How much have I saved by adding a wood stove?

Why dont you do the work and we agree afte calc..

If we have the stove crankin, there won't typically be folks standing around it. We open a couple of small windows in the room to help balance that room's temps, push the heat, and bring more outside air into the room to flow thru the stove.

Last year, (we have a furnace that was replaced 2 years ago), in our fairly tight home, we spent $2200.00 on fuel oil (we too have a hot water heater that is also two years old like our furnace, that is run on fuel oil).

Since the major renovations to our home, done from January to March 2010, we don't have a baseline, since we added square footage. However, this will be the first full winter season of wood burning (stove was installed late in 2009/ early 2010), to find a baseline for fuel oil consumption for us.

We're finding that true 24/7 burning is not realistic in our lives, due to schedules. We are burning perhaps 15 hours a day, broken up into 2 sessions (burns) per day.

-Soupy1957

Sen. John Blutarsky said:

Our family loves the stove heat and our house is warm. When we have company, people grab their drinks and circle around the stove. It's been a great bargain for us, in many ways.

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Well said. Your mention of how people gather around a fire reminded me of the biggest reward--burning wood is fun, and satisfying on a level unmatched by other fuel sources. Knowing that it's something real and that people have been doing it for so long, and the variation and beauty of the flame and coals--it's unmatched. People do instinctively gather around a fire, and it is rewarding.

Now, back to wood seasoning, cat versus thermal, relative costs, correct burning, and magic heat! You have to talk about something while you're sitting around a fire.

There's a lot of intrinsic value in burning wood. Anyone looking at just the dollars will miss the big picture. At my age I enjoy the exercise and time spent with my kids (who help out). Realizing the fruits of your labor provides deep satisfaction. It's much akin to planting a garden and eating fresh vegetables ripened on the vine. The flavor and satisfaction of which isn't equaled by vegetables paid for at the store.

We just spent a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and for the first time in a long time we lit a fire in our masonry fireplace. Nice dry white birch. And how do you place a value on the time spent with loved ones around a fire?

Sen. John Blutarsky said:

It was a rhetorical question.

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LOL
I don't think I saved any money. I have a natural gas furnace. I pay $100 for a cord of unprocessed wood.

Add to that the cost of:
Stove and chimney
Woodshed
Log splitter
Chainsaw
Gas, oil, gloves, etc.

Maybe I'll break even before I die. Maybe I'll live longer because of all the extra exercise and get to see a savings.

If I had a do-over I wouldn't do it any different.

LLigetfa said:

Sen. John Blutarsky said:

It was a rhetorical question.

Click to expand...

LOL
I don't think I saved any money. I have a natural gas furnace. I pay $100 for a cord of unprocessed wood.

Add to that the cost of:
Stove and chimney
Woodshed
Log splitter
Chainsaw
Gas, oil, gloves, etc.

Maybe I'll break even before I die. Maybe I'll live longer because of all the extra exercise and get to see a savings.

If I had a do-over I wouldn't do it any different.

Click to expand...

You don't know how many times I have wished I could get NG for those days I just don't feel like dealing with the wood (especially when the neighbors driveway 75 feet from mine has a NG meter right next to it). I can't really factor the cost of the chainsaw or tractor into the cost of my wood as I would own them to take care of the property, plow the drive etc....As it stands right now if I'm not feeding the stove the propane furnace is running at 2.69 a gallon and at that price I might as well feed the stove with $100 dollar bills. I figure if you don't bill the labor I put into 3 cords of wood a year I save myself roughly $2000 dollars a year. I enjoy the labor though and it keeps me from sitting on the couch every weekend so there is intrinsic value in it for me. Happy burning!

This year's burning season, is the year that we will be gauging actual wood consumption.......

As the wife and I were running errands this morning, we stopped once again to look at the sheds that are built up, outside Lowe's and Home Depot, thinking ahead to next year, and having one in the yard for the wood.

I suggested we wait and see just how much wood we actually consumed, of the 3 cords available, and THEN choose a shed size; taking into account how mild or harsh this current winter turns out to be, and building that factor into the size choice.

-Soupy1957

LLigetfa said:

Sen. John Blutarsky said:

It was a rhetorical question.

Click to expand...

LOL
I don't think I saved any money. I have a natural gas furnace. I pay $100 for a cord of unprocessed wood.

Add to that the cost of:
Stove and chimney
Woodshed
Log splitter
Chainsaw
Gas, oil, gloves, etc.

Maybe I'll break even before I die. Maybe I'll live longer because of all the extra exercise and get to see a savings.

If I had a do-over I wouldn't do it any different.

Click to expand...

+1. What he said.

Same here. I have a wood stove and a pellet stove. I do a lot of scrounging of wood and I barter computer or housework services for wood. I use my points that I accrue on my credit card to buy pellets. I turn on my furnace once a week for about half hour just to make sure it works.

Sen. John Blutarsky said:

Just got an oil delivery. 140 gallons at $3.00 per gallon. I have burned 500 gallons in the last year. The oil furnace heats my hot water all year round. In 2007, the year before I bought my Jotul insert, I burned 1200 gallons of oil. Very cold winter, I might add. Nonetheless, I am feeling pretty good. I buy two cords a year thus far, scrounge another cord. My cost for wood is about $300-350 per year. Apparently, I saved at least $1500 last year on oil, maybe a little less the year before, when I was learning. The way I look at it, my stove and liner are paid for. Honestly, I stopped caring after the first year, it wasn't until I looked at the recent oil statement that I cared to do the math.
Our family loves the stove heat and our house is warm. When we have company, people grab their drinks and circle around the stove. It's been a great bargain for us, in many ways.

Click to expand...

The last oil delivery here was Jan. 2009 and the tank is still on 3/4, I hear ya Sen. John Blutarsky.

zap

Sen. John Blutarsky said:

When we have company, people grab their drinks and circle around the stove. It's been a great bargain for us, in many ways.

Click to expand...

We've noticed that when other wood-burners come by, or we go by their places, we all migrate gradually toward the stove. In fact, once a fellow came by in the spring, no stove going nor any heat needed or wanted, and he mentioned that he and his wife realized the night before that they were standing near the stove and even occasionally turning a bit, as one does to warm up the other side of the body, and the stove hadn't been used in several weeks. Subconsciously going for the comfort. We laughed about it, then after he left, I realized I occasionally do the same thing, myself, if I'm standing there pondering something. At the time, we were both living in un- or poorly-insulated cabins up here in the mountains, and getting very far from the stove was a chilling experience.

My records indicate that in 2001 I was burning just under 1000 gallons of fuel oil per year. Now I average 120 gallons a year.
Some how asking others to go out into the garage and gather around the oil furnace and watch the igniter doesn't really have the same ambiance.

No one ever comments on my heat pump install, and it's a very nice high SEER model and everything. No one ever want's to go hang out in the basement and watch it run.

The stove on the other hand... I wish I had built my hearth 4" taller and just a bit wider, then 6 people could sit on it at one time..lol We have a few footstools that their only duty is as "extra" seating around the stove..

As far as cost.. bah. I already had everything for "processing" wood except the Fiskars anyways, so the trailer, tractor chainsaws etc are not in the mix. Last time I had an hourly wage job, it was $4.25 an hour. Using that as my calculation point, ignoring the fact that being out in the woods and outdoors in general is worth more to me "by the hour" than I can calculate, It takes me about 2 days to buck/split/move/stack a cord of wood from my woods to my stacks. So 6 days of labor/exercise/wildlife watching/dog stick throwing that I need to lay on my years supply.. so 8 x 4.25 x 6 = $204 "cost" for my wood heat. BUT.. I make $11 an hour just for waking up alive each one of those days..

I don't know.. all this math.. and so much of is intangible benefits.. Self sufficiency.. exercise.. wood lot clean up.. master of fire merit badge.. stove top cooked stews and soups.. a couple happy dogs and even happier wife.. Heat pump gets me NONE of those.

and as a wise man once said, "money ain't everything"

But my electric bill is down during the heating months by about 70%... :cheese:

adrpga498 said:

Some how asking others to go out into the garage and gather around the oil furnace and watch the igniter doesn't really have the same ambiance.

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Awe come on... don't you remember the old pot burner oil stoves with the small tank on the back that you had to fill every day? We all had 45 gallon (55 for you Yanks) drums of oil on a stand that resembled a sawbuck. More than once I had to run to the all-night truckstop to get 5 gallons of diesel fuel when the stove ran out in the middle of the night and the oil man hadn't been by yet to refill the drum.

Am I the only one old enough to remember huddling around one of those oil burners for warmth? On a really cold night it would be cranked up so high it would surge and glow cherry red. It still brings back those memories when I smell fuel oil burning. I can still remember the day I had to put in a 200 gallon tank cuz the oil company would no longer deliver just 45 gallons. It was a sweet memory when I ran a copper line to a proper tank out back so that I didn't have to fill the small tank on the stove every day.

I still prefer the memories of burning wood in the old parlour stove.

Sounds like a solar hot water panel would save you a lot of oil, Senator. Another thing to consider is http://www.hilkoil.com/ . The hilkoil could share a tank with the solar system, saving even more oil (and money).

Stove, parts and install= 2200
Wood purchased = 300
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2500



Electric bill last season was 300/month x 5=$1500. About 200 of that was heat/month=$1000/year for heat

It will take 2 1/2 years before I start paying myself.

I know I have not only saved money, but I have added years onto my life from the exercise. Plus my wife loves the warmth of the wood stove. A happy wife means a happy home. Heck, I work for an electric company and get a nice discount and still haven't had our heat pump/strip heat running in over 3 years. Wood heat ROCKS!

LLigetfa said:

Sen. John Blutarsky said:

It was a rhetorical question.

Click to expand...

LOL
I don't think I saved any money. I have a natural gas furnace. I pay $100 for a cord of unprocessed wood.

Add to that the cost of:
Stove and chimney
Woodshed
Log splitter
Chainsaw
Gas, oil, gloves, etc.

Maybe I'll break even before I die. Maybe I'll live longer because of all the extra exercise and get to see a savings.

If I had a do-over I wouldn't do it any different.

Click to expand...

But you didn't have to adjust your budget as much as you may have had to in 97 / 2001 / 2003 when NG prices skyrocketed.
nor your thermostat down

I hate to hear my heat pump run...heck even if it's in the low 40's it seems to run all day.
And below 35 the E-furnace will break a ban account.
I heat 90-95% with wood...but sometimes we go away for a few days snowmobiling and what not.

"What's my delta tau chi name?"

billb3 said:

LLigetfa said:

Sen. John Blutarsky said:

It was a rhetorical question.

Click to expand...

...
Maybe I'll break even before I die. Maybe I'll live longer because of all the extra exercise and get to see a savings.

If I had a do-over I wouldn't do it any different.

Click to expand...

But you didn't have to adjust your budget as much as you may have had to in 97 / 2001 / 2003 when NG prices skyrocketed.
nor your thermostat down

Click to expand...

Point well taken. Of course in those years the stove ran more and the gas furnace ran less. Maybe I have broken even already.

MrFood said:

"What's my delta tau chi name?"

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Clinker

I think I'll start saving money when I stop buying new stoves and saws. :red: