Got money to burn?

Like others I don't do the wood thing just for the money, but it is a nice bonus. Looks like I wll be going through 3 or so cords this year, but that is just a guesstimate based on what I burned so far - 1st year with the insert.

I am fortunate enough that my wife can stay at home with the 2 kids. We are not broke but not spending gobs of money keeping the house warm is nice. Last year we ran through about 1000gal of propane for heating, hot water and cooking. At $3.25/ gal this equated to approx $3300. This year we are heating exclusively with wood and we are going through about 10gal of propane/month,but it is hard to tell with the meter moving so little. In Sept we had a Lopi Revere and chimney liner installed at a cost of $3500. We will nearly "pay this off" in savings this year.

I take a great deal of pride in being able to control this aspect of my household - I have a 2 and a 4 year old,so rarely do things seem "in control". I like the fact that world politics, the whims of the oil market, power outages, etc have little affect on the cost of keeping my family warm. Unfortunately I know people that simply cannot afford to keep their house comfortable . Those that have the ability to burn wood I share with as I can, or others have done a couple of overnighters.

So what have I saved - I don't really know the exact answer. I am probably not saving nearly what I think I am on the surface, but I could justify this wood obsession a number of ways. All I know is I am really enjoying it and I would rather not ruin another one of my hobbies by calculating costs down to a penny. I could probably do better on a hourly basis by getting a second job, but that wouldn't nearly be as much fun.

Steve

We bought our house 2 1/2 years ago and the previous owners had used 1200 gallons of oil the previous year. 3000 Sf in Maine with all 5 bedrooms occupied with his family. I thought that there was no way I was going to be able to afford to heat this house as we had just stretched our budget to get as much house as we could afford at the time. The house came with the original VC resolute that was installed when the house was built in 83. I started scrounging up wood and burned 3 cord that first winter and we used 700 gal of oil. The DHW runs off the furnace as well. That year I bought a used Husky 55 for $150, an 8x9 trailer for $350, a hitch for the s-10 for $200, a homemade splitter for $300, a new B&S;8 hp Intek for the splitter $225, and 6 cord of logs for $100 a cord. The initial outlay for equipment was not as much as I would have spent in oil that first year and I only had to spend that money the first year. The next year I bought ELKs old VC Resolute for $700 and sold the old 83 Resolute for $450. I have not paid for wood last year or this year and have been able to keep most of my house between 65 and 80 degrees without the furnace kicking on in 3 of my 5 zones. I would say that it definately saves me money, but I also enjoy the lifestyle associated with it. I like the chores of loading up the wood bin and starting a fire when I get home. I love to see the kids come in from playing out in the snow and sit in front of the fire and get warm. Something satisfying about providing your family with warmth through your own sweat and labor. If I didn't have the woodstove this house would never be any warmer than 60 degrees in the winter, I am just too cheap. I am going to be buying a 8-9 cord load of logs of Rock maple, sugar maple, and oak for $750 and that should get me through the next 2 years.

My recurring expenses are pretty much just gas for the truck and the saw when needed; free wood is plentiful here. The saw was a gift. It's hard to say what my nat. gas bill would be if I used the furnace because prices have been all over the place and I don't recall how many therms we used to use. I do recall bills in the $250/month range, and I know some neighbors are well over $300. Call it $1000 saved a year, maybe more if gas prices rise. So I have a few more years to go to pay off the ~$5k cost of the fireplace, chimney, install, and some chase reconstruction. But it wasn't really about the money.

granpajohn,

you asked about pictures of my homemade cordwood saw. there are some in the following thread

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/7653/

I have some older ones (without some of the safety devices) if you want to see more of the mechanism. It uses a 6 HP B&S;motor and 30" blade. If you keep the blade sharp it will eat thru anything you can get on the table very quickly.

this was my first year burning since my last stove (other house)

stove 2000
liner 350
install 400
4 cords 780 (but was given an additonal amount as settlement)because it wasn't as seasoned as stated
2.5 cords 390 for real seasoned

total 3920
add stuff 300
4220

in my house a warm winter 700-775 in oil
in a cold winter 900-1000 gallons in oil

775* 3.20===2480 in oil
1000 * 3.20 ==3200 in oil

*****however i have been burning since dec 2 and have used a little over a cord maybe so from the looks of it i already have a jump on next years wood as i won't be burning all of this this year

next years cost in wood less than 400 so this stove will have paid for itself in less than 2 years????

last months gas bill was 28 bucks

Ya beat me by $2.

Jake said:

last months gas bill was 28 bucks

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