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A full cord is a stack measuring 4 feet high by 4 feet deep by 8 feet long, totaling 128 cubic feet of stacked wood including the air gaps between logs. It's the standard legal unit firewood is sold by in the US and Canada.

A face cord is only 4 feet high by 8 feet long, with depth equal to the length of the cut logs, typically 16-18 inches instead of the full 4 feet. A face cord is therefore roughly one-third to one-half of a full cord, and sellers who aren't clear about which they mean cause frequent confusion and disputes.

A stacked cord is about 60-70% solid wood by volume, with the remaining 30-40% being air gaps between irregularly shaped logs, so 128 cubic feet of stacked cord translates to roughly 85 cubic feet of solid wood.

This varies widely by climate, home insulation, and whether wood is your primary or supplemental heat source, but as a rough range, homes using wood as primary heat in a cold climate often burn 3-5 cords per season, while occasional supplemental use might only need 1 cord.

Yes significantly. Dense hardwoods like oak or hickory produce roughly twice the heat energy per cord compared to lightweight softwoods like pine, so you'd need close to twice as many cords of pine to match the heat output of the same volume of oak.