Heating with Wood

[debtfreecb]

We use oil as a primary source of fuel to heat our home. We also have a woodstove insert installed in the fireplace on the 1st floor. The stove throws off a ton of heat and can heat the first floor. Oil is now $3.00 a gallon and wood is $225 per cord. I am wondering if I will actually save any money supplementing the oil heat with wood given the price of a cord of wood?

I would note that I am able to bring the temperature of my first floor up to almost 80 degrees. If I didn't supplement with the wood, my thermostat would be set to roughly 67 degrees! Now that's cold.

[anonymous_saver]

To be honest, I can't offer helpful suggestions on your question.

However, I did laugh when you said that 67 degrees was cold. I come from MN, so I don't see that as cold at all.

[humandraydel]

The amount of energy in a cord of wood depends on the species. An average value is about 20 million BTU per cord of wood. This equates to $11 per million BTU. Of course, this depends on the species of wood. White cedar only provides 12.2 million BTU per cord, so it is about $18 per million BTU. On the other hand, White Oak provides 25.7 million BTU per cord, or about $8.75 per million BTU.

Heating oil contains 140,000 BTU (or 0.140 million BTU) per gallon. This equates to $21 per million BTU.

So to answer your question: Yes, wood is cheaper on a BTU basis. How much so depends on the species of wood you are using. Plus, wood is more flexible in that you can heat smaller areas only when needed. If you are heating the upstairs (with oil) when you are downstairs, that is wasted energy.

[Tree0164]

We keep our house in the winter at 64 degrees and with the price of heating oil going up it may not go over 62 degrees this winter. We will dress in layers drink lots of tea and hot coco to keep our insides warm.

DH wants to use the fireplace- I don't like that idea for safety reasons plus doesn't the heat just escape.

[PrincessPerky]

Originally Posted by debtfreecb

I would note that I am able to bring the temperature of my first floor up to almost 80 degrees. If I didn't supplement with the wood, my thermostat would be set to roughly 67 degrees! Now that's cold.

heh, our heat is set at 61 ...and I am quite comfortable in two pants, three shirts and socks...I might like a second pair of socks though....

oh yeah, as to using wood to heat, the biggest problem I see is that the room with the fire is usually HOT and the rest of the house not...so you never really get used to less than HOT...which is a waste of the human adaptability IMO..not to mention makes for less moving away from said fire.

however if it is a wood stove that has heat ducts to 'spread out' the heat...or if you don't mind staying in one room...I think wood is the best way to get a room to 80 degrees....just one room though.

[zakity]

If you look, you can get free wood off Craigslist and off freecycle. Most of the time you have to cut it up yourself, but it is free.

[boefixepa]

LOL...it's sweatshirt time at my house! It's 64 when we are home 55 at night and when we are not home! Love programable thermostats! Now I just have to remember to keep my arm under the blanket at night so it doesn't get cold!

[bjl584]

I would go with the wood option, but then again, wood is free for me. I own a lot of wooded property. You should look into getting wood for free. There is always someone around town that just had a tree cut down that needs to get rid of the wood. Also, you can contact the utility companies and ask for permission to gather the wood that they cut from their right of ways. They usually will allow you to do so, since they often just leave it lay on the ground. Of course, if you go this route you may need to invest in the proper equipment to do so. Truck, log splitter, saw, etc. You'll just have to crunch the numbers and see what the better option is.

[Snodog]

You people are crazy with your low thermostat settings lol! We have our house set at 74 and it is worth every penny.

[Nikki Sixx]

We have our set at 68 at night and 70 during the day...but I do expect that to change with the increases in heating costs.

[leggzz66]

We use propane, and you can prepurchase it in the summer at summer prices, half the price for winter, 99 cents a gallon vs 1.98 in the winter. no limits either, u want 600 budget, or even just a 100, up to you. we have mfa which is pretty much states wide. i fill up twice a year on my summer stock. need it cause our stove is propane as well and that was only a 10 dollar change from gas orbital valve. used to have electric, but after the bad ice storm in mo six years ago, ten days no power, we had to all cram in my dads single person home all those days cause he had propane and we had all electric. at least if the power goes out we can stay home and stay warm now, i had quit smoking til that ten days in dads closet like home, started smoking again. four kids, myself and a dog, it was pure h e double hockey sticks.

[Owe-joy]

Hi--New here.

We heat with wood very often to supplement the expensive #2 oil. We have a wood burning stove that gives off a ton of heat. We run a fan towards the stove that blows the heat through the house.

We don't buy our wood though. My Husband goes around to land developers or areas locally that are taking down trees and asks if he can help himself. Many don't care- it's less work they ahve to do. He brings home 9ft long pieces and chops and splits in the back yard.

I guess you have to decide if the physical labor is worth the cost saving.
(but in doing so, you are getting healthy too so it's a good trade-off I think!)

[herm4]

Originally Posted by Snodog

You people are crazy with your low thermostat settings lol! We have our house set at 74 and it is worth every penny.

Good grief! That has to be expensive! What is the sq. ft. of your home? What is the typical monthly bill for you? ( If you don't mind me asking!)

We are experimenting with heating our house solely by using our gas fireplace during the day and central heat at night.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

leggzz66, may I ask what kind of propane heating system you have that requires no electricity? Do you not have a furnace that requires an electrically powered blower? Is it a radiator system? I've never been in a house with propane for heating.

[mom-from-missouri]

I used to have propane at my old house, before we took it out and went all electric. The propane furnace I had had an electric blower, and if the power went out, the blower went out--but the heat itself stayed on--it just didn't circulate thru the vents as fast. So, when our power would go off, we would shut off all the heat vents to all rooms but one or two to stay warm. If it was bitterly cold, we could hook a generator up to the blower every couple of hours.

[leggzz66]

Originally Posted by Joan.of.the.Arch

leggzz66, may I ask what kind of propane heating system you have that requires no electricity? Do you not have a furnace that requires an electrically powered blower? Is it a radiator system? I've never been in a house with propane for heating.

np hun, my furnace wont work in a power outage, but my stove does.

my electric stove back in the day i couldnt use, now i can, not my furnace, which is propane as well, but my cook stove, which works w/o electricity.

My furnace came as propane use. Its southern, and thats the majority in our area at least, other then kero sold at gas stations, ours here dont sell fuel oil even. I havent used fuel oil #2 since i lived in the heart of the thumb of michigan, Marlette.

Compared to where ive lived in Michigan, everything here is different. Heat, electric,water,cable, garbage pick up, everything. Even our streets, they dont even use salt here. Ive only seen them use sand even once in 13 years. Which was six years ago, during the ice storm we had here, that power was out for ten days.

Companies here would get in trouble up north, for being monopolys. Im not sure how they get away with it here, but they do. One of each is only choice but the propane there is actually two, a mom/pop and mfa. Even cable you dont have choice on, its one service here, time warner only. Its that or satellite, which isnt available in some areas here, cause they cant get a good enough signal, were in the flood plains and between two faults. Dsl isnt even available here for internet. They hope to have it here in 2 more years they said. They send thier flyers out here, about thier package deals, but yet cant sell the whole package. Its not cable, its dish network for thier cable plan here, no dsl for at least 2 years, so why they send to us, who knows. Even tho Marlette would be concidered boonies for michigan standards, we still had choice of 3 different cable companies which made the costs more effective. My mom has everything but movies on hers and it costs her 45 dollars in all a month, I pay over 60 and its not even with a digital box. So w/o digital, which is 20 higher a month, I dont get alternate channels like boomerang. My kids arent allowed to watch cartoon network which we get, but bommerang, if youve watched that channel at all, is like all cartoons boomers grew up with. yogi,flinstones, and smurfs all day. I dont get noggin that too is only available with the box. If comcast would come to this area, i bet the prices would become alot more competitive. Oh and get this, my bill is 5 dollars less then what people in town pay, as a county relief thing. My internet, i got it thru earthlinks plan, was supposed to be 49.99 a month, but its ten dollars more then that thru time warner, cause again, dsl is not available. Dial up or road runner, only choices here. Our garbage co's are all mom/pops, no recycling, except for the bin at walmart. Theres 2 that pick up garbage here, but no corporates. I miss detroit edison and thier billing practices, compared to co op as only choice. You pay for membership up front, 120 dollars, they claim no profits made that year, so you get nothing, in 13 years, i got a 16 dollar check and a 19 dollar check, thats all. They also dont follow same rules as corporates do. When you get your bill, it even states on the back, that it is your notice, late notice and shut off notice in one. 20 days to pay, on day 20, a truck comes with a shut off 2 days warning slip, and they dont lock your box here, they remove your meter, which you actually own in the first place. You pay for your meter, new pole, meter loop and all, and self install as well. When dad and i moved here, we had to replace equiptment cause we didnt buy from family, so no grandfather act applies, for both properties, it was 1,100 dollars for equiptment and my dad had to install it all, and they inspect and check your panel inside, and we had to upgrade those as well, from the fuses to circut breakers, which is safer, but was more expense plus the 240 for our memberships in the co op. In all like 1,600 dollars to get power. Look into that stuff peeps ever before you move! Id of never moved outside of town had i known all that i know now. I would of went by grandmas instead which is a small town but with town options, no coops or county stuff. My bills are approx, 106 electric, 40 water, 10 for cell phone, 120 cable/internet, my taxes were 500 this year, not bad, but up 100 from last year and only for my car and 200x100 lot size. I have to pay city and county taxes for school and 911, which were the two highest parts paid in my taxes, taking about 350 of the 500 just for those 2 things.
Dont just look at location and schools, find out about bills first also, if your ever looking to move.
sorry all got off track.lol

[mom-from-missouri]

Wow. No wonder several of you had said you don't like coops--You pay to belong??? All we pay is a $25 service fee to connect. We are "members" of the coop-and we get back a certain percent of what we paid once a year in the form of a check. Usually it runs $50 that we get back, but the longer you are a member, the more you get back.
We have 2 meters--the house is higher. The barn meter gets electric cheaper at the Ag rate. So, a lot of farmers around here have a storage shed next to their barn with the wives deep freezers in it--when they butcher the meat goes there so it runs off the cheaper meter.
Our coop also carries propane, but we don't have to get it from them. But, if we do, as a member we also get a percent of that back as well. And, they have fuel. We have a card we put into the pump (no attendent) then the fuel we buy comes out on our electric bill. And, like the other, we get a percent back on that as well as 3 cents a gallon off at the pump. If you put a regular credit or debit card into the pump, no discount and no rebate.
2-3 times a year they have family events where they feed everyone. We have been to their big annual meeting with BBQ, kids events, booths, demos, free drawings and everyone gets a free pack-last years pack was 4 CCF lite bulbs. Then they had a safety fair, and a chili supper. This Saturday is a free breakfast with Santa. Of course, our rebate would be more if they didn't do all this, but its just a lot of entertainment for us, and a good way for farm and rural families to visit at no cost.
They also respond to fires (to shut off power) and when they respond-they leave items behind if its a bad fire--including a prepaid $100 visa, personal care kits, baby and kid items--stuffed animals....
Here, people in town complain because they are NOT on the coop!

[leggzz66]

All we get mommy here is a newspaper style magazine called rural missouri. They do have meetings, not partys at all, no entertainment and no cash backs either. We were supposed to get profit sharing, but as i said, they say they dont have any profits, we share costs of repairs wether it was in our area or the next county, its a 2 county co op here, referred to as R.E.A.. what that means is a mystery to me, but the bill has our county name and the next county which is where the office is at. Ours only responds immediatly to fires, takes calling in several times and reporting outages to actually get them to come, my farmer neighbor called and said my transformer against his trees was on fire and they came like 911 would. then sent crafton out and had all the trees tops cut off in our area. That ten day power outage, ill just say my bill was just under 1,000 for that month, because the 24/7 support is paid for by us members. Yet my dads bill was 699. all member to take thier equal part in costs, my cost was 300 more then his. His general bill however is only 60 a month which is also outrageous, because he only leaves on a light at the stove. He dont have tv, he watches tv at his moms, gfs, or mine. Hes basically never home, he gets up and has coffee, comes and checks to see if im up to get kids to school at 6 am, by 730, after kids leave on the bus at 7 and he goes for another coffee break, he leaves for his moms house, where hes at all day, til 7 pm, goes to gfs house til 8, comes to say goodnight to my kids and I, makes sure i lock up good, and in bed by no later then 845. He was a marine and very organized as a person, home, etc... If you know a marine you know what im saying.lol. So his hot water for a shower and one light on 24/7 costs him 60 bucks a month. Mines less then double his, 106 average, and i have tvs, computer,fridge in constant use, his is always closed and full, barely opens the door, he eats breakfast and lunch with grandma and dinner with gf. He and his sister share in taking care of thier mother, a wonderful woman who dont want to live in assisted living and kids wouldnt dream of putting her there. Her other three kids, take a monthly day turn as they live in another part of the state or ark as well. My gma is da bomb! I love talking to her, even at 94, her only ailments are a pacemaker and daily pills to take, still got all her mind, still tends a small garden also, shes so kewl! She just wants everyone to call her grandma vs what she is to others, my sons kids are her great great grandkids, she dont want to hear the great parts.lol. Since my kids still have both grandparents on each side, they call her grandma to her face, but when referring to her, call her grandma with the glasses.lol.

[Snodog]

Originally Posted by herm4

Good grief! That has to be expensive! What is the sq. ft. of your home? What is the typical monthly bill for you? ( If you don't mind me asking!)

We spent around $1000 last year on oil to heat a 2000 square ft home if you include our basement (which is heated). I could probably save 25% or so by setting back to 62 but I would have to wear gloves and a coat which would be crazy indoors. I am normally very frugal but this is one area where I do splurge. Why be uncomfortable in your own house? We make up for it in the summer by setting the AC at 80, and that is very comfortable. I guess i'm just cold blooded. We live in pennsylvania by the way.