joshuabardwell
Elite Member
I made an Android app to calculate the amount of firewood that would be produced from logs of a given size. I was inspired to make the app once while I was surveying a pile of logs that a guy was wanting to sell. Not knowing how much wood was really in them, I couldn't tell if his price was fair or not. Of course, having made the app, I have never been in that situation again, but it was a fun exercise, and now it's done.
The app is very rough around the edges. I used Google's App Inventor to create it, and the options there are much more limited, but I'm not up to coding an Android app from scratch. Also, I mostly made it for myself to use, so a lot of interface niceties have been skipped.
You can download the app here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x10y93m7spr79c4/Firewood_Calculator.apk You will need to install it on your phone manually by copying it to your SD card and running the installer from there. Because this app is not coming from the Android Marketplace, you will get an error message, and will need to allow installation of non-market apps before it will install.
Instructions for use: Enter log length and diameter, then press = to produce result. Press + to add the result to the list. Press C to clear the list. Press CE to clear the current entry only. Press - to remove a result from the list. You will be prompted which result you want to remove.
The Density button allows you to configure the assumed density of the cord of wood. A cord of wood takes up 128 cubic feet, but it has some air space in it. It is not a solid block of pure wood. So a 128-cubic-foot cord of wood might actually only contain 70 cubic feet of wood. This is normal, and is expected. The default density in the app is 70 ft^3 of wood per cord. I have read that typical values might range from 70-90 ft^3, depending on how tight the wood is stacked. The higher this number, the lower the number of cords of wood the calculator will produce, because it will assume the wood is stacked tighter. A "Density" value of 128 would assume a solid block of wood with no air space at all. If you put in a "Density" value over 128, you will have figured out how to stack wood into other dimensions.
A final word: the app assumes that the logs are cylindrical. In reality, the logs are likely to be tapered, and narrower at one end than the other. What I do to compensate for that is, I measure the diameter at both ends of the log, then split the difference.
The app is very rough around the edges. I used Google's App Inventor to create it, and the options there are much more limited, but I'm not up to coding an Android app from scratch. Also, I mostly made it for myself to use, so a lot of interface niceties have been skipped.
You can download the app here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x10y93m7spr79c4/Firewood_Calculator.apk You will need to install it on your phone manually by copying it to your SD card and running the installer from there. Because this app is not coming from the Android Marketplace, you will get an error message, and will need to allow installation of non-market apps before it will install.
Instructions for use: Enter log length and diameter, then press = to produce result. Press + to add the result to the list. Press C to clear the list. Press CE to clear the current entry only. Press - to remove a result from the list. You will be prompted which result you want to remove.
The Density button allows you to configure the assumed density of the cord of wood. A cord of wood takes up 128 cubic feet, but it has some air space in it. It is not a solid block of pure wood. So a 128-cubic-foot cord of wood might actually only contain 70 cubic feet of wood. This is normal, and is expected. The default density in the app is 70 ft^3 of wood per cord. I have read that typical values might range from 70-90 ft^3, depending on how tight the wood is stacked. The higher this number, the lower the number of cords of wood the calculator will produce, because it will assume the wood is stacked tighter. A "Density" value of 128 would assume a solid block of wood with no air space at all. If you put in a "Density" value over 128, you will have figured out how to stack wood into other dimensions.
A final word: the app assumes that the logs are cylindrical. In reality, the logs are likely to be tapered, and narrower at one end than the other. What I do to compensate for that is, I measure the diameter at both ends of the log, then split the difference.