Cost of heating calculator

[Handsonautotech]

I was browsing the forums yesterday and came across the heating cost calculator. I noticed the calculator has a default hardwood cost of $170 a cord. Where is this price available? I can not get a cord of hardwood for less then $700. I can get a cord of pine for $170.

Another interesting thing is according to the calculator if I had to buy all of my wood it would be cheaper to heat with propane. Now for me the point of the stove was to use the wood on my land so after the initial tool investment my fuel is all free now. But I was surprised to see that it is not cheaper to burn wood if I have to buy it.

I am curious how it is for the rest of you folks. If you were forced to buy your wood at local advertised pricing would it be your least expensive fuel (not counting discounts from friends or free sources just local advertised pricing).

https://www.hearth.com/talk/calculators/fuel-cost-comparison

 

[Jags]

At $700 per cord...that seems a bit over the top. Of course that may just reflect the availability of hardwood in your area. I would also pose that the $170 per cord in the calculator might be a bit antiquated. I don't believe that calculator has been updated in quite a while to reflect a more current average cost, but in all fairness, purchased firewood is just another commodity. Supply and demand.

Just for arguments sake - it appears that $200 is the going rate for a cord of hardwood in my region.

 

[JSeery]

I agree with Jags. Even in my rather expensive suburb of NYC, $200 per cord for (unseasoned) hardwood is pretty much the going rate. Of course the woods around here are filled with hardwood species.

Also, that chart assumes $1.90 per gallon for LP. I think the price on that has gone up to about $2 per gallon (plus tax).

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_wfr_dcus_nus_w.htm

Finally, what stove do you have? The chart assumes 60% wood stove efficiency. If you have a new stove, you might be quite a bit more efficient than that. My stove claims it has 86% "optimum" efficiency. Obviously that is a lab number and I'm probably getting a good deal less than that, but if you just assume I'm getting 70% efficiency, that changes the calculations quite a bit.

Using these inputs, hardwood is still my best bet followed closely by softwood and then coal (but I don't have that ability so not really an option).

 

[Lcback]

I can get cut and split delivered to my house for $150 a cord. Minimum 1.5 cord delivery.
It is the cheapest unless you need it in a hurry. Its never dry like they claim.
If I have to buy in a pinch hard coal is where it's at. $250 a ton. And if I can find a decent low volatile soft coal mine I would buy it. $80 a ton.
I called about lp today. They said 2.40 a gallon.

Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk

 

[HisTreeNut]

When you siphon through all the ads and the face cord, truckload lingo...$200.00 seems to be the going rate for a real cord of mixed hardwood around here as well.
A lot of Eastern Pineaphobia around here so you can get pine free most of the time.
Can't speak on the price of LP...and I don't know anyone that uses it. I have seen kerosene as low as $2.69 however.

 

[iamlucky13]

Around the Seattle area, it's usually about $200/cord delivered for mixed douglas fir, hemlock, and maple. Softwood wood is plentiful, but this is a relatively high cost of living area, so the labor to split and deliver is high. If you have a way to move it and time to process it, scrounging is relatively easy.

It works out that if I were paying for wood, the cost would be less than half that of propane or electric resistance heat, and roughly on par with a heat pump or natural gas.

Occasionally, I see oak, ash, or cherry listed for around $300 a cord. This is simply not a hardwood area, and it seems Colorado is even less so.

 

[dafattkidd]

Home heating oil as of today is $1.74 + tax/gallon which is SUPER low compared to past years prices. If I were to heat with just oil, I would burn about 1,200-1,400 gallons of oil ($2,200-$2,500/year). You can find wet wood in the off season for $150/cord sometimes less if you pick it up. I burn 3-4 cords of wood per year ($450-$600). So, wood is still the cheaper option even if I were to buy it.

 

[red oak]

I could still get a cord of hardwood here for around $120 - it's plentiful and I have connections. The OP is from Colorado, any hardwood delivered there would have to come a long way I'm guessing.

 

[Longstreet]

$165 /cord here in Atlanta for hardwoods. Free delivery at 3 cords.

 

[dh1989]

$275/cd mixed green hardwood (mostly red oak) in RI, up from $250/cd last year. Oil is at $1.74 as of today, which is right about the same cost per BTU as wood at this point. I do have over a cord worth of scrap, bark, and mill ends to get me started but may switch to oil after that if prices stay low.

I've seen cheaper wood on craigslist but am reluctant to try it as I've heard some horror stories of short cords and wrong sized wood. Maybe once I get a chainsaw I will try to find if anyone delivers log length in my area. The recent statewide firewood quarantine seems to be making it hard to find wood in RI and a lot of places sell out from time to time.

 

[Junebug90]

Last year we were able to get 6 cords of ash at 135 a cord. We just got 2 cord of ash at 120 a cord but he ran out. Tomorrow we are going to get 2 more at 150. The going rate for ash is normally around 180 a cord. The going rate for oak is about 250ish a cord. I'm from mid Michigan area

 

[Highbeam]

On those calculators the difference between hardwood and softwood is simply the btu per cord. "hardwood" is defined as deciduous wood even though there are plenty of low btu per cord hardwoods. The calculator also assumes something for softwood, like a low btu per cord number.

So it helps to know what you are really buying. Fossil fuels are cheap right now. Propane, oil, gas, diesel, pretty good deals but they won't stay low. Wood and pellet fuel have stayed high despite the drop in fossil fuel prices. If you have the option to burn wood or oil then you can burn whatever is cheapest.

You can buy your wood cut, split, delivered, and stacked, or you can buy your wood in log form for much less money. You can also find it for free. So there are lots of options for buying wood.