Blazeking or Pacific Energy - 1st time buyer

[kborndale]

Wood here in the Boston area is $450 a cord seasoned mixed hardwood.

Wow, at those prices it would be cheaper for me to just run my furnace. Can you get green wood cheaper?

 

[moresnow]

In my area we call the described basement a daylight basement

We call it a walkout basement around these here parts.

 

[Highbeam]

We call it a walkout basement around these here parts.

I like that term better. More descriptive.

at $200 a cord for oak (mixed birch, poplar, ash, maple is cheaper), buying enough wood to run all winter could cost me more than my electric heating system does.

Those cords might be some sort of banana cord, rick, or face cord. 200$ for a real cord does sound super cheap but this is Fargo after all and everybody has a chippah. I wonder how low the electric costs are if wood at 200 is still more expensive.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like a deal to me, as well. That was the price for mixed hardwoods here, years ago; I haven't checked lately.
Don't expect wood from a dealer to be dry, though. Here, I need two years split, stacked and top-covered, at least, for most woods, three years for Oak. Now, if your stacks get a lot of wind and you have low humidity most of the time, you may be able to get wood dry faster. Regardless, I'd start stacking some of that Boxelder ASAP; That should dry pretty quickly, I'd think.

Echoing Highbeam's sentiment. Could be a face cord?

 

[Mikey98e]

I'm just west of Boston and I got 2 cords for $750 delivered that filled up my 3 cord shed after I split them smaller to fit my stove.
-mike

 

[Fargo]

I had no idea my wood was inexpensive compared to others. Although, it might not be as cheap as it sounds, because a lot of guys call a pickup load a cord. But I don't think that's a full cord. So I probably need to read more closely what they are calling a cord. Others that actually measure a 4x4x8 cord always have cheaper woods mixed in. So price is hard to figure out. Our electricity is about $.09 per KWH at full price and off peak is around $.052. Since my furnace uses a ceramic block storage system, most of my heat comes at the cheaper rate. So my 3 coldest months of winter heat bills are around 4000kWh hours ($200) more expensive than my cheapest bills.

NOTE:
Hmm, I just did some math. Maybe wood is cheaper. If chatgpt is close to accurate then I could get the same 4000 kwh from a half cord of oak. Maybe it is worth buying oak to burn 24/7.

 

[GG Woody]

FWIW...
Not apples to apples, not even close...
We have a P.E. insert on the main floor, maybe 15yrs old, it's great, puts out a bunch of heat. We haven't fired it up yet this year because of the Blaze king stove in the basement. The Blaze King has been cruising for the last 5 weeks or so nonstop, slowish and lowish. (halfish throttle on the dial whatever that equates to)
I think that the basement would be cooked out with a tube stove this early (and a month ago) in the year, hypothetical since I have never had one down there. I burn 99% Douglas Fir and all my loads last at least 12hrs.
If I was to buy another stove today I would stick with P.E. or Blaze King , but probably mostly because they manufacture pretty local to me.
I think that the Blaze King might take me about 2 extra minutes per reload to deal with the bypass, non-issue.
I load, turn down, and leave either and or both running for entire loads every day 5 months of the year, non-issue.
My wood supply keeps getting better and better, the wood itself really is more of a variable than the stove.
We also have a nice natural gas furnace and heat pump, (I work in the HVAC trade) I haven't burned any gas in it this fall as I prefer burning wood.

 

[Woody Stover]

a lot of guys call a pickup load a cord. But I don't think that's a full cord....Our electricity is about $.09 per KWH at full price and off peak is around $.052.

Yep, a thrown-in pickup load is about 1/3 of a cord, or a rick (face cord) cut at 16", 4x8' row.
AI sez;


I just took the total of my bill, minus state tax, and divided by kWh, came out to 25 cents/kWh.
Yeah...solar... that's the ticket. 😏

 

[Highbeam]

To be fair, I can stack a cord in my pickup bed. I measured, I'm an engineer. It's not even to the top of the cab but does require sideboards to get the full cord. Full size, 3/4 ton and up trucks can haul the weight no problem though wet doug fir is lighter than oak.

Thrown in, to the top of the bedrails, is pretty dependably 1/3 of a cord or slightly over with my 6'-8" bed. This is how I sell wood because it's easier to load, cheaper for the buyer, and safer to transport. Plus I get to sell more smaller loads and I like to drive around.