A cord of mixed seasoned hardwood delivers about the same heat as 1.07 tons of wood pellets, so the rule of thumb that one ton equals one cord is close enough for average hardwood. For dense oak it is nearer 1.28 tons per cord, and for softwood like pine it drops below one.
Those figures compare the heat that actually reaches the room, which is the number that matters when you are replacing one fuel with the other. Compared on raw heat content alone, before the stove takes its cut, a cord of mixed hardwood holds 1.22 tons worth of pellet energy.
Convert your own quantity
Pick what you have, and the converter gives the same heat in every other fuel. It starts from one ton of pellets against mixed hardwood.
- Cords of firewood
- 0.94
- Tons of pellets
- 1.00
- 40 lb bags
- 50
- Pounds of pellets
- 2,000
- Gallons of heating oil
- 111
- Gallons of propane
- 169
Tons of pellets per cord, by species
The species decides the answer, because a cord is a unit of volume and dense wood packs far more heat into the same 128 cubic feet. A cord of hickory holds nearly twice the heat of a cord of cottonwood.
| Species | Million BTU per cord | Tons per cord, delivered | Tons per cord, raw | Cords per ton |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hickory | 27.7 | 1.48 | 1.69 | 0.68 |
| White oak | 25.7 | 1.37 | 1.57 | 0.73 |
| Beech | 24.0 | 1.28 | 1.46 | 0.78 |
| Red oak | 24.0 | 1.28 | 1.46 | 0.78 |
| Sugar maple | 24.0 | 1.28 | 1.46 | 0.78 |
| Birch | 20.8 | 1.11 | 1.27 | 0.90 |
| Douglas fir | 20.7 | 1.10 | 1.26 | 0.91 |
| Ash | 20.0 | 1.07 | 1.22 | 0.94 |
| Cherry | 20.0 | 1.07 | 1.22 | 0.94 |
| Elm | 20.0 | 1.07 | 1.22 | 0.94 |
| Red maple | 18.6 | 0.99 | 1.13 | 1.01 |
| Pine | 15.9 | 0.85 | 0.97 | 1.18 |
| Spruce | 15.0 | 0.80 | 0.91 | 1.25 |
| Aspen | 14.7 | 0.78 | 0.90 | 1.28 |
| Cottonwood | 13.5 | 0.72 | 0.82 | 1.39 |
If a seller does not name the species, assume mixed hardwood, which is the generic 20 million BTU cord used throughout this site. For how the species compare as fuel beyond heat, see the best firewood to burn.
Cords of wood for 1 to 5 tons of pellets
Most pellet households burn three to five tons a winter, so this is the table to use if you are switching from wood to pellets, or the other way round, and want to know what to order.
| Pellets | Bags | Cords, mixed hardwood | Cords, red oak |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ton | 50 | 0.94 | 0.78 |
| 2 tons | 100 | 1.87 | 1.56 |
| 3 tons | 150 | 2.81 | 2.34 |
| 4 tons | 200 | 3.75 | 3.12 |
| 5 tons | 250 | 4.69 | 3.90 |
So 4 tons of pellets is about 3.75 cords of mixed hardwood, or 3.12 cords of red oak. How many bags make a ton, and how to store them, is covered in how many bags of pellets are in a ton.
Small quantities scale the same way. 160 pounds of pellets, four bags, is about 0.075 of a cord of mixed hardwood: roughly 9.6 cubic feet of stacked wood.
Pellets, cords and heating oil
The same comparison extends to oil. On heat delivered, with an oil boiler at 85 percent, one ton of pellets replaces about 111 gallons of heating oil, and one cord of mixed hardwood about 119 gallons. On raw heat content a ton of pellets is 118 gallons.
| Heating oil | Tons of pellets | Cords, mixed hardwood | Gallons of propane |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 gallons | 0.90 | 0.84 | 151 |
| 250 gallons | 2.24 | 2.10 | 378 |
| 500 gallons | 4.49 | 4.20 | 757 |
| 800 gallons | 7.18 | 6.73 | 1,211 |
A 250 gallon fill of heating oil, then, is about 2.2 tons of pellets or 2.1 cords of hardwood.
Why efficiency changes the answer
Raw heat content is what the fuel holds. Delivered heat is what the appliance gets out of it, and the two fuels are not burned in equally efficient appliances.
A modern pellet stove feeds fuel at a controlled rate with forced combustion air, and runs at around 80 percent. A modern wood stove burns in batches, loses heat during startup and when the load burns down, and runs at around 70 percent. An older stove without EPA certification, or an open fireplace, does considerably worse, which shifts the equivalence further in favor of pellets.
Moisture matters as much as the appliance. The cord figures assume wood seasoned to around 20 percent moisture. Green wood spends a large share of its heat boiling off its own water, so a cord of unseasoned oak is worth well under the table. The difference is laid out in seasoned vs kiln dried firewood.
Equal heat is not equal cost
Knowing that a ton roughly matches a cord does not tell you which is cheaper, because the prices per unit are not the same. At the reference prices this site uses, dated August 2026, $300 a cord and $350 a ton, delivered heat costs about $21.43 per million BTU from firewood and $26.68 from pellets, against $30.58 from heating oil at $3.60 a gallon.
Your own prices will differ, often by a lot. Enter them in the heating cost comparison for the real answer, and check observed pellet prices in the regional pellet price index. The practical trade offs beyond cost, from labor to storage, are in pellet stove vs wood stove.