Heating · firewood
What Is a Cord of Wood? Cords, Face Cords and Ricks
A cord of wood is a stack 4 feet high, 4 feet deep and 8 feet long: 128 cubic feet of stacked wood. Indiana DNR: “A standard cord is a stack of wood 4 x 4 x 8 feet.” A face cord (or rick) is one 4 × 8 ft row of shorter pieces, so its size depends on the piece length: “A face cord of 16" pieces is actually one third of a standard cord.”
Face cord and rick sizes
| Piece length | Share of a full cord | Cubic feet | To compare a face-cord price with a cord price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 inches | 0.25 | 32 | × 4 |
| 16 inches | 0.33 | 43 | × 3 |
| 18 inches | 0.38 | 48 | × 2.66667 |
| 20 inches | 0.42 | 53 | × 2.4 |
| 24 inches | 0.50 | 64 | × 2 |
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FAQ
How big is a cord of wood?
4 × 4 × 8 feet stacked, 128 cubic feet, including the air between the pieces.
How many face cords are in a cord?
Three with 16-inch pieces, four with 12-inch pieces, two with 24-inch pieces: divide 48 by the piece length in inches.
What is a rick of wood?
Another name for a face cord: “most sales are a "face cord" or "rick" (i.e. a 4' x 8' face cut into desired lengths).” (Indiana DNR). Ask the seller the piece length to know how much wood it is.
How much is a cord of wood worth?
There is no official price, so we don’t show a typical one. Enter the price you were quoted in the checker on this page: it converts any amount to a full-cord price and shows the most a cord is worth against your other heat.
Sources and assumptions
- Heat content: EIA: “Electricity 1 kilowatthour=3,412 Btu Natural gas 1 cubic foot=1,036 Btu 1 therm=100,000 Btu Motor gasoline 1 gallon=120,214 Btu Diesel fuel 1 gallon=137,381 Btu Heating oil 1 gallon=138,500 Btu Propane 1 gallon=91,452 Btu Wood 1 cord=20,000,000 Btu” Cost per million Btu follows EIA FAQ 987: “[ (Fuel price per unit) divided by (fuel heat content per unit) ] multiplied by 1,000,000”, divided by the system’s efficiency.
- Efficiency: older systems at the federal minimum (10 CFR 430.32: gas and propane furnaces 80.0% AFUE, oil furnaces 83.0%, split heat pumps HSPF2 7.5); new systems at the ENERGY STAR median (certified furnaces: gas/propane 96%, oil 87%; certified heat pumps: HSPF2 8.5, cold-climate 9.0). Heat pumps are shown as a range down to the median COP at 5 °F (2.03, 283,737 certified systems). Wood stoves: EPA certified wood heater database (2020 rule, 417 models, lab-tested HHV efficiency medians: non-catalytic 71%, catalytic 78%, hybrid 78%).
- Firewood: Utah State University Extension, Wood Heating, Table 1 (million Btu per cord of air-dried wood); ranking cross-checked against Indiana DNR, Heating With Firewood. Cord sizes from Indiana DNR: “A standard cord is a stack of wood 4 x 4 x 8 feet.” “A face cord of 16" pieces is actually one third of a standard cord.”
- Typical winter: EIA RECS 2020 microdata (space-heating use of homes heated mainly by each fuel, by EIA climate region), and EIA’s Winter Fuels Outlook heating degree days for the month-by-month split.