I've read everyones thoughts, and agree with many, disagree with a few, and have a few of my own.
In the spirit of peace and harmony, I'll forego stating my disagreements.
Wood isn't cheap, no matter if you BUY it or CUT it yourself. It's generally inefficient, unless you have an expensive system to take full advantage of the heat produced.
But what heat source ISN'T expensive?
The age-old arguement of "time is money" is often brought up in regards to cutting, splitting, stacking and burning wood. My take on that? The time I spend cutting and splitting wood is a trade-off for a lower gas bill. The time I spend would generally not be "bill-able hours" anyway. (At work or on the farm) I still split my wood the old fashioned way. (Maul/axe/tired back) That's no fun, especially when we burn 12 to 14 rick (1/2 cord for you non Kentuckians) a year. (Plus 4 or 5 MORE ricks per year in the shop)
We heat the house with natural gas. (Remember when that was "CHEAP, dependable gas" ?) There are two fireplaces in the house also. (Living room and family room) Whenever one of us is home, there's a fire in one or BOTH fireplaces. I can keep the furnace from running in all but the coldest of weather with a good hot fire.
Our gas provider, LG&E, was approved for a 74% rate increase last summer. They later came back and lowered that increase to 45%. (Can you say "Marketing Ploy"?) Last year at this time, we paid average bills (gas and electric combined) averaging around $120 I opened last months bill yesterday afternoon. $256! (OK math experts, tell me how a 45% increase DOUBLES your bill?)
Armed with all this info, I can only guess that since we're home and awake only 1/3 of the day, my wood fire is saving at best, 33% of the gas portion of the bill. That would amount to approx. $70 a month. In that typical month, we burn 3 ricks of wood. That in turn, amounts to about $25 per rick in energy savings. That rick takes me a couple hours to cut and split (on a GOOD day) Add a couple more hours to haul it in and stack. Figure the cost of a good chainsaw, gas, oil, a few maul handles, and a yearly visit to the chiropractor, and I'm "making" about $.75 an hour cutting wood.
My point?
I'd be FAR better off staying at work a few hours extra each week, drawing a few bucks in overtime, then just turning up the T-stat and using that sacred gas.
But then who'd clean up the downed trees in my woods?