Actual cost of firewood

   / Actual cost of firewood #11  
Couldn't give cut and split oak away two years ago... no one burns anymore with the burn bans.

Even put up a notice on the Hospital bulletin board... no takers.

When I was in High School... wood was a steady commodity... a lot of people put inserts in and President Carter led the way during the oil embargo... saying wood is America's Renewable Natural Resource... my how times change.

The home I grew up in has two fireplaces... and they make a beautiful fire and will make the room nice... but consume an enormous amount of wood compared to the small pedestal stove at my brothers place... maybe 4 to 5 to 1....
 
   / Actual cost of firewood #12  
I have penciled it out, It cost me $2,500.00 a year for propane and I save $1,700.00 back every year by cutting/burning wood for heat, not including my labor...

The difference between those two, buys me some propane (cooking and hot water and small amount of heat) and pays for all of my wood cutting expenses, including equipment cost.

EXCEPT for my tractors and the reason I don't include them is, I already had tractors BEFORE I started burning wood full time AND my tractors have made for me, MORE than what they cost me, BEFORE I started using them for firewood.

As for the mess, I have an unfinished basement and all the firewood goes down there, (by the stove) using gravity to get down there, so it dosn't put ANY mess in our living area...

As for even heat, my wood stove heats our living space, and how we run the stove determines how even the heat is. When I'm running it, it varies about 1/2 degree between high and low during the day. At night, we let it burn down a little as we like a cooler house at night.

One BIG deal for us, is we LOVE the dry heat the stove puts out!

SR

BTW, I have used my splitter for others, and made some money that way too...
 
   / Actual cost of firewood #13  
I have natural gas forced air . To go and buy a cord of oak here , its $300 a cord . I also have a fire place with an insert . I will burn a cord and a half a month . Now If I bought the wood delivered , its cheaper just to run the furnace . BUT I get wood for free from a tree company , all I have to do is split it . I run both the furnace and burn the fire . It keeps the house warmer and I " save " a bit on the utility bill , but when I add in my time its a wash
 
   / Actual cost of firewood #15  
Firewood vs all others round 2 :laughing:

I cut firewood. Have sold a little over 20 full cords this year. (about 60 face, rick, rack etc if thats how you wish to measure).

This bitter cold snap that has lasted a few weeks now......sold out of wood. Oh well.

I cut because of two reasons.....1. cleaning up the woods. ~20 acres that was logged out a few years ago, and cutting down all the dangerous standing dead ash (due to the EAB). 2. beacuse I enjoy it.

The money and selling it is just an outlet to get rid of the wood.

I have geothermal. Selling wood for $160/cord.......that $160 buys MORE heat than burning that cord would. So I would loose money if I burned it and let my geothermal sit idle.

So I sell it, and keep the bugs, mess, and hassle of keeping a fire going out of my house.
Well said. Mind you i will never say i enjoy it. That statement could be used against me at an insanity hearing.
I just do it cause i have 20 acres of trees
 
   / Actual cost of firewood #16  
My wife and dogs love to sit by the "hot box" especially during this nasty cold spell, it feels mighty good. It gives me and the wife some exercise in the winter too.
 
   / Actual cost of firewood #17  
Subscribed. The last one was fun, might as well get in in this one.


Edited to add: don't listen to LD1. He's a dirty low down tax cheat!



:)
 
   / Actual cost of firewood #18  
We had electric heat. And I had access to free wood all the time. My connections in the DPW would let me know when they cut up a tree across the road and I'd just show up and take it away. The log splitter cost about 1,100 back in 1996 and still functions fine. So it was mostly my labor; we burned 24/7 from Oct-Mar and I saved a lot of $$$ in electric bills. And back in the 90s money was tight.


Now being partly disabled I can't split the 4-5 cords we'd burn. So I buy wood split to my specs from a friend and cut/split a cord or two myself. About 4 cords for $600. And I figure I save at least $200/month.
I used to enjoy the hours in the woods cutting up dead falls and the efficiency of putting an otherwise wasted material to good use.

Now in the new home with the geothermal the wood stove supplements the heat when it's real cold (like now with 0 degrees at night and teens all day). Wee've only been here since August so I won't know anything about the economics for a while.
 
   / Actual cost of firewood #19  
We have a heat pump and a propane insert in both fireplaces......the wife loves to push a button in the evening and have a fire. I still burn wood in the shop.....around here......trees grow like weeds........I have a never ending supply of 10 to 14 inch trees........once in a great while.......I drop a big one but for the most part.......keeping the small ones thinned out keeps me in firewood all year.
 
   / Actual cost of firewood #20  
I pay as little as nothing and as much as $65 per face cord of wood. Other significant firewood associated costs that vary widely from season to season are chiropractic and the cost of the hard cider used to minimize any muscle soreness after splitting and stacking. As mentioned above, due to so many variables involved, it's impossible for me to pin down cost of burning wood with any degree of accuracy from one season to the next.

While I'm unsure of specific costs, grandchildren gathering around the Buck stove as they drink hot chocolate is priceless. 20171110_121341.jpg
 
 
Top