Firewood Math

How Much Firewood for Camping? Bundle Calculator by Night

By Tam Vu · Updated

On this page
  1. The math
  2. Worked example
  3. Tips for the number you enter
  4. Sources

No source gives a standard number of bundles per night, because it depends on the fire, the wood and the weather. So this calculator asks for your own numbers: how many nights, how many hours you keep the fire going, and how many bundles you burn in an hour. If you have camped before, use what you actually burned. If not, start with a guess and adjust after the first night.

Camping firewood

Size of one bundle (optional)

The nights, hours and bundles per hour above are examples, not recommendations. Replace them with your own.

The math

bundles = nights × hours of fire per night × bundles burned per hour, rounded up, because you can't buy part of a bundle.

To compare bundles with the cord prices on the rest of this site, convert with the bundle's measurements:

  • Cubic feet per bundle = length × width × height (inches) ÷ 1,728, since there are 1,728 cubic inches in a cubic foot.
  • Share of a cord = total cubic feet ÷ 128, because a full cord is 128 cubic feet of stacked wood.

Worked example

These numbers are made up to show the arithmetic: 3 nights, 4 hours of fire a night, 1 bundle an hour, and a bundle that measures 16 × 8 × 8 inches.

  1. Bundles: 3 × 4 × 1 = 12 bundles.
  2. One bundle: 16 × 8 × 8 = 1,024 cubic inches ÷ 1,728 = 0.59 cubic feet.
  3. All twelve: 12 × 0.593 = 7.1 cubic feet.
  4. Share of a cord: 7.1 ÷ 128 = 0.056 cord, about one eighteenth.

At that size, a full cord would be about 216 bundles (128 ÷ 0.593). That makes it easy to see why bundles cost far more per cubic foot than wood sold by the cord. To compare, convert a bundle price with the price converter: enter the price, choose "Other" and type the bundle's cubic feet.

Tips for the number you enter

  • Measure the bundle as it sits. Cords are measured as stacked space, gaps included, so the length-width-height of a stacked bundle is the like-for-like figure.
  • Count after the first night. Count how many bundles you used and the hours the fire ran, and use that for the rest of the trip.
  • Check the campground's rules on bringing in firewood before you buy. This site has no source on those rules, so we won't state them here.

Sources

  • Cord geometry: 1 full cord = 4 ft × 4 ft × 8 ft = 128 cubic feet; 1 cubic foot = 1,728 cubic inches. The bundle counts are your inputs, not data from a source.