Professor helps predict amount of wood you'll burn

According to a 2010 U.S. Forest Service publication, Wood Energy for Residential Heating in Alaska: Current Conditions, Attitudes, and Expected Use, (Valerie Barber of SRNAS is an author) 61 percent of Fairbanksans use wood to heat their homes, at least in part.

Associate Professor John Fox is one of those.

What began as a personal interest, figuring out how much wood he needed, ended up in a printout, Cords of Firewood Needed. He first presented it at a wood burning workshop held recently at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center. “I thought it would be a handy stand-alone handout,” Fox said. There was a big turnout for the event, which caused Fox to believe there is a lot of interest in the art and science of woodburning.

The handout should be useful to everyone using wood for primary or supplemental heat, particularly if they are new at it. “People need to know how much to get or to buy,” Fox said.

The research is based on birch and spruce, the most available types of wood in the Interior.