How much $$ you save burning firewood / wood pellets

Installed my stove last feb,but saved around $150 that february and maybe $75 that march. This year i have only saved about $10-$20 each month this year but last year we would not have used the heap pumps much and would have used the fireplace to suplement the den heat. BUT like others have said my heat is set at 65F on the heatpump in the day and 62F at night and thats only one of 2 units. I can keep the house 68F or higher and the TV room colse to or above *80F easy. My house on the first floor which we only live on is 2500sqft. This winter will really be the test to ssee what i save.

I purchased a few years old High Valley 2500 CAT model, used from the Buck stove store here in town.

Oh so im new here.

New stove, all piping, hearth pad, install, unforseen expenses, chainsaw, chains, $ 4700.00 only filling the oil tank 1/2 way -1200.00, c+s+s my own wood, tax rebate on wood stove, oil prices will inevitably be higher next winter, so hopefully I'll break even by next year.

My gas bill averages $2 a day and that includes DHW and cooking, so the furnace still runs some every day. 4 cord a year is $400 plus expenses. As others said as well, if I were not burning wood, the house would not be as toasty warm plus I need a backup heat source in case of power outages. It's a lifestyle thing too.

With Wood pellets the last 3 yrs (Quadrafire pellet stove only) we saved about $3,000 a yr ($3,800 avg per yr in LP). With the addition of the Woodstove and the Fahrenheit (both in basement - Fahrenheit pellet furnace helps distribute Hot air from woodstove), I hope to decrease that even more. .

Enjoyable to watch the Gas man drive by. I pay about $30 a yr to rent the tank. 2 yrs and still at 45%-50% (500 gallons). We only use LP for cooking. LP furnace is shut off completely during the Winter. Run it once during the Fall and Spring, just to make sure it works. Newer Trane XV 90. Supposed to be efficient. What a joke!!

Are we talking about the difference in burning NG vs wood or calculating the dents in my truck and flat tires? LOL. Seriously though I usually try and get a p/u load while I'm hunting so I'm already out there anyway so while not free it is cheap and I like to do it. Isn't the measure of a man the size of his woodpile and yield of his garden? I imagine it may take a bit more calculation for propane or oil but if you get your heat from a utility company you can usually go online and see how many therms you used during the same billing cycle last few years and compare.

rwhite said:

...go online and see how many therms you used during the same billing cycle last few years and compare.

Click to expand...

That would be OK if you once heated exclusively with gas and then switched to wood heat. I've been supplementing with wood for decades so it's not quite that simple to calculate. I'd have to take a year off from wood burning to make that comparison.

This is my first year, I just bought an older alaska kodiak stove, a knock off of a fisher. So far this winter i would vener to say I have saved 2000 bucks in fuel oil. And the house is actually warm. No more setting it at 65 and getting heartburn ever time I here the furnace kick on. It is great.

Just staked my oil tank and have just about 1/2 a tank left (550 tank). Last delivery was early November of 2010. Furnace heats the domestic hot water year round, so it runs regardless of the temperatures outside. I think this is a help in reality; minimal oil consumption but keeps the furnace running on a routine basis. Prior to the wood stove, the deliveries were 3 time a year minimum at 700-1000 per delivery. Estimating I saved around 2k this year.

Edit: Just realized I did not start burning until December 8th of last year. Oil heat ran for most of November and first week of December last year. Makes the savings even better!

We bought an Englander 30 from HD this year on clearance for $600 ($575 after a coupon and taxes). I then put about 25 ft of chimney/stove pipe and built a hearth from scratch. All said it cost about $3k. It will pay for itself the first two years.

We have a 1600sq.ft. house thats 115 years old and has poor insulation. With a newborn in the house we want to keep it warm. To do this with the steam heat would have cost about $2k for the entire heating season.

Now if I had to pay for the wood, it probably wouldnt be worth it. Cord wood is $300 around my parts if you want actually "seasoned" wood. I'd have gone with pellets if I didn't have my own source of wood. Much cleaner, easier to store, and less hard work.

BurnIt13 said:

We bought an Englander 30 from HD this year on clearance for $600 ($575 after a coupon and taxes). .

Click to expand...

What was the clearance based on? Been waiting for a sale to grab one myself.

I have no idea what we save, but it is 100% in any case. When I built this house, I did not build in any backup heating method. I did add an attached greenhouse to one end of the place that turns out to give us significant additional heat on sunny winter days; our stoves are allowed to go out from mid-morning to late afternoon.

mywaynow said:

BurnIt13 said:

We bought an Englander 30 from HD this year on clearance for $600 ($575 after a coupon and taxes). .

Click to expand...

What was the clearance based on? Been waiting for a sale to grab one myself.

Click to expand...

End of season. We bought it in February/March. Apparently in late winter people arent heating their houses but instead of getting thier pools ready for the summer. It always annoys me how retailers are so far ahead of the seasons.

Same thing with clothes. Good luck finding a bathing suit in August, but you can buy a winter coat if you need one. Rant off.

There used to be a cute list going around, which I will now attempt to re-create from memory:

How I Save Money by Burning Wood

POS Chevy wood hauler $650.00
New Chainsaw 440.00
Cost to replace saw crushed
in unfortunate wood cutting
incident(s) x2 880.00
44 cases beer 924.00
ER visit to remove splinter
from eye 1475.00
Stove and install 4750.00
Replace coffee table
(smashed and burned after weekend
"wood splitting party") 225.00
Lawyer fees/retainer required
concerning divorce papers 5250.00

14 more cases beer (to get thru nasty divorce)

294.00

TOTAL: 14888.00

NG bill last year: 1100.00

Savings: -13788.00

I have no idea. We bought the Cottage in late September and never ran the boiler/radiant system because it was a mess (freeze damage, multiple blow outs) so we've never used anything but the stove for heat. This year is a poor baseline though, since we had to buy all the wood/eco bricks. We already have a couple cords seasoning for next year that we cut in the summer, all scavanged for free. That's the plan from here on out, we have a tree guy we hooked up with too, he's called a few times with rounds to pick up which is even better than craigslist or just dumb luck.

My numbers:

Wood heat = time spent and physical activiity. 2006 to present

Gas heat/ central air = flipping on the thermostat.2000 -2006

My bills on the equal payment plan used to be $278 a month running the central air/furnace as needed.

Now my EPP is $97 a month. I was paying $119 a month, got august/sept no payment and paid $40 in oct. 2011
They reduced it after that. Have had electric co out 2x after threatening letters that it was too low.
Sent That to my Dad. He is a retiree from said electric co.(PRICELESS)

My house is generally 75 with wood.
My house was 65 with furnace.
For AC, I bought the biggest window unit they sell at Home depot.

In equipment, I have a electric ryobi splitter.
Chevy Aveo was my first wood hauler.
Now I have an HHR with hitch and a 4X6 landscape trailer.
Electric chainsaw for rounds. $5 yardsale circular saw for pallets. 2 new cords for circular saw. I'm polish.


If I work at a steady pace, I can gather 15 to 20 pallets in less than an hour.
1 pallet last at least 1 day, 2 when it's not so cold. Cold to me is below freezing.
I heat a small ranch with a CFM240007 from lowes. Got it on clearance because of a scratch/ dent on the rear heat sheild.
Crowbar and some gentle bending and you can hardly tell, no less see it. Add a gift card from my grandmother, and i had nothing i
in a brand new stove. The chimney kit/ hearth cost more. Self Built
Self installed- passed safety inspection by insurance co.

Now, 5 years in, I still enjoy it. I gather pallets, bought a truckload of wood last year in a jam. $100 for a F-250 8 ft bed load of wood,
which he GUARANTEED would burn. He even offered to let me grab a couple pieces off the truck and throw them in the stove before he
accepted payment. I found that guy on craigslist. Awesome older retired guy!
Discovered eco bricks at Tractor supply last year on clearance. Love those things. I just picked up 10 bundles at regular price. Very satisfied.

For me, woodburning works. I mix pallets, gathered firewood, and now the ecobrick. I do buy a little now, but still, the woman at work was
HAPPY to pay ONLY $4.15 a gallon for oil, minimum delivery 100 gallons, no price lock, and the rep told her it was probably going UP, so she ordered 150 gallons.
She said she hoped she only had to do that 3 times this winter. I almost fainted.
I'll stick to wood, pallets, and now ecobricks.

NJT

i get my wood for free, my house is in the mid 70's. if i were to do that with gas i would be looking at about $500 a month. savings=$2500 a season

I have all electric heat except for the wood stove. I figured it out last year and decided I was saving $200 to $300 per month by burning about a cord of wood per month. If I had to buy wood I wouldn't be saving much.

I"m all electric also.
My bill just for e is always around 200 or more year round...no heat involved except for a few days here and there when we are away.
But something is always running..pool..hot tub..freezers..dehumidify in the basement...well pump.. hwh..tv's..you name it it's prolly running here.
If I were to use the heat pump and e-furnance we would have like a 800 dollar bill at least.

Well, spent approximately 4.5K this summer on a new liner and stove. Figure ROI to be 2 years or so. That, of course, depends on my scrounging skills over the next few years.

Never been a numbers guy . . . I was always terrrible in math . . . but I do know a few things.

I know there is no such thing as free heat -- cheap heat, maybe -- but free heat, no. There is the initial outlay of the stove, chimney, hearth, etc. . . . and then there is the cost of the chainsaw, splitter and other assorted tools (yeah, they're tools to me . . . not toys . . . because when it comes to heating the house this is work, not playtime . . . one of my more enjoyable jobs to be sure, but it is still a serious thing for me -- my wood will heat my home . . . I'm not out there because I'm communing with nature, enjoy excercise or love to process wood -- contrary to what some friends and relatives believe.)

So there is the intital outlay of money on the actual stove, chimney, etc. . . . and then the continued outlay of money for gas and oil for the truck, ATV, saw, splitter, etc. . . . and of course there is the time . . . for many folks the biggest expense of heating with wood is the time commitment.

As I said . . . I never bothered to figure out exactly when I will break even . . . but I do know that since I haven't bought oil in two years I have saved close to $4,000 in those two years. I know that I have used some oil (currently at $3.53 a gallon), but that the vast majority of my heating needs are met with wood. I firmly believe I have and am saving a lot of money by heating with wood . . . and that's what got me motivated enough to start heating with wood.

However, heating with wood is a life style change . . . it's a state of mind . . . a change in thinking where the non-monetary value of heating with wood is as important, if not more important.

I enjoy the view of the fire . . . the smell of the simmering potpourri . . . the snap and crackle of the fire -- I cannot say I've ever enjoyed the view, smell or sound of my oil boiler.

I enjoy the sense of independence . . . knowing that my house will stay warm regardless of how long a power outage lasts whether it be for 14 minutes or for 14 days due to an ice storm -- Having gone for several days with nothing but a feeble kerosene heater to try to keep the house warm I can say, never again.

I enjoy the sense of liberty . . . knowing that it will not matter so much if oil speculators cause heating oil to rise to extraordinarily high prices -- I can hold off buying oil for a very long time and can pick and choose if and when I want to buy oil for my back up heat.

I enjoy the fact that if my wife is cold I can really crank the heat and not worry that I am using up too much fuel -- I don't have to worry about my stove breaking down in middle of the night or running out of fuel.

It is these intangibles that are worth so much more to me than even the great savings I have achieved by switching to wood heat.

took me a while for me to figure out that i don't need to use the oil burner on my yukon husky oil fired wood furnace to fire up the wood. bought a couple boxes of cheap pressed wood fire starters,broke them in half and put one under my wood in the furnace and light it! in 30 minutes my fire is raging just as good as the oil fired one after 15 or 20 minutes. as a result,i expect to use about a hundred bux in oil this season-max. the cabin is in the middle of several thousand acres of hardwoods,so "free" wood supply is endless. love to c/s/s. my newest hobby,although i've been cutting and burning for years. now,when i realize how much $$$ i'm saving it makes it just that much more fun! art

This last bill was $110 less than last years, but we have had a milder winter as well, but no heat was used other than wood.

2003
VC Madison Stove $1380
Double wall connector pipes $235
Hearth materials $175

2004
30 ton splitter - $815

2010
Jotul Rockland Insert $2500
Chimney liner/cap $325
Hearth extender $55
Tax credit on above -$865

Wood racks, stove gloves, fireplace tools, traditional brushes, soot eater, etc - ~$600
Gasoline, hydraulic oil/filter, broken bolts, worn out gloves, work tunes batteries, vacuum bags, smashed trailer light, bent trailer axle, BandAids, Advil, etc - ~$1150
One grapple load of wood $550

Total wood heat expenses = $6920

Lets say the gas bill has been reduced by $15k over the years (Average of $2150/year for 7 winters). So I've spent about $6920 to "earn" about $8080 tax free.

I've easily got another $2k tried up in tree cutting stuff including chainsaws, but that gets subtracted from tree trimming/removal and recreation budgets not the heating budget.

Since I don't heat exclusively with wood, I'll spend a good chunk of that "income" this summer converting my made in 1969 79% efficient gas furnace to a modern 97% efficient gas furnace. Between plummeting gas prices and a furnace that sends 22% more of the gas heat into the house instead of up the chimney, my savings from wood won't be as much in the coming years. But since I already have a stove, insert, splitter, and wood for next winter I don't have those startup costs to pay off while burning more wood.

Below are two gas bills, January 2002, and January 2012.

The top one is pre wood stove, and the bottom one is post wood stove.

Nothing else to say really.......... ;-)