Every year, we recommend you order your firewood in good time to ensure you have enough to stay cosy throughout autumn and winter. If you start having fires regularly in October, it’s a good idea to place your order in September.
‘How much firewood do I need for winter?’ is a common question we get asked at this time of year – and of course, the answer is, it depends. Every home is different, every stove is different, and every household uses their fire differently. But here we share what to consider when working out roughly how much you should order.
- Your stove or fireplace efficiency
This is the biggest single variable in your wood consumption.
A DEFRA-approved wood-burning stove typically converts 70-80% of the wood’s energy into usable heat. By contrast, an open fireplace has around 20- 30% efficiency – which means the majority of the heat goes straight up the chimney rather than into your room. In short, an open fire will use two to three times more wood than a stove to produce the same warmth.
If you’ve recently swapped an open fireplace for a wood-burning stove, you’ll likely notice a significant drop in how much wood you get through. If you’re not sure of your stove’s efficiency rating, check the manufacturer’s documentation or look it up on the HETAS (Heating Equipment Testing and Approval Scheme) list of approved products.
- How often and how long you light it
This is the factor you have most direct control over, and the one that varies most from household to household. It helps to think in broad categories:
- Are you an occasional user – lighting the fire two or three evenings a week, mainly at weekends?
- A regular user – most evenings through autumn and winter?
- Or a heavy user – the stove is on most of the day, most days, from October through to March?
As a rough guide: a stove burning for four to five hours an evening, four evenings a week across a typical UK winter season of around 26 weeks, will get through a meaningful quantity of wood. A stove running all day every day will get through considerably more.
The most reliable guide, if you have one, is your own experience from last winter. Did you run out and have to reorder in a hurry? Did you have a large surplus left over in spring? Either answer tells you something useful about where to pitch your order this year. If it’s your first winter with a stove in a new home, err on the conservative side and plan to top up. Running out in January is far more disruptive than having a small amount left over in March.
- Your home’s size and insulation
A well-insulated modern home retains heat effectively, which means your stove does less work and your wood goes further. An older property with solid walls, single glazing and draughty floorboards loses heat quickly; the stove works harder, and you burn through wood faster.
Room size matters too. A stove heating a large open-plan kitchen-diner is working considerably harder than one in a small, enclosed sitting room. If you tend to leave internal doors open and heat a larger area, factor that in as well.
If your home is on the draughtier end of the spectrum, it’s worth being generous with your estimate. The cost of slightly overordering is small; the cost of running out mid-winter is considerably higher, as you may end up paying extra for quick delivery. Not to mention the general inconvenience of being without fuel.
- The type of wood you burn
Not all firewood is equal. Hardwoods (oak, ash and beech are the most common in the UK) burn longer, produce more sustained heat, and hold a good coal bed. A load of quality hardwood goes further than the same volume of softwood. Softwoods like pine and larch burn faster and hotter, which makes them useful for getting a fire going quickly, but they don’t last as long per log and are less efficient for sustained warmth through an evening. We only supply hardwood logs.
Moisture content matters just as much as species. Well-seasoned or kiln-dried wood that has a moisture content of 20% or below burns cleanly and efficiently, delivering considerably more heat per log than wet or unseasoned wood. Wet wood is also smokier, produces more creosote in your flue, and is harder to keep alight. You should not be burning wet wood.
Aside from our unseasoned dry-at home logs, all our firewood is Ready to Burn-certified hardwood, dried down to 20% moisture or less, giving you an effective, efficient burn all winter long. You can learn more about why Ready To Burn registration is so important in our blog.
A rough framework for ordering firewood
Pulling all four factors together, here’s a starting-point guide based on typical usage patterns:
| Usage type | Typical setup | Rough seasonal estimate |
| Occasional | 2-3 evenings a week, efficient stove, well-insulated home | 1-1.5 cubic metres |
| Regular | Most evenings, average home, wood-burning stove | 2-3 cubic metres |
| Heavy | Daily use, older or larger property, or open fireplace | 4+ cubic metres |
This is a rough guide, not amounts that are set in stone. Your actual consumption will depend on the combination of factors we’ve listed. But they give you a useful starting point, particularly if you’re ordering for the first time.
Not sure where to start?
If you’re still uncertain about how much firewood for winter you need, we’re happy to help. Our team knows their wood, and a quick conversation about your home, your stove and how you use it is usually enough to point you in the right direction.
Shop all firewood now or get in touch with us for help ordering the right amount.