How much does it cost to heat with corn,wood and propane?

[blkcloud]

Wondering if any of you know how to do the calculations figuring the cost to heat a house with each of these..
Where I live propane is 3.15 a gallon, corn is 5.00 a bushel and wood... its 45 dollars a rick for oak and hickory.. thanks!

 

[tylerjwitty]

that cheap wood

 

[zogger]

BTUs per dollar. What you burn it in is a variable as well, some appliances are more efficient than others.

Here's a chart

http://nepacrossroads.com/fuel-comparison-calculator.php

 

[Deleted member 116684]

what is a rick of wood?

 

[Poindexter]

The US Forest Service has a circular 'Fuel Value Calculator', I won one as a door prize somewhere.

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/techline/fuel-value-calculator.pdf

When propane is $3.16 per gallon, shelled corn is "worth" $13.80 per bushel for the same heat value, and a full 128cf cord of seasoned firewood (About 95cf of actual wood the way the foresters stack it) is "worth" about $675.30 per cord. At those prices you are paying $44.00 for one million BTUs.

If you are paying 14.7 cents per kwh or less, you might as well heat with electric.

 

[blkcloud]

what is a rick of wood?

A rick of wood is 4 feet tall and 8 feet long and is as wide as the length of the individual piece of fire wood typically 16 inches. So it is about 1/3 of a full cord of wood.

 

[Deleted member 116684]

gotcha. I cut my own fire wood and stack, so the price is way cheaper than that for me. I usually see guys selling a rick of wood for 60 to 75 dollars or so, seasoned, so they claim, but I doubt it.

 

[ClassicSWC]

Stove, flue, chimney- 6 years ago= $2,500. Wood is always free. Truck hauls 1/3 to 1/2 cord of wood at $5 in gas a trip. Gas and oil for the saw? $1 a trip. Saws? Bought a HD Makita for $225 so I'm ahead there. All that equals at most $15 a cord. Having the house at 74-76 and going downstairs after shovling when it 5degrees out= PRICELESS. 1,000 s.f. rancher, all gas. January's bill for gas $50. Electric was $30. I'm way ahead and getting farther each month as I get smarter(and reading this site).

 

[Poindexter]

A rick of wood is 4 feet tall and 8 feet long and is as wide as the length of the individual piece of fire wood typically 16 inches. So it is about 1/3 of a full cord of wood.

Notice the forest service full cord alluded to above only has 15 million BTUs in it, mixed spruce and poplar for me.

One third of an engineeer's 85cf cord of hickory, air dried to 20%MC or less has abut 25 million BTUs per cord, a third of that would be about 8 million BTUs, or heat value equivalent to $352 worth of propane.

 

[Poindexter]

The forestry service calculating wheel supposedly allows for "typical" appliance efficiency as already calculated in.

Don't have a local price for corn, but clearly wood is a much better deal than propane for you.

 

[blades]

Nc 30 cooking 24/7, wood was/is free sans my processing/gathering. Utilities combined at 80-100/mo for dec, jan feb ( note it is impossible to get below $40 due to all the extra charges) on a 2k sq ft ranch kept in the low 70's , only ran furnace (NG) a bit as it is set for 67 so pipes don't freeze. temp during those 3 mo. lot of single digit high temps days a few toasty days in the mid 20's, plus wind chill so at times with the chill factor looking at 25-30 below zero out. Lot warmer here than upstate or MN. due to Lake Michigan until it froze over ( not quite completely froze over but almost , its been about 20 years since the last time, I believe Superior did freeze completely this year) so based on bills from about 5 years ago which were in the 3-400/mo range( and it was on avg about 15 degs warmer at that time) I am way ahead. There for all equipment and costs were more than payed for with a chunk of change left over. Just wish there was a way to burn wood to cool the house in the summer economically that is.

 

[mainewoods]

There are wood gas fired generators. A You Tube video on "running the whole farm" with white oak chunks was kind of interesting.

 

[olyman]

BTUs per dollar. What you burn it in is a variable as well, some appliances are more efficient than others.

Here's a chart

http://nepacrossroads.com/fuel-comparison-calculator.php

zog,,you have a link, to the original,so can plug in diff values??? the price,,of fuel on there,,is a mite low!! so is the proPAIN.......

 

[zogger]

zog,,you have a link, to the original,so can plug in diff values??? the price,,of fuel on there,,is a mite low!! so is the proPAIN.......

If you have javascript enabled on that page, just backspace out any value, put in what you want, then hit the recalculate button. I just tried it with wood at 150 a cord, that comes out to $9.74 a million BTU. You can change any of those fuel input cost values to what you want.

 

[steved]

The dollar cost to heat is completely arbitrary, nobody will be able to give you an exact dollar amount:

• Do you count your sweat equity, equipment costs, and fuel in procuring firewood?
• Are you heating a well insulated, single bedroom home built recently or a drafty, un-insulated barn from the 1800s?
• Do you try to heat your home to livable temperatures or try to make it feel like summer time in the winter?

From my experience (I have propane heat supplemented with wood), of the fuel types you listed; (generically speaking) propane is going to cost the most (stuck with market pricing since you have to buy it), followed by corn (stuck with market prices since you have to buy it), with firewood being the cheapest (assuming you scrounge or buy it on the cheap). If you're buying processed firewood at the going rate of $175 to 250/cord (the typical price around here), then they will be all pretty much the same cost.

I heat a 2850 sqft home, built within the last 20 years, well built and well insulated for the most part:

• It would cost me nearly $500/month if I heated solely with propane (that's a 93% efficient furnace)...assuming five cold months, and two half cold months (at the beginning and end)...that's nearly $3,000 in just propane. For the record, my parents have a 1/3 smaller house (well built and insulated) and go through about $2400 in propane a year when heating with just propane (again, a 93% efficient furnace).

• It costs me between nothing (free) and $80/cord for fire wood (triaxle load of logs); and I use about six cords on a cold year like this; plus $400 for the year in propane and probably $500 extra in electric a year (heat pump). That's $1,380 more/less to heat for a year the way I'm going...and that's not burning the woodstove 100% of the time since I can't be there all day every day feeding it. My (retired) parents spend about $50 in fuel/oil on the 12 cords of firewood they burn a season, and nothing on propane (they have the propane furnace still, but don't turn it on)...

I didn't include the cost of equipment because the saw and splitter have paid for themselves for both myself and my parents.

 

[olyman]

If you have javascript enabled on that page, just backspace out any value, put in what you want, then hit the recalculate button. I just tried it with wood at 150 a cord, that comes out to $9.74 a million BTU. You can change any of those fuel input cost values to what you want.

hmmmmmmmmmm---and THANKS!! it worked!!

 

[olyman]

If you have javascript enabled on that page, just backspace out any value, put in what you want, then hit the recalculate button. I just tried it with wood at 150 a cord, that comes out to $9.74 a million BTU. You can change any of those fuel input cost values to what you want.

im going to wait,,till I get my next ng bill,,to figure it out,,but I believe, ng, proPAIN, and fuel oil,,are EXTREMELY higher than wood,,or even electric!!!!!!!

 

[steved]

or even electric!!!!!!!

Unless you got yourself into a variable rate electric bill, they are all comparable. There are people paying $1k + electric bills around here because they fell for the variable rate thing.

I want to say NG is on the cheaper side of the three fuels? Fuel oil is definitely pricey, but I can't say my coworkers pay any more a month for oil than I would for propane.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G730A using Tapatalk

 

[Dirtboy]

$45. for oak & hickory? A rick times 3 is a full cord, so $135. for a full cord of oak & hickory? I'd be all over that!

 

[mtfallsmikey]

My OWB/installation/materials paid for itself in 5 yrs. over fuel oil, not counting the new MS-460...