What is a cord of firewood, and how many cords do I need for a winter?
Plenty of Arden homes in Royal Pines and Skyland were built in the 1980s and '90s with open masonry fireplaces, and those drafty boxes pull heat out of the room — so if you heat with one, you'll burn three to four cords for fairly modest warmth. A cord is 128 cubic feet. A sealed insert cuts that to one to two.
Drafty open fireboxes are the culprit
Those established Royal Pines and Skyland open masonry fireplaces look great but run a net heat loss — they draw more warmed room air up the flue than the fire gives back, which is precisely why they feel drafty and why they devour wood.
Heating primarily with one at 2,150 feet, you can easily go through three or four cords a winter chasing warmth a sealed appliance delivers on far less. The cord count isn't really about the winter — it's about the box you're burning in.
Turn the hole in the wall into a heater
A sealed EPA insert with a properly sized liner commonly runs 70 percent efficient or better, so it turns that drafty box into a real heater and roughly halves your cord count while keeping the fire you like watching.
Buy by the true full cord, not a 'rick' that's a third the size, and season hardwood a full year. Natural gas is available across Arden if you'd rather skip wood entirely. We're about 15 minutes away and we pull the Buncombe County permit. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Arden
We install and service fireplaces throughout Arden and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes south from our Asheville-area showroom.
Related questions
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