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[emoji1787]

I hear ya, when we get it going we hate letting it go out. Shoulder seasons we jist have to do it some times. But when the cold really hits.....it NEVER goes and we never need to actually start a new fire unless the stove needs cleaned.

Have fun man and enjoy the warmth. Its a beautiful thing to warm your family with the fruits of your labor.


Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]
 
NSMaple1 said:
Mini split heat pumps are perfect for shoulder seasons. And summer heat & humidity.
Click to expand...

Even when buying wood here, wood heat is 1/3 the price of electricity, even with a heat pump. I get wood here for free (well, for labor) so it is even cheaper. I have not used electric heat here in 10 years. For shoulder season I use lighter woods like: alder, cherry, maple, birch and pine. For deep winter cold I use woods like: oak, locust, apple, larch, and Doug fir. Never gets hot enough here to need A/C, save for a few days a year.
 
windthrown said:
Even when buying wood here, wood heat is 1/3 the price of electricity, even with a heat pump. I get wood here for free (well, for labor) so it is even cheaper. I have not used electric heat here in 10 years. For shoulder season I use lighter woods like: alder, cherry, maple, birch and pine. For deep winter cold I use woods like: oak, locust, apple, larch, and Doug fir. Never gets hot enough here to need A/C, save for a few days a year.
Click to expand...

Not here. This time of year, I think I am looking at maybe $60/mo for electricity to run 2 mini-splits, vs. around 1 cord of wood. Two shoulder seasons a year works out to around $250 of electricity displacing 3-4 cords of wood. I used to be all wood until we got them 3 years ago. Now I only light up when it's winter cold. Like mid-December to mid-March. I am to the point in my life that I really really like not having to put up and put in as much wood every year, I have more things I would rather spend my time at each year than doing wood. Even though I actually like being in the woods doing it.
 
NSMaple1 said:
Not here. This time of year, I think I am looking at maybe $60/mo for electricity to run 2 mini-splits, vs. around 1 cord of wood. Two shoulder seasons a year works out to around $250 of electricity displacing 3-4 cords of wood. I used to be all wood until we got them 3 years ago. Now I only light up when it's winter cold. Like mid-December to mid-March. I am to the point in my life that I really really like not having to put up and put in as much wood every year, I have more things I would rather spend my time at each year than doing wood. Even though I actually like being in the woods doing it.
Click to expand...

Sorry. Makes no sense.

My cost comparison here even running a way more efficient 250% geothermal heat pump is ~barely~ equivalent to burning wood when paying $200 a cord for it. And I would have to pay a small fortune for the heat pump which makes it unfeasible. And even if I did it is still not economical. And I do not pay for wood, so burning wood is far far cheaper for me than any heat pump. Oregon is also way warmer than Nova Scotia where heat pumps are far more efficient. So I do not see how your heat pump can be so cheap. You also have to cover the added cost of the heap pump an installation, which you do not factor for. Maybe they give them to you for free in s Canada? Or you have the world's cheapest electricity. Or you have a really inefficient wood heater. For me your math just does not add up. At least not here, with electric rates at 12 cents a KWh and a cord of dry split wood at $200 a cord (that is what people get for it here for good Doug fir) and burning in a 70% efficient wood stove.

The cost comparison for generating 100m BTU not including the cost of the wood stove or heat pump:
Cordwood at $200 a cord for Doug Fir in a 70% efficient wood stove: $1,300 USD. (My actual cost is near zero, only truck and saw gas).
Electricity at $0.12 KwHr, 250% best efficiency geothermal heat pump: $1,400 USD. (still does not beat buying wood)
Electricity at $0.12 KwHr, 150% typical efficiency mini-split heat pump: $2,344 USD. (waaaaaay more expensive)

Another way to look at it: your burning 4 cords of shoulder season wood is equivalent to 100M BTU of electricity, which at an efficiency of 150% would cost me $2,344 USD with min-split heat pumps. Yet you claim you pay only $250? You seem to be off nearly by factor of 10 compared to here. Math don't lie.
 
I have an electricity monitor here that tells me how much juice I use a day/week/month. That's what it tells me. And it jives with my power bills. Modern cold climate mini-splits are very efficient. You used a factor of 1.5. This time of year here it's more like 4. Way better than geothermal. Our climate isn't overly cold here. We have had only a handful of frosts so far. +5c right now as I'm typing. When it gets into steady minus temps, then that 4 goes down. I can run the two heat pumps when it's -10c out all day for around 30kwh a day. But by then, I'm burning wood.
 
We just started using the kerosene heaters last night, going to try and hold off on lighting the furnace till next month if I can help it. Weather dependent of course. I'd like to have a mini split system for this time of year. We only need a bit if heat in the evening. House stays warm all night with the kerosene heaters burning for a few hours before bed.
 
Fired mine up yesterday without a hitch. Needed to add a couple gallons of water as I always get a little bit of burn off over the summer. Now I just need to try and get a coal bed. Burning basswood for the shoulder month here.
 
NSMaple1 said:
I have an electricity monitor here that tells me how much juice I use a day/week/month. That's what it tells me. And it jives with my power bills. Modern cold climate mini-splits are very efficient. You used a factor of 1.5. This time of year here it's more like 4. Way better than geothermal. Our climate isn't overly cold here. We have had only a handful of frosts so far. +5c right now as I'm typing. When it gets into steady minus temps, then that 4 goes down. I can run the two heat pumps when it's -10c out all day for around 30kwh a day. But by then, I'm burning wood.
Click to expand...

The highest efficiency in any split heat pump that I can find available out there now is just under HSPF 15, which has a COP of 4.4 (amount of heat times the equivalent in resistance electricity used). That is the maximum at the peak efficiency and performance. That would still put you way over your stated amount using a heat pump vs 4 cords of wood. But it seems that you also have cheap electricity in New Scotland. The opposite of most of the western US, where prices go UP the more you use. In NS the prices go down. And the CDN dollar is only 75 cents American. From the web: hydro is 12.012 cents CDN per kilowatt hour for the first 200 kilowatt hours per month per kilowatt of maximum demand. 8.733 cents per kilowatt hour for all additional kilowatt hours. But even factoring for that and a COP of 4 as you state, and comparing to 4 cords of wood heat... it does not add up to being nearly that cheap. Even at 9 cents a KwHr (my heat comparison calculator only goes down to cents) for 100 million BTU at a COP of 4 is $660 a year and about 2-3x your claim. At 12 cents a KwHr you are at $900 a year. Running at peak optimum performance all the time. Which is not possible. Also the higher the COP rating in a heat pump, the way higher the cost of the units.

Still don't add up. But then we are a bunch of fallers, loggers, arborists, climbers and saw jockeys on this site that prefer cutting and splitting wood to burn, rather than doing those other things which you seem to prefer doing instead.
 
windthrown said:
The highest efficiency in any split heat pump that I can find available out there now is just under HSPF 15, which has a COP of 4.4 (amount of heat times the equivalent in resistance electricity used). That is the maximum at the peak efficiency and performance. That would still put you way over your stated amount using a heat pump vs 4 cords of wood. But it seems that you also have cheap electricity in New Scotland. The opposite of most of the western US, where prices go UP the more you use. In NS the prices go down. And the CDN dollar is only 75 cents American. From the web: hydro is 12.012 cents CDN per kilowatt hour for the first 200 kilowatt hours per month per kilowatt of maximum demand. 8.733 cents per kilowatt hour for all additional kilowatt hours. But even factoring for that and a COP of 4 as you state, and comparing to 4 cords of wood heat... it does not add up to being nearly that cheap. Even at 9 cents a KwHr (my heat comparison calculator only goes down to cents) for 100 million BTU at a COP of 4 is $660 a year and about 2-3x your claim. At 12 cents a KwHr you are at $900 a year. Running at peak optimum performance all the time. Which is not possible. Also the higher the COP rating in a heat pump, the way higher the cost of the units.

Still don't add up. But then we are a bunch of fallers, loggers, arborists, climbers and saw jockeys on this site that prefer cutting and splitting wood to burn, rather than doing those other things which you seem to prefer doing instead.
Click to expand...

Last couple few years it has been cottage weekend time that I've been picking, over doing wood. Ya I like doing wood, but not as much as doing not much at the cottage, at this stage in life.

I'm also just talking shoulder seasons - on when I run the heat pumps & don't burn. Shoulder seasons here makes for more stand by heat loss, and also more lost when lighting new fires all the time. Which I would have to do all the time, because if I tried to keep a fire going, it would be too much heat. Pretty surprising how much wood you can slowly go through over a couple of months of daily fire lighting. It adds up. That's also the best conditions to get the most out of your mini split.

Just relaying my experiences - they are what they are.
 
woodfarmer said:
My hydro bill in Ontario is $100/ month. With no heat or ac on. Propane hwt and cooktop. I’ll be firing the Garn up this week for the season.
Click to expand...
Ouch! Don't you have some of the cheapest rates in North America too?
 

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