Wood conversion to Btu

The process of converting the quantity of wood to its Btu energy equivalent is necessarily imprecise.
One difficulty arises from determining the number of cords of wood (see ) burned by households, as household reports tend to be inexact.
Even surveys accompanied by drawings do not produce accurate estimates, because respondents must add up the use of wood over a period of a year, a long period when wood can bee added or removed from the supply.
Memory errors, difficulties in understanding the exact volume of a cord of wood, and the variance of deliveries by suppliers compared to standard cut cords add to the difficulties in measurement.
Wood is often delivered in non-standard units, such as a truck load. Also the amount of wood in the same volume is different in a pile than when it is stacked.
Moisture content, which varies greatly between green wood and dried wood, reduces the useful Btu output.
Different woods vary in their Btu content, with hardwood usually having a greater Btu value than soft woods.
While taking all these factors into account, a rough average conversion factor used is 20 million Btu per wood cord.

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