I've been pondering getting a gasser for about three years (https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/vigas-vs-innova-or.86818/) and now am in a position to do so but I want to be sure that it's a good investment. Currently we have a two year old propane boiler (which wasn't cheap) but we do require backup heat so I guess that's a wash. Last year we used 5718 litres of propane - around $4000, this year will be about 20% less due to some improvements - so there has been some improvement. We do wish to heat part of our carriage house going forward and I am concerned about how that will impact long term costs.
That amount of propane works out to about 7 cords - going rate around here seems to be $300. It may be possible that we can cut our own from my wife's parents land but I like to work with a worst case scenario.
In my earlier post I was looking at a Vigas or an Tarm Innova. I'm really leaning toward an Innova - I spoke to Scott at Tarm Biomass and he was excellent. There will be around 1300 gallons of storage (using an old cistern) and Scott was suggesting the Innova 50 because of the large storage.
Looks like it would pay for itself in six years ($15K capital cost, ~$2500 yearly savings). My wife is somewhat sceptical and points out that for $4000 we currently spend, we don't have to do anything. I should say we had a bad experience with a Caddy forced air wood furnace that wasn't sized properly and couldn't handle the load and my wife spent a great deal of time feeding it logs. On the other hand, I could use the exercise and would like our son to grow up with some experience burning wood.
I'm also curious if I were to invest the $15K (mutual funds, stocks, etc) would I still be getting a better rate of return by putting in a gasser? Has anyone worked that out - my calculations show that I would need a rate of return greater than 12% for the investment to outperform the gasser. My wife also points out that 12% has labour involved whereas mutual funds would not. We're not against working - just trying to make an accurate comparison.
I'm sure someone has run into a similar situation, would you mind sharing your thoughts? Does a gasser still make sense if I have to buy the wood?
Thanks,
Brad
That amount of propane works out to about 7 cords - going rate around here seems to be $300. It may be possible that we can cut our own from my wife's parents land but I like to work with a worst case scenario.
In my earlier post I was looking at a Vigas or an Tarm Innova. I'm really leaning toward an Innova - I spoke to Scott at Tarm Biomass and he was excellent. There will be around 1300 gallons of storage (using an old cistern) and Scott was suggesting the Innova 50 because of the large storage.
Looks like it would pay for itself in six years ($15K capital cost, ~$2500 yearly savings). My wife is somewhat sceptical and points out that for $4000 we currently spend, we don't have to do anything. I should say we had a bad experience with a Caddy forced air wood furnace that wasn't sized properly and couldn't handle the load and my wife spent a great deal of time feeding it logs. On the other hand, I could use the exercise and would like our son to grow up with some experience burning wood.
I'm also curious if I were to invest the $15K (mutual funds, stocks, etc) would I still be getting a better rate of return by putting in a gasser? Has anyone worked that out - my calculations show that I would need a rate of return greater than 12% for the investment to outperform the gasser. My wife also points out that 12% has labour involved whereas mutual funds would not. We're not against working - just trying to make an accurate comparison.
I'm sure someone has run into a similar situation, would you mind sharing your thoughts? Does a gasser still make sense if I have to buy the wood?
Thanks,
Brad