Would you have a stove if you didn't have a wood source?

[zmender]

I don't have a reliable wood source other than good-will drops and pick up along the road, I buy probably 50% of my wood at least. Between what I buy and get for free, I average about $200 per cord.

On a per-BTU basis, accounting for 70% efficiency in stove and 85% efficiency in furnace, wood is still about 50% off the cost per BTU.

I'll probably stop burning wood - 1) if oil price drops down to close to $2.25/gal range, OR 2) wood price goes up to ~$500 / cord.

 

[Eman85]

I'm laughing at the other thread about $500+ a cord and how wood burning is dirty.

 

[BillBurns]

I buy wood...its not "cheap". but 5 bucks a bundle isnt bad. I get most of my wood free, but its nice to burn a log now and then. Its WAY WAY cheaper than my oil furnace, trust me.

 

[Wildflush]

Energy cost are so high where I live and our stove is cutting cost by 50%. My heat is rarely calling but we have natural gas for our range, dryer and hot water. Not to mention the off grid emergency use in the crazy times we are living in. I don’t have a wood source but spending $250-$300 a cord is good piece of mind.

 

[Ashhole]

$400 for 100 gallons of oil or $400 for a cord of black locust ready to burn. I'll take the wood.

 

[3650]

I have several wood stoves and no wood.

 

[CincyBurner]

We love the warmth (and quiet) of wood heat.
I enjoy the tie-in to heating with wood from my youth with my dad.
Firewood has been all around (job, neighbors, church and scrounges). That's been part of the fun and challenge - to get and split wood to meet our heating needs. It would be tough to imagine buying wood. I say this as I close in on my 60th and on retirement.

 

[Newbie78]

Most likely yes, because we love the nature of the heat.

which reminds me, I still need to get more wood. Lots of dry deadfall nearby, and standing dead dry or nearly dry..

it was easier before there was a foot of snow...oh well. I drug the last bit about 200 yards one way 5 times in a calf sled. I'm 63. I hope to still be able to do that when I'm 73. At this point I see no reason why not.

I better get finished up before there's two feet of snow.

 

[Tar12]

I am 59 and will burn as long as I can ...I swore I would never buy firewood but this past year found me doing just that..time is a precious thing...I drive a concrete truck for a living and with the advent of freeze guard and other chemicals if its 25 degrees and rising someone is going to pour concrete! I just came off of a 60 hour week that found me pouring concrete well before daylight every day and the sun had already set for the drive home..my kids have left the nest and I have yet to get a phone call asking if they can come over to process firewood....lol...I dont blame them as they have their own life to live and besides they got a belly full of it growing up..lol...I have already sold my commercial splitter and dump trailer and purchased a custom built boat this past spring to enjoy now and in retirement with my grandsons...my priorities have changed .

 

[Ashful]

Define "didn't have a wood source". I mean, isn't your telephone and wallet always a "wood source"?

I'd still own a stove, even if I didn't have free access to wood. In fact, I bought the stoves before I had secured any free and stable access to wood, although one quickly followed the other.

For those who can't manage that, log trucks are $100/cord and split wood is $250 a cord, around here.

 

[PAbeech]

Considering there's thousands and thousands of acres of trees around me I have never considered buying wood. There's always downed trees around to be processed. But if I was still living in new york (long island) specifically I wouldn't even consider a wood stove as there were no trees where I was.

 

[Woody Stover]

If I hadn't moved to my wife's family's property, which is wooded, I don't know that I would've ever started burning wood. Maybe I wood've..I was in WI and it's damn cold there. 😏

 

[zmender]

$400 for 100 gallons of oil or $400 for a cord of black locust ready to burn. I'll take the wood.

This!

 

[Sawset]

I'm fortunate that I have my own wooded property and the equipment to harvest and process my firewood. I don't think I'd bother with it if it wasn't easily available to me. I would keep my stove and burn it like people burn a fireplace just for looks but not for a primary heat source.

I put my stove in anticipating collecting sticks along the road and cutting up wood by hand. My how things have changed.

 

[Doublebogey]

I am very fortunate myself. I live on a quarter acre in a textbook style subdivision so my storage is limited. My father owns a 130+ acre farm a half hour away that is at least 1/3 covered in woods. Lifetime supply if I want to get it. It’s a pain though. The woods are all in deep valleys and it’s hard to justify cutting up the live stuff for firewood instead of the standing dead ash or the fallen oak and locust all over the place so I am always chasing the hardest to get stuff. These days I only cut and stack enough down there to keep the farmhouse stocked. About 1/3 cord a year.

My best friend works for his family tree business which is located about three miles from my business. They normally have a parking lot full of logs that they are dying to get taken off their hands so they don’t have to haul them to the dump. The logs are huge. 8 to 12 foot long and sometimes 3 feet across, but I have an F750 and heavy equipment to unload with and deal with them when I have time. I have to know what I am looking at or I would end up with cottonwood poplar or elm while there is a pile of oak or ash for the taking. The yard guys that load you are not arborist or tree guys, they rarely know the species of the trees, they fix equipment all day so they just want to clear space and knowing what I am looking at is important. I can pick my wood and leave it stacked on our two acre work property where I am two years ahead. I keep a half cord of wood at home and supplement all winter since I drive a pickup and am near my stacks every day.

If I didn’t have so much going in my favor it would get tougher to deal with but the energy savings are crazy so it’s a no brainer. I sometimes think that when the kids are gone we won’t have to worry about all this and l may not be willing to deal with it, but as a lifestyle choice, other than marriage and children and work ethic (which crosses over) it is probably one of the best moves I have ever made.

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

I have a very limited wood supply on my property. But even buying cords it's half the price as oil heat. And that's with the house at 60 using oil versus 70 using wood. No brainer in my opinion. Wood is worth the effort

 

[SpaceBus]

I'm laughing at the other thread about $500+ a cord and how wood burning is dirty.

I mean, it does lead to a lot of dirt in my house, but it's a small price to pay.

 

[xman23]

I never had to buy wood, in 20 years of burning. Always trees down out back. And now the mountain was logged, and years of slash. Easy pickings, with my ATV, trailer and saws. Lately I have been getting lazy with all night and marginal days fires. Just to much work keeping the house temp cool enough at night.
But that said the stove is far better than any fireplace. We will always have one for the clean, smoke free fireview.

 

[fvhowler]

Yes, no doubt...but would change my burning habits and burn less. I've never purchased firewood and I'm fortunate to have an abundance of hardwoods on my land and my neighbors land. I also scrounge for free wood in the marketplace as well.

 

[cahaak]

I've never purchased wood and have consistently burned 3-4 cords a year. Between trees coming down on my property and relatives and neighbors nearby, I had four years worth all split and stockpiled already before this winter. I have another ~3 cords just sitting in log form. I'll probably hold off on getting more wood unless I come into some good hardwood that is easy to get. I only need maybe two cords of that and I will be set up past retirement. Close wood is the key for me, as the driving is what takes all the time. I can drive my trailer right up to my wood shed, so that part is very easy now. The last couple of hauls that I have gotten, I have taken my splitter right to the source and split there and just brought home split wood in the trailer, no mess even at my place. I'm in a suburban area, but there are so many trees coming down from dead and storms and so on, that the supply is nearly endless. It actually seems to take me more time to stack than cut and split as I have someone who can split (kids). Stacking is finicky. I can easily get 1/2 in my trailer, so 4 loads, which is just half of a day of splitting, is easy to get two cords.

 

[begreen]

Yes, no doubt...but would change my burning habits and burn less. I've never purchased firewood and I'm fortunate to have an abundance of hardwoods on my land and my neighbors land. I also scrounge for free wood in the marketplace as well.

We have burned 2.5-3 cords a year for about the last 25 yrs in this house. I managed to scrounge and use wood felled on the property up until a few years ago. We still burn the same amount even though now purchasing. Eventually, firewood consumption will decline along with our bodies.

 

[Prof]

I will echo some of what others have said. I have a wood lot now and enough diseased beech trees to keep me warm for a number of years. If my hemlocks start giving in to the pest that plagues them, then I will easily have enough wood for the rest of my life. However, before this, I lived on a tenth of an acre and never wanted for wood. There is plenty to scrounge. Just a warning--once you start to scrounge, it is difficult to pass up easy wood. I have a bit of a reputation for the guy in town that will remove hemlock trees (people are afraid to burn wood with needles). I have to turn down hemlock now. Also, permits are easily had for state parks and are relatively cheap (the rangers don't care how much you cut--they want the area cleared). Buying is an option I will consider, and likely embrace later in life. The guy up the hill is in his mid 80s and has never bought wood and heats exclusively with it. I should be so lucky!

 

[wjohn]

I would not have a stove if I didn't have a source of wood. My place had an exempt ZC fireplace when I moved in, so it was pretty useless. I decided it was worth ripping all that out and putting in my Aspen C3. I wasn't sure how much wood I'd actually need to collect, but it turns out I burn just over half a cord in it as my main heat source. That means I don't have to scrounge up much wood from my property. On the flip side, buying a cord from somewhere would last almost 2 winters. I just wouldn't have gone to the trouble to do the install if I didn't have free wood in my backyard. I would've just left the ZC fireplace and used it a couple times per winter.

 

[fvhowler]

We have burned 2.5-3 cords a year for about the last 25 yrs in this house. I managed to scrounge and use wood felled on the property up until a few years ago. We still burn the same amount even though now purchasing. Eventually, firewood consumption will decline along with our bodies.

Good point on age eventually catching up to all of us. Age and other life situations will eventually impact burning habits. I'm also a cheapo so buying is still less attractive to me.

 

[FPX Dude]

Same as me for all the other good reasons mentioned. I have to buy, but it's just part of my energy costs/savings vs. alternative which is LP, yikes!