Heating
How much firewood do you need for winter?
Kilograms and stacked cubic meters of seasoned firewood per season, from home size, insulation and stove use.
Quick answer
Firewood math starts with a number nobody prints on the logs: seasoned hardwood at 15-20% moisture delivers about 4 kWh per kg, and a decent stove converts roughly 75% of that into room heat. Cross that with your home’s seasonal demand — from ~170 kWh/m² for a drafty old house down to ~60 for an insulated one — and you get the season’s kilograms. A 100 m² average home heated primarily with wood burns around 3,800 kg a year; used only for evenings and weekends, about a third of that.
Firewood per season
3,833 kg
- In 100 kg units
- ~39 q
- Stacked volume
- ~8.5 stacked m³
Logs or pellets? Pellet stove cost calculator
Seasoned hardwood (beech, oak, hornbeam at 15-20% moisture) delivers ~4 kWh/kg in a stove at ~75% efficiency; a stacked cubic meter weighs roughly 450 kg. Freshly cut wood has half the heat value and tars up the flue — buy a moisture meter and season 18-24 months. Buying in spring costs 20-30% less than in the first cold weeks.
How it works
Moisture is where the money burns invisibly. Freshly cut wood is 40-50% water: half your fire’s energy goes into boiling it off, the stove smokes, glass blackens and creosote coats the flue. Properly seasoned wood — split, stacked off the ground, covered on top, aired on the sides for 18-24 months — is a different fuel entirely. A moisture meter is the best accessory a wood burner can own: stab a freshly split face, and refuse anything above 20%. Buy in spring when prices dip 20-30%, and prefer hardwood (beech, oak, hornbeam) for long burns, softwood for quick kindling.
Frequently asked questions
How much firewood do I need for a winter?+
A 100 m² home with average insulation using wood as the main heat: roughly 3,800 kg — 38 quintali, or about 8.5 stacked cubic meters. As an evening-and-weekend supplement to another system: 1,300-1,500 kg. Well-insulated homes halve these numbers; old drafty ones add 50%. Always order before autumn: same wood, better price, and time to check the moisture.
What is a stere / stacked cubic meter and how much does it weigh?+
A stere is one cubic meter of stacked wood, air gaps included — typically 60-70% actual wood. For seasoned beech or oak that’s roughly 400-500 kg per stere (the calculator uses 450). Beware of "loose thrown" cubic meters, which contain ~30% less wood than stacked ones: when comparing prices, always ask whether the volume is stacked (accatastato) or loose (riversato).
Which wood burns best?+
Dense hardwoods — beech, oak, hornbeam, ash — burn long and steady with lasting embers: they’re the winter workhorses. Birch and fruit woods light easily and smell great. Softwoods (pine, spruce, fir) ignite fast but burn out quickly and spit resin — fine as kindling, poor as the main load, and they dirty the flue more. Whatever the species, moisture below 20% matters more than the wood type.
Is heating with wood cheaper than pellets or gas?+
Usually yes, if you have storage space. At €15 per quintale, wood heat costs about €0.05 per kWh — versus ~€0.085 for pellets and ~€0.115 for gas at typical prices. Buy unseasoned two years ahead and season it yourself, or have your own woodlot, and the cost drops further. The price you pay instead is labor and space: handling tons of wood, a dry stack area, and daily loading. Pellet wins on convenience, wood on raw cost.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases — the price does not change for you.