Survival UK Forums

....................and how much firewood do you need to cook with, boil water with and heat your home for one year with a winter like the last one if TSHTF.

My own calculations come up roughly with the similar figure that some Scots and some New Englanders have come up with, for starting the day with a fire, heating water for a meal and drinks, washing up and perhaps laundry. Then prepping food with later, keeping the house warm or the chills away at least.

My own needs for a family of three appear to be 3.5 to 4 cords of wood, Thats a neatly stacked pile of firewood without huge gaps of 8 ft by 4ft by 4 ft =A cord and I would need 4 in an average year!!
Some folks tell my I am grossly underestimating the amount I need.

Thats two piles of wood the size of a Transit Van per year. Either way its a lot of wood I need to stockpile.

So space, budget, time, motivation, etc all come into play and in my own case I cannot be atsed to cut more wood so I've invested in 6 large Calor Gas bottles and various devices to run off them. I may also invest in a few sacks of Coalite or Coke as they take up less space.

I'm certain the brighter and more fortunate among us will have at least installed a couple of solar water heater panels to get them a head start.

Its amazing just how much material we actually need to get the same calorific value we take for granted from the mains supplies.

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My worst case scenario would be an all electric house, or one without a chimney, or relying entirely on a combi boiler or a combination.

we (second wife and I) lived in a small end terraced cottage on Dartmoor for a while, no central heating and just one fireplace, we used 2 pick up loads worth of logs each winter, which were stacked in a small 6X4 shed in the garden, this was purely and solely for heating, obviously we had electric at that time so without this we would have needed more logs for this.

We don't have to worry about heating here, since we only get a few nights a year below freezing (pile on the blankets Honey!), but we'll sure miss the air conditioning. Another name for our area is "The Piney Woods" with lumber being a major crop, so wood should be plentiful and reasonably cheap.

I notice the local sawmill is doing "offcuts" for the farmers to use on their muddy field gateways, I picked a few pieces up and it would make good firewood, I don't know what they charge.

NR, from my own experience, that is way under what you will need!

(20 June 2013, 20:37)MaryN Wrote: [ -> ]NR, from my own experience, that is way under what you will need!

If that's 'way under', Mary - by how much?

We used to get through 2+ cords of wood over the winter on just a woodburner, GG. Granted, it was in France, and the cord was "loose", but burning wood from early October until March/April depending on the weather, we easily got through that amount. That was just for heating (no backboiler). Throw in cooking, laundry and anything else over a year and the amount doubles, trebles..... That did not include kindling to get the blasted stove started either!

Thanks Mary, for the info. I'll thank my circumstances for the depression!

This is getting interesting and informative, I get the feeling that i'm not the only one going " Oh Sh1t" right now and wondering where I can get more wood and more importantly where I can store it,.

(20 June 2013, 14:13)NorthernRaider Wrote: [ -> ]My worst case scenario would be an all electric house, or one without a chimney, or relying entirely on a combi boiler or a combination.

You keep on doing this to me NR, well okay, for me. You just described the house I live in and while renting, it isn't easy to find something better that has the disabled access I need.

So, thinking about cords of wood, cooking, heating and so on, my thoughts continue on to just how cold it could be in here - bad winter, even a normal one - water reserves frozen, even the nice new double container, ceramic filter job I plan on getting built to the spec you provided (thanks for that ) when my son comes home - frozen. Fire/heat to thaw the stuff? No wood, no heaters, nothing!

I know it's been barely two months since I came across SUK (it seems a lot longer ) but I am woefully unprepared...