YTD Savings

[Garbanzo62]

This is my first year with the Insert and I am trying to track my ROI. Hopefully this trend continues through the winter.

Last Year I received 146.1 Gallons of oil on 12/13 and 162.1 gallons on 1/12. This year, I received 126.6 on 12/9 and 69.5 gallons on 1/4.
So for the December period I have used 92.6 less gallons. Dec 22 avg temp was 4 degrees colder than Dec 21.

YTD I have used 139.62 less gallons than last year. Positive trend, hope it continues.

 

[ABMax24]

How much wood did you burn and what did that wood cost you?

 

[BillBurns]

Ive spent about 300-400 on wood, used an 1/8 of a tank of oil. Before my stove.....500 a month of oil alone.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Ive spent about 300-400 on wood, used an 1/8 of a tank of oil. Before my stove.....500 a month of oil alone.

Nice job! I’ll bet you keep the house a temp you prefer now more that with the old oil heat too.

 

[BillBurns]

You know it. I keep it about 70 in my house, and with oil....64 as a median temp. Its just better bone warming heat, the wood I mean. I dont know how I made it without wood heat.

 

[Garbanzo62]

So I've bought 3 hand loads of Slabwood at $40 a piece plus the cost to rent a truck. 2 of those loads I got last week and I'm still in the process of cutting to length etc. I've only burned a portion of the first load and that cost me $70 after truck rental gas etc. All other wood is stuff I've had/processed myself. Slabwood is because I don't expect to have enough burnable to get through the winter. Guessing that the total amount of slabwood I bought is about 1.75 cords.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

You know it. I keep it about 70 in my house, and with oil....64 as a median temp. Its just better bone warming heat, the wood I mean. I dont know how I made it without wood heat.

Yup, my wife use the call me the heat nazi. Electric baseboard heat before installing the insert. We’d be “chillin” in 65 degrees, she’d be complaining about it, and we still paid a lot per month. Now we only use the electric heat if we are away in cold months.
We’ve had the insert for 10 yrs now. Doing the math, I’ve conservatively figured that we have saved 30K. That figure is on the low side if we were to keep the rooms were typically in at 70 like we do now. I scrounge all my wood so I save a bit there. I figure in the last 10 yrs we’ve used 40 cords. If buying, I’d call that 10K. Would still be saving a lot if buying the wood.

 

[KDubU]

Something else you need to consider which sounds obvious, weather/climate. This winter is unseasonably warm in NE. We have had only one true cold spell for a few days and almost zero snow (none on the ground here in S Maine).

 

[Todd]

The last 3 Winters have been pretty brutal for us weather wise, lots of below zero days and lots of snow. I’m pretty sure my stove has paid for itself by now since I cut my own wood on my land. Last year I only went through 80 gallons of propane and that was mostly for cooking and hot water.

 

[Garbanzo62]

Something else you need to consider which sounds obvious, weather/climate. This winter is unseasonably warm in NE. We have had only one true cold spell for a few days and almost zero snow (none on the ground here in S Maine).

So my electric bill has the Average temp for the month. This Dec is 4 degrees colder than last Dec. (last year was pretty warm too).
Granted you could have a 65 degree day and a 1 degree day and that would average to 32 . As far as Apples to Apples that is the best I can get.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

It’s not a perfect tool, but I use Weather Data Depot degree days calculator when I’m trying to compare weather from month to month/year to year. It defaults to 60 degrees, but you can change the temperature to what you believe is your balance point. I thought it might be a useful calculator for folks here.

Weather Data Depot: free downloads of heating & cooling degree days

www.weatherdatadepot.com

 

[KDubU]

So my electric bill has the Average temp for the month. This Dec is 4 degrees colder than last Dec. (last year was pretty warm too).
Granted you could have a 65 degree day and a 1 degree day and that would average to 32 . As far as Apples to Apples that is the best I can get.

I hear ya. It’s not easy to get a true ROI but you can likely get close. I hope our new wood stove will reduce the oil usage on this house we recently purchased. Haven’t had oil since I lived with my parents like 35+ years ago. Not a fan of it to be honest as have been a wood stove guy for 30yrs with mini-splits in the last place. Before that we had an electric furnace if I recall correctly but also had a masonry heater and that took care of all our heating needs by itself. Wish I still had one.

 

[reaperman1]

This is my first year with the Insert and I am trying to track my ROI. Hopefully this trend continues through the winter.

Last Year I received 146.1 Gallons of oil on 12/13 and 162.1 gallons on 1/12. This year, I received 126.6 on 12/9 and 69.5 gallons on 1/4.
So for the December period I have used 92.6 less gallons. Dec 22 avg temp was 4 degrees colder than Dec 21.

YTD I have used 139.62 less gallons than last year. Positive trend, hope it continues.

Thats great. I'm amazed at how much $$ it takes to heat some houses. I didnt think I was reading correctly when you said you used 127 gallons in one month I wish I knew how much money I saved in the 30+ years Ive been heating with wood. On second hand, maybe I dont want to know because then I'd wonder where and the world all of that money went

 

[Crab]

This year, I received 126.6 on 12/9 and 69.5 gallons on 1/4.

What did you pay for oil on those 2 dates? As of yesterday I have burned ~56 gallons since the 12/3 fill up at (and it still hurts to say it) $5.11/g Argggggg Woodstove-less winters I averaged 20-some g/wk. So the F45 is helping.

I'm amazed at how much $$ it takes to heat some houses

When we built our house in 1993/94/95 Oil was $.80/g so 100g/month for heat and hot water wasn't bad.

 

[BillBurns]

I think I paid 5.69 last time, and hopefully the only time I get fuel this year.

 

[Garbanzo62]

last two fillups were 3.999/gl My biggest monthly usage was between Jan 12 and Feb 9 last year, Feb fillup was 212 gallons.
Worst price was last marge at $5.299 / gl. Feb and Mar fillups last year were over $800 each time.

 

[NewGuy132]

I did the math a couple weeks ago, but I typically go through 1000 gallons of oil a year. Last year we were down to about 750 gallons. This year will be less than that. So I'd say we saved about $1,000 so far. Only a 4 more years and I'll have it paid off. haha.

 

[NewGuy132]

What did you pay for oil on those 2 dates? As of yesterday I have burned ~56 gallons since the 12/3 fill up at (and it still hurts to say it) $5.11/g Argggggg Woodstove-less winters I averaged 20-some g/wk. So the F45 is helping.

When we built our house in 1993/94/95 Oil was $.80/g so 100g/month for heat and hot water wasn't bad.

I'd be happy as can be to be back at $3 a gallon. I think our last fill up was $5.20 and the one before that was $5.80.

 

[NorthernFireplaceFool]

Something else you need to consider which sounds obvious, weather/climate. This winter is unseasonably warm in NE. We have had only one true cold spell for a few days and almost zero snow (none on the ground here in S Maine).

I wish we would get some snow again! Every time we get precipitation it warms up to 40 degrees and rains. The snow pack around the house helps hold the heat in on these cold days.

 

[BillBurns]

I never thought about snow pack keeping you semi warm, but I like it. I guess they tell you to make a snow cave if youre lost in the snow........It keeps you out of the wind, and body heat keeps you alive.

 

[NorthernFireplaceFool]

I never thought about snow pack keeping you semi warm, but I like it. I guess they tell you to make a snow cave if youre lost in the snow........It keeps you out of the wind, and body heat keeps you alive.

My house has had a lot of air sealing done, extensive attic blown in insulation and spray foamed basement, but the house is still 115 years old so air sealing 115 year old house is a constant endeavor. It seems to be leakier than it was when we had it done 6-8 years ago. Once there is a foot of snow on the roof and around the foundation it seems warmer for sure!

 

[Garbanzo62]

The difficult thing is I am on automatic delivery, so when I get oil each year varies. The best I can do is calculate by Season. Basically Aug - May. and see what I use in those time periods. HW is oil fired too so there is always that factor to consider

 

[KMW]

This is my first full year heating primarily with wood. I had a Blaze King Princess insert installed last March. Total cost was $6,100....after the tax credit, it's roughly $4515. My house has an oil furnace which heated the house exclusively until now, and we do have oil hot water, so I use +/- 1 gallon of oil per day to just heat water no matter what. The oil furnace does run occasionally on a real cold days to keep the bedrooms at the far end of the house at 67F day/65F night (separate zone from the rest of the house). The stove has kept the rest of the house 68F or above regardless of outside temp. In roughly the same 45 day period from the end of November until now, I used 206 gal of oil in 2021 compared to 73 gal in 2022. I didn't check but i'm almost certain oil was higher this time last year, but at the current price of $3.99/gal for heating oil, that is a savings of $532 over this 45 day period when comparing 2022 to 2021 or roughly $355 monthly savings (per 30 days). At that rate (assuming constant fuel oil price), my break even period on the stove will be roughly 13 heating months or just over 2 years. It is worth noting that I cut my own firewood for free minus the cost for some gas and oil and my time, which I'm not factoring in. I already owned a saw and ax that I'm not considering either. I have +/-3 year supply on hand at the moment, all split with a fiskars ax. I may buy a splitter in the future, which would affect my break even point...we'll see. Regardless, the stove has been a worthwhile investment for sure.

 

[Garbanzo62]

Beyond the oil savings, Also factor in the having a Stove/insert increases your resale value. If you get a 5% value bump on a $200,000 house you effectively increased your equity by $10000.

 

[mdocod]

The ROI on satisfaction is immediate, and the ROI in a power outage is priceless.

Around here cheap natural gas is piped into basically every habitable structure. I figure we offset about $80-160 in heating costs per month with wood for the ~6 months of the year with meaningful heat demands. After the tax credit I think the stove will have an installed cost of around $5K give or take.

Assuming free wood forever and my time being calculated as free for all the wood processing and chimney/ash cleaning, the system will have paid for itself in about 7 years. Realistically speaking there are likely to be other costs associated with the system over time that could drag that out to 10 years or more, or never... If I eventually buy wood, then it might never balance out.

An honest assessment of wood burning in this region would be that most people who burn wood here do it because they want to, not because they need to. It's not about saving money, it's about having a beautiful fire in a beautiful stove, and having the utility of alternative heat when the power is out or the furnace isn't working.