Who heats their home totally with wood??

[ChrisN]

Eric, a $25.00 / day savings? that's quite a bit. I read somewhere that a typical oil fired boiler uses somewhere between 3 and 5 gallons of oil/day. At current CT prices ( $1.95/gal through my co-op)) for oil you're talking about $10.00/day for oil. Then when you figure in costs to obtain and process wood the savings drops more. I've managed to heat soley with wood so far, using a jotul oslo. House is open floor plan 2200sf. most of the house stays between 65 and 70, except for the master bedroom which is on the first floor at the end of the house opposite the stove. It's generally between 56 and 62 there. Thanks to our electric blanket my wife hasn't rebeled (too much). Just got my oil tank topped off for the first time since Aug. took 62gal. all of which was used to make hot water.

Chris

 

[Eric Johnson]

Chris,

I just checked our gas consumption for the last time we heated with gas ('03-'04) and it came in at about 2,400 therms for the Oct-Apr heating season. That's heat and hot water for a big, old house in a cold climate. At the current price of about $1.75 per therm, that would be a heating bill of about $4,200. Divide that by 200 days, and you get $21. When we heated with gas, we kept the stats at about 65 most of the time, and cooler at night. Now we're at better than 70 most of the time, so I'm adding a couple of bucks per day to make up the difference.

As I said, I don't count my time or bill myself for my expertise. I do use a couple gallons of saw gas and bar oil and about 2 chains per year. The woodlot is owned by my employer and since I commute to the office 3 days a week, it doesn't cost me anything extra to haul the wood.

BTW, last time I heated with oil, it was another big, old, uninsulated house. Not as big but in an even colder climate. The oil gun had a 1 gpm nozzle on it. When it got below zero (sometimes for weeks on end), the burner would run more than it would sit idle. So that was 15-20 gallons a day. I tore out the old (and I mean, old coal-conversion) oil boiler and put in a wood/oil combo, which consumed no oil but between 10 and 12 full cords of good hardwood per winter.

Apparently the only reason fossil fuel prices haven't gone up even higher nationwide is that I'm not using any.

 

[amctfc]

2,500 sq. ft. center-stair colonial, 100 years old. Insulation is iffy, windows occasionally keep the snow out. I've been heating the house with wood for 5 years now, using a VC Defiant Encore, which sadly, this weekend, bit the dust. We bought oil this fall; the last time we bought any oil was two years ago.

Yup, it can be done. It's nice and comfy, too.

Just installed a Hearthstone Mansfield to replace the deceased Defiant E.; man, I wish I had done it years ago. The Mansfield is beautiful and has twice the BTUs. I can't wait for the real cold weather to come now...