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Cords, face cords and cubic feet in a woodpile, plus how many cords you need to heat a winter.
With these inputs:
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Your stack | 0.33 cords |
| Face cords (16 in pieces) | 1 |
| Cubic feet | 42.7 cu ft |
| Wood for the winter | 2.88 cords |
| Winter need in face cords | 8.6 |
| Stack volume | 8 × 4 × 16 ÷ 12 = 42.7 cu ft |
| Cords | 42.7 ÷ 128 = 0.33 |
| Heat delivered last winter | 399 gallon × 138,500 Btu × 83% = 45.9 MMBtu |
| Heat from wood (100%) | 45.9 MMBtu |
| Oak in this stove | 25.3 × 63% = 15.9 MMBtu per cord |
Buy wood split and seasoned to under 20% moisture — wet wood gives far less heat. A pickup bed holds 1/5 to 1/2 of a cord (UMD Extension), so be wary of a "cord" delivered in one pickup load.
A full cord is 128 cubic feet of stacked wood — 4 ft high, 4 ft deep and 8 ft long. Enter your stack's length, height and depth to get cords and face cords, then tell the calculator what heated your house last winter: it converts that fuel to heat with EIA's Btu values, and divides by the heat in a cord of your species (University of Maryland Extension) burned in your stove (EPA default efficiencies).
A full cord is a stack 4 ft high, 4 ft deep and 8 ft long: 128 cubic feet of stacked wood, bark and air. University of Maryland Extension notes the solid wood in it is only about 65–90 cubic feet, depending on how straight and tightly stacked the pieces are.
A face cord is a stack 8 ft long and 4 ft high but only one piece deep, so its size depends on the piece length. With 16 in pieces it is one third of a full cord (42.7 cu ft); with 24 in pieces it is half a cord. "Rick" is used loosely for the same thing, so always ask the seller for the length, height and piece length.
Work from the heat your house used last winter. EIA's 2025–26 outlook puts a typical oil-heated home at 399 gallons. At 138,500 Btu per gallon in an 83% furnace that is about 45.9 million Btu of heat; oak at 25.3 million Btu per cord burned in a 63% EPA-certified stove delivers about 15.9 million Btu per cord, so heating with wood alone would take roughly 2.9 cords. Heating part of the house or part of the season takes proportionally less.
Dense hardwoods. University of Maryland Extension lists oak at 25.3 million Btu per cord, ash 23.6, walnut 21.8, elm 21.4, sycamore 20.7 and white pine 19.0. EIA uses 20 million Btu as an average cord. Dry wood matters as much as species: buy wood split and seasoned to under 20% moisture.
Less than most sellers claim. University of Maryland Extension puts a pickup load at 1/5 to 1/2 of a cord depending on bed size and stacking. Multiply the bed length × width × stacked height in feet and divide by 128 to get the fraction of a cord.
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