the value of wood heat?

[Woody Stover]

What is the value of time spent in front of the tv? Or adding new posts to the wood burning forum?

Almost no value at all...both are mostly reruns.

unless we are running around like the three stooges there might not be any cardio to benefit our hearts.

I can't get the quad all the way down to the wood that's in some of these ravines. Packing those rounds up to the trailer, I guarantee you will be huffin' an' puffin'!

 

[mstoelton]

The value of wood heat? Here you go.

I live in SE Michigan. We have cold winters. We live in a 1600 sq ft ranch with a full finished basement.

We started burning in an EPA rated hearthstone Clydesdale in our basement a little over 4 years ago. We liked the wood heat so much by January of 2013 we decided to add another insert in fireplace on the main floor of the house.

We have not spent anything on natural gas for heat since that time. We totally heat with wood now. I keep the furnace on set at 60 degrees in case of a problem, but it never comes on.

Savings is ~$350 per month in December - March and another $175 per month in November and April.

The best part is that the normal temperature in our house is ~72-76 degrees. Balmy - I wear shorts most of the time in our house.

Most days I start the fires when I wake-up. Many times the automatic fans on the inserts are still providing heat from the fire the night before.

We have burned through about 3-4 cords this winter, but still have a few in reserve.

It truly is a lifestyle. When we heated with nat gas our home would have cold spots, now we use small fans to move the heat around the house.

Value? We recently had a significant power outage in SE Michigan. Many people were without power for more than 7 days and had to abandon their homes due to the cold weather. We had a small generator to power essentials and continued heating our home with wood. It was a little inconvenient to gas the generator, but we never missed a beat with the heating in our house. I would not be without wood heat in a cold climate.

Yes there has been a cost for the inserts, the chainsaws and the wood splitter, but I also get to haul, handle and split and stack all of my fuel. it is great exercise.

 

[begreen]

Value? We recently had a significant power outage in SE Michigan. Many people were without power for more than 7 days and had to abandon their homes due to the cold weather. We had a small generator to power essentials and continued heating our home with wood. It was a little inconvenient to gas the generator, but we never missed a beat with the heating in our house. I would not be without wood heat in a cold climate.

And that can be priceless. Especially when it saves your pipes from freezing as well.

 

[sportbikerider78]

I'm a white collar working in a blue collar world. I'm an engineering manager in manufacturing. I earn a good wage..I can't complain at all. I could afford to spend $2-3k on fuel oil each winter to keep my home warm...but I don't. It all started for me as an experiment..a path that I wanted to go down because I'm a cheap guy. I love saving money because I'd rather spend it on something fun, not something I have to do..like pay the oil man.

I'm in my 2nd year right now heating my home about 90% on wood..and I love it. I'm clearing my lot of maple, oak and ash because there is a view to be had if I can thin the herd. I also enjoy really hard manual labor with a saw...and splitting with a splitter. Great stress reliever.

I also have a NC wife living in cold NY. I need to keep her happy and a really warm living room and kitchen is the best way to do it. Well..the best way would be a home back in NC, but lets be reasonable.

 

[VirginiaIron]

... because I'm a cheap guy. I love saving money because I'd rather spend it on something fun, not something I have to do..like pay the oil man. ... I also enjoy really hard manual labor with a saw...and splitting with a splitter. Great stress reliever. ...

I think you are wise and not cheap. If I won the 364 million powerball I think I would purchase a new hand pump or put an inner tube in that darn tire so I don't have to pump it up every morning, lol.

 

[jetsam]

I'm a white collar working in a blue collar world. I'm an engineering manager in manufacturing. I earn a good wage..I can't complain at all. I could afford to spend $2-3k on fuel oil each winter to keep my home warm...but I don't. It all started for me as an experiment..a path that I wanted to go down because I'm a cheap guy. I love saving money because I'd rather spend it on something fun, not something I have to do..like pay the oil man.

I'm in my 2nd year right now heating my home about 90% on wood..and I love it. I'm clearing my lot of maple, oak and ash because there is a view to be had if I can thin the herd. I also enjoy really hard manual labor with a saw...and splitting with a splitter. Great stress reliever.

I also have a NC wife living in cold NY. I need to keep her happy and a really warm living room and kitchen is the best way to do it. Well..the best way would be a home back in NC, but lets be reasonable.

Not me! I need to heat the cheapest way possible. That is why I got a $2000 stove with a $2000 (rip-off-had-to-redo-it) install, a $5000 tractor, $1000 worth of chainsaws, a $300 trailer...


Actually, that was meant to be a sarcastic poke at myself, but the funny part is that the stove has paid itself back in 2 years, and in 5 I'll be like, 'hey, free tractor'.

If fuel oil goes back up to eight bucks a gallon, I can feel smug much sooner.

 

[Poindexter]

When has oil ever not gone back up?

 

[RobbieB]

For me the value is the feeling I get when I look at the fire. I pay to look at the fire, it doesn't pay me.

I looked at my gas bill for the last year. Yup all 12 months. Heat the house and the water. Three hundred and fifty bucks for the whole year.

A bundle of wood at the grocery store cost 6 bucks and will last for more than 1 burn. Romance and ambiance -

 

[sportbikerider78]

When has oil ever not gone back up?

The opposite of the last time it went back down.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

When has oil ever not gone back up?

To be fair, it hasn't gone up since the last time it went down.

 

[jetsam]

The opposite of the last time it went back down.

Multiply all numbers by 2 or 3 because long island. Apparently that was 2008 when it was $8 a gallon.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Aesthetics =priceless

 

[Chas0218]

Multiply all numbers by 2 or 3 because long island. Apparently that was 2008 when it was $8 a gallon.

View attachment 196316

I just paid 3.09/gallon and at 202 gallons about crapped myself. All said and done after surcharges and taxes (I'm taxed on fuel oil but if I went and filled my Propane I wouldn't pay taxes) it was $659.78.

 

[velvetfoot]

2.35 here in Rens cnty, no tax
http://kokosaoil.com/

 

[Chas0218]

2.35 here in Rens cnty, no tax
http://kokosaoil.com/

I think I might buy a 100 gallon tank and just fill up at the gas station down the road for $2.63/gallon and that is road grade. Freaking ridiculous.

 

[velvetfoot]

I think I might buy a 100 gallon tank and just fill up at the gas station down the road for $2.63/gallon and that is road grade. Freaking ridiculous.

Crazy. Only one supplier?

 

[jatoxico]

Multiply all numbers by 2 or 3 because long island. Apparently that was 2008 when it was $8 a gallon.

I don't remember $8/g. I recall average prices close to $5 in 07-08 and high again in 12-13. My BIL paid $5.25 for a small delivery once in 08 and about died. I was locked in that year maybe $2.00 lower IIRC which looked pretty good at that point. Currently locked at $2.29.

 

[Highbeam]

I think I might buy a 100 gallon tank and just fill up at the gas station down the road for $2.63/gallon and that is road grade. Freaking ridiculous.

Road grade, sales taxed, and gas taxed by feds and state. The heating fuel price is usually about 80 cents cheaper in my state. Delivery charge not included.

 

[Chas0218]

Road grade, sales taxed, and gas taxed by feds and state. The heating fuel price is usually about 80 cents cheaper in my state. Delivery charge not included.

Yes but I was filled with dyed non-road gas and was still taxed. I think I need to make some phone calls. If it's farm fuel it shouldn't be taxed last I knew. This is also NY so I'm sure I can be taxed for something.

 

[Highbeam]

Yes but I was filled with dyed non-road gas and was still taxed. I think I need to make some phone calls. If it's farm fuel it shouldn't be taxed last I knew. This is also NY so I'm sure I can be taxed for something.

I was always sales taxed in WA for off road dyed diesel #2 but not road/gas taxed by state or fed. Certainly worth a call and worth mentioning that the local pump price for road diesel is way less.

Winter heating fuel might have the super expensive #1 diesel (kerosene) mixed with it depending on your climate.

 

[Chas0218]

I was always sales taxed in WA for off road dyed diesel #2 but not road/gas taxed by state or fed. Certainly worth a call and worth mentioning that the local pump price for road diesel is way less.

Winter heating fuel might have the super expensive #1 diesel (kerosene) mixed with it depending on your climate.

I didn't think of that and you might be correct. Ehh I'll give them a call and see what's up.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[72Rover]

If I ever move I will heat with wood, I enjoy every aspect about it except for the stacking, that part I could live without.

Hey...wood's the only fuel that warms you four times: Once when you cut it, once when you split it, once again when you stack it, and finally when you burn it.

 

[HisTreeNut]

The value of wood heat...the house we bought has electric hot water baseboard heat. The previous owners changed the oil system to an electric system about 1983, not wanting to pay the high oil bills they paid in the 1970's. We belong to an Electric Co-Op that purchases electricity from the big guys. The first year in the house we had a fireplace [chimney warmer] that did not do much to warm the house. Keeping the house at 56 at night and 60 during the day, our electric bill from November to April was never less than $400.00. We installed the insert that year. Bought 6 cord of wood since we lived there...scrounged the rest of the wood I have with the exception of some trees I had taken down at my house. Have 18-ish cord of hard and softwoods now. Since installing the stove we have not had an electric bill over $140.00 in the winter. All the wood I have now is from scrounges & from the trees I had taken down. Using rough math...subtracting the cost of the install & the trees I had taken down, figuring the value of scrounged wood at $200.00 per cord, I am almost $1400.00 ahead in the almost 2 years we have had the stove. Best of all, the very pregnant wifey is toasty and happy in the cold weather...that in itself is priceless.

 

[jetsam]

Hey...wood's the only fuel that warms you four times: Once when you cut it, once when you split it, once again when you stack it, and finally when you burn it.

I think last time I counted that saying, it was at least 10 for me. Let's see...

You go load up your gear and find the tree, drop it, limb it, process the limbs (whether that means stripping all the wood out, or just dragging it back from the tree and calling it brush), buck it, heave the rounds into the trailer, heave the rounds off the trailer, repeat until done, split the rounds, haul the split stuff to a woodpile, repeat until done, stack and cover the wood, put all that crap away again and sharpen chains and do saw maintenance. Then you load up the aged wood, haul it to the wife-friendly woodpile by the house for the season, ans restack it there. Then you haul wood into the bad-weather woodpile in the garage, then you haul it into the stove room and , after scooping the ash and hauling that outside and processing last week's ash, you get to burn the wood.

I don't know exactly how many times I get warmed in that process, but 10 is a low figure.

 

[HisTreeNut]

I think last time I counted that saying, it was at least 10 for me. Let's see...

You go load up your gear and find the tree, drop it, limb it, process the limbs (whether that means stripping all the wood out, or just dragging it back from the tree and calling it brush), buck it, heave the rounds into the trailer, heave the rounds off the trailer, repeat until done, split the rounds, haul the split stuff to a woodpile, repeat until done, stack and cover the wood, put all that crap away again and sharpen chains and do saw maintenance. Then you haul the aged wood to the wife-friendly woodpile by the house for the season, then you haul wood into the bad-weather woodpile in the garage, then you haul it into the stove room and , after scooping the ash and hauling that outside and processing last week's ash, you get to burn the wood.

I don't know exactly how many times I get warmed in that process, but 10 is a low figure.

Looks to be about 20 and you are pretty much spot on...and you forgot falling asleep exhausted in your chair once the room is nice & toasty.