While I was at TSC this evening; I looked over the wood heating devices they had on display. The lady tending the shop came over and handed me a brochure; 2016 Woodcutting and Heating Guide. When I got home I perused the brochure and saw that TSC has heat treated firewood for sale, item number 1072567. The brochure stated that if one buys a pallet full, they get $10.00 off the price. The price is $3.99 USD a bundle and each bundle is 0.75 cubic feet. A pallet is 40 bundles so that is a total of 30 cubic feet of wood. End price for the pallet would be $149.60 USD before taxes are applied. From what I understand, the average cord is around 85 cubic feet. Therefore, for $149.60 before taxes I can obtain 2/5 of a cord of wood. For those that know, how is this pricing? Of course this is heat treated but let's ignore that for this question.
It's a lot more expensive than cordwood. Being its dried might be an advantage if you only have green wood.
Just as a comparison, the heat treated wood is approx. $375 US a cord, whereas split cordwood is about $200 US.
A cord is 148cubic feet (4x4x8) so it would take just shy of 5 pallets of bundles which would cost $738.00 for a cord of wood. Math is 148/30 times 149.60
I don't think that's very good pricing. You'll burn yourself into the poor house in short order I would think.
A cord of oak is the equivalent of about 150gals of home heating oil, IIRC. At sub $2/gal for oil, I'd burn the oil.
I looked up on the net and found the actual volume of wood is around 85 cubic feet; due to the spaces etc between the wood different sizes, etc.
After adjusting for my senior moment, the price per cord still comes out to $638. Still a lot of money. Hope I haven't had another senior moment
Isn't anyone thinking WOW! that's ALOT of money! Wouldn't your local tree trimmer guy bring a load over on the cheap? Guys bring me wood all the time for nothing (no no no--don't go there!)
Well, no, I won't be buying any wood from TSC. Someone mentioned the "bricks" from TSC; they are $15.00 off when buying a whole pallet. The question is getting seasoned wood; a lot of these sellers have piles that are open to the weather. We had some horrible storms here last night. I went out and the plastic covering; I need better covering; I had over a stack had blown up on a corner; the wood exposed was wet, really wet. I am going to build something more suited to storing wood.
I'm tempted sometimes to put the 3 cords of 4 year well-seasoned oak that I have for this Winter up for sale at $325/$350 a cord to see if I get any takers. It would buy a lot of HHO at $1.70/gallon. and suffer burning well-seasoned free pine. LOL
That same calc would also need to be applied to the actual size of that little piddle of firewood wrapped in plastic. Still, a cord of wood is 4'X4'X8'. There will be variation depending on how tightly/loosely it's stacked. I call it "Sometimers", as in .....sometimes I can remember, and sometimes I can't.
Back to the price of $149.60 and how much that is; it is not 2/5 of a cord of wood! If my math is correct, it would take 171 (rounded; actually 170 2/3) of those bundles to make a cord of wood. There are 40 bundles on a pallet so you would get a discount of $40.00 for a cost of $642.29 plus tax. If we figure a 6% sales tax this makes the total cost of a cord of wood $720.83. Such a deal...... This, like so much on the Internet is pure bull, plain and simple. Yes, there is some of the volume taken up by space but to think there is that much space, well, someone really should learn how to stack wood a bit better than that. What I mean is they are saying that a stack of firewood 2/3 wood and 1/3 air. Right... If I could not stack wood any better than that, I'd quit today. Even if you look at the picture you supplied of that wood for sale, take a good look and see if you think it is 1/3 air and 2/3 wood. More like 70% bull. Fear not. The rain from those storms last night will dry off. Yes, you need good top covering but you still need not fear that the wood will soak up all that water. It won't, unless it is punky. Shoot, I still have some wood that isn't even stacked and it has been laying out in the rain right on the ground. I did get around to stacking a little bit of it recently and it is just fine, albeit a bit damp on the bottom. It will still dry and make excellent firewood but I would still rather have had it stacked and top covered. Sometimes our bodies won't let us do what has to be done when we want to do it.... Such has the effect of age and injuries on the bodies. Okay, rant over.
85 cubic feet is the displacement volume of a 128cubic foot cord of wood to compare to the bundle you need the displacement volume of the bundle. otherwise you're comparing apples and oranges How many people actually buy cords of those bundles to actually heat with ? Campfires, pizza ovens, restaurants that really can't have bugs or even the possibility, romantic evenings by the fireplace ? I can see someone buying a whole cord for any of those things , but multiple cords to heat a home for a whole season ? Certainly can't be a lot of people.
