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Grumpy4
Premium Member
join:2001-07-28
NW CT

1 recommendation

Grumpy4

Premium Member

Re: Heating with a hydronic wood stove add on

Although I know many with beloved pellet stoves, I am leery of any wood type of fuel that one has to buy at retail. An exception may be log lengths depending upon the price. Pellets have nearly become a trade-able commodity, with supply and demand dictating price in these parts.

I live in one of those areas where with a little resourcefulness, hardwoods can still be had for free, if one is willing to do the labor required to cut & transport them.

fifty nine
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ

fifty nine

Member

said by Grumpy4:

Although I know many with beloved pellet stoves, I am leery of any wood type of fuel that one has to buy at retail. An exception may be log lengths depending upon the price. Pellets have nearly become a trade-able commodity, with supply and demand dictating price in these parts.

I live in one of those areas where with a little resourcefulness, hardwoods can still be had for free, if one is willing to do the labor required to cut & transport them.

I have to agree with this one. When talking to a wood stove (and pellet stove) dealer he said that pellet stoves depend on the "sawdust producing" industry. With wood if the price gets too high I can just go out in the forest and cut up some trees (which have already fallen down). But there seems to be no shortage of reasonably priced wood, especially this year with the storms.

This whole heating season cost ~$600, which is the cost of the 5 cords of wood (unsplit) plus the gas and oil for the log splitter. I could have gotten it for less if I was able to go pick up wood myself. There is a construction company selling it for $75/cord unsplit but you have to go load and pick it up yourself.

Jack_in_VA
Premium Member
join:2007-11-26
North, VA

Jack_in_VA

Premium Member

said by fifty nine:

said by Grumpy4:

Although I know many with beloved pellet stoves, I am leery of any wood type of fuel that one has to buy at retail. An exception may be log lengths depending upon the price. Pellets have nearly become a trade-able commodity, with supply and demand dictating price in these parts.

I live in one of those areas where with a little resourcefulness, hardwoods can still be had for free, if one is willing to do the labor required to cut & transport them.

I have to agree with this one. When talking to a wood stove (and pellet stove) dealer he said that pellet stoves depend on the "sawdust producing" industry. With wood if the price gets too high I can just go out in the forest and cut up some trees (which have already fallen down). But there seems to be no shortage of reasonably priced wood, especially this year with the storms.

This whole heating season cost ~$600, which is the cost of the 5 cords of wood (unsplit) plus the gas and oil for the log splitter. I could have gotten it for less if I was able to go pick up wood myself. There is a construction company selling it for $75/cord unsplit but you have to go load and pick it up yourself.

I think that I prefer to spend $600 in extra electricity for a heating season and not have to do the work involved with wood. My cost is nowhere near that to heat.

tschmidt
MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
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tschmidt to Grumpy4

MVM

to Grumpy4
said by Grumpy4:

I am leery of any wood type of fuel that one has to buy at retail.

I agree. We heat with cord wood cut on our own property.

I think pellets are great because they expose more folks to wood heat. But for us cord wood works well plus the stove does not require power so during the occasional power outages we can still stay warm.

/tom

Jack_in_VA
Premium Member
join:2007-11-26
North, VA

Jack_in_VA

Premium Member

said by tschmidt:

said by Grumpy4:

I am leery of any wood type of fuel that one has to buy at retail.

I agree. We heat with cord wood cut on our own property.

I think pellets are great because they expose more folks to wood heat. But for us cord wood works well plus the stove does not require power so during the occasional power outages we can still stay warm.

/tom

I have a free standing Propane Buck Stove for heat during power outages. Power the fan with the generator and it heats very well.

fifty nine
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ

fifty nine to Jack_in_VA

Member

to Jack_in_VA
said by Jack_in_VA:

I think that I prefer to spend $600 in extra electricity for a heating season and not have to do the work involved with wood. My cost is nowhere near that to heat.

It doesn't get nearly as cold in Virginia as it does here. Our average lows are 10-15 degrees lower than yours during winter. Your house is probably smaller than mine too, so it's less money to heat.

Heating costs with electric resistance heat will be $300-$400 per month here. ETS can halve that but you're relying on the electric utility keeping their promises to charge you 5c/kWh for the ETS rate.

A geothermal heat pump can heat the house cost effectively. We are looking into that. That's a $30k+ investment though.

Air source, forget it. I might as well heat with heat strips. It gets too cold here.

The wood is no big deal for me. I can stack 4-5 cords in a day easy.

Jack_in_VA
Premium Member
join:2007-11-26
North, VA

Jack_in_VA

Premium Member

Your location I guess would prevent you from relying on resistance heat or an air source Heat Pump. Wood right now would be about the only viable method for you.

I've checked in to geothermal but the payback is just not there for me. Believe it or not when they first started installing geothermal it was simply a well and the discharge was dumped. That was fairly cheap. A Well and a pump. Of course it didn't take long for that to be outlawed and for good reason. Some of my co-workers installed them like that anyway as they already had the well and pump and most had a ditch or stream to discharge the water into. Nobody else knew about it.

fifty nine
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ

fifty nine

Member

said by Jack_in_VA:

Your location I guess would prevent you from relying on resistance heat or an air source Heat Pump. Wood right now would be about the only viable method for you.

I've checked in to geothermal but the payback is just not there for me. Believe it or not when they first started installing geothermal it was simply a well and the discharge was dumped. That was fairly cheap. A Well and a pump. Of course it didn't take long for that to be outlawed and for good reason. Some of my co-workers installed them like that anyway as they already had the well and pump and most had a ditch or stream to discharge the water into. Nobody else knew about it.

Well, the tax credits can make it worthwhile. I'm not one to give up free money. But otherwise it is expensive, no doubt about that. And yeah, I agree the tax credits is essentially the Gov't propping it up, but so what, I figure I pay enough in taxes already, might as well get some back.

Personally for me it's a hedge against future energy prices. With cap 'n trade and the rest of stuff coming down the pike, energy prices are only going up. When you have options nobody has you by the short and curly.

And if all else fails I just fire up the chainsaw and burn some wood.

treeman
Premium Member
join:2000-07-15
Mcgaheysville, VA

treeman to Jack_in_VA

Premium Member

to Jack_in_VA
Your lucky if you can get away with 600 for the cool season, haven't broken it down but our electric bill is around 325 p/m and I am sure that heat is a big part