What does Firewood really cost?

[skipmarcy]

I feel like I get good bang for my bucks invested into heating with wood. I'll buy a $300 - $400 chainsaw and use it 20 years or better, heck I have a $129 McCulloch I've had for almost 20 years and it's a great little limb saw still !! My woodstove new was right at $450 4 years ago and I expect to get at least 15 years out of it. I already have a tractor & trailer for getting the wood on my small place or my neighbor's and my wife works for our farmer's co-op and I get to use the rental splitter free every year. My main investment is my labor - alot cheaper than a gym membership and probably better results !! Wood is the fuel that warms you more than once !!! Sure is cozy too when the power is off from an ice storm and don't have to worry about pipes freezing etc. and a decent place to cook inside or warm your bath water. I love the smell of the cherry or hickory burning when outside too.

 

[jpm]

i noticed most posters so far are from the south.most northern posters are out cutting wood to keep warm

 

[ragkar]

Wrong - It costs nothing. Only if your chainsaw and utility trailer are for dedicated use, does it cost to buy those items. Three times in the last four years, I've had a large tree fall across my driveway with no other way to drive out. I need a chainsaw for this contingency. As far as the trailer, there's lots of other uses for it.
At my place you can cut and haul away any fallen or falling wood. I'll even let you use my splitter and tractor to haul it to your pickup. But bring your own chainsaw, gas and oil and you must use safety equipment. I'll even let you use my chain sharpener if needed.

 

[Marveltone]

Seeing as I just bought a 2005 Dodge CTD to haul my tractor and firewood, I guess it's costing me about $20,000 more this year than it did last year. :confused2:

Joe

 

[turnkey4099]

Don't forget, you won't need to buy any exercise equipment!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly!! My wife has said evry year "we have enugh wood". Well If I had quit the first time she said it I would either be dead or a 600 lb couch slob. 75 going on 76 and have around 40 cords of Black Locust stacked and still cutting. Someday, something is going to happen to keep me from cutting and I willhave years of heat waiting.

Cost? Gotta be saving money somehow. My used PU went $3950 many years ago and still running strong - just don't look at the beat up body - wooding is hard on a truck. Full up ready to go it has around $3,000 equipment on it; 4 saws, multiple cables, multiple tow straps, 4 snatch blocks, wedges, sledge, maul, ax etc. etc. I got extravagant in 1998 and 1999. $600 saw (stihl 361) $300 saw (Stihl 210), splitter around $1200...chains, parts, etc. but hey, gotta be saving money somehow.

Harry K

 

[adjusterr]

Even though I have standing wood, I don't cut live trees for firewood. I can buy a tri-axle load of poles, locust and oak, delivered and stacked for $300. That is a two year supply, primarily heating with Sierra freestanding stove, do have heat pump backup. Just bought a Bro-Tek Thumb for my Woods backhoe, can now pick up a 25' log and cut it at waist level, no more sore back. Two old Craftsman and one new Stihl saws and a 20 ton splitter from Tractor Supply. No idea what it really costs to heat with wood. What I do know is few things feel better than wood heat on a cold day, it's worth whatever it costs.

 

[ronjhall]

My uncle used to say that using firewood to heat. Warmed you twice. One time when you cut it and again when you burn it.
I do not know how you figure how much you saved getting warm cutting the wood. Other than stated already. No need for exercise equipment. :thumbsup:

 

[20 20]

I have heated with electric{up here it's a joke way to much $$$$}, oil, pellets, and wood. Wood is less then half the cost of the least expensive thing to heat with from what I've listed. The next would be pellets, I can heat with pellets for about $1000.00 -$1300.00{2 story house}per heating season. I figure wood can cost me from $200.00 to $500.00 a year figuring everything in, fuel, chainsaw {break down of years owned}, oil and electricity to run the blower on the furnace. I use a combo of mostly wood now with pellet as a back up, so I might be spending 600 to 800 per heating season. I also have lots of wood for free, and I burn everything as long as it is DRY. I don't mind being in the woods and like seeing dead trees being cleaned up. I allways use dead/dying trees or scarp from what ever was left from milling lumber, slabs waste etc... plus NOTHING BEATS THE WARMTH OF WOOD HEAT

 

[MossRoad]

I added it up the other day and figured I could work part-time the same amount of time I spend cutting and splitting wood and it would probably pay for the cost of the natural gas that I am saving.

With that said... I get outside. I get to use a tractor, splitter and chainsaw. I get some exercise. And I get some satisfaction. I find it worth the work. :thumbsup:

 

[dmccarty]

And on the plus side of using firewood there is a money savings of getting rid of downed trees or trees that have died and need to be dropped. Mother Nature usually puts the trees on the ground for me. Thank you. :thumbsup: But lately we have had a bunch of trees die that I have been cutting down.

Paying someone to cut down the trees would be expensive. Paying someone to clean up and haul off the downed tree would be even more expensive.

At one point I figured it cost me about $10 in gas and diesel fuel to produce a cord of wood. The cord would cost around $200 in my area and we get about that much value out of it when using the firewood to heat the house. So it is a good investment.

I have no idea what it would cost to have someone cut down, cut up, and haul away the dead trees but it would not be cheap.

Later,
Dan