mking7 said:rdust said:If I had NG available to me I would've probably never looked at wood for heat it would've only been used for fires in my fireplace. I have propane so it's a no brainer for me, even if I had to purchase wood. 4K a year for propain and the pay back happens really quick.
Now that I have heated with wood I'm hooked. If I ever sell this joint the next place will be heated with wood regardless of the type of fuel available to me.
I probably live in the mildest climate of anyone on here, Central Texas....but we do have a winter that requires heat. I just moved to a home last year that wasn't on a natural gas pipeline feed and am on propane. WOW, what a difference in cost...The coldest winter of the month last year (it was down in the teens at night and the 30's in the day, cold winter for us), I burned 200 gallons of propane in 4.5 weeks. $550 to refill. I can buy the entire winter's wood for that. And I can cut much of what I need but if it was buy only, it's still a winner for me. Our winters are shorter than many of yours so the payback is longer but knowing that if the power goes out or the propane's empty or the central heat goes out (all three of which happened last winter) I am warm is worth a decent little bit...
The folks that we bought the house from had a wood stove that we thought (and actually still think) was ugly. BUT we were SOOOO happy to have it when it was 18 outside and had no heat. I cook in bbq competitions so I had some hickory out in the shop and we stayed warm off of that for several days. Now we are replacing the stove with something more of the look we like and we are sold on it. If we just break even, it's worth it to me. I keep a fire going all winter anyway, might as well get the heat out of it.
Out of curiosity, what type of wood do you get in West Texas? Soft (pines) or hard wood? I lived in Arizona for several years and firewood there was expensive in the Phoenix area. Not sure about the Sedona/Flagstaff area.