I only installed my stove last October. I just got my gas bill summary for the last year, and now feel rather smug 
Burning scrounged wood feels good
Burning scrounged wood feels good
Pay back
- Thread starter LondonNeil
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Homestead Garage
ArboristSite Lurker
I figure mine saves about $2k every year at current fuel oil prices. It's a good feeling.
gotrek
ArboristSite Lurker
I'm all electric here and our rates are low compared to most but in the dead of winter my bill was 160$ vs the usual 800$+.
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Rangerbait
ArboristSite Operative
Looking forward to that...we had a $700 electric bill in December due to our electric heat pumps, which was a catalyst for putting in a wood stove...now I'm hoping for a wrath of God winter! [emoji12]
We have a heat pump with electric backup heat. I have never used it in the winter. Comparing with others, I believe my bill would run around $300./ month in the winter.
I have our water hooked up to the wood stove also. The electric bill runs around $70./ month when it gets good and cold. I enjoy beating the power company out of the money. And I save so much money, it justifies buying another saw. Right?
I have our water hooked up to the wood stove also. The electric bill runs around $70./ month when it gets good and cold. I enjoy beating the power company out of the money. And I save so much money, it justifies buying another saw. Right?
Wowzer
ArboristSite Operative
I averaged 750 last winter, Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar. I averaged 160 this year. BUT I may have spent to much money on Saws and I made a wood splitter. So I probably saved 0 dollars haha
tnflatbed
ArboristSite Operative
It does feel good. After the first winter in our new home and nearly freezing whilst paying 250$ a month I decided a wood stove was in order. I spent about 1k installing a stove but oh so worth it. I have saved substantially, our electric bill averages about 65$ a month now.I only installed my stove last October. I just got my gas bill summary for the last year, and now feel rather smug
Burning scrounged wood feels good
Little Al
Addicted to ArboristSite
Arr but you still have your saws, splitter etc.to use over & over, the "leccy" comes to your house & passes through or whatever the apliance & is gone & is charged x#of$ = gone for ever next year & on you will still have your saws & not be paying out on "leccy"
My wife bought our stove when she got a power bill over $300. Bill dropped to $160 the first month and averaged around $120 this past winter. My next step to save power was building a heat exchanger to heat hot water with. Bought $60 worth of copper pipe and fitting, found a used hot water heater and hung the exchanger on the side of the stove. Power bill dropped $50 the first month so the payback was pretty fast. Now I am looking at ways to save on firewood. I see a water to air heat exchanger to make a AC rig and get rid of the $200 month for cooling, and another exchanger for a solar hot water heater.
Saving on your fuel bill is a primary reason for turning to wood as fuel which was mine too. But a secondary benefit is I think most people add an additional 5 to 10 degrees to the house temp. My house temp was always set at 64, so with the addition of an OWB 5 years ago it now rest at a comfortable 70 24/7. Makes the wife warmer more ways then one.
Actually as I'm on mains gas which is cheap my primary reason for the stove was just for ambience. However since the stove and install cost a fair whack, and bought wood would cost even more than the gas, my logic drove me to get a chainsaw and x27 etc, start scrounging and then to run the stove hard to get it paying for itself. Its only a small stove, 5kW, about 19000 btu I think, and since gas is cheap it was never going to pay for itself in a year or 2, but a 37% reduction in my gas use, plus as you say the house has been run a fair bit warmer than normal, and I'm very pleased. Other half is too, I've not heard 'I'm cold!' in a long while!
reddogrunner
ArboristSite Operative
So, I have a buddy who bought some flexible black hose and it goes on his roof from May to September in PA. Heats his pool water with it. Works damned good.
I have seen videos of folks that took the old heat exchangers out of heat pumps and reconfigured them to work with solar collectors. They take the A coils out of the heat pump, and lay them back to back. Then they build a box to mount the exchangers in and mount in their main hvac line, then plumb in the solar collector. The fan on their furnace or heat pump provides the air flow. I have thought about doing this myself, but found out the water to air heat exchangers can be bought new for around $100, so I dont think the effort to find a old heat pump and the work to convert it, is worth it for the little bit of money you would save.
