-We live in North Idaho and burn wood to heat our home. The cleanest and longest burning wood is tamarack (this may not be available down there), next best thing is red fir. These two woods don't create as much creosote. Avoid pine and unseasoned wood. A cord of fir runs an average of $100 here.

-You really need a mix of woods: fast burning, medium burning, and slow burning. You need the fast stuff to get the fire started: pine is good. The pine will give you coals hot enough to ignite, say, cherry. Once the cherry is turned into good, hot coals, you can get oak to burn. The oak will burn for a long time, overnite if you do it right. You don't need these exact species, just some with the same characteristics. I would imagine two cords would be sufficient in L.A. I live in Long Beach, so I know the area. When I lived for a decade in mid-state New York, I had a small house that I used 6-8 cords a winter to heat: 20 below temperatures in January/February. . .

Get your chimney inspected for leaks, or cracks if it is masonry. I knew some folks in an old frame house in MA whose house burned down in the middle of winter due to bad mortar joints letting the fire into the framing.