The purpose of the remix is to lower the temp of the water about to enter the radiant system.  The water exiting the radiant system (temp approx 120 degrees) is partially remixed to cool the water coming from the furnace and partially returned to the furnace.  The volume of flow through the radiant heat system is unknown to me, but it must be fairly high as it uses a 1 1/4 inch pipe (prior to branching into three subzones of radiant pipe) while all my baseboard is 1 inch, or possibly 3/4 inch.

Regardless, the water temp returning from the radiant system is significantly lower than the 185 degree temp inside the furnace, and the 180 degree temp of the effluent returning to the E-2300.  Certainly, during the "warm up " phase of the radiant heat, owners are going to see an increased use of fuel.  Once my bricks are up to temp, it is certainly possible that my wood usage would drop.  I also should place a programable thermostat on the radiant grid so that, when we cool the house a few degrees (4) at night, the system doesn't run constantly.

Anyway, I do appreciate your input and suggestions.  I do think that, if a house was entirely heated with radiant heat, that the wood consumption would be higher than the same house heated with hot water baseboard or radiators, because of the "inefficiency" of requiring the lower temperature of the radiant system. 

We discuss fine points!  I really shouldn't care too much.  The cost of an extra cord of wood over the winter is nothing to worry about when your oil bills are $0.00!  The total cost of heating my house used to be around $5 - 5.5K!

doctorb

[Shagy]

I believe there is much confusion on this subject. Here in NY and to the East most talk of Face Cord. 4'X8X16"-20".. other parts of the country use Full Cords to define a cord. 4'X4'X8' I see another thing that if looked at like a heating pro is the Sq footage of a home. It is only a small part of the equation. Heat loss is EVERY thing ! You can have a 10 X 10 corn crib .....Only 100 Sq ft but try heating it. Some homes resemble a corn crib and expect to heat it with very little fuel. Aint gona happen

[terra8186]

I own a central boiler 6048.  I have burned around 8-10 cords this year of cottonwood (128 ft3 is a cord).  I started on October 1.  The best thing about the 6048 is I burn chuncks of wood unsplit.  The logs are 2 foot diameter cut in sizes that I can pick-up.   I also haven't cleaned or removed any ash from the stove yet this burning season. 

Last year and the previous year I was burning 30 cords a year.  I was heating a 40x60 pole barn and a 30x30 shop plus my house.  I turned those on only when the temperature's went below 15 just so the lines wouldn't freeze. 

[doctorb]

Thought I would rekindle this thread now that the end of the heating season begins to creep northward.

This was my first year with the E2300.  I started December 10th and burned until yesterday.  I burned a total of 10 cords (full 4X4X8 / all hardwood) heating a 4500 sq. ft house with 2 separate basements and 2 separate oil furnaces/HW systems.  I thus require two complete heat and hot water exchangers in my one house.  Inefficient, you bet!  You should have seen my oil bill in previous years.  No oil used this year.

At the beginning of the season I burned split wood intended for a standard wood stove or fireplace.  Later in the year, the wood diameter got larger, and I think that I burned less wood mixing the large diameter logs with some smaller ones.  It was one of the coldest winters we've seen in these parts for quite a while.

I am not dissapointed with the wood consumption.  Based on these figures, I am going to put up 12 - 14 cords for next winter over the next couple of months so I can begin heating in November and continue well into April.  Experience of others?

Doctorb

[gyro jr]

This is my 2nd heating season with the e-classic. I am heating 4800sf with radiant heat in central NJ. I have the dual fuel, but have not had the time to run propane to the unit yet, so let's say it "wood only". I burned an honest 10 cord of mixed HW. Many have posted that they have a better result burning smaller wood, I have better luck with larger rounds, preferably 12-20" and 24" long. Time to start collecting for next year!

[muckamuck]

I posted earlier but this is an update.  I heat an old 5000 sq ft house in central Massachusetts (formally used 1600 gal of oil a year including domestic hot water).  This winter I started Oct 13 and ended about March 1 and burned 11 full cords of fairly dry maple. I switch over to oil at this time.
Muckamuck

[MrMojoinCO]

Liveing in central colorado at 10233ft ele. it's still winter.  The 2300 heats just the house at this time.  It's about 2000 sq ft.  The e-classic was new in oct. and since then we have burned 9 full cords of bettle kill lodgepole pine.  The wood was split and dry.