burning wood compared to gas

[frank]

my neighbor burns wood and I burn natural gas. my heating cost runs approx. 120. per month year round. he purchased an outdoor wood boiler and he buys a load of wood every year. He told me that he paid 7k for the boiler and it costs 750. for a semi load of wood, which he has to cut up and split and stack. I was curious to see if anyone else burns wood on this site and how it compares to gas.

 

[calmloki]

We burn some wood in a fireplace up north, but it's mostly scrap from projects or demolition rather than cutting trees down for heat.

A friend uses and installed those outdoor boiler units for 5-10 years but has stopped - while they used to slip between the environmental quality regulation cracks things have tightened up in Oregon. While his house stayed very comfortable and he had endless hot water and didn't bring dirt into the house with his firewood the boiler unit was a smudge-pot mess. The chimney drooled carbon down the outside and the constant damped down fire added plenty of smoke to the air, which, even if the boiler is placed downwind of the house, tends to piss off the neighbors. The fire box does take long lengths, so there is half or less cutting involved, which is good.

We were tempted, but went with a bit more civilized option.

 

[pb4uski]

We burn wood in a wood stove that is supplemental to our central heating system which is fuel oil. We usually get the woodstove going to just make the family room a little toastier and the heat drifts upstairs as well.

The new place we are in process of finishing will be similar, propane central heating system and a woodstove for supplemental heating.

 

[FIREd]

My dad has the option to heat his house either via heating oil or wood burning. When oil prices are high, he heats up the house mostly with wood burning. He doesn't have to pay for the wood, but preparing firewood still requires time, effort, and storage space. So, when oil prices are low enough to justify the convenience, he goes for the heating oil supplemented by an occasional wood fire.

 

[freebird5825]

I burn wood in an upstairs living room fireplace to supplement a gas fueled closed loop water type heating system during the below zero stretches.
My wood supplier brings it cut to length and helps me stack the 2 face cords ($60 seasoned, $50 green for next year) in an outdoor wood shed.
This year, I paid a young man to carry 1 face cord up to the covered porch for easier access. I go through approx 1 face cord per winter season.
Sorry I have no comparison data to offer.

 

[homestead]

We heated our house (Oregon) with wood this winter cost $500 total.
It keeps our house about 70 degrees. We usually get the fir for $150/cord.

 

[W2R]

It really doesn't get cold enough in New Orleans to use much heat of any kind in a well insulated house. I have gone completely without heat with no real discomfort, during some LBYM winters, simply using extra blankets and warm clothing.

When I lived in Texas, I knew some Canadians who told me about chopping, selling, and using firewood from their acreage in Nova Scotia for free heat. Sounded pretty grim to me at the time. I guess if you bought it, much of the back breaking work would be eliminated.

 

[Free To Canoe]

I would really like to burn wood. I have lots of free wood available from my property and I don't mind the cutting and splitting. However, all we have now is a fireplace without an insert. So it is only useful for no heating fires. Fireplace is custom and the insert would also have to be custom. DW is not in favor of cluttering up the living space with a wood stove. Don't want to go through the hassle and expense ($15k) of a wood burning furnace when clean, cheap natural gas is available.
It seems kind of a paradox to me.

 

[haha]

I would really like to burn wood. I have lots of free wood available from my property and I don't mind the cutting and splitting. However, all we have now is a fireplace without an insert. So it is only useful for no heating fires. Fireplace is custom and the insert would also have to be custom. DW is not in favor of cluttering up the living space with a wood stove. Don't want to go through the hassle and expense ($15k) of a wood burning furnace when clean, cheap natural gas is available.
It seems kind of a paradox to me.

I wonder if when the full cost the actuarial risk of serious injury with wood felling, preparation, and burning is included natural gas might not be cheaper. It is certainly a lot less trouble and more pleasant and non-polluting to the immediate home environment. I used to hate it when neighbors were heating with wood. Prior to this, I heated with wood myself, but gave it up because it was clearly keeping our family sick with respiratory problems.

Ha

 

[East Texas]

We have a small house and we use a wood stove to heat it in winter. Our stove has a fan on the back of it to push the heat farther into the house. Then the ceiling fans catch the heat and circulate it even more.

The caveat is we live on a ranch in the section of Texas where trees are plentiful so we are in a position to have our own renewable supply source. We also have chain saws (and the machine to sharpen them), a 37-ton log splitter, a tractor, a trailer, and the time to cut and split. We're probably the only people in this area who wear hardhats, steel toes, and other safety equipment when cutting and splitting firewood. If we can't do it safely, we just don't do it.

We save several hundred dollars by using the wood stove instead of central heat.

ETA: our wood stove is a part of our disaster preparedness program. We will be able to keep warm in winter regardless of the situation(s) that may cause a community-wide utility infrastructure disruption.

 

[Ally]

We burn wood as a supplement to our gas heater. When we use the fireplace, we can turn the gas heat way down. We seldom buy wood, because people seem to always give us wood.

 

[Free To Canoe]

I wonder if when the full cost the actuarial risk of serious injury with wood felling, preparation, and burning is included natural gas might not be cheaper. It is certainly a lot less trouble and more pleasant and non-polluting to the immediate home environment. I used to hate it when neighbors were heating with wood. Prior to this, I heated with wood myself, but gave it up because it was clearly keeping our family sick with respiratory problems.

Ha

For me, gas is cheaper even with free wood, labor and not counting the health related issues. Cost of entry ($15k wood furnace) could not be paid for with savings from free wood in my lifetime.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

[[

Here in central Florida (Tampa area), we use fireplaces a couple months a year, December and January. At that, it is sporadic. Can't see chopping and hauling wood, storing it or hauling ashes. It's expensive to buy. But!
Sure feels good on a cold morning in January. Bought our house a year ago, knowing we were going to refurbish it. Even before we got going on the modernization, DW found a fireplace mantle on Craigs List. Had to have it. Long story short, SIL built a faux chimney, raised hearth and installed the three piece mantle. Looked for an electric insert and found a really nice one. I can't believe how much heat it puts out. The kicker is that it warms up the living room enough that the central unit thermostat doesn't come on until we turn off the fireplace. What an energy saver. I'm going to try to post a photo of it, but have never done this before. No promises.

 

[Redbugdave]

We have a wood stove and use our central air with propane as backup. With the cost of energy now days, wood definately has it's possibilities. We are much like East Texas in that we try to be somewhat self reliant and have the equipment also to do it. The wood is free, and the only expenses are my time, (which I enjoy getting firewood), gas, chainsaws, etc. The wood stove has a variable speed motor to push air around the firebox and out.

The house can be as warm as we want and there are no worries of it costing us more. Our electric bills go way down in the winter. The power can go out...and our generator, batteries, inverter will keep the basics going. We have a well which the generator will run, also.

It is "green energy"...for you "Greenies". Wood is a renewable resource. I guess heating with wood is a way of life...

 

[Purron]

I wonder if when the full cost the actuarial risk of serious injury with wood felling, preparation, and burning is included natural gas might not be cheaper. It is certainly a lot less trouble and more pleasant and non-polluting to the immediate home environment. I used to hate it when neighbors were heating with wood. Prior to this, I heated with wood myself, but gave it up because it was clearly keeping our family sick with respiratory problems.

Ha

We supplement gas heat with wood heat. Ha makes a good point about the pollution from wood burning. We have a high efficiency Jotul wood stove (from Norway) that puts out very little pollution. DH gets wood free from a variety of places and likes splitting and stacking it. He must have been a lumberjack in a prior life!

Oh, and the cats love it for sure. Important point since we live for the comfort and convenience of the kitties

 

[veremchuka]

I heat with wood, it has been my main source of heat as I don't use my central heating system. I have done so since 1992 in 2 different houses using the same Vermont Castings stove. I love it. I have an oil fired boiler with baseboard radiators in a new construction house (1999) and if heating oil was 60 cents a gallon (as it was when I moved here) I would still heat with wood (wood was $80 a cord then). I burn 3.25 to 3.5 cord of hardwood a season paying $150 a cord for the past few years, it is cut and split for that price. I buy oil about every 15-17 months and that's for hot water. It has cost me less than $450 to heat my house per winter for the past 3 winters vs burning 1000 gallons of heating oil and spending from $2700 to $3500. I keep it 74-78 degrees and I am warm and toasty, if it gets too hot I open a window or two or go out with the dog, opening a window or two is not uncommon for some fresh air.

I love splitting firewood when I need smaller pieces, I love handing wood, I love moving and stacking it into my woodshed, I love bringing it in the house and loading the wood box that is 7' X 2.5' X 20" and I even don't mind bringing out the ashes. It is dirty tho what with fine ash dust from the stove, bark and dirt on the wood but you accept that if you want to heat with wood. I have a broom and vacuum.

Where I live it is cold in the winter, this is not northern Minnesota but it isn't Virgina either. Winter day time temperatures range from 10 to 35 and at night 0 to 20, it is not uncommon to have below zero temperatures at night the coldest typically is -15F. I hear people whining all the time about winter and the snow and how cold it is! I don't get it, I wouldn't tolerate the heat and humidity in the south so I don't live there, summers are bad enough here (don't get me going on that!) but at least winter is cold and snowy. Why don't they move if they can't stand winter?

You can save a ton of money and be so warm you can sit around the house in your underwear all winter heating with wood but you have to be physically able and willing to spend the time to do the work. I did it when I was working and it is easier now being retired. For me it is the best possible way to heat and I am already looking forwards to next winter. It's been cold here not really warming up since spring started and I'm still using the stove at night, yesterday I burned it all day too. Sadly it's just a matter of a couple of weeks and it'll be too warm to use the woodstove and I'll have to use the furnace if it gets too cool in here.

 

[Purron]

I love splitting firewood when I need smaller pieces, I love handing wood, I love moving and stacking it into my woodshed, I love bringing it in the house and loading the wood box that is 7' X 2.5' X 20" and I even don't mind bringing out the ashes.

You and my husband would get along great! He loves all this too. When we downsize to a smaller home later this year (hopefully), we'll be relying more on wood heat. Last few winters here in Virginia have been very cold and snowy. There are tons of trees down all over the area. Most of them end up wasted.

 

[youbet]

I heat with wood off and on as a hobby activity. (Also used to keep an organic garden, but that's another story.)

I finished off an 800 sq ft room in my deep, dry basement about 25 yrs ago. This included a Vermont Castings wood stove installed on a massive brick hearth. Because the basement is deep and has a lot of thermal mass, ambient temps down there hang 2 - 3 months behind the seasons. It's warm down there all autumn and cool until August. It's furnished "American Comfy" and our entertainment center is down there.

From about Dec through March we burn the stove on evenings we're using the room for TV or hobbies. Doesn't take much. I start a hot fire with lumber scrap (free) and follow up with a couple logs. By the time those are gone, it's bedtime and I let the fire die. The mass of the brick hearth keeps it tolerable for a while even after the stove is cool.

Because we have a warm place to be in the house and we like to sleep in a very cool room, we're comfortable setting the thermostat on the natural gas furnace to 60f or so for the evening and early morning hours. I haven't tried to calculate savings in years but can say that our natural gas bills, even in the coldest months, are always less than $100 and we cook and heat hot water with gas as well as heat.

It's strictly a hobby interest. And a bit of a hedonistic thing as well I guess. When you've been outside in the winter, it really feels good to flop in the recliner in front of the stove. It's a deep, penetrating heat that warms the bones. Just can't duplicate it by turning up the gas furnace thermostat.

 

[veremchuka]

I burn wood therefore I am.

 

[Purron]

I burn wood therefore I am.

Yup. You and DH and soul brothers

 

[NW-Bound]

I burn wood therefore I am.

You need a car with a steam engine...

... with a manual stick shift too.

 

[TromboneAl]

We heat our 2,000 sq ft house with our woodstove-like fireplace (Regency Warmhearth). We have mild winters here (rarely below freezing), but some years we need fires all summer long.

Collecting, cutting, splitting, moving firewood, and starting fires a few times a day is sometimes fun and sometimes tiresome, but at least the splitting counts as exercise.



It works because we like the bedroom cold, and spend most of our time in the living room.

For the past four years or more I've gotten free wood from trees downed during storms.

But for this year, I'm out of wood, and we are running the furnace to keep the house at 64 degrees, and wearing long underwear. It's nice to get up and just have breakfast rather than get up, start the fire, and have breakfast.

I'll have to decide whether to buy wood, since the wood I have now for next year won't last all year.

 

[Purron]

Dang T-Al. You got some mad wood stackin' skillz

 

[East Texas]

One of the first things we did after we bought the ranch was put a wood stove in the house. The previous owners saw a fallen tree as a problem and burned it where it fell. We saw the fallen tree as an energy source.

We have four other stacks just like this one and we'll be adding more if we get hurricane force winds through here this year. We put goat wire between the t-posts at the ends of the stacks to hold the wood on the pallets. We have a five foot firebreak around the area where we store the wood.

 

[hankster]

My father still cuts, hauls and splits his firewood. And he just turned 90 years old! He says it helps keep him in shape and he genuinely enjoys the process.

Mom is one of those people who needs a sweater if the room is below 80 deg. F. in the winter. Dad keeps the fire stoked. During our visits, DW and I nearly suffer heat stroke as we keep our house around 68-70 F. We take gym shorts and T-shirts to wear.