Actual cost of "free wood"...VS pellets

[jdonna]

I have a retired farmer neighbor who is 86 and loves burning wood. We will work together sometimes and it is his claim to health and longevity being out in the woods with the saws.

Everyone has their personal reasons and preferences. Me personally, having a pellet stove as a secondary source to my wood stove is the best of both worlds. Can be gone on the weekend, stay late at work or whatever but yet not rely on feeding it pellets constantly.

Bottom line, not using propane and staying energy independent is worth it to me.

I read recently that electricity prices are up 42% on average across the nation from a year ago. I wonder how long until the natural gas market trends upward? Seems like there is only two guarantees.... Inflation and Unforeseen price hikes.

 

[jeffesonm]

I started splitting and stacking wood because the property I was renting at had a few trees taken down and it seemed like good fun. Every once in a while, I'd burn some in the open fireplace for the ambiance.

Fast forward a few years and I've got my own house, probably 15+ cords c/s/s and hardly anywhere left to stack more. I'm contemplating a wood boiler or second stove so I can get through it faster.

Collecting, cutting splitting and stacking is what I enjoy... "free" heat is a convenient byproduct of my hobby.

 

[wenger7446]

Cost of gas, equipment, maintenance, you name it, more than I care to admit, but hey, free exercise!
Depriving the county of $8.00 tax revenue on every $200 worth of pellets I don't buy, priceless!

Part of my motivation is just what Dudley posted. Lack of tax revenue.

 

[slowzuki]

I keep getting people dumping wood here so I haven't had to cut any trees in a while. I store my wood in pallet huts and apple bins. A bit less than 1/2 cord in my pallet huts, about 1/4 cord in the heaped stacked apple bins.

Cutting, splitting, stacking into the apple bins takes about 30 mins per bin with the splitter over the bin, so 1/2 cord per hour roughly. Moving bins adds some time too. Cutting splitting stacking into the wood huts takes about 2x longer as wood can't fall down from splitter into the hut and you have to kill your back stooped over stacking inside it.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Have you mentioned this to your doctor? I'm in my mid seventies and although I've slowed down considerably I can still fell and block a cord on one day and split the next with plenty of time left over.

MY hat is off to you "Sir"

 

[Deering]

I burn both pellets and cordwood and I agree with most of the arguments made for both. But if you want to experience the true cost of burning cordwood in a woodstove, try rolling over in bed early one morning in a cold house and whispering the suggestion into your wife's ear that she go fire up the woodstove so the house is warm when you get up. I've tried that. The cost was...visceral.

 

[arngnick]

It made sense for me because it helps keep the property cleaned up. So the time would be spent cutting it anyway.

 

[BoilerMan]

life cycle of a wood burner
teenager = why are we burning wood its a lot easier to just go buy a tank of fuel
20's = I don't know why you guys waste so much time with fire wood when you could be out having fun.
early 30's = Hmm we spent an awful lot of money to heat the house. (Man am I getting fat)
late 30's = man those guys that burn fire wood might be onto something. (buy a stove a chainsaw and a maul)
40's = I really like this fire wood thing
50's = my back hurts (buy a hydraulic splitter, some type of front end loader, and try to get the teenager interested in helping out)
60's = well you know it might be cheaper to burn pellets or coal. yeah I could still burn wood if I wanted to but it is cheaper to burn pellets
70's = I remember back in my day...
80's = ....
and repeat

Can tell your not from Maine

I fall into one of your lower age groups, and well I have a splitter (too young for that) and have been burning wood since well my teens.
Now that I've built my own house wood was the only fuel I'd consider (although coal was a top candidate). Sadly I'm now on the brink of moving up one of your age classes in a week............

Oh and my back has always hurt.

TS

 

[Lapeer20m]

I live on 60 acres in a forest. It would be silly for me to not burn wood.

While I agree its not free, it requires surprisingly small quantities of gasoline to produce a cord of wood, especially since I don't need a truck to haul my wood home.

If it takes 3 gallons of gas to process a cord of ash (about 3k pounds)

I don't know the cost of 1.5 tons of pellets, plus fuel to haul tem, and your time moving and stacking.

Everyone has their own unique set of circumstance that may dictate that one fuel makes more sense than the other. For me and my household firewood works best for us.

This spring my buddy and I are planning to build a processor which should allow us to process an estimated 1-3 cord per hour. In a single day ill easily be able to process all of my firewood for an entire season.

We have an owb that only requires loading every 12-24 hours, so our house has nice even heat and I don't wake up to a cold house.

 

[rowerwet]

grew up lugging wood and doing some of the splitting until age 10, parents built a new house with low oil usage.
Got into pellet burning in my mid 30's as the oil beast was about to croak (per wrong! oil co service guys)
Late 30's, move to an old drafty house with a wood stove. This will be my first season heating almost 100% with wood I cut and split my self.
Heating my much smaller house in ME with pellets still ran about $1,000/year.
There is NO WAY my wood for this season and next season or more cost anywhere near a grand!
Even figuring the $225 dollar saw, the $180 saw, the $120 splitter and the $50 Fiskars axe (last year so $25) plus all the sharpeners, safety gear ($80), waggon, etc. (which cost less per season as I use them, and could be resold at the same cost or better)
My chainsaw and splitter gas is free, but even the gas for the van to pull the trailer wasn't bad.
I may have spent a grand for two seasons of heat, to heat a MUCH larger house.
Health wise, I nordic skate, row, mountain bike, or paddle a few times a week, wood was just another work out.

 

[jdonna]

Patience, creativity and blessings help lower the costs of cord wood. I help my father in-law farm and there was a very bad ice storm last winter, so every time I drive my truck and bring the saws with and come back with another load of wood. Had to drive anyways, so two-birds with one stone and they have a grove now that is free of man-killer hangers that the grand-kids won't get hurt around. I was starting to worry a little bit about our wood supply! We are finally diversified from burning 10 years of super dry white elm.

 

[iceguy4]

I live on 60 acres in a forest. It would be silly for me to not burn wood.

While I agree its not free, it requires surprisingly small quantities of gasoline to produce a cord of wood, especially since I don't need a truck to haul my wood home.

If it takes 3 gallons of gas to process a cord of ash (about 3k pounds)

I don't know the cost of 1.5 tons of pellets, plus fuel to haul tem, and your time moving and stacking.

Everyone has their own unique set of circumstance that may dictate that one fuel makes more sense than the other. For me and my household firewood works best for us.

This spring my buddy and I are planning to build a processor which should allow us to process an estimated 1-3 cord per hour. In a single day ill easily be able to process all of my firewood for an entire season.

We have an owb that only requires loading every 12-24 hours, so our house has nice even heat and I don't wake up to a cold house.

Youtube has a kool bobcat with a processer on it...grabs the log, advances log chainsaw swipes it and it drops ...ram pushes throw star blade over wood pile.

 

[simple.serf]

Wood is my main hobby these days. I took a week off this spring to get all of next year's wood. I'm 28. My wife and I do everything we can to be as self sufficient as possible. Not because we feel that "the end is near", but because we feel it is the right thing to do. Not being reliant on the big corporations is an important part of our lives. Our goal for next year is to grow/raise 75% of our own food. This shouldn't be too hard given that we run a small egg and vegetable operation. We get our "free" wood as part of our farming operation (we help another farm with 2500 taps of maple), and I have to be out cutting all of that wood anyways. Dad and I split a used splitter, and I had most of the tools anyways (what farm doesn't have a good chainsaw and an axe). I grew up heating with wood, and I really really hate paying the $1600 oil bill.

Pellets would have required the same amount of $ spent on the actual burner itself, plus the ongoing cost of pellets. Then factor in control boards, motors, blowers, etc. (I fix large commercial ovens for my regular job... Gotta factor in the inventoried parts), and the cost of burning pellets is about the same.

My wife just said that what it really comes down to is a question of value. Is it more important to not be spending the time getting the wood and doing the work, or do you enjoy spending the time in the woods cutting? Everybody is going to have a different answer as to what part of this is important to them.

Anybody have both a pellet burner and a wood burner that they are using about equally, who can take really really good records?

 

[dmmoss51]

Something else I thought of is the income taxes you don't pay on the.money you save. I save about $500 per year over natural gas with fed state ss Medicare taxes that's about 800 in gross income not to mention the taxes on the utility bill that I include in that 500 or with the comparison to pellets state sales tax.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Something else I thought of is the income taxes you don't pay on the.money you save. I save about $500 per year over natural gas with fed state ss Medicare taxes that's about 800 in gross income not to mention the taxes on the utility bill that I include in that 500 or with the comparison to pellets state sales tax.

Exactly ,a lot of people overlook the fact that they have to earn about $1000 for every $600 they give to the conventional fuels people,some of which includes MORE taxes.

 

[arngnick]

Never thought much about the tax advantages with burning wood. Saving on income, sales, and fuel specific taxes. This is becoming more important and true with a nation who's debt is reaching 17Trillion. No doubt our taxes will be going no where but UP!

 

[vwmike]

We have both in our house, and I can't help but treat the pellet stove like the Ng furnace. I know I just paid 200/ton for the pellets, so don't wanna waste them. Seeing as firewood only costs me some free time and a little gas money I never hesitate to throw another log on the fire..... !

 

[perchin]

We have both in our house, and I can't help but treat the pellet stove like the Ng furnace. I know I just paid 200/ton for the pellets, so don't wanna waste them. Seeing as firewood only costs me some free time and a little gas money I never hesitate to throw another log on the fire..... !

^^^^ This is exactly my scenario as well. I burn approximately 2.5-3.5 tons of pellets and 12 to 15 face cord a year. I haul in the back of the pickup, and pull a large tandem axle trailer to maximize my loads per trip out. I easily spend more on the pellets.

 

[iceguy4]

and I can't help but treat the pellet stove like the Ng furnace.

Wish I had a NG furnace. I wouldn't have installed a pellet boiler. It would be hard for me to put in pellets if I was saving so little. Saving is saving though and I have burned wood instead of NG too. Pay back of my equipment will be a few more years, but it will pay for its self.....then comes profit.

 

[JP11]

Price

Frankly.. it's not ALL about the price. Now, if oil was 10 cents a gallon.. I might not be so crazy about wood.

I have a bit of acreage. It's almost entirely wooded. That wood is NOT going anywhere with respect to price. Ok, if gasoline went to 50 bucks a gallon it may cost me a bit more for my saw gas and splitter gas, and diesel for the tractor to log.

In reality, it's got many benefits. Stable cost, gets me exercise. Is "green" and renewable in my lifetime. It's a great feeling to have two years worth of "heat" piled up and ready to go. The security means more to me than the dollars and cents.

JP

 

[iceguy4]

The security means more to me than the dollars and cents

Agreed...no worse a feeling then heating season approaching with your pellet stash still being at the store... No wait...it would feel worst to have heating season approaching with NO pellets at the store!! If the crap "hits the fan" pellet burners will wish they were wood burners!

 

[rowerwet]

I cut my fuel bill in half going from oil to pellets, would have been fun to see what pellets to wood would have saved in the same house.
of course if you want to figure in the cost of the equipment for pellets I didn't save a cent

 

[iceguy4]

if you want to figure in the cost of the equipment for pellets

what kind of stove and equipment?

$2174.00 is what I figure I'll save just this year! $1691.00 last year.. pretty good start on capital investment payback....figure 4 years total to break even.

 

[rowerwet]

$7,200 outdoor pellet boiler, 85' of thermopex, 20 plate brazed heat exchanger, 2 taco circulator pumps, cement pad, 100 feet 12 gage underground wiring, 150' 1" pex, cicuit breaker, ash bucket, plenty of fittings, black iron pipe and the wrenches to install it. In all I saved about $3,500 in oil over 4 years.
trying to sell the pellet boiler, thermopex, circulators, HX, with no luck, right now I'm looking into getting a hot tub with the electronics shot to hook it to. Might be the only pellet fired hot tub around...

 

[YkDave]

I've done a lot of calculations and comparisons between different heat sources, in my particular case and probably about the same for everyone it went from most expensive being oil, propane, pellet, wood

But, if I have to actually buy wood, that throws the wood advantage out the window @ $350/cord

Wood costs me, out of pocket, about $70 a cord. I have to make a 320km round trip to get a load of wood which sucks but it's a good way to spend the Saturdays. That's $60 in fuel for the truck and ~$10 gas/oil in the saw

Of course their are the unexpected maintenance costs that add to the cost of the wood (such as being 160km from home ready to cut wood and realizing the oil pump drive gear on the saw is FUBAR, so you just cut your load of wood anyways and burn up a chain and bar, $80, but I'd rather smoke the chain and bar and still come home with wood than waste the fuel and a day!)

Burning around a cord a month takes my heating bill from $600-700 a month on propane to less than $100

I had pondered switching to pellets for the convenience(already had the wood stove) but with pellets running me appx $400 a month it would take a few years to recover the cost of the stove

So long story short, in my case pellets are about 4x the price of wood, and oil/propane nearly double the price of pellets