How much $$$ do you save by burning wood?

[milkie62]

I built a new house with no furnace,just a Classic outdoor furnace.2600 sq ft.No fuel bill after living in house for 17 years.Upstate NY.Probably 5-6 gallons of chainsaw gas,5 gallons for splitter and no more than 5 gallons of diesel for tractor to haul it out of woods to house.Month of October on the weekends is wood month for me.Helps stay in shape too.Up yours IRAQ !!!!

 

[046]

in third season of heating 100% with wood.

gas bill is $20 per month year round.

 

[micah79]

I save around $200-$300 per month in the winter. I get all of my wood for free (actually I get paid for my wood) I split it all by hand and it is all good.

 

[charlesfarm]

Our house is about 2100 sq. ft., built in 1910 and has some pretty crummy windows. I just bought and installed our wood cook stove in 2007, and stainless steel chimney, and installed the tile hearth, bought new Stihls (MS250 and MS361), and chains, and chain files, and PPE, and ... So, this year we're saving nothing -- but, we're sure staying a whole lot warmer that we ever did with propane forced air set to 67 during the day and 50 during the night.

We've only burned about 30 gallons of propane this year ... using it to give the upstairs a jumpstart when the overnight log won't cut it with outside temps in the single digits.

I figure we'll have all the stuff we bought this year paid for about a third of the way through next heating season. Then we'll be saving about $2500 a year. If we kept the house as warm with propane as we do with the wood stove, we'd probably be saving around $3200 or better.

God bless,
Chris

 

[mayor]

Gas budget and electric budget here 12 years ago was:
Gas 156 a month
Electric 128 a month
X 12 months a year
--------------------
$3408.00 per year combined.

Started cutting wood and installed a woodburner for 90 bucks! Stovepipe and all.

Now....
Gas 17.00 a month
Electric 68.00 a month
---------------------
$ 1020.00 per year combined.

Savings of 2388 a year

 

[CharlieG]

And the feeling of a little "independence" from big bills also warms me .

 

[Tesen]

Here in Ohio it was 2F when I wokeup this morning; unfortunately my Wife and i were out all day yesterday and got home rather late so our Hotblast was not burning (gas as backup was at 58F though).

Today reminds me why we decided to install a Hotblast three years ago! Before that we were keeping this old place (built in 1880) at 62 - 65F; now we usually keep it around 72F. At 65F average, we were probably spending $800 a season (that was actually 4 years ago, since we installed the hot blast 3 years ago). I suspect now, it'd be around $1500 easily per season.

Why i love wood; my inlaws have about 90acres combined of wooded land, we take what nature has decided to give us (i.e. fallen trees). This has the bonus of heating our house and clearing the woods out of dead wood (maintenance).

I feel sorry for my co-workers, most are averaging $250 - $350 a month and this was before we got close to 0F ;-)

Tes

 

[jrclen]

We are saving money today. It was -22F this morning. Was -20F yesterday morning. They say it may warm up to +2 later today. It's nice and sunny and between the sun coming in the south windows and the fireplace burning, the furnace hasn't run since my wife built the fire. Normally it would run every 15 or 20 minutes in this weather. Saving gasoline too because it is just to cold to bother going any where.

 

[hanko]

lets see now, hum! money saved. $3500 charmaster wood furnace, $6000 Timberwolf splitter, $5000 timberwolf conveyor. New chain saw $600. Man this savin money #### is allright. Maybe in 10 years it will payfor itself, be all wore out so i can start over again. I do like the $20 gas bills every month, I do like being out side cuttin wood, keeps me in shape and I give the propane truck the finger when he drives by. Forget all the #####in I just did. Id rather burn wood
HH

 

[Tesen]

We are saving money today. It was -22F this morning. Was -20F yesterday morning. They say it may warm up to +2 later today. It's nice and sunny and between the sun coming in the south windows and the fireplace burning, the furnace hasn't run since my wife built the fire. Normally it would run every 15 or 20 minutes in this weather. Saving gasoline too because it is just to cold to bother going any where.

-22F? I'll stop complaining about 2 - 3F weather now What kind of setup do you have? OWB or stove?

Tes

 

[Kansas]

We sure dont have it as bad as a lot of you guys here in the midwest no -20 or anything on a regular basis. We get 0 to -10 at the very worst and 15-20 is average and even at that I save about $400 per month at my business (auto repair shop) and we use a corn/wood pellet stove at the house and a fireplace and save aprox $200 there. It has paid for a couple saws recently and a couple grinders and a bunch of beer with money to spare.

 

[CharlieG]

It's not often that an investment (stove, chainsaws, Husqvarna BB caps ) can pay for itself so quickly, and over and over again. I like to spend the money saved on the family, not some oil conglomerations buyouts for its executive staff !

 

[Hugenpoet]

Can't be as precise as some of you that have been burning for many years without using oil/gas/electic for much other than hot water (and some not even for that) however, I keep telling myself that a simple rule of thumb is tha one cord of wood equals approximately 170 gallons of #2 Fuel Oil-after adjustment for differing efficiency of systems (Jotul Oslo 72%-new last year oild furnace 86%) I am saving approximately $400.oo per cord-bought three cord at $200/cord and cut three cord myself so my wood averaged $100. The rest is simple $400. times six cord equals $2400. savings. Next year will save full $500 per cord-assuming #2 stays at approximately $3.25 per gallon, as I am now gather all my own wood. Will pay for the stoves, installation, copper wood baskets, chains saws, new tractor, safety gear, etc., etc. hopefully sometime before I depart to the giant wood pile in the sky.

Hugenpoet