Gas bill Jan 2010 vs gas bill Jan 2011

But, are you significantly warmer than you would be with Natural gas? That's a HUGE factor. Most folks keep their t-stat at 68. Temps in the 60's are great when you're active in the house, but 68 doesn't cut it while playing on Hearth.com or parking A$$ in front of the tv. At least not for me (or the wife) anyway.

we will alert the media

Yup, I have natural gas in my home and used a wood stove for a few years. Maybe $500 in Gas savings. I bought my own wood, being the lazy type. $500 in wood. I saved no money. I was much warmer and I enjoyed stokin an sittin in front of the fire though. I miss it.

I used exactly half the amount of NG for December this year as in the preceding two years. I just started burning this fall. My bill was $110 less to be precise. I bought my own wood. My savings if similar each month will cover the cost of my wood. So I am no farther ahead in fact I am behind. The unit and install was expensive. But, I enjoy it more than I could have anticipated. I equate the enjoyment in using my insert to the amount of joy I get from playing the piano or golfing. Plus I feel like a real man. It was worth it.

Franks said:

Yup, I have natural gas in my home and used a wood stove for a few years. Maybe $500 in Gas savings. I bought my own wood, being the lazy type. $500 in wood. I saved no money. I was much warmer and I enjoyed stokin an sittin in front of the fire though. I miss it.

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Oil prices would have to drop to 66 cents a gallon for me to end up with zero savings from wood burning. And that's with buying my wood. 8 cords cost me $1,000.

If I cut and split myself; 8 cords of uncut logs cost me $700 + splitter rental. I can rent the splitter at $85 a weekend (Saturday at 3pm till Monday at 8am) and rent it for 3 weekends which comes to $255. Total of $955, or I splurge the extra $45 and have 8 cords cut, split, and delivered.

Oil, right now, would run me about $4,950.

This thread is all I have to say about that...

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/66472/

md

I use propane. Before I changed from XXX Company in north Houston they asked me to put a meter. BIG MISTAKE. They send me a bill for the installing the meter, the rent for the meter, the cost for reading it, and they send a bill for the propane and I pay me for the bill and the for the stamp and the costs for the accountings each month. I own the tank – get it – I own the tank. The bill for the meter and the person who reads the meter AND the stamp for the bill is over $20.00 a month. Do the math, that is over $240.00 a year for nothing.

Then I got the insert (hehehehehe). In November, I read the dial said it said 72%. Today I read the dial and was at 62%, over 2 and ½ months. The tank is a 250 gallon tank. I’m not good at math but I think means I have used about 20 gallons in two and ½ months or 10 gallons a month or less.

I am going to tell them to not fill it again and they can keep the meter. Then I am going to shop before I get any more propane. We need some for the stove and the oven and the hot water and but we have used the insert 24/7 this year. My wife loves it because she has arthritis bad and the cold really the temps inside are warm and so is she. I love the lack of a bill for propane.

I do cut my wood and I have a lot wood that is cured from years.

I have some from land, so if you want to cut some wood and split the wood 50 – 50, send me a e-mail. I would really to cut and stack about 5 - 8 cords for 3 years out.


Robert

Our gas bill for last December (2009) was around $150 compared to this year (2010) at $25 with the wood stove. December 2009 was probably slightly colder than this past December. I probably burned 1/3 to 1/2 cord of wood that was cut and given to me by my father. I'm loving my wood stove.

Fighring a 35-45% savings on heating oil.

When the temps stay consistently in the 30's and drop into the teens or single digits at night my furnace can burn 5+ gallons of oil a day. At $3.30gal that's roughly $16.50 a day or $495 a month. And that's exactly the reason i haven't burned a drop of oil in my house in over 2 yrs!

The wood cost's me hmm, a few gallons of gas, some oil mix, some sweat, sometimes a bit of blood, oh and quite a few cold ones.

My story is a bit different. While I do save bit on NG, I probably spend that much on wood throughout the year so I am even. I did spend about 3500$ getting the stove and chimney so I'm in the hole. Now for the twist, I heat from my basement which is exactly what I wanted to heat in the first place, before I put a wood stove in there I was using Kerosene and noticed that it helped my furnace not run as often however the K1 cost me 4.25 a gallon and I used 2 gallons a day.. Now, doing that match I will be saving money soon as I no longer have that expense, not to mention the basement stays much warmer and the upstairs gets a lot of heat as well. Plus I get to take my little tractor and load my dump truck with logs all the time with my buddy. We have a good time and its not really all that hard to do. I still enjoy my stove, regardless of what it costs me!

Jason

Figured out this months oil bill compared to the same time period the last couple years. Last few years I used roughly 160 gallons of oil for the 28 day refill cycle. This year I used 94. I don't burn 24/7, but I burn as often as I can. I figure I saved about $200 +- on my oil bill. Current price per gallon is $3.15 and I bet its going to go higher. Hopefully I can save at least that amount this next cycle.

I only have a heat pump in Virginia. After all my calculations with a new insert, installation, random equipment to split wood, I think I'll break even in about 10 years. Wife seems to be happy every time we burn though...

Well right now buying wood, heating my 1,800sqft house in Michigan is running me about $250/ month. That's $150 a month in wood, and $100 for oil for the morning before the wood stove is up and running and occationally to bump up the temp durring the evening. That's about equal to what I was paying last year for NG at my old house. However I don;t have and option for NG where I'm at now, it's oil, propane or electric, right now I'm on oil. I don;t have a baseline as this is my first year here, but my calculations are that I'd go through about 200 gallons of oil a month which would be about $630 a month at todays prices. So even with it costing me $1,300 to install my wood stove I'll still come out slightly ahead this year. Next year when I'm burning my own wood I'll be way ahead of the game. So basically it comes down to your probably not going to save much if you have NG or a high efficency heat pump system, however those of us (probably mostly in rural area's) that don;t have that option can really save.

I find it funny how the cost of maintaining your NG furnace ,boiler or whatever is never thrown in when comparing cost to wood burning and things such as labor , tools etc. Hey most of americans could definitely use more exercise anyways-- It is my first year burning(two weeks actually) --A great way to get outside at the wood pile get some exercise and heat the home

woodywilson said:

I find it funny how the cost of maintaining your NG furnace ,boiler or whatever is never thrown in when comparing cost to wood burning and things such as labor , tools etc. Hey most of americans could definitely use more exercise anyways-- It is my first year burning(two weeks actually) --A great way to get outside at the wood pile get some exercise and heat the home

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Yep and fairly steady heat is nice...so is looking at and sitting near the fire.
Knowing I will have plenty of heat in a power outage is comforting also.

Our ng bill has gone from about $250 a month in the colder months to under $50. We are burning 24/7 and our furnace doesn't run. In fact its not even on. I split my own wood and am lucky to share this hobby/lifestyle with my dad. Who already owns a splitter. Of course, I end up doing most of the work, but I don't mind it.

I want to know how the heck you guys get your NG so cheap. We have a gas water heater and furnace, and in the summer months when we're not using the furnace, our gas bill is about $40. In the winter months it averages to about $150 and we keep our TINY house ice cold, below 70 most of the time. Figure seven months of heating, that's $1050. I paid $600 for four cords of wood, which should be roughly a winter's worth.

I also had to factor in that a wood stove is way, way cheaper than a new furnace, which just tonight decided to give up the ghost completely. I'm really lucky it died on me NOW and not two months ago before I had the stove installed.

~Rose

Haven't had a propane tank for 5 years now. First year we lived in current house we used 1000 gallons keeping temps at 67 during day and 64 at night. We now keep house between 72-80 all the time!! Use a 100# tank for Stove and dryer. Got 6 acres of red oak and a buddy who works for DPW that keeps dropping off truckloads of ash cut to size. Lent him my splitter once and have gotten 5 cords delivered. Ash borer killed off much of our ash trees here in Michigan.

I may not say allot by burning wood.
But I save some.
The little I save is mine, & I worked hard to save it.
It is worth more that way.

geoffm24 said:

My "Jan" gas bill just posted online and it was $180.05 this year. Last year the bill for Jan was $352.19. This is a little misleading because Jan 2011 was 30 days and Jan 2010 was 33. Also Nat Gas is about 9.5% cheaper this year. When you standarize the days at 30 you are looking at $180.05 vs $320.17. If you remove the savings from the drop in nat gas prices you are looking at $180.05 vs $292.95.

So my savings from burning somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 cord of wood is right around $113 for the coldest month of the year. This Jan was a bit colder then last year so maybe the savings were really in the $125-$135 range.

So so far based on my savings in Oct, Nov, Dec, and Jan I've saved $225-$250 assuming $0 cost for wood, tools, labor, stove, stove install, and chimney maintance and cleaning. Assuming mostly scrounged wood my breakeven should be in the area of 10-12 years, certainly not the "savings" I had hoped for.

Bottomline right now: If you have nat gas and prices stay in this area burning wood probably costs you money so do it for the ambiance. If Nat Gas shoots back up to 2007-2008 levels you might be in for some savings but until then don't expect any.

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speak for yourself.
i did the math when i bought my stove. i too am on natural gas in a modern house(built in 2000, and very efficient)
it will take me at best 2.5 years and at worst 4 years to pay off the stove, install and cost of the chainsaw.
I get wood for free, all it costs is my time.
granted, you have a point, those of us with natural gas for heat do not see the savings that those on oil or propane do.

if i even mentioned letting the stove go cold, i think my great dane would hate me forever. she basks in front of the stove all day while im at work.

My recent install (end of Dec) ran me $1400 for my insert, liner,insulation, etc. and I installed myself. Throw in a 30% tax credit and I'm at $980. I scrounge for wood and also have several tree services deliver their wood to my house for free (they avoid dump fees). I'm estimating a $50 savings per month from not using my nat gas furnace. Assuming Oct-Mar useage, I'll break even in around 3 yrs.

I also split most of my wood by hand and have got back into really good shape. So I think you can factor in the health benefit as well if you process your own wood. Plus we used to keep our tstat at 66 degrees to save money so it's awesome hanging out in a 75 degree den with no shirt on in the dead of winter knowing that the furnace hasn't came on in weeks.

Pre wood stove my winter gas bill was around $200/month. Now, post stove, it's $60 month, which is about $20 more than my average summer bill. (I still heat my garage with natural gas and also keep the T Stats in the house at 65*)

So I save roughly $1000 a year in natural gas costs. Now the wood cost me $600, so that ammounts to $400 savings in a year.

Not bare in mind without the stove I was cringing at turning the T Stat to anything over 68* and was "fine" being cold. Now with the stove I have no problems keeping the house at a cozy ~75*

BrowningBAR said:

Franks said:

Yup, I have natural gas in my home and used a wood stove for a few years. Maybe $500 in Gas savings. I bought my own wood, being the lazy type. $500 in wood. I saved no money. I was much warmer and I enjoyed stokin an sittin in front of the fire though. I miss it.

Click to expand...

Oil prices would have to drop to 66 cents a gallon for me to end up with zero savings from wood burning. And that's with buying my wood. 8 cords cost me $1,000.

If I cut and split myself; 8 cords of uncut logs cost me $700 + splitter rental. I can rent the splitter at $85 a weekend (Saturday at 3pm till Monday at 8am) and rent it for 3 weekends which comes to $255. Total of $955, or I splurge the extra $45 and have 8 cords cut, split, and delivered.

Oil, right now, would run me about $4,950.

Click to expand...

Yup, with fuel oil up over $3.00 per gallon, folks with alternative heat are loving their investments.