old small house, small brick fire place- need some help picking a stove

[onesojourner]

Our area has been hit hard with ice storms the past 2 winters and needless to say we have a lot of dry wood piles in our yard. So we are considering getting a cheap stove. My primary concern is saving money. Our heating bill is roughly 50-100 dollars for 5-6 months out of the year. We plan to live in this house 2-3 more years, so I would like to get my money back in that amount of time. I am looking at buying a used insert. I am not sure what would work with our small brick fire place though.

width: 26"
Height 27"
Depth: 18.5"
There is about a foot and a half of brick level with the floor in front of the fire place, so I don't think a stove would be feasible. I believe the chimney is clay lined but I need to confirm that. If its not it might be a deal breaker.

Obviously with my budget I will need to find something used. I found this fisher insert locally:

 

[kenny chaos]

Is this post for real?
You only use $50-$100 to heat for the year and you want to invest in a woodstove that will pay you back in two years when you sell?
Reality check: For $100, I can heat my house for only about four days!
I'd suggest you just sell the firewood. Pay for your heat and invest the rest in the stock market You'd be a whole lot more money ahead that way.

 

[kjklosek]

Do you mean you pay $50-100 a month to heat your house, or is it that much for the whole heating season?

What type of heat do you have now?

How many square feet do you want to heat with the insert?

If you provide a little more information then it will help to get an idea of what your needs are.

J.P.

 

[Creek-Chub]

Is this post for real?
You only use $50-$100 to heat for the year and you want to invest in a woodstove that will pay you back in two years when you sell?
Reality check: For $100, I can heat my house for only about four days!
I'd suggest you just sell the firewood. Pay for your heat and invest the rest in the stock market You'd be a whole lot more money ahead that way.

$700 to $800 per month... And heating with wood? Really?

 

[kenny chaos]

Is this post for real?
You only use $50-$100 to heat for the year and you want to invest in a woodstove that will pay you back in two years when you sell?
Reality check: For $100, I can heat my house for only about four days!
I'd suggest you just sell the firewood. Pay for your heat and invest the rest in the stock market You'd be a whole lot more money ahead that way.

$700 to $800 per month... And heating with wood? Really?

No silly. That's the cost of using just oil.

 

[onesojourner]

Sorry for the lack of information. I spend roughly 50-100 per month on heating November-March, Roughly 3-400 per year. In 3 years thats $900+. I already have a good supply of wood with access to plenty more free dry wood.

The current heat source is a natural gas floor furnace. We heat about 700 square feet.

 

[btj1031]

Sorry for the lack of information. I spend roughly 50-100 per month on heating November-March, Roughly 3-400 per year. In 3 years thats $900+. I already have a good supply of wood with access to plenty more free dry wood.

The current heat source is a natural gas floor furnace. We heat about 700 square feet.

Even with the add'l info, I'd suggest selling the wood not bothering with the hastle of wood and finding/installing a stove, especially given your short time left in the house. I'm jealous of your heating bills!

 

[MGC67]

I honestly had 3 months last year paying 400 bucks in gas bills to heat my house. jan,feb,march............thus, i welcome with open arms, this forum and hopefully my new hearthstone shelburne, just waiting for my wife to get home and put in a downpayment.

 

[cd64133]

I also live in Missouri. I would guess that is per month, ours is more like $200 or so on average per month during the winter. It sounds like this place is pretty small. I would think you have better options than buying a wood stove.

If you have alot of wood and are only planning on being there 2 or 3 years, then sell the wood. If it is already ready to burn then you will have takers. Use that money to help with the utility bills, maybe find some sort of heater (we have those sun twin room heaters) and you can find those on sale right now or buy used. Heck of alot cheaper than stove, pipe, etc.

A stove would take years to pay for itself at $50 to $100 per month utility bills.

 

[gpcollen1]

Just so you get some idea as to what folks pay. I am by no means the typical guy -- I am all electric here in a 2000 sq ft house in CT. Constantly upgrading this house and just getting woodburner #2 installed for the peak cold months - Dec-March. You can note that this year, I ran out of wood in that March-April time...

I am looking into CTs solar lease program at the moment...

Read Date Use Days Use/Day Charge Read Average Temp
10/06/2008 1089 28 38.89 $205.43 00 59.1
09/08/2008 1013 33 30.70 $192.41 00 68.1
08/06/2008 1033 29 35.62 $195.84 00 73
07/08/2008 1090 29 37.59 $200.35 00 70.5
06/09/2008 1710 32 53.44 $298.42 00 59.7
05/08/2008 2052 30 68.40 $353.00 00 52.8
04/08/2008 4213 32 131.66 $703.91 00 40.1
03/07/2008 3493 30 116.43 $586.86 00 30.3
02/06/2008 2860 28 102.14 $479.60 00 30.9
01/09/2008 3406 34 100.18 $556.28 00 32.4
12/06/2007 2329 29 80.31 $387.57 00 36.7
11/07/2007 1778 29 61.31 $298.88 00 52.3
10/09/2007 1157 29 39.90 $198.93 00 64.7
09/10/2007 1040 27 38.52 $180.10 00 69.2
08/14/2007 1463 35 41.80 $248.19 00 72.4
07/10/2007 1381 33 41.85 $241.10 00 68.7
06/07/2007 1233 29 42.52 $220.57 00 64
05/09/2007 2178 30 72.60 $379.89 00 50.5

 

[Marty]

If you stayed 3 years you might come out even with a DIY install and a low end of price range/used- stove/insert, as you're probably looking at a liner in your chimney to make it all proper.

Are you sure some of that gas isn't going to water and service fees? That would kill off your ability to recoup over that time period, completely.

P.S. Also remember, the possibility of recouping your money dose not guarantee it will happen.

 

[mayhem]

If you're only paying out $100/mo for heat I don't see any way for you to recoup your costs to purchase and install anything that you could operate safely and legally. If you were to spend the money on a nice insert or stove you may

Personally I'm probably going to see my $4k investment paid for in savings by the end of the upcoming heating season, but my house uses a solid 1200 gal of oil without the stove and the wife shivering in the living room. I cut that to 600 gal last year and hope to improve on that this coming winter. The only reason I'm looking at a return that quick is because oil is $3/gal +.

 

[VTSR5]

Our area has been hit hard with ice storms the past 2 winters and needless to say we have a lot of dry wood piles in our yard. So we are considering getting a cheap stove. My primary concern is saving money...[/img]

The economic arguments against woodburning for you have been well presented, but lead to a flawed conclusion because you imposed a difficult constraint. Sure, you're not going to save any money burning wood if you amortize the stove and install costs over 3 years, then don't charge the new buyer of your home for the real value of the installed stove and residual wood. But of course that's not the rational way to think about it, or to behave. A stove is justified if you relax your constraint about recouping the cost in 3 years, and make plans to either bump up the sale price of the house to relect this nice improvement and the fuel for it, or take it all with you to your new place. It's going to be a bigger place with higher heating costs, right?

You should also consider that saving money is not the only reason to have a secondary and independent source of heat in North America. Lots of people in my neck of the woods think it is important to be able to heat the house under any circumstances, and that includes power outages, extended storms of unexpected intensity, and fossil fuel supply disruptions. That kind of security has a value that's a little hard to put a price on, but should be considered anyway as tipping the scales in favor of a wood stove for the sake of independence, not just economy.

 

[begreen]

If you buy a good quality stove it's going to keep it's value for some time. The original Resolutes are still selling in good condition for what I paid for one in 1979. I've sold a couple Jotuls in the past few years for just about what I paid for them. Heck if the dollar depreciates more, the stove could be worth more than when you bought it. My point being if you get a good stove and treat it well, view it as an investment that you either take with you when the house is sold or you sell it then. If you lose a couple hundred dollars in the sale, that will be the cost of ownership for a few years. Not a bad deal in my book.