In my time on this forum (a youngster of a year and a bit) I've seen the relative cost of wood heating versus other methods come up a few times. I thought I'd make a few points as an attempt to consolidate my opinions, and maybe provide a link when the subject inevitably comes up again. Too often the discussion revolves around cost per therm/btu/whatever, but that conversation so often misses other points
Differences between heating with wood and other sources (pellets have the benefits of wood for many of these):
1. Reduced area. You don't heat an entire house or floor: I close doors, and use curtains to close off areas of the house we use less often. Just by closing the curtains to the dining room and spare bedroom, I am dropping my sq. ft. by about 400 - almost a quarter of my house that now isn't heated. Of course there's still heat loss into these rooms, but I'm definitely dropping my effective sq ft of heating. With other heating you often you have control via thermostat of a floor at a time. While you can close vents on baseboard heat and air supplies for forced hot air, I've never found the rooms get as cold as when I simply shut them off completely.
2. Focal heating. There is a gradient of heat through the house. While this takes getting used to I like it - our living room is positively warm, while other rooms hover in the mid to high 60s, at least through the morning and afternoon. I much prefer this than resenting the heating coming on to keep the house at 68 degrees
3. Heating when you're home: There are peaks and valleys in heating - while the first hour after getting up can be cool, the heating follows our activity in the house much more than if I'd set a thermostat.
4. Green and foreign policy aspect - for some of us it's a lifestyle choice, whether the cost is equitable or not - reducing reliance on fossil fuels and using a more sustainable (if still far from perfect) fuel
5. Heat (and heat for cooking) when the power is out.
Of course there's then the usual conversation about free wood - I get mine for free, but even if the cost was near equitable, I would still choose to heat with wood. As it happens I think that once you get beyond a therm to therm comparison (and even then wood does well even with the low price of gas at the moment) the benefits above must be taken into account.
Differences between heating with wood and other sources (pellets have the benefits of wood for many of these):
1. Reduced area. You don't heat an entire house or floor: I close doors, and use curtains to close off areas of the house we use less often. Just by closing the curtains to the dining room and spare bedroom, I am dropping my sq. ft. by about 400 - almost a quarter of my house that now isn't heated. Of course there's still heat loss into these rooms, but I'm definitely dropping my effective sq ft of heating. With other heating you often you have control via thermostat of a floor at a time. While you can close vents on baseboard heat and air supplies for forced hot air, I've never found the rooms get as cold as when I simply shut them off completely.
2. Focal heating. There is a gradient of heat through the house. While this takes getting used to I like it - our living room is positively warm, while other rooms hover in the mid to high 60s, at least through the morning and afternoon. I much prefer this than resenting the heating coming on to keep the house at 68 degrees
3. Heating when you're home: There are peaks and valleys in heating - while the first hour after getting up can be cool, the heating follows our activity in the house much more than if I'd set a thermostat.
4. Green and foreign policy aspect - for some of us it's a lifestyle choice, whether the cost is equitable or not - reducing reliance on fossil fuels and using a more sustainable (if still far from perfect) fuel
5. Heat (and heat for cooking) when the power is out.
Of course there's then the usual conversation about free wood - I get mine for free, but even if the cost was near equitable, I would still choose to heat with wood. As it happens I think that once you get beyond a therm to therm comparison (and even then wood does well even with the low price of gas at the moment) the benefits above must be taken into account.