Saving Money with firewood heat

[Roofgunner]

I was wondering how much we were saving by burning wood in our new home, and I got a chance to find out. The stat are: about 3200 square feet, walk out basement, geo-thermal loop system, two FPX 36 fireplaces, 2X6 walls with blown-in insulation, on 17 foot vaulted ceiling, Pella windows (lots of them) and all this was built in 2006-7. The dates of power useage are from 12-22 Jan. The power data came via our smart meter which the company lets me tap into via the computer. In November we were gone for two weeks, set the house temp. to 55, and shut off the hot water heater. Temp was in the 40's +/-. The average use was about 10-12 kw per day.(Two modern frig, wine cooler, two small freezers were going) During 12-22 Jan we were gone with a house sitter here. One person and our dog. The fireplaces were not run, just the geo=thermal. The temp varied from 45 to 9 deg. F The Kw use was avg to about 60+/- 5. One day he did laundry, and his wife did baking. This was a peak of 108Kw. Now that we are back, using one FPX 36 and the temp are in the 30's and NO geo thermal with out doing washing we are back to the normal 35 kw per day. (Keep in mind this includes me being out in the shop running lights, computer and the Buckstove and minor power took stuff.

So, the bottom line is in our case I figure we save about 60% per month or about 100 to 120 $$ depending on the out side temp. If we do washing/drying the 35 kw per day will spike as high as 45kw. At this rate it doesn't take much to pay for chainsaws, etc.

 

[JeffHK454]

Meh...at $100 a month savings 6 months a year ..it will take me 15 years to break even.

Between the cost of the wood furnace,saws,splitter,dumptruck,time,etc ... I do it cause I like wood heat and not paying the Ng bill..the money is kind of secondary.

 

[sw18x]

Nice job breaking down the numbers. My wife thinks I'm crazy the way I monitor our gas use but IMO you've got to know exactly what you're saving to make the right choices when it comes to your system.

Last March, we moved into a house with an OWB supplementing a Smith gas boiler. The way the previous owners ran it, they were pretty much just heating the garage but I made some tweaks to the system in the house and now we don't even plug in the gas boiler unless the temp drops into the low 20's. Even then, the gas boiler only turns on when the OWB can't keep up. We got last year's numbers from the gas company and they were using close to 400 therms (400 Ccf's) of natural gas/month for the coldest months of the year (January, Feb, March). Granted, it's been unseasonably warm here, but with the OWB shouldering most of the load in the house, last month we only used 43 therms and with a week to go I'm at 34 therms for the current month. That kind of savings comes in handy when you're trying to sell the wife on a new splitter!

Not to hijack your thread, but there's a catch to all this and I'm curious what you and others think. We have three heating zones in the house and so far, we've set the upstairs front of the house at 52 because we don't spend any time there. But with a baby on the way, we'll have to heat this too and I know the OWB can't keep up with all 3 zones firing plus the garage. I'm thinking of putting in an indoor wood burning stove for next year, because we have the perfect layout to heat the largest downstairs zone plus this upstairs zone with an indoor stove. I'd run the OWB and the indoor stove at once (lots of wood, I know, but our wood is free). The expense for the woodstove with install will be around 5K, but I figure we'll save at least 1K per year in heating costs. Plus there's the added security of being able to heat the house if the power goes off (not a common occurence here).

My wife's friend's husband is a physicist (rocket scientist, literally) and he talks about geothermal all the time. In his opinion, it's the way to go if you can afford the upfront cost. Sounds like you're happy with it, I'd be interested in hearing more about how this type of setup works.

 

[1grnlwn]

I have spent a crapload of money on wood heat, my thinking was that I am probably not saving now, but if obumma gets another 4 how much is electricity going to rise. I would think it would be hard to beat geo with wood. But I have an old heat pump, very inefficient. I really went with a wood boiler to heat the shop I am building, I didn't want to heat 48x48 with elect.

 

[msvold]

I haven't reached the break even point yet meaning more $$ invested in Firewood equipment, but at least my money isn't going to the gas man. That just burns my arse. If you plan on being in the house a while, changing the fireplaces or adding wood stove insert will pay for themselves quickly. We spend the majority of our winter free time in our hearth room, watching the "fire channel", cause my girls like it at 78 degrees after they've been out doing chores. View attachment 220470

 

[Roofgunner]

addtional info

I guess I should have said, because I've taken it for granted, that I have my own property to cut firewood on. Before we moved here, I lived in an almond growing area, so that wood was free except for me getting it, and when I got into this with my Dad, who was a Buckstove dealer, we had (and still have) a farm in PA.

Also: the geo thermal system was about $19,500.00 and when you consider energy saving and tax advantages it is worth it if we didn't have firewood burners. This is considering using it as AC in the summer. A standard system was priced at about $11,000 and dual fuel(propane and electric) was priced at about $15,000.00 with some tax advantages but not as good as the geo-thermal. There is one thing that you can't buy however: the fact that wood heat is just better and feels better.

 

[ponyexpress976]

Geo is great....but what do you do if the power is out for a few days? Then your looking at one mondo generator to keep things going. That's the real benefit of the insert. With an isert running, you probably wont have to feed both as much as you think. I would, however, always run the insert hot to keep the chimney clean rather than have both going and smoldering.

 

[branchbuzzer]

If I heated the house with electric to the temps I do with wood ( 75-65 ), the "light bill" ( we don't have "electric" bills here...) would be astronomical. It would cost me about an extry $100 to heat to 65 with elec. in a an avg winter mo.

I usually average less than 10kw/day unless the weather is extreme. I have one outbuilding with plumbing I have to keep above freezing with elec. and need some A/C in the summer for humidity control. I've had several months where the customer charge exceeded my usage charges. $30 is about my average bill.

 

[branchbuzzer]

I haven't reached the break even point yet meaning more $$ invested in Firewood equipment, but at least my money isn't going to the gas man. That just burns my arse.

I'd make this analogy:

You get stuck in a traffic jam where you're creeping along and can't shut off the engine. You can sit in it and get all stressed out, or go way out of your way on a relaxing back road and get where you need to go in a bit longer time. Me, I take the back road.

 

[Roofgunner]

geo thermal amp draw

To answer the question on the amp draw for the geo thermal pumps, which is about 6000 watts when they start but not to keep them running. I have a 4000 watt generator, so when the power went out for 4 days due to an ice storm, I have it rigged up and the wife knows what to do, to remove the geo thermal and the hot water heater from the system (throw the breakers OFF). With this I can run the FPX 36 and it's blowers and if it gets below zero I can run the one upstairs. The shop has a propane powered hot water heater, so we could go to the shop for that if things really get bad. If I can't get gas to run the saw, and run out of propane................ well I have an axe.

Now to finish the thread: Last winter I burned about 10 to 11 cords of wood. That included wood for the Buckstove in the shop/apt. which is 1800 square feet. The back up heat for the shop is a propane fed regular type furnace/AC but it 's rarely used.

 

[Whitespider]

Me???? I haven't purchased anything firewood related in at least 20-years (well, a few saw chains).
I'm saving between $2500-3500 a year easy... probably more livin' in this 100-year-old, uninsulated farm house.
With LP at near $2.oo per gallon 'round here it don't take long to save a couple bucks...
I have no idea how the folks out east can afford $4.oo and $5.oo LP... baffles me?

 

[CTYank]

If I heated the house with electric to the temps I do with wood ( 75-65 ), the "light bill" ( we don't have "electric" bills here...) would be astronomical. It would cost me about an extry $100 to heat to 65 with elec. in a an avg winter mo.

I usually average less than 10kw/day unless the weather is extreme. I have one outbuilding with plumbing I have to keep above freezing with elec. and need some A/C in the summer for humidity control. I've had several months where the customer charge exceeded my usage charges. $30 is about my average bill.

Not to pick on anyone, but "10kw/day" is meaningless in your context. "10 kw" means ten thousand joules (measure of work or energy) per second. Work/time is power, as in kilowatts; it's a rate.

Now, if you said "10 kw-h/day" that might well be what you mean. That would be work or energy.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Me???? I haven't purchased anything firewood related in at least 20-years (well, a few saw chains).
I'm saving between $2500-3500 a year easy... probably more livin' in this 100-year-old, uninsulated farm house.
With LP at near $2.oo per gallon 'round here it don't take long to save a couple bucks...
I have no idea how the folks out east can afford $4.oo and $5.oo LP... baffles me?

I'm gonna go waaaaay out on a limb here - they don't live in uninsulated houses.

 

[branchbuzzer]

Not to pick on anyone, but "10kw/day" is meaningless in your context. "10 kw" means ten thousand joules (measure of work or energy) per second. Work/time is power, as in kilowatts; it's a rate.

Now, if you said "10 kw-h/day" that might well be what you mean. That would be work or energy.

You caught me, that was EXACTLY what I meant.... how much is the fine?

 

[Rob1276]

Me???? I haven't purchased anything firewood related in at least 20-years (well, a few saw chains).
I'm saving between $2500-3500 a year easy... probably more livin' in this 100-year-old, uninsulated farm house.
With LP at near $2.oo per gallon 'round here it don't take long to save a couple bucks...
I have no idea how the folks out east can afford $4.oo and $5.oo LP... baffles me?

Same here all though mine is insulated albeit it still drafty as it stands now I'm about $500 over what I spent last year for heat but that because me buying all the equip, stove, fuel spent getting wood and so on.

 

[esshup]

I've had the insert for 3 years. It paid for itself the 1st year, paid for the 7900 and then some the 2nd year and has really paid off this year. The utility company mistakenly put $$ from the electric side of the bill to the gas side twice back in 2008, and I have had a credit with them for the natural gas since then.

 

[mayhem100]

Major, major savings by adding wood heating to my house. First 4 years we owned the place we heated exclusively with oil to the tune of about 1800-2000 gallons per year (includes DHW, which alone consumes about 250-300 gallons per calendar year.

We installed our woodstove. Stove ran me about 2 grand, delivery was free. Chimney pipe ran me another $1200 and install was $800. Built the hearthpad myself, already owned a chainsaw (but lets add that cost in for fun) and bought an axe, maul, sledge and wedge...call it $400 worth of tool investment. So rounding up and being generous I'm into the wood burning thing for say $4500.

Oil consumption went down the first year from 2000 gallons the prior year down to 900 the first year we had the stove. Each subsequent year my oil consumption went down and I think I hit pretty close to diminishing returns last year when I used a bit under 400 gallons the entire year, including the 250-300 it takes to make hot water for a year).

I installed my stove in 2007 and that winter oil was around $3.50 a gallon I think...so the first year I recovered around $3000+ in costs to heat my house. As a bonus, my front room in the house where the stove is went from being by far the coldest room in the house when heating with oil to the warmest room in the house when I heat with wood.

At this point, even assuming my consumption would have gone down 25% with the building settling and my fixing a few heat losing errors from construction, I'm still saving heaps of money per year with the wood stove. With some pretty conservative numbers I figure I'm never saving any less than $2000 per year in oil delivery by burning wood.

 

[Marc]

Major, major savings by adding wood heating to my house. First 4 years we owned the place we heated exclusively with oil to the tune of about 1800-2000 gallons per year (includes DHW, which alone consumes about 250-300 gallons per calendar year.

We installed our woodstove. Stove ran me about 2 grand, delivery was free. Chimney pipe ran me another $1200 and install was $800. Built the hearthpad myself, already owned a chainsaw (but lets add that cost in for fun) and bought an axe, maul, sledge and wedge...call it $400 worth of tool investment. So rounding up and being generous I'm into the wood burning thing for say $4500.

Oil consumption went down the first year from 2000 gallons the prior year down to 900 the first year we had the stove. Each subsequent year my oil consumption went down and I think I hit pretty close to diminishing returns last year when I used a bit under 400 gallons the entire year, including the 250-300 it takes to make hot water for a year).

I installed my stove in 2007 and that winter oil was around $3.50 a gallon I think...so the first year I recovered around $3000+ in costs to heat my house. As a bonus, my front room in the house where the stove is went from being by far the coldest room in the house when heating with oil to the warmest room in the house when I heat with wood.

At this point, even assuming my consumption would have gone down 25% with the building settling and my fixing a few heat losing errors from construction, I'm still saving heaps of money per year with the wood stove. With some pretty conservative numbers I figure I'm never saving any less than $2000 per year in oil delivery by burning wood.

Hard for me to figure the savings as well. I'd never keep the house as warm as I do with the stove if I was just burning oil. So I can't really make a direct comparison unless one were to put a price on quality of life and comfort gained by burning the stove and having a warm part of the house. I keep the t-stats at 58 otherwise and we'd be miserable all winter and I'd probably be divorced by now.

 

[avalancher]

There is no doubt that heating with wood was the only way to go. The first winter in this house our electric bills were generally in the $350 to $400 a month range, and now they average less than $100 a month in the winter.

All told,l reckon I got $8000 invested in tools. A dozen saws, a Speeco 35 ton splitter, a 16ft trailer, and an assortment of hand tools. With wood sales for the first year right around $9000 on top of the wood for our home and shop, it was a no brainer.

On top of that, we keep the house a good bit warmer than what the old heat pump would make it. Wife likes it in the mid 70's, but with the heat pump we left it at 70 to take it easy on the electric bill.

 

[FGZ]

I'm saving money, but update my numbers. Last summer when I wanted to convince the darling wifey (very rational, numbers-driven) that we NEEDED wood heat, I had to figure the ROI. At the time, it looked like it would pay for itself in ~3yrs assuming we bought a cord, scrounged the rest, still only bought 1 tank of oil at ~$3.50/gallon. Oil has gone up and I've scrounged fairly successfully, so I hope my numbers were about right.

Someone's point about comfort level is a biggie, because we would not keep the house as warm using oil as we do with wood. From here on I have a few improvements to make on the burning end of things, but house insulation is where the rest of my savings should come from.