Which is more cost effective?

Intheswamp said:

Lot's of reasons that my choice is/was:

WOOD

My biggest decision was deciding on CAT or non-CAT. (I went non-CAT, but the jury hasn't even convened yet.)

To me, the KISS principle seems to apply here very well.

Best wishes,
Ed

Click to expand...

I too like the KISS principle. That is one of the reasons I went with a cat stove!

(Curious) George said:

dylanmcintosh said:

Hello everyone i am looking for some input on what to get. I just bought a 2300 sq. ft. home and heating with straight gas is sucking the money right out of my piggy bank. I grew up with nothing but wood stoves, but i have heard a lot of craze about pellet stoves. what is going to be more cost effective in the long, and short term,(stove, pipe, etc.) I enjoy splitting wood and want a wood burning stove, but i need to know if financialy it makes more sense to go with pellet..

Thanks for any feedback in advance!

Click to expand...

Hi DM,

What do you mean by "gas"?

If you mean NG, wood and pellets cost more if you buy them at the going rate.

The only think cheaper than NG is "free", as in "free" wood.

If you mean propane, wood and pellets are cheaper.

HTH, and good luck.

Click to expand...

Who's going rate? I don't use pellets.
When I can heat my house on $50-60 worth of Nat. gas/month, I'll turn the furnace back on. I don't see that happening soon, since the price of gas goes up faster than the price of wood......around here. YMWV

dylanmcintosh said:

(Curious) George said:

dylanmcintosh said:

Hello everyone i am looking for some input on what to get. I just bought a 2300 sq. ft. home and heating with straight gas is sucking the money right out of my piggy bank. I grew up with nothing but wood stoves, but i have heard a lot of craze about pellet stoves. what is going to be more cost effective in the long, and short term,(stove, pipe, etc.) I enjoy splitting wood and want a wood burning stove, but i need to know if financialy it makes more sense to go with pellet..

Thanks for any feedback in advance!

Click to expand...

Hi DM,

What do you mean by "gas"?

If you mean NG, wood and pellets cost more if you buy them at the going rate.

The only think cheaper than NG is "free", as in "free" wood.

If you mean propane, wood and pellets are cheaper.

HTH, and good luck.

Click to expand...

well this is one of my deciding factors, i own a saw and everything i need to cut, split, and store. And I get permits from the forest service and i get 8 cords for 20 dollars. Unfortunatly it's all pine. Here is another qusetion for everyone, If i am burning 24/7, how much is average to burn during the cold season?

Click to expand...

Average wood burners burn between 3-4 cords through the wood burning season.
Pine is my staple wood fuel.
Where are you located? Western varieties of pine are generally better than eastern varieties.

I agree, with a wife and an infant in the house it needs to stay pretty warm, even keeping the heat lowish,(65-69) im still paying 80 to 100 doallars a month during the cold season so paying $20 for 8 cords worth of permits is going to save me enough to recoop the cost of either type of stove, and fast.[/quote]

80-100 DOLLARS A MONTH... 2800 SQFT HOUSE!
I'm not a home heating expert but that sounds pretty darn good...am I missing something?

I burn four cords of hardwood a year and my winter gas bills are still higher than that in a 2000sqft house.

Not sure if this was mentioned. Pellet stoves can be noisy so if you are thinking of putting it near the TV - forget it. You also have to be a dedicated user, that is there is more cleaning and maintenance than a wood stove. You have to clean the burn pot, change gaskets, clean filters etc... There is typically a daily/weekly/monthly/seasonal cleaning schedule to adhere to and the owners manual will tell you what it is. If you dont do the cleaning you might find yourself replacing parts more often.

That being said, the advantage is that most models can be hooked up to a thermostat and will provide constant heat. Depending on the size of the hopper and your usage you can go a couple days without refills. If you can swing it a pellet furnace might not be a bad idea either depending on your budget.

My suggestion is if you're seriously considering it, look for a good quality model and ask the folks here on Hearth.com about the model(s) you're contemplating.

dylanmcintosh said:

Hello everyone i am looking for some input on what to get. I just bought a 2300 sq. ft. home and heating with straight gas is sucking the money right out of my piggy bank. I grew up with nothing but wood stoves, but i have heard a lot of craze about pellet stoves. what is going to be more cost effective in the long, and short term,(stove, pipe, etc.) I enjoy splitting wood and want a wood burning stove, but i need to know if financialy it makes more sense to go with pellet..

Thanks for any feedback in advance!

Click to expand...

As you can see there are pros- and cons- with using either wood or pellets . . . if you look at just the financial equation I believe a lot would come down to whether you are buying wood, scrounging wood or have your own woodlot . . . while no fuel is free (even scrounging requires fuel to get the wood and process it) folks who scrounge may have the best (and worst) deal . . . best: close to free wood, worst: may not be readily available or the best BTU wood.

I can tell you for me I opted for wood . . . and one reason was that at the time it was far easier for me to get a woodstove than it was to buy pellets or a pelletstove . . . more over I have access to the family wood lot and already had a chainsaw, SUV and trailer to move the wood. Financially, this made sense for me. Whether it makes sense financially to you . . . well only you can decide.

That said . . . I also would suggest that burning either pellets or wood can have other advantages and disadvantages that go far beyond the financial equation . . . for me some of these aspects are nearly as important as the financial aspect -- being able to control the price and availability of the fuel, the physical ability and time to process my fuel, the look of the fire from a woodstove, maintenance of a woodstove, etc. . . . a person who has gone with pelletstoves can however also bring up reasons why it made sense for them to go with pellets.

There is no wrong decision here . . . only a decision that is more right for you.

I vote for wood. With a pellet stove you HAVE to buy pellets, and if the prices go up you are stuck paying more. With wood you can buy logs, buy firewood, or you can cut. If wood prices rise, you have a way to control your heating cost. It is good to have options.

Sounds like you have (or was) leaning to the wood stove since you have wood stove experience & wood getting tools already.
How much wood? 2 to 3 years supply is nice, things happen, so get it while the gett'n is good
I'd get the 8 cord with the $20 permit if you have room to store it.
From what you described, 1/4 of the work is done for you (downed, piled in an accessible location by the FS)
Almost to good to be true, go for it.
Round up some pallets (Lowes/ HD a good place to ask) & start hauling. Even this wood will need some seasoning time.
I don't know if it's easier to split on the cutting site, but it may be if hand splitting, leaves the mess behind.
Just get it ASAP so it's good dry seasoned wood for next winter.
Pine is fine, it's what you got access to at a good price, lots here burn pine. It's BTUs & seasoned pretty quick

Now you have to figure out which wood stove. Another choice, but another fun part. Then (Catalytic, or non cat)
This may help, several different stove specs to help compare:
http://www.epa.gov/Compliance/resources/publications/monitoring/caa/woodstoves/certifiedwood.pdf

Good luck

Warm in RI said:

I'm not realizing this cheap NG phenomenon around here. We bought 2 cords of wood last year to be used this year. We burn nights and weekends so the stove gets used on average 14 hrs/day. We paid $400 for the 2 cords and have already saved that much on our heating bill or damn near close and there's still plenty of burning left to do. If we did a true comparison between cost, the savings would be even higher, meaning the savings stated were based on NG gas use at a MAX temps of 68*. And, that 68* was only when we were home and awake. At work and bedtime, temps were 62. I'd dare say most keep their house MUCH warmer with wood than they would dare to with other heat sources. As far as pellet stoves, my step mom and my mom have them and like them. Not my cup of tea but I can see where it might be advantagous for convienence and "ease" of use...ie: my 64 year old mom lugging in wood into the house. I don't care for the constant drone of the fan. I must say though that the flue set up seems a lot less expensive.

Click to expand...

Fair enough! How much to you pay per therm for NG? I can't get it, so it's moot for me.

(Curious) George said:

Warm in RI said:

I'm not realizing this cheap NG phenomenon around here. We bought 2 cords of wood last year to be used this year. We burn nights and weekends so the stove gets used on average 14 hrs/day. We paid $400 for the 2 cords and have already saved that much on our heating bill or damn near close and there's still plenty of burning left to do. If we did a true comparison between cost, the savings would be even higher, meaning the savings stated were based on NG gas use at a MAX temps of 68*. And, that 68* was only when we were home and awake. At work and bedtime, temps were 62. I'd dare say most keep their house MUCH warmer with wood than they would dare to with other heat sources. As far as pellet stoves, my step mom and my mom have them and like them. Not my cup of tea but I can see where it might be advantagous for convienence and "ease" of use...ie: my 64 year old mom lugging in wood into the house. I don't care for the constant drone of the fan. I must say though that the flue set up seems a lot less expensive.

Click to expand...

Fair enough! How much to you pay per therm for NG? I can't get it, so it's moot for me.

Click to expand...

George, from what I can make out it looks like 0.9091 per therm.

Warm in RI said:

George, from what I can make out it looks like 0.9091 per therm.

Click to expand...

+ how much delivery/service fees? My bill is about half fees.

Warm what is your bill amount divided by therms used? Mine comes out to $1.85/therm delivered in MA and thats lower than the last four years.

Backwoods Savage said:

Intheswamp said:

Lot's of reasons that my choice is/was:

WOOD

My biggest decision was deciding on CAT or non-CAT. (I went non-CAT, but the jury hasn't even convened yet.)

To me, the KISS principle seems to apply here very well.

Best wishes,
Ed

Click to expand...

I too like the KISS principle. That is one of the reasons I went with a cat stove!

Click to expand...

I hear you Dennis. It's hard sometimes to understand someones intent over the internet and I hope you didn't take my remarks as being negative towards cat stoves. The aspect of the op's question that I was applying the KISS principle to was the pellet/wood choice...not the cat/non-cat aspect. For my current situation I chose a non-cat. I may be right or may be wrong in my choice, and in my newbie mind I may never know one way or the other...but, regardless of the choice, I'll be burning wood. I can't make pellets but I can cut and split wood.

Best wishes,
Ed

KarlP said:

Warm in RI said:

George, from what I can make out it looks like 0.9091 per therm.

Click to expand...

+ how much delivery/service fees? My bill is about half fees.

Warm what is your bill amount divided by therms used? Mine comes out to $1.85/therm delivered in MA and thats lower than the last four years.

Click to expand...

yeah about 40% "delivery" fees. My bill dec15 to jan 15 was $113 div.by, call it 74. Hmmmm, 1.52. That does sound pretty cheap. I looked at the bar graph and saw it was half that of other Januarys and I know the bill was usually low $200's, and like I said, the house was never "warm". My furnace is 30 years old so maybe that has a thing to do with it. I never did all the math, breaking it down like you did, so perhaps I'm a little off. Thanks for the different perspective.

Al

PapaDave said:

(Curious) George said:

dylanmcintosh said:

Hello everyone i am looking for some input on what to get. I just bought a 2300 sq. ft. home and heating with straight gas is sucking the money right out of my piggy bank. I grew up with nothing but wood stoves, but i have heard a lot of craze about pellet stoves. what is going to be more cost effective in the long, and short term,(stove, pipe, etc.) I enjoy splitting wood and want a wood burning stove, but i need to know if financialy it makes more sense to go with pellet..

Thanks for any feedback in advance!

Click to expand...

Hi DM,

What do you mean by "gas"?

If you mean NG, wood and pellets cost more if you buy them at the going rate.

The only think cheaper than NG is "free", as in "free" wood.

If you mean propane, wood and pellets are cheaper.

HTH, and good luck.

Click to expand...

Who's going rate? I don't use pellets.
When I can heat my house on $50-60 worth of Nat. gas/month, I'll turn the furnace back on. I don't see that happening soon, since the price of gas goes up faster than the price of wood......around here. YMWV

Click to expand...

I'm not trying to pee in anyone's Cheerios, just pointing out the conclusion that the last major thread on this topic reached.

Here's this site's own comparison calculator, you can enter your own prices, and reach your own conclusions for your situation:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/fuel_cost_comparison_calculator/

FWIW, by the going rate for wood, I meant purchase of "seasoned" firewood, which generally goes for $150-$200 per cord around here. If you get it cheaper, as many do, more "power" to you.

It seems that this calculator is designed for cold regions and specifically the northeast region...those would be some *very* staggering expenses for the average family income down here in Dixie.

My total electric bill (geothermal system with no heat strips) runs a touch over $300 a month during extreme cold periods...normally more around $250. If we figured six months at $300 (it will average less than that) that would be $1800. Even at $400 that would still only get up to $2400. Here are some snips from the calculator with my local prices inserted...

$8.00 per Million BTU of Heat delivered to home
$760.00 per year for normal home for Hardwood ($140 cord)

$43.95 per Million BTU of Heat delivered to home
$4,175.25 per year for normal home for Electric (.15 kwh)

$42.69 per Million BTU of Heat delivered to home
$4,055.55 per year for normal home for LP (Propane) Gas ($3.00 gal)

(Side note: Propane is currently headed northward and can be found at varying prices...we purchased some for our church yesterday for $2.59...got quotes elsewhere for up to $3.09)

It would be nice if there was an option to add a "region factor" or whatever into the calculator.

The cost per million BTUs works good universally, and the comparison of the hardwood cost vs. the other two costs is definitely something to get your attention, but the "per year" cost is a bit off for folks further south.

Just thinking (it worries my wife when I do that)

Ed

(Curious) George said:

PapaDave said:

(Curious) George said:

dylanmcintosh said:

Hello everyone i am looking for some input on what to get. I just bought a 2300 sq. ft. home and heating with straight gas is sucking the money right out of my piggy bank. I grew up with nothing but wood stoves, but i have heard a lot of craze about pellet stoves. what is going to be more cost effective in the long, and short term,(stove, pipe, etc.) I enjoy splitting wood and want a wood burning stove, but i need to know if financialy it makes more sense to go with pellet..

Thanks for any feedback in advance!

Click to expand...

Hi DM,

What do you mean by "gas"?

If you mean NG, wood and pellets cost more if you buy them at the going rate.

The only think cheaper than NG is "free", as in "free" wood.

If you mean propane, wood and pellets are cheaper.

HTH, and good luck.

Click to expand...

Who's going rate? I don't use pellets.
When I can heat my house on $50-60 worth of Nat. gas/month, I'll turn the furnace back on. I don't see that happening soon, since the price of gas goes up faster than the price of wood......around here. YMWV

Click to expand...

I'm not trying to pee in anyone's Cheerios, just pointing out the conclusion that the last major thread on this topic reached.

Here's this site's own comparison calculator, you can enter your own prices, and reach your own conclusions for your situation:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/fuel_cost_comparison_calculator/

FWIW, by the going rate for wood, I meant purchase of "seasoned" firewood, which generally goes for $150-$200 per cord around here. If you get it cheaper, as many do, more "power" to you.

Click to expand...