Manitoba Pine MBTU

[dvand]

Hello wood experts,

There's a local wood seller around here that sells Pine Firewood and has an add that has the following text:

"Consider your savings when burning firewood. As a rule of thumb, a half cord of dry, hard firewood yields about the same usable heat as 100 gallons of heating oil, a half-ton of hard coal, or about 2000 kilowatts of electricity."

The guy sells Pine for $225/cord or $160 for a 1/2 cord.

We have electricity here for $.063 per KWH so if I have a 70% efficient (EPA) fireplace i figure at about 17MMBTU per cord it's about a breakeven. SO, I sent a note to the seller saying so.

His reply was that he "firmly" believes OUR pine is more like 20.2MMBTU per cord.

So my question is: Is it even remotely possible local pine has higher MMBTU?

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Ok, I know that there is an exchange rate...but pine for $225 cord canadian dollars is a bit high I might say...so folks up in the great north will surely chime in. ((currently, right around $220 US dollars)
Most tree companies down here just chip it and dispose of it, as the btu's are not worth the effort.

If its free, go for it....maybe $100/cord is reasonable....but not $225/cord

 

[raybonz]

Hello wood experts,

There's a local wood seller around here that sells Pine Firewood and has an add that has the following text:

"Consider your savings when burning firewood. As a rule of thumb, a half cord of dry, hard firewood yields about the same usable heat as 100 gallons of heating oil, a half-ton of hard coal, or about 2000 kilowatts of electricity."

The guy sells Pine for $225/cord or $160 for a 1/2 cord.

We have electricity here for $.063 per KWH so if I have a 70% efficient (EPA) fireplace i figure at about 17MMBTU per cord it's about a breakeven. SO, I sent a note to the seller saying so.

His reply was that he "firmly" believes OUR pine is more like 20.2MMBTU per cord.

So my question is: Is it even remotely possible local pine has higher MMBTU?

Must be superpine

Ray

 

[EatenByLimestone]

It probably has around 15K btu/cord.

(broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)

Good on ya for asking if it sounded reasonable. You're far ahead of most and will do fine.

Matt

 

[patch53]

Ok, I know that there is an exchange rate...but pine for $225 cord canadian dollars is a bit high I might say...so folks up in the great north will surely chime in. ((currently, right around $220 US dollars)
Most tree companies down here just chip it and dispose of it, as the btu's are not worth the effort.

If its free, go for it....maybe $100/cord is reasonable....but not $225/cord

Gotta agree on this one. Pine is bascally junk wood. My guess is he's selling jack pine. I doubt he'll be selling much at that price. I wouldn't even pay $100/cord for that stuff.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Hello wood experts,

There's a local wood seller around here that sells Pine Firewood and has an add that has the following text:

"Consider your savings when burning firewood. As a rule of thumb, a half cord of dry, hard firewood yields about the same usable heat as 100 gallons of heating oil, a half-ton of hard coal, or about 2000 kilowatts of electricity."

The guy sells Pine for $225/cord or $160 for a 1/2 cord.

We have electricity here for $.063 per KWH so if I have a 70% efficient (EPA) fireplace i figure at about 17MMBTU per cord it's about a breakeven. SO, I sent a note to the seller saying so.

His reply was that he "firmly" believes OUR pine is more like 20.2MMBTU per cord.

So my question is: Is it even remotely possible local pine has higher MMBTU?

I like your logic but had to do the math myself, here's what I came up with.

1 kWh = 3412.14163 BTU
6.82 million BTU = 2000 kWh = $126 (@ $.063 per kWh rate)
If a cord of pine is 15 Million BTU adj. 70%=10.5 million BTU = 3223 kWh = $193 (@ $.063 per kWh Rate)
So if my math is correct a cord of pine (@15 MBTU per cord) would have to cost less than $193 for break even rate.
If my math is correct ;-P

As a side note, the pine out West here is a little higher in BTUs and it only cost about $100 a cord, so I guess those who buy it out here are better than breaking even, providing their stoves are 70% efficient.

 

[kalevi]

Are you sure your electricity is only $0.063 per kW/H. Have you figured in the other charges they have such as the transmission loss, tax, transmission fee, etc.? My rate in Ontario is also about $0.06 per kW/H but when I figure in all the other fees it is more like $0.10 per kW/H.

 

[dvand]

Manitoba has pretty cheap hydro so yes $.063 per KWH excluding PST and GST, so I guess $.070 taxes in. That's actually a good point. I should make sure to include taxes in the comparisons.