The Economy of Wood Heat

[Chris-PA]

Yet another Brush Ape alias.

 

[1project2many]

I use $75 / cord as the breakpoint. If it costs more than that I'll stop burning. That's actual cash outlay. I don't usually factor in time unless the firewood is taking away from a money making job. That rarely happens, though. Equipment costs are minimal and I work to take care of the equipment so the costs stay low. I've burned one tank of oil each year since 2006. In September it cost about $700 to refill the tank. I burn three and one half cord per year for the house. By my factoring that's $270. The security of knowing what my heating cost will be each year and the ability to budget for it is worth the work. I've got two years' worth of wood stockpiled so all I need to cover is the cost of oil for next year.

Lately most of the wood I get is within 5 miles of home. I've travelled up to 40 miles round trip for a years' worth of wood. It was a good deal that should have netted 8-9 cord for $30 (plus fuel, of course) but the weather turned before I could get more than half of it. I once travelled 140 miles for two cord of wood. But that was really because I needed to ensure my father had enough c/s/s for a couple of years at his place. He wouldn't accept help without giving me some of the wood so that cost me a bit. Luckily the firewood quarantines allow me a good excuse to refuse to transport wood back these days.

 

[No Regerts]

That's another way to calculate the value of your time. Take the heat bill subtract the actual expense of stockpiling wood and the difference is what you, "made."

 

[Locoweed]

We'll, this is a chainsaw forum. If you like to play with your saw, you might as well get some benefit from it. The exercise will probably do you good also.

 

[slowp]

I'm sure it isn't cheaper here. We have publicly owned (socialist) hydropower. Most houses have electric heat. There are no natural gas lines for 50 miles and propane and oil are spendy compared to electricity. We are rural. We are a logging/lumber mill economy. Most folks have chainsaws, have somebody in their family who has made a living with one, and have firewood at least for when the power goes off during a storm.

I've started doing a bit of thinning and timber stand conversion on my little place so will have a supply of alder. It isn't easy, I can't putt around on any equipment due to terrain and drainfield. I call it going to the gym.

 

[muddstopper]

When I first put in a wood stove, my electric bill dropped by $200 month. Had a big snow storm that winter, power was off for a week. With the wood stove, we had heat, wife cooked on top of the stove, so we had food. Its easy to put a price on what it cost to burn wood, if you care to take the time to do so. How to figure the price of having heat and hot food on the table when the power is off,, Hard to put a price on that.

 

[troylee]

If it wasn't for firewood/chainsaws, I wouldn't leave the house after work. We only have a fireplace, so my yearly wood supply would be filled with one days cutting. If I make any money at this wood business, so be it. If I don't, oh well, killing trees is my payment.

 

[johnnylabguy]

The draw of great money savings brought me back to burning wood, but like many others here have said, I enjoy it for so much more now:
-independence
-exercise
-enjoying the outdoors
-playing with toys but justifiable to wife
-legacy(grandpa and Dad burned wood. Good memories)

Heck I even bought a 13 acre woodlot to play on so ill probably never break even on wood heat. But I don't golf,watch football, or even hunt that much anymore. My wife never complains when I'm doing something productive and it's a great escape. I had more fun listening to the football game with my WorkTunes earmuffs on than sitting on the couch watching yesterday. Paying the oil bill is less fun than this:

 

[stihlaficionado]

All the free wood I want via my arborist friend. Round trip to & back from woodlot is 56 miles. Any jobs that I help him with in town I get as much wood as I want. Typical winter gas bill in my neck of the woods is approx $300-$500 a month.
last winter the largest bill we had was $98.00 & that includes running the water heater on gas.
So the insert paid for itself in 2 years.

 

[mga]

If I did it for the money, I wouldn't do it. Can't put a $ figure on the physical & mental benefit gained from a day collecting firewood vs. a day in front of the TV or at my desk in front of the computer.

Three years ago I burned $800 worth of wood to save $300 in natural gas over the winter after factoring in my Home Owners Insurance premium for a wood burner. Now I just sell the wood

you said $800 worth of wood. is that what it cost you, or is that what the wood was worth if you were selling it?

i look at it this way: if i have to buy wood, i'll just turn the thermostat up and stay home. the cost of wood isn't worth paying for it, the hassles of burning and cleaning all the time.

but, you do bring up a good point. if i were to sell my wood, i'd make out even after paying the gas and electric company.

now you got me thinking.......

 

[laynes69]

I know when dad lived here, at least 200 gallon of LP a month. Right now, the ripoff company we are contracted thru is charging 3.14 a gallon. So that's 628.00 + tax. We've tightened our home, but even in the worst of months, I'll burn up to a cord. I can get wood at 120.00 a cord here from the local amish, so that's quite a savings. They kept the house at 68 when they burned gas, we keep the house around 74-75 most of the winter. Like I mentioned before, I don't know exactly what LP would cost, just don't want to find out. So even if I bought wood, it's a win, but having some woods on the property, and good neighbors I'll continue cutting.

 

[NHMike]

Nothing warms you like wood heat! That being said, when we built our house, we put in geothermal as I didn't want to be married to a OWB.
I burn just for ambiance and have a fire just about every night. The fireplace is our backup heat source for when the power goes out. We lost power Wednesday afternoon and just got it back last night. House never dipped below 71.

Like others stated, I enjoy working outside and using all the tools. I am fortunate as we have 40 acres of woods. My cost is just fuel and wear & tear on tools and my time. It is a very rewarding feeling having all that wood split & stacked. I was able to help a friend out who lost their job and my sister who is having some life difficulties. I gave them 2 cords of prime wood each. I enjoyed processing the wood and knowing that I was able to help them keep warm for the winter exceeds the dollar value. ( so long as it does not take away from the day job!)

I love hunting, but if I tried to calculate the cost ratio, it would be so much cheaper to just go buy the meat at the store. But then I would miss out on time in the woods, and time spent bonding with the kids while hunting. What is THAT cost worth in dollars?? The kids are starting to take an interest in helping me process the wood now and enjoy the fires we have. Not everything in life can be based on a spread sheet........then again I guess that is why Donald Trump is a Billionaire & I will always be in the middle class. At least I get a lot more satisfaction tossing another log on the fire than he does turning up the thermostat.

 

[troylee]

All the free wood I want via my arborist friend. Round trip to & back from woodlot is 56 miles. Any jobs that I help him with in town I get as much wood as I want. Typical winter gas bill in my neck of the woods is approx $300-$500 a month.
last winter the largest bill we had was $98.00 & that includes running the water heater on gas.
So the insert paid for itself in 2 years.

56 miles? Over Bloomington way? I could use an arborist friend!

 

[troylee]

My buddy was spending 900 a month to heat his farm rental with LP in 2000. The owner didn't charge rent from Nov-Feb, said having someone in there was payment enough. House is still there, but empty. Can't tear it down till someone in the family dies.

 

[svk]

Our house burned 400 gallons of propane a month. Glad it's only for backup use

 

[No Regerts]

Sorry to hear about your power, NHMike. Definitely ya need a backup that doesn't require juice or get in a survival situation real quick.. Slowp I almost forgot about electric heat. That would run up a serious bill in most parts of North America.

 

[laynes69]

I have a buddy that lives in an uninsulated home, last year he burned over 64 full sized truck loads of wood. They said before they bought their OWB, their heating bill was very high. They spent 8,000 on the boiler. They can't keep up, he works a ton of hours and she is working now also. That would be a situation that would be tough. Unfortunately they could have invested that 8,000 in insulation along with a chimney liner and stove and in return burned a fraction of the wood and stayed much warmer. After spending that much for the boiler, they became slaves to it.

 

[square1]

you said $800 worth of wood. is that what it cost you, or is that what the wood was worth if you were selling it?

That's what I could have sold it for. Do have to admit that when burning wood the house was warmer all day & night than when when I use the gas furnace. It gets set back to 60 degrees at night & when gone to work) so the $300 savings is low if it were an apples to apples comparison.

 

[pro94lt]

Always glad to see intelligent threads here. I'd say 90% of adults look at burning wood as free.. and that it is not.

 

[timberjak]

I stopped burning wood while propane was around a 1.25 and less.

Last winter propane hit 4.99/gal. My prepaid would of ran out before the cold did.

I even run a tree service wood is not an issue. I used to give it away. Just did not want to cut more when i got done cutting all day.

I burn an owb. The heat does feel better. And i have kids who think doors are not supposed to be completely shut. Not to mention a power outage for extended periods is not that uncommon. I keep a regular woodstove handy as well just in case.

I do like being less dependent.




Timberjak