boiler investment payoff

[woodsmaster]

Just a little poll to see how lohng it takes for a wood boiler to pay off. I Know answers will differ and thats OK.

I'll start and guess about 6 or 7 years if I were to count only guesstimated propane fuel costs ,but I needed a new heat soure for my house anyway and something to heat the new shop so if I deduct the cost of 2 propane furnaces and duct-work It would be more like 4 or 5 years. I figure I'll have around $12,000 in my biomass 60 system heating 2 buildings about 3100 sq ' total.

please list

1 type of boiler
2 Amount of area heated
3 Expected payoff time.

My first poll. didn't realize the numbers were for voting. whops

 

[stee6043]

Hah....the poll options are kinda funny. I guess I'll go with 4-5 years?? HA.

I'm definitely in the 5 year bracket myself. I've got roughly $14k in my setup. But when I did my "payback" calc's I was basing it on the temps we used to keep our house at. When heating with wood I keep the house a full 6-7 degrees warmer...

Answers:

Eko 40
3200 square feet
5 years

 

[heat4steve]

The cost for propane here is about $2.20 a gallon and I used 1800 gallons for heating my old farm house. So that is about $4000 for heating. I expect to be able to heat my home with wood for $1500 dollars or less depending on where I get my wood. My system is a little of $10K so the payback is a little over 4 years. I would say most people would think that is a good payback.

 

[Nofossil]

The payback for mine was 3-4 years, if you don't count my time as being worth anything.

If you count my time designing, building redesigning, rebuilding, cutting, splitting, stacking, tending, and participating in this forum - even at minimum wage it will probably never pay back.

However, bragging rights have to count for something in calculating payback. On that basis, I'm pretty sure that payback was less than 15 minutes ;-)

 

[Steaming Pile]

I based the payback(5yrs) on the amount I was spending per month on my fuel oil budget payment so now instead of paying that i pay on the GW. Now I'm not so sure since the GW is POS and I have to sink money in every year and its not even paid for!

 

[heaterman]

The payback for mine was 3-4 years, if you don't count my time as being worth anything.

If you count my time designing, building redesigning, rebuilding, cutting, splitting, stacking, tending, and participating in this forum - even at minimum wage it will probably never pay back.

However, bragging rights have to count for something in calculating payback. On that basis, I'm pretty sure that payback was less than 15 minutes ;-)

There is a lot to be said for being able to thumb ones nose or give the universal salute to the fuel delivery truck as it drives past. Many of my custoemr sayt eh would do it over again for the sole reason of not having to "pay the man". It's the intangibles don't you see?

 

[Fi-Q]

No Boiler yet, Still have to finish my radiant floor design & install.... but, I have been doing the math many time, and here in Quebec, with the pwoer @ 0.05$ Kw/h, not sure if it will ever worth investing in a boiler, but I am looking closely to it, I am only 28, bunring wood... and I have a pretty good feeling that the price of power will not get cheaper as I get older......... But I would still love a boiler just to be more independant........ And If I could pay off for it up front, and forget about the what it cost me, every 2 month I would be a very happy camper to see that small electricity bill........ But anyhow..... not there yet....

 

[btuser]

Depends on what you pay for wood. For people paying $200+/cord it gets to the point "why bother?". Right now wood is pretty cheap, but I remember when we had that little blip back in 2008 when you couldn't find a pallet to save your life, and wood guys were charging $400+ for a cord of "seasoned" wood.

 

[Piker]

Seems like sales start to drop off quickly as the payback goes past 8 years in our region.

The payback for us is in the 6 year range based on wood, propane, and electricity prices over the past few years. This season we'll stay warm and make DHW for around $720... which I consider to be "not to shabby" for this old place, especially since I never picked up a chain saw or splitting maul this year. It is true that we're way more liberal with the thermostat settings when using wood as opposed to fossil fuel, so that makes it difficult to get a good comparison. Hard to put a price on comfort.

cheers

 

[heaterman]

Paybacks are so darn hard to figure though. I mean, who the heck knows what fuel oil or gas is going to cost next month let alone 5-6 years from now. I figured out the avg yearly increase in LP gas for the last 10 years when a customer asked me about the payback thing. It was around 9.5% with some years in there being next to nothing and others running 15% or more. For a long time fuel oil was a better value around here than LP was and I recommended that people look that way. Now it's come back to haunt them. It's the other direction by a wide margin here now. My gut tells me it's not safe to assume fuel costs will be stable anymore, especially if the blasted economy ever picks back up.

 

[Nofossil]

I fixed the poll (and voted). Have at it.

 

[Sting]

AS Heaterman says --

fuel cost is a moving target

I made my first predictions on corn I was buying for 70 bucks a ton - and that price had been very stable for a long time.

(even the cost of chunk wood cannot be predicted -with the volatile costs related to harvesting)

My payback was rather quick - BUT I won't attempt it again at today's alternative fuel costs.

Ill co back to my pulpit as I did in the 70's and preach conservation -- NOT conversion

 

[twofer]

Six years.

If I hadn't gotten soaked on the install it would have been move along the lines of 5 years or maybe even less. Karma is a monster though and the guy who installed it is now out of business.

 

[muncybob]

The financial payback time varies greatly depending upon a number of variables as already mentioned. I'm fortunate to this point that I have been able to "scrounge" the vast majority of the wood I'll be burning and not having to pay up front for your fuel is satisfying in itself! So the cost of wood and the varying costs of the fuel you are "replacing" has a great impact on financial payback time....at least that's what my spreadsheet is telling me.
I'm actually having more fun that I thought I would in gathering firewood. It can be a bit of work but I can use the exercise!

 

[rkusek]

looks like I'm the lone vote with the 7 yrs or more. New 2200 sq ft ranch with unfinished walk out in 2009. Highest bill last winter (for Dec) was $258.91 using just a standard 4ton? heat pump. OCT $114.07 NOV $120.92 DEC $258.91 JAN $222.88 FEB $200.95 MAR $137.99 APR $97.11
We are blessed with low electric rates here especially in winter. 4796 KWh in Dec 09 for $258, about 5.4 cents. I'm sure that won't last forever, especially when the cap & trade stuff starts. My Eko 40 sits in 30x60 insulated pole barn and will have 2 500gal propane tanks for storage. 350' of 1 1/2" underground insulated PEX with plenum heat exchanger. I never would have spent money on propane or oil to heat the shed so that is another hidden benefit. I plan on finishing the basement over the next few years also so fully heating it will also raise my heat demand. Outdoor hot tub is hopefully not too far down the road either. All in all the investment will be worth it and I really enjoy the setup, tinkering, and of course the boiler room conversations.
..

 

[Jroz]

1 seton
2 3k sq ft and lots of hot water for the girls
3 3-4 year payback easy
4 huge smile when the propane trucks drive bye
4.1 wife turns the temp to whatever she wants
4.1.1 bigger smile when propane trucks drive bye

lol and on a side note I have lost weight since we started burning wood.

 

[mole]

I switched from a wood furnace (which was over 30years old) to a wood boiler with a forced air hx.

My wood is free and good exercise.

I calculated 3 years payback at the time of installation based on purcahsing an oil or propane furnace as the other options. After replumbing for storage it probably worked out closer to 4 1/2 years.

house is 1800 ft2

 

[dogwood]

I'm figuring 3 years and a month. 3000 sq. ft. home, current fixed propane bill of $375 per month for heat and DHW, guesstimating total cost of installation, storage, woodsplitter, and new chain saw totaling $14000.

 

[djbutt]

4000 square ft house, used $3500-$4500 a year in oil for heat and DHW figuring on four years to pay off.

But, the more exciting part in my opinion is the 21 years after its paid off Where I get plenty of fresh air and stay in shape cutting 13 cords a year and can pay myself $94,500 instead of the oil man.

Ain't numbers fun.


Froling Turbo 3000 with 2000 gallons storage going online next week.

 

[btuser]

I've got about 4 grand into my setup between the insert, liner, tools, insulation, wood shed, and a cheater load of firewood to get me going the first year. When I figure 2 cords = 200 gallons of heating oil my original payback @ $4.00/gallon was about 5 years, but since then I've had a season when the price was $1.50/gallon up to $2.50 gallon which has thrown my math into disarray. However, I'm starting to move away from a standard of living and growing closer to a quality of life.

 

[gzinke]

I am looking at less than 2 years with these approximate figures:
$6800 for Biomass 60 and tempering valve
$200 for copper piping to go from boiler in garage straight to basement to tie into existing manifold
Used existing chimney
Total install: Approx $7,000 (and some free labor!)
Sold old boiler for $1,100
Obama will give me $1,500 off my taxes
Real cost is Aprox $4,400

I heat close 4500 sq ft in the U.P. of Michigan
Would spend at least $3000 on propane
Wood is free and plentiful or can be bought for $75/cord delivered in 8 ft lenghts

 

[MrEd]

I have a tarm solo 60, which I installed myself for roughly $10K (my labor free). I used 2000 +/- 50 gallons for each of the 5 years before going to wood, and that was to keep the house at 67 degrees in the winter. Now I keep the house at 72-73 degrees and use zero oil. My wood is free (assuming my labor is free), so I figure I had a 2 year payback if oil is $2.50 a gallon.

 

[Mushroom Man]

I installed it myself with guidance from this board. A big THANK YOU. It was a great learning opportunity in retrospect. I should never have to call a serviceman.

The cost with an EKO 60 and 1500 gallon storage was $13K with my free labour. I way overpaid for the chimney, and all the plumbing parts. We seem to have serious price gouging in the plumbing supply trade here.

I am heating nearly 6000 sq.ft. That includes the house with DHW, the barn rooms (2 MushRooms and a sweet potato curing/storage room) and the garage.

Payback is complex because the garage and barn were not heated with oil. In addition we kept the thermostat at 63 when heating with oil.

At $1.00 per liter (or nearly $4 per gallon) we spent $3600. for oil in a season two years ago. Last year we added 1500 sq.ft of barn heating space, a double garage and raised the temps to 70.

My best guess of the oil that we would have consumed last year at $1/liter was $6000. I bought a log load for $1000 (6-7 cords cut/split/stacked) and took the rest off of my property (additional 3-4 cords) . The payback should be 2.5 years if I keep finding wood on the property.

I have burned some waste mushroom substrate with both encouraging and discouraging results depending on the compression. Still trying to get this right. There's BTU's in that waste and I want 'em. Payback could improve slightly.

 

[91220da]

2112 sq. ft 3rd season running a greenwood 100. Close to 12k in the initial purchase and installation. First season saved 1400 gallons of oil at $3.80 per gallon = $5320 last 2 years I have been scrounging and cutting my own firewood. Oil has come down but even with buying saw chains, gas for the saws, truck etc. I am planning on breaking even next year if not this season. I know you have to figure your time and labor but it is either cut firewood and tend to the boiler or watch that annoying B*%T*# Snooky on Jersey Shore.

 

[b33p3r]

Although I haven't tallied the receipts yet, I'm figuring 4-5 year payoff. I'm hoping for 4. But payoff time is obviously dependent on oil prices.
Good deal on econoburn, lots of help from this forum and Do it yourself everything and wooded lot to supply mostly oak for quite a few years.