Firewood consumption

[Straight Shooter]

Homesteader's reckon that four and a half cords of wood is enough for a winter ? 1 cord = 8ft longx 4ft wide x 4ft high so that equals 28 ft long x 4ft wide x 4ft high , on my Rayburn i used six cords the wood was a mix of pine,ask and oak ...i also used 2 ton of coal this ran only 3 rads hot water and cooking (to small for the whole cottage) but reasonable.... 260sq mts total floor area ...then we changed the Rayburn for a new multi fuel woodburner that would heat all the rads and hot water 125,000 btu that year saw us use 9 cords of wood (same mix ) and 4 ton of coal ....i call it monster mouth ....but there again the only time it went out was to give a good clean ...warm as toast in my Y fronts....no rads were turned off or down even the six rooms not in use ....okay its not the way we would use the system normally but i wanted to test the system full out....the upshot of the trial forced a rethink in insulation values ....and these we put to rights ....i cannot emphasize the inportance of GOOD insulation. Fuel any fuel...is expensive ....wood burners = hard work and continuous hard work at that ....most months will involve some activity towards fuel supplies , and maintenance of chimney and burner unit....the main reason for down sizing for us....and lower maintenance ALL AROUND is where we are heading.....BUT loads of ground to to grow veggies and keep hens, goats and piggies .
Can't bloody wait !