Burning wood making a difference

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longboarder2

Member
Feb 14, 2012
87
southern NJ
so when i decided to start using a wood boiler, my two goals were to save money and reduce my oil consumption/carbon footprint. got some consumption numbers from the oil company today and i have to say, all thing considered i am very pleased with the result and looking forward to improving on the goals.

total oil consumption 2008.........1108.7 gallons
2009..........985.8 gal.--------re-programmed thermostats @ leave & sleep temps.
2010..........887.0 gal.--------moved thermostat times 15 min., lowered avg. 2 deg.
2011..........1105.9 gal.--------24" snow here
* 2012..........729.9 gal.----started using wood in mid dec./stop in feb. due to fire.


oil consumption during heating season from october to april

10/08-4/09............756 gal.
10/09-4/10............748 gal.
10/10-4/11............675 gal.
*10/11-4/12............511.3 gal.---if not for feb. chimney fire, this would have been around 380 gal. (avg.)
*10/12-4/13............149 gal, so far---been burning wood since thanksgiving week.


avg. oil delivery from oct-mar.

08/09.....145.5
09/10.....154.8
10/11.....161.74
*11/12.....130.63.......only burned wood 60 days
*12/13.....112.1 looking good so far!


house is approx. 3300 sq. feet with 18' living room ceiling, 1100 sq. ft. finished bsmnt, domestic hot water on system. we've been in the house for five years, but i went back to 08 to make sure i had a good mix of cold and mild winters. numbers for 2012 not impressive because we had to switch back to all oil following a chimney fire in early feb.. this winter been quite mild with some days of not burning wood at all (45' + temps.) and been conserving wood supply as i am about 1 cord short of what i need.---have five cords split and stacked for the next three seasons!
 
next move is trying to work with harman to get more efficiency out of the boiler (better off talking to the wall) and installing electric hot water backup and solar to reduce my summertime oil cons.
 
My parents have been burning oil the past two months even though there's a wood boiler in the basement alongside the new Buderus - easier than climbing up & down the steps I guess. Got filled up last week, figured they spent $15/day over those two months on oil for heat & DHW. And they've got a small-ish decently insulated house.

This morning a new NO dump valve was purchased to replace the stuck closed one so we can get their wood unit fired up.
 
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