A couple years ago a PBS program entitled Frontier House had three families compete to see who could set aside enough provisions to last through the winter. One of the tasks was to cut and stack firewood. I have included text from the website below, but it appears that their experts thought 8-10 cords would be necessary to get through the Montana winter. 

Frontier House Website- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/frontierhouse/

"Fuel -- Have about 2 cords of good fir and pine firewood split, stacked, and covered. They have another two cords of good fir and pine on the ground nearby. In addition to this, they need 4-6 more cords of firewood. All three families told me that their firewood supply on hand was calculated by trying to correlate their wood stove consumption from the end of May through the end of September. The families also planned to gather wood throughout the winter. Both these calculations are woefully wrong for a Montana winter and could have had disastrous results. During the training session in Virginia City, I stressed the need to put up more firewood than they could possibly imagine. "Spend every spare minute gathering winter firewood" was my comment. They should have heeded this advice and they also should have asked local old-time residents of the area what they thought instead of acting on their own presumptions."


Neal Hitch
Ohio Historical Society


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nathan Thomas [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 10:48 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Domestic Wood Consumption
> 
> Hello,  does anyone know the amount of fire wood (cords or Meters Squared)
> a family soley dependent on wood for cooking and heating would use?
> 
> I am trying to figure out how much wood a small ghost town in Nevada (cold
> desert) would have used.  I understand there are a tremendous amount of
> variables, including stove type, wood type, home size and environment.
> 
> In speaking to some of the local residents that rely on wood for heating,
> they are using around 2 1/2 to 4 cords a year.  One person out here grew
> up in a home that relied on wood for cooking and heating.  Although he
> does not remember, he thinks they used around 10 cords.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Nathan Thomas
> Ely Nevada