I thought some might find this interesting. I've been burning for 5 years now, the first 4 years I was super "hard core", burning 24/7 throughout the heating season, my goal was to use as little natural gas as possible. I burned during the day even when no one was home, so the house would be warm when we got home from work.
This year, I decided to try just burning evenings only during the week, 24/7 on the weekend to see what difference it would make as far as both impact on wood supply and cost/usage amount of natural gas. I set the programmable thermostat to drop to 58 degrees at 7AM, and climb to 64 degrees about 45 minutes before we get home from work. I always kill the nat gas when I get home regardless of the temperature. It is usually still a bit chilly when we get home from work, but an extra sweatshirt or light jacket does the job and isn't a big deal, one of us gets the fire started, and we eat dinner on the couch in front of the stove - that space heats up quickly. The whole house usually gets up to 70+ degrees in about an hour.
It does cost a bit more wood to get a cold stove hot, but overall I'd say I used about 1/3 less wood this year than last year, and it was also much colder this winter (we had a -5F day which is the coldest I can remember at my house in the 11 years I've lived here - stove performed beautifully that day by the way, it was also a weekend so I was burning 24/7). I used an average of about 25 ccf more natural gas per month, at an extra cost of around $25 per month. A rough estimate is that it cost about $150 to save about 1 1/3 cords of wood. The time savings for me are pretty substantial, not just the time cost of lighting a fire in the morning, but the time associated with that 1 & 1/3 cord of wood (gathering, splitting, stacking, hauling into the house, etc). All in all, I'd say FOR ME burning evenings only during the week is worth it as long as the cost of natural gas is low, and I will probably continue this way into the future unless something changes.
Note: If your backup heat is oil or electric the cost would be WAY higher and would probably completely change the analysis. Colder climates might also be a different story.
This year, I decided to try just burning evenings only during the week, 24/7 on the weekend to see what difference it would make as far as both impact on wood supply and cost/usage amount of natural gas. I set the programmable thermostat to drop to 58 degrees at 7AM, and climb to 64 degrees about 45 minutes before we get home from work. I always kill the nat gas when I get home regardless of the temperature. It is usually still a bit chilly when we get home from work, but an extra sweatshirt or light jacket does the job and isn't a big deal, one of us gets the fire started, and we eat dinner on the couch in front of the stove - that space heats up quickly. The whole house usually gets up to 70+ degrees in about an hour.
It does cost a bit more wood to get a cold stove hot, but overall I'd say I used about 1/3 less wood this year than last year, and it was also much colder this winter (we had a -5F day which is the coldest I can remember at my house in the 11 years I've lived here - stove performed beautifully that day by the way, it was also a weekend so I was burning 24/7). I used an average of about 25 ccf more natural gas per month, at an extra cost of around $25 per month. A rough estimate is that it cost about $150 to save about 1 1/3 cords of wood. The time savings for me are pretty substantial, not just the time cost of lighting a fire in the morning, but the time associated with that 1 & 1/3 cord of wood (gathering, splitting, stacking, hauling into the house, etc). All in all, I'd say FOR ME burning evenings only during the week is worth it as long as the cost of natural gas is low, and I will probably continue this way into the future unless something changes.
Note: If your backup heat is oil or electric the cost would be WAY higher and would probably completely change the analysis. Colder climates might also be a different story.
