Glad I burn wood & not pellets

[stihly dan]

We plan to build a house this year. It will have a ground source heat pump but we will have a pellet stove for a backup - especially if the power is out. I have a generator we use to power the lights, fans/blower, well & a couple of space heaters for bathrooms.

I will continue to use wood to heat the shop. Wife has allergies & by eliminating using a wood stove in the house, we are eliminating a potential source of discomfort for her plust the rest of the list mentioned earlier.

Do your research on the pellet stove you buy. I hear that SOME don't work on generator power as the boards can't take the fluctuation and lock out.

 

[wndwlkr]

I've Spent $300.00 this year heating 2400 SF earth contact with pellets, & it looks like I'll have 5or6 bags left over. I would have to say we are happy with our pellet stove ! Might sound crazy but I'm ready to mow grass & plant garden.

 

[Hddnis]

I ran a pellet stove for several years, even though I sell firewood, it was in the house when I moved in and I liked it. Exhaust fan bearing went out after a few years and so I switched to a woodstove. I later fixed the pellet stove and use it in my shop now. Running 24/7 for a full month the power costs me $35.00. I buy a couple tons of pellets in the summer for $139.00 a ton and that is plenty to keep the shop at 50° or higher all winter. When I want more heat I turn it up and it warms the shop up within an hour.

Per BTU pellets in the summer are cheaper than firewood. With the extended hopper I tend the pellet stove every three days, empty ash and add pellets. Once a month I shut it down and clean it all out, takes ten minutes at most; in a half hour from shutdown I'll have it relit and putting out heat.

Around these parts there is no shortage at all of pellets, we have three huge plants all within an hours drive. Prices here never hit $200.00 a ton and several places never went over $160.00. Even if they had I bought my pellets in the summer and I have 3/4 of a ton left. I'll still pick up two ton next summer, leftovers just get added to the stash.



Mr. HE

 

[muddstopper]

Before i bought a wood stove, my electric bill would run over $350 per month for about 4 months during the winter. about half that running the ac in the summer. After putting in the wood stove, my first electric bill was a little over $100. I equate that to about $1000 in savings/ year by burning wood. A lot of my wood is free, except for my chainsaw and time. Hard to put a price on my saws since I usually trade or barter when it comes to aquireing equipment, but I owned a chainsaw before I did a wood stove so its not like i went out and bought one just to cut my firewood. I probably run $20 or $30 worth of gas thru my saws cutting and bucking the wood and maybe another $50 or $75 in fuel for my truck and dump trailer. Add another $25 worth of fuel for my splitter. So I am around $150 or so to secure my firewood. Saving now are around $850 a year to burn wood versus electricity. I doubt very much I can heat my house all winter for $150 worth of pellets, that I still have to haul home and feed into the stove. Now granted, I sometimes pay $400 for a log truck load of logs which cuts down on what i actually save by burning wood, but a log truck load usually lasts me more than one heating season, maybe not quite 2 winters when they are as cold as this last one has been. I havent figured in to my cost any of my time, but i work my wood when its convient, I dont schedule a specific time to gather the wood. Someone said it doesnt make sense to use wood if you make more than $15 hour at your real job. Well, I make almost twice that on my real job, I dont see any real connection between what you make and when it makes sense to burn wood for heat. Money saved is the same as money earned to me. And the remark about a Financial degree, I do have one in business, but it doesnt take a genius to do grade school math. Where do some of these remarks come from anyways. They certainly didnt add any information of value to this thread.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Do your research on the pellet stove you buy. I hear that SOME don't work on generator power as the boards can't take the fluctuation and lock out.

That's ANOTHER reason I bought a Honda "inverter" generator, they have the cleanest sign wav, and even the pickiest putters ect. run just fine on the electricity they produce.

SR

 

[jimbojango]

Before i bought a wood stove, my electric bill would run over $350 per month for about 4 months during the winter. about half that running the ac in the summer. After putting in the wood stove, my first electric bill was a little over $100. I equate that to about $1000 in savings/ year by burning wood. A lot of my wood is free, except for my chainsaw and time. Hard to put a price on my saws since I usually trade or barter when it comes to aquireing equipment, but I owned a chainsaw before I did a wood stove so its not like i went out and bought one just to cut my firewood. I probably run $20 or $30 worth of gas thru my saws cutting and bucking the wood and maybe another $50 or $75 in fuel for my truck and dump trailer. Add another $25 worth of fuel for my splitter. So I am around $150 or so to secure my firewood. Saving now are around $850 a year to burn wood versus electricity. I doubt very much I can heat my house all winter for $150 worth of pellets, that I still have to haul home and feed into the stove. Now granted, I sometimes pay $400 for a log truck load of logs which cuts down on what i actually save by burning wood, but a log truck load usually lasts me more than one heating season, maybe not quite 2 winters when they are as cold as this last one has been. I havent figured in to my cost any of my time, but i work my wood when its convient, I dont schedule a specific time to gather the wood. Someone said it doesnt make sense to use wood if you make more than $15 hour at your real job. Well, I make almost twice that on my real job, I dont see any real connection between what you make and when it makes sense to burn wood for heat. Money saved is the same as money earned to me. And the remark about a Financial degree, I do have one in business, but it doesnt take a genius to do grade school math. Where do some of these remarks come from anyways. They certainly didnt add any information of value to this thread.

If you make $30 an hour and can't figure out that you're losing money you have a real problem with math. go work 3 hours of overtime instead of cutting wood and buy it, you'll SAVE money.

The underlying principle was that you don't cut wood to save money because you could go to work instead and buy it and actually make a profit doing so. You choose to cut wood and that's wonderful and great, but it is costing you real dollars just like it costs me real dollars to cut it instead of working overtime

 

[jrider]

$15 an hour...how long does it take you to process a cord of wood?

 

[jimbojango]

$15 an hour...how long does it take you to process a cord of wood?

I already went through this somewhere above, but i'll make another go at it and even exclude driving to and from which for most people adds at least another hour.
cutting a cord of wood 2 hours. loading cord of wood in truck and trailer about an hour, drive home, get splitter out and split for 2 hours minimum and stacking. Taking chains to be sharpened or doing it yourself adds another half our, spend $10 on gas to split the wood, spend a couple bucks on gas for your saws.
5 1/2 hours of labor. $82.50
$12 in direct fuel costs
Owning said truck and trailer and possible a tractor, and the splitter and the chainsaws... $50 a cord minimum especially for the weekend warriors.
looks like 144.50 per cord of wood in costs to me, i can buy 1 for $150 where i live (or less) and they deliver and stack it. So for $5.50 a cord i can buy my wood instead of cutting it without including any vehicle fuel or my time of driving.

You also have to spend time hauling the wood inside and then hauling ashes out. Its not a zero sum game. Its dirty, the bark gets everywhere inside and out, you have a pile of crap around your splitter, your truck gets beat up in the bed, you ruin tires ect. ect. Its just not a free game.

Like i said before, you CHOOSE to burn wood (as do i) but it has a real cost, and an indirect cost. The fact i can get my own fuel is cool and awesome and makes me feel good about it and it gets some tree's out of my pastures and makes room for more grass for my cows but it still costs me.

But hey, the ladies love the man arms and i don't have to buy a gym membership

 

[spike60]

If you make $30 an hour and can't figure out that you're losing money you have a real problem with math. go work 3 hours of overtime instead of cutting wood and buy it, you'll SAVE money.

The underlying principle was that you don't cut wood to save money because you could go to work instead and buy it and actually make a profit doing so. You choose to cut wood and that's wonderful and great, but it is costing you real dollars just like it costs me real dollars to cut it instead of working overtime

You have a little problem with math, and your posts here are needlessly abrasive towards guys who don't see it your way. You have your own reality, which works fine for you. But insisting that your reality applies to everyone else here is obnoxious.

Not everyone "chooses" to burn wood in the context you imply, nor do they view it as a fun/recreational activity as many of us do here. For some, it is the only viable economic alternative they have. What makes you think that everyone can "choose' to work overtime to supplement their heating bill? Most people who burn wood do it specifically to save money. According to you, all of us who cut our own aren't really saving anything? Really? How many guys on this forum you think will agree with that logic?

The flaw in your computations is centered around the "what's your time worth" thinking. This is only valid if you spend every waking moment working your regular job or doing side jobs. To suggest that those of us who cut wood in our SPARE TIME are losing money because we could be working is BS.

Whatever works for you is cool. But what works for the rest of us does in fact work regardless of whether or not if fits within your narrow viewpoint. You should lighten up a little bit here.

 

[muddstopper]

If you make $30 an hour and can't figure out that you're losing money you have a real problem with math. go work 3 hours of overtime instead of cutting wood and buy it, you'll SAVE money.

The underlying principle was that you don't cut wood to save money because you could go to work instead and buy it and actually make a profit doing so. You choose to cut wood and that's wonderful and great, but it is costing you real dollars just like it costs me real dollars to cut it instead of working overtime

Sir, I have been doing what I am doing for about 38yrs. I figured out a long time ago if I couldnt make it on regular wages, then a little bit of overtime isnt going to help. It all comes down to managing your money wisely. Working overtime is still consuming my time. Time I can spend doing something else, cutting wood for instance. If the money I make is simply handed to someone else to do work I could have done myself, just how do you figure You or anybody else saved anything. Time gone working overtime, money gone buying firewood, its a no profit situation. There is nothing wrong with my math, I save $850 a year cutting my own wood. At $27 an hour at overtime rate is $40.50 per hour, $850/ $40.50= 20.98 hrs overtime i would have to work just to break even. You might want to revisit your own math. The bottom line is how much money is actually in my bank account while I'm watching the wood burn..

 

[kyle1!]

Overtime???....Some don't get OT ever and why would one want to spend more time at a place that one may not truly enjoy. Plus working at $15/hr means take home pay is close to $10. I just lost some money working for someone else.

I agree it cost something to heat with wood but not having to rely on what another person or entity charges is priceless.

Someday I will heat with wood....I just know I will.

 

[Chris-PA]

Before I bought the wood stove we looked seriously at a pellet stove, but since we did not have a source of free pellets and did have woods the choice was to go with wood made sense for us. I would really like to have a pellet stove as back up but cannot find a good place to hook one in. I have friends that use them and have been impressed with how well they work - they're totally different in character compared to a wood stove, but also quite nice.

It's gotten so that you cannot have a reasonable discussion about anything around here, even topics that should interest many and don't seem remotely controversial. The intolerance and inability to communicate without everything turning into a pissing contest is really tiring. This thread was about the scarcity of pellets and about pellet stoves - WTH?

 

[Dirtboy]

Before I bought the wood stove we looked seriously at a pellet stove, but since we did not have a source of free pellets and did have woods the choice was to go with wood made sense for us. I would really like to have a pellet stove as back up but cannot find a good place to hook one in. I have friends that use them and have been impressed with how well they work - they're totally different in character compared to a wood stove, but also quite nice.

It's gotten so that you cannot have a reasonable discussion about anything around here, even topics that should interest many and don't seem remotely controversial. The intolerance and inability to communicate without everything turning into a pissing contest is really tiring. This thread was about the scarcity of pellets and about pellet stoves - WTH?

Thanks ChrisPA, -I wasn't trying to start a wood vs pellet war, was just wondering if the shortage of pellets was all over or just local.

 

[autoimage]

I don't know about you but if someone says I have a weak mind for heating with firewood im gonna say something

 

[jimbojango]

I don't know about you but if someone says I have a weak mind for heating with firewood im gonna say something

No one said you had a weak mind. Someone said you either have a weak mind or you enjoy doing it. You're weak minded if you can't figure out the cost of doing something you think is "free."

No one in this thread ever said that cutting wood because you liked it was a sin, or stupid, or anything else. Someone (me) pointed out there is no such thing as a free lunch and almost everyone that has read my posts can see with any logic that firewood isn't free.

If you cut wood because you like to then its great and wonderful, nothing wrong with some good exercise and hard work, but if you do it because its free then you should read my posts that clearly prove otherwise.

 

[jimbojango]

Overtime???....Some don't get OT ever and why would one want to spend more time at a place that one may not truly enjoy. Plus working at $15/hr means take home pay is close to $10. I just lost some money working for someone else.

I agree it cost something to heat with wood but not having to rely on what another person or entity charges is priceless.

Someday I will heat with wood....I just know I will.

In your own post you agree exactly with what i've said in about 6 posts now. You do it because you enjoy cutting wood not because you're saving money hand over fist.

 

[jimbojango]

Sir, I have been doing what I am doing for about 38yrs. I figured out a long time ago if I couldnt make it on regular wages, then a little bit of overtime isnt going to help. It all comes down to managing your money wisely. Working overtime is still consuming my time. Time I can spend doing something else, cutting wood for instance. If the money I make is simply handed to someone else to do work I could have done myself, just how do you figure You or anybody else saved anything. Time gone working overtime, money gone buying firewood, its a no profit situation. There is nothing wrong with my math, I save $850 a year cutting my own wood. At $27 an hour at overtime rate is $40.50 per hour, $850/ $40.50= 20.98 hrs overtime i would have to work just to break even. You might want to revisit your own math. The bottom line is how much money is actually in my bank account while I'm watching the wood burn..

Totally agree with you. I'd rather spend 21 hours cutting firewood for "free" then working for the man myself. You totally made my point valid

 

[jimbojango]

You have a little problem with math, and your posts here are needlessly abrasive towards guys who don't see it your way. You have your own reality, which works fine for you. But insisting that your reality applies to everyone else here is obnoxious.

Not everyone "chooses" to burn wood in the context you imply, nor do they view it as a fun/recreational activity as many of us do here. For some, it is the only viable economic alternative they have. What makes you think that everyone can "choose' to work overtime to supplement their heating bill? Most people who burn wood do it specifically to save money. According to you, all of us who cut our own aren't really saving anything? Really? How many guys on this forum you think will agree with that logic?

The flaw in your computations is centered around the "what's your time worth" thinking. This is only valid if you spend every waking moment working your regular job or doing side jobs. To suggest that those of us who cut wood in our SPARE TIME are losing money because we could be working is BS.

Whatever works for you is cool. But what works for the rest of us does in fact work regardless of whether or not if fits within your narrow viewpoint. You should lighten up a little bit here.

The How many guys on this forum agree with my logic thought... Probably 90% of them.
There is no free lunch, there is no free firewood.

This thread hijack actually started over someone on about page 2 jumping the OP for even asking about pellets and made this a wood vs. pellet war. The entire point of my posts was to point out the economic feasibility of your thinking that wood was "cheaper" than pellets. I'm quite willing to help someone when they need help but i'm not going to be dumb enough to not know an opportunity cost exists. You cut wood to stay warm, you go to work to feed yourself and have a house. If you like work more than cutting wood you can buy pellets (or wood) and be a warm happy little clam for the same amount of overall work.

 

[jrider]

I sell firewood - 100 cords this past year and burn all the uglies, partial rotten, odds and ends in my owb. Part of the issue people are having with your posts is that the numbers you used don't apply to everyone in here- they apply to your situation. Also, because just about everyone around here is a hardwood snob I actually have had people deliver cut pine and its gone as far as one guy who wanted to get rid of pine so badly he cut, split, and helped me load close to two cords of it all for free.
Was there a big upfront cost with my owb? Heck yeah but with the price of oil, it's paid for itself in 3 years.

 

[jimbojango]

I sell firewood - 100 cords this past year and burn all the uglies, partial rotten, odds and ends in my owb. Part of the issue people are having with your posts is that the numbers you used don't apply to everyone in here- they apply to your situation. Also, because just about everyone around here is a hardwood snob I actually have had people deliver cut pine and its gone as far as one guy who wanted to get rid of pine so badly he cut, split, and helped me load close to two cords of it all for free.
Was there a big upfront cost with my owb? Heck yeah but with the price of oil, it's paid for itself in 3 years.

right on!