What does it REALLY cost

[redprospector]

I'm sure that we're saving a substantial amount by burning wood that we harvest ourselves, but I'm not sure everyone is saving as much as they think.
You have to figure in "wear & tear" on your truck &, or trailer. Yes, you would probably own the truck anyway, but would you have cut the sidewall out of that $150.00 tire if you hadn't been getting wood? Or dented that fender? Hauling a load is also more stress on the truck than running empty. What did your saw, splitter, trailer, etc. cost, and how long do you realisticly expect them to last? Even after all this there is still a savings.

If you are selling your wood on the side, you really need to be fair to your boss & yourself and figure in at least what you make per hour at your day job.
So if you make $20.00 hr at work, and it takes you 5 hours to: go, cut, load, haul, unload, split, reload, & deliver the wood..........You should realisticly figure in at least another $100.00 per cord (or however much) with the rest of your expenses.
If those who sell wood on the side figured in these expenses it would eliminate a lot of the lowballer's selling firewood out there.

I generally burn what doesn't sell well in my stove. The stuff that ain't pretty, has a little rot, short pieces, etc. So my wood doesn't cost much either, since I'd have to haul it off to get rid of it anyway.

Andy

 

[wdchuck]

The last time 'cost per cord' was calculated, fuel was around $4/gal.

At that time, my high cost was $65/cord.
travel both ways(120mi rt)
bulk cutting
processing

Now it is much less with the drop in fuel cost, and travel distance is shorter to the current sources.

We went from 380gals of LP every month, to 380gals in 8months. So, if you figure that reduction in usage, we have realized a savings of thousands of dollars per year.
So much so, that even after woodfurnace, piping, ducting, saws, consumables, dumptruck, trailer, 48hp tractor/loader, we should break even by the end of this winter.

Insulation, windows....etc...will be the final stage to retain heat, and hopefully reduce the amount of wood required to be comfortable.

We started burning wood because we wanted to remain where we lived, if wood were not an option, we would have had to move. So, over five years later, we look at what needs to be done in the future when we have more money for extensive renovations.
One might say, the money spent on large equipment to harvest wood, may have been better spent on weatherization of the house, BUT, the equipment can be sold and money recouped, whereas used home improvement products don't bring much on the resale market, and a house without siding or windows would look a bit strange.

 

[wdchuck]

I'm sure that we're saving a substantial amount by burning wood that we harvest ourselves, but I'm not sure everyone is saving as much as they think.
You have to figure in "wear & tear" on your truck &, or trailer. Yes, you would probably own the truck anyway, but would you have cut the sidewall out of that $150.00 tire if you hadn't been getting wood? Or dented that fender? Hauling a load is also more stress on the truck than running empty. What did your saw, splitter, trailer, etc. cost, and how long do you realisticly expect them to last? Even after all this there is still a savings.

If you are selling your wood on the side, you really need to be fair to your boss & yourself and figure in at least what you make per hour at your day job.
So if you make $20.00 hr at work, and it takes you 5 hours to: go, cut, load, haul, unload, split, reload, & deliver the wood..........You should realisticly figure in at least another $100.00 per cord (or however much) with the rest of your expenses.
If those who sell wood on the side figured in these expenses it would eliminate a lot of the lowballer's selling firewood out there.

I generally burn what doesn't sell well in my stove. The stuff that ain't pretty, has a little rot, short pieces, etc. So my wood doesn't cost much either, since I'd have to haul it off to get rid of it anyway.

Andy

When I sell wood, and it is a lot of work to get a final product, the monetary calculation in mind is simple.

Is there more money in my pocket after all that work? If the answer is yes, then I am ahead. If the answer is no, the obviously something is askew.

IF you make $20/hr at work, then who is paying you that much while you are sleeping, eating, fishing, hunting, mowing, washing your car, etc.......nobody. So its a matter of personal perspective.

I look at net dollars, and when there is more at the end than at the beginning, then I am winning.

 

[redprospector]

When I sell wood, and it is a lot of work to get a final product, the monetary calculation in mind is simple.

Is there more money in my pocket after all that work? If the answer is yes, then I am ahead. If the answer is no, the obviously something is askew.

IF you make $20/hr at work, then who is paying you that much while you are sleeping, eating, fishing, hunting, mowing, washing your car, etc.......nobody. So its a matter of personal perspective.

I look at net dollars, and when there is more at the end than at the beginning, then I am winning.

That's a good way to look at it, I guess.
But, if you are willing to settle for $5.00 hr to cut wood for someone else, that's not really fair to your boss, or your self. Most people are probably working harder for their wood, than they are at their day job.
So if you're happy if you wind up with a little more in your pocket at the end of the day, by all means go for it. But remember these words of wit when something breaks and you have to dig into your family's living to pay for it.

Good luck,
Andy

 

[cityevader]

True, I never really thought about every moment not at my "day job" is every moment I'm NOT getting paid. So every buck "off-duty" is technically extra net income.

However, yesterday I spent a ridiculous amount of effort over a painful four hour span to get a quarter cord of Locust. If the remaining wood takes as long...16 hours for a cord?!?!?

Here with California Bay Area high living costs, at $300/cord I'd need to produce 12 cords/month to simply pay my mortgage. 4 cords for two cars and gas payments. 2 cords for food. 1 cord for misc bills.

To pay the most obvious bills and yet still not be able to survive, would take 300 hours of the brutal work a month. That's 37 8-hour days a month!!! I know, I know....not every 1/4 cord takes 4 hours by a long shot.

Let's say a more realistic 4 hrs finding/cutting/transporting/splitting/stacking for each cord.... that's 9 8-hour days....more than what the weekends can provide.

Without tools for mass-production, (even using my splitter) the only thing I can say is that every gruelling day of energy spent gathering wood is "X" amount of dollars not going to the propane guy.

Is it all worth it?
YEAH!!!

 

[avalancher]

Another thing to consider it the "taxable" dollars versus the wages you earn at work.Sure, you may earn 20.00 per hour at work, but your lucky if you bring 15.00 of that home with you.
Since most wood sellers sell under the table, it all goes into your pocket after your expenses instead of 25 percent going to uncle sam so that he can buy a $200 toilet seat.
I enjoy the work, may not make the big bucks doing it, but every year I have come out at the 10-13 dollars an hour rate selling wood, even after expenses.

 

[CowboyAndy]

There is more than just the expenses. Because I wood heat, I can keep it much warmer than I could afford to do with purchased fuels. If I am burning wood to keep the den at 75-80 degrees (other parts of the house get colder), that is certainly cheaper AND more comfortable than trying to do the same with natural gas.

I agree, that is the biggest thing about heating with wood.

Last year, heating with oil, we spent $3800 to keep our house at 64 night, 67 day and 62 when no one was home.

This year, it is 75 ish most of the time. That there is worth it.


Not counting the furnace and SS liner, installation, etc, my costs are:

gas for tow vehicle, 3 miles each way, 1/2 a cord at a time @ 12 mpg towing avg gas price $3.75 = $7.50/cord X 12 cords = $90

Gas for saw, premuim @ $4.50 avg, plus 2 stroke oil, went through 4 gal gas and 4 small bottles oil @ $1.25 each = $23.00 / 12 = $1.91 per cord

Bar oil, 2 gal @ $5 each = $10 = $.83 oer cord

Chain sharpening, 4 chains 4 times each @ $6 per chain per sharpening = $96 / 12 = $8 per cord

gas for splitter, premium @ $4.50, 6 tanks @ 1/2 gal each = $13.50 / 12 = $1.12 per cord

Totals

Per cord = $19.36

Total for season (12 cords is 2 years wood) $220.12 / 2 = $110.06 per year, every year

Gear

Furnace = $3800
plenums, ductwork and supplies = $250
SS Liner = $1300
Saw = $289
Extra 16" chain = $15
14" bar = $40
2-14" chains = $30
felling wedges = $10
hatchet = $15
trailer = $200

Total: $5949


It will take 1 1/2 years to even out the cost of the furnace and major investments (saw, trailer, etc).

 

[pdqdl]

You need to buy a couple of files.

You'll save money and time, considering that you probably have to drive to wherever you're getting the chains sharpened.

Then there is always the "I did it myself" satisfaction so prevalent among woodcutters.

 

[wdchuck]

When I started burning wood, someone told me it wasn't worth my time, " go work parttime at McD's and just pay for LP".
Well, after doing the math, and time requirement, I'd have had to work full time plus OT to pay for the LP in winter.

How much time/cost did it take in the beginning?
Full size rusty van, 7' inside depth, had to keep the second row chairs in for children.
800# capacity boat trailer with a piece of 4x8 plywood over the rollers.
$99 wild thing
$30 dolly with pneumatic tires
$24 wheelbarrow
borrowed splitter for the first season.
$100 vogelzang boxwood stove.
$50 in cheap black smokepipe
Knocking on doors and asking farmers/landowners for permission to cut dead wood.

One dark-to-dark day per cord, leaving the house in the morning, all the time/handling/processing/drying in between, and tossing the wood downstairs. That came to 12hrs/cord, and that would keep us and new babies warm enough, warmer than the LP at many times the cost.

The point? No job I have had, ever paid enough money in one days wages to pay what our LP bill would have been, and it was $0.98/gal at that time. We were going through 380gals/mo. to heat the house to 63*.

Some repetition in this post, and many folks won't save as much we do, but then, if the difference were only couple hundred bucks per month or less, then we'd have taken a different approach.

 

[MJR]

I look at it as mental health time. How much is that worth?

 

[Jon E]

You guys have all brought up good points, but the biggest one for me is that if I wasn't in the woods trying to save money, I'd probably be out somewhere spending the money I did make, on stuff I didn't need.

I bought my Central Boiler OWB before I even built my house. I figured that somewhere down the road, it would pay for itself. That was when propane was under two bucks a gallon (in 2003). I have a woodlot, a sawmill (gives me slabwood) and enough equipment to feed the OWB with wood. I can only guess that I'd be burning between 1000 and 1500 gallons of propane a year, based on the size of my house and the size of my family, so that's somewhere between $2000 and $5000 money saved annually. I heat our domestic hot water with the OWB too.

I bought two saw chains, five gallons of gas, some bar oil, some 2-cycle mix, ten gallons of diesel and repaired one flat tractor tire for all of 2008, so that's about $150 worth of supplies, and my time, to get 8-10 cords of firewood. I burn anything that comes my way - pine, hardwood, pallets, scraps, stumps, wood chips, whatever. It's all wood, it all burns. I can't even figure out where I'd come up with the money to buy propane anyway - it's just not in the budget. If somebody came and passed a law saying I couldn't burn wood, we'd all freeze.

 

[bigjake]

Lets see i drag race in the summer and cut wood in the winter sooooooo
if i didnt have cad and i DONT .i would be at the bar drinking so i save huge
amount .i figured about a 100.00 a month i am saving its not the money its
the fun and hangin out with the guys.

 

[Austin1]

I guess it depends on how much time you spend driving out to the wood's. I don't count bar oil as a expense plus the 2 or three litres of Fuel my saw's take for cutting up at least a half cord I usually bring 3/4 of a cord home with me.I try and get wood on every hunting or fishing trip I go on the firewood permit here is $5.00 it's good for one month or two full cords of wood, I normally burn at today's price about $25.00 to $30.00 fuel in a full size v8 truck. My gas bill a month for winter is about $60.00 to heat the home wile I am away at work. The dog has not yet learned how to fill the stove he rather run the saw!lol
But I have such a good time cutting my wood it is priceless! Now that I have a splitter much less work too. I like to keep the house 1200sq feet about 72-74 in winter yet in summer I run the air if it gets above 72 I like a warm home in the winter and a cool one in the summer.
I just like to try new techniques in felling trees and any time spent out in the forest is good for the sole. I love it when I can make a tree fall up hill from me.

 

[johncinco]

I save $49 a month gym membership fee.

I spend $49 a month on internet, so I can make sure I know how do it right! :greenchainsaw:


I love riding motorcycles. I always say "you never see a motorcycle parked outside a psychiatrists office". I guess I can add " you never see a truck full of saws and cut lumber outside a psychiatrists office" as well.

 

[dnf0929]

I looked at it this way which happens to be the first year of selling any wood. Just in terms of rough, rounded figures I made enough in just over month to pay for my splitter and saw, heat my house for the winter, spend a ton of time outside and get in the best physical shape I've been in years. Seems worth it to me. Think I'll keep doing it for a while.

 

[Dok]

Well, lets see...
If I wasn't out in the woods collecting firewood I'd be out in the woods doing something else. Actually I hunt in the morning and cut in the afternoon, saves a trip. I know myself well enough to know if I wasn't cutting wood I'd probably be doing some other hobby that is more expensive. My wife, two sons and dog all participate and that's priceless.
Dok

 

[strongback]

Wood---Free (Tree guys were literally stopping at the house to ask me to take it)
Transport---$4.00-$5.00
Saw gas---$7.00 (2 gallons for the whole season @$3.50 )
Splitter rental --- $120.00
Accessories --- 2 new chains $70.00; pack of files <$10.00?
Saw --- $56.00 ($280.00 Husky Rancher depreciated over 5 year? life expectancy)
Truck and trailer --- $0.00 (deductible business assets)
My time --- $0.00 (All wood processing was accomplished during my free time so, by definition if I was processing wood it was because I couldn't find a more profitable use of my time.)
Electric Fans --- $100.00 per winter (Just a WAG)
Insert --- $0.00 (it came with the house)

Total wood heat costs --- $368.00

Oil heating costs --- At least $1200.00 and that is keeping the house 10-15* cooler than I do with wood. I don't know the USD equivilant of having your 6 month old's fingers and toes be warm when you pick him up but twice the price wouldn't be too much for me.
Electric for oil furnace --- about $100.00 (just a WAG because I don't use it)

Approx. Total Oil Heat --- $1300.00

Savings per Winter --- $932.00*

*Health benefits; Quality Time; Lifes Lessons; Sense of Accomplishment; Baking Potatoes on top of the insert; Giving my dog a place to curl up; Welcoming Aroma; Romantic getaway without a babysitter; non-electric night light and having something to do besides getting a snack during commercials not included in the savings calculation.

 

[cutty_McButter]

I like the idea of wood stove, perhaps in the basement or maybe a fireplace insert, if I had a fireplace that is. I like the idea of going out and working and having something physical to show for a day's work. Having said that, I live in a an area of the country where electricity is cheap. I keep the house ~70 day/night and our electric bill which includes our source of heat, the electric heat pump is always less than $200/month summer or winter. I guess for me the payback even though I could get the wood off my own property would be in "feel good" and not in dollars.

 

[AIM]

Just realized another cost when ya add up the total.
I purchased one of those large propane torches to make starting fires easier. Keeping the boiler going 24/7 is the idea but I'll admit to letting it go out about a half dozen times last year... WOOPS....

Saved my rear big time once last winter. Been out late with the wife at a friends drinkin beer till 1 or so. Came home on what had to be the worst weather on earth. 10 degrees/ 30 mph winds/ and a stinging snow/ and no fire!

Wasn't sober enough to see straight let alone find kindling etc. Daughter and future son in law that drove us home helped me start a fire with the torch and soon enough we were up and running. The $50 I paid for the torch paid itself off that night alone due to the fact that it took 5 minutes versus 20 minutes to be back up and burnin.

So I'll go ahead and add $50 to my cost for the torch.
If I have to add the cost of my daughter and future son in law then I better quit burnin.

 

[bowtechmadman]

I'll keep doing it if I'm losing money just the the physical and mental health benefits! Bonus is that I really enjoy the house being 73 instead of 65 in the winter.