I grew up with it, it's in my blood. Went a few years in my late 20's and early 30's burning oil and I did NOT like paying the oilman. I have 4200 sf of well-insulated house and another 1600 sf of partially-insulated garage and if you only count the money I spend on actual heating fuel per year, it's zero. I don't count the cost of the actual heating system (outdoor wood boiler and piping and all the circulator pumps) because everybody has that stuff. If I burned propane, I wouldn't be using so much chainsaw fuel, or quite as much diesel for my tractor, but I'd still have the equipment anyway. My time as labor is the only thing I'm not placing a value on - but if I wasn't cutting wood I'd probably be wasting my time doing something less productive anyway.
Skibum my electric is about a hundred bucks in the winter, once the boiler is going. I have yet to hook up the water hear, though. I suspect it would drop another 50 bucks then. We don't have overly high electric rates, like the upper Northwest and other areas. Running two furnaces is one reason. The downstairs is an early 70's era unit. I don't have a need to upgrade it, because during outdoor boiler time, it only uses the fan.
Something going against all ages in my area, southeast PA, is the number of wood burning appliances available in homes these days. Unless you go with a custom builder, less than 1% of new homes have a wood burning option. Many older homes have had fireplaces converted to gas. I will be moving relatively soon and plan on installing a wood furnace.
Oil, i still use oil for hot water. I want to get something instant because i hate having the oil burner kicking on heating water were not even using. I want a tankless system someday
Be sure to check them out good before you buy. We had one years ago and hated it. The problem seemed to be that when you used hot water, like when taking a shower, then turned the water off. The next time you turn the hot water on there is a bunch of super heated water that will actually burn your skin. So we had to turn the water on and let it run for a short time to get that hot stuff out before we could put our hands in the water. With 2 young ones in the house at that time, it was not good. We got rid of it. Actually could not even sell it so it ended up in the trash. Such a shame.
Check out hybrid electric heat pump water heaters, most people that own them love them...I have one awaiting install...tankless heaters are falling out of favor a bit, cause a lot of trouble for some people I guess, research them well before jumping in that end of the pool...
Not to get off topic but I believe this to be true, its because it's work, for some a lot of work and a lot of time. Most younger folks don't want to work hard like that. Cannot tell you how many people look at me sideways on the amount of wood (which is not much compared to so many of you) I have stacked up in the yard. Most people around my parts wouldn't DREAM of cutting, splitting, stacking, lugging firewood around, cleaning chimneys and shoveling ash out. They'd rather pay the bill and be done with it. With that all said I've been impressed with the amount of folks I've taken notice too over the years who burn wood in my suburban area. Its not many but more than I originally ever thought. And trust me I live in the land of Starbucks cup in one hand, iphone 10 in the other, and Gucci Sunglasses..... It's a fun hobby to me and wish I had more time to dedicate to it but being a husband, dad to 3 little ones and aging parents who need care, & full time job all take their toll on my time and energy.
That made me chuckle, Dad is hard of hearing working heavy machinery all his life as an operating engineer. On many of our road trips for fishing, vacation, etc... he'd always leave his turn single on cause he couldn't hear to well and I'd constantly have to remind him, use to crack me up!
It can be and is hard work at times. But for me its relaxing and I get tons of satisfaction and appreciation from the entire process. When my preteen and teen sons help its bonding time and we have some great talks. And they've learned to appreciate the process. Hope they do it when they get older. In laws dont understand how I can like doing this "work." But them not understanding me is nothing new As far as saving money. When we first bought our farm house in Dec. 2017 we werent living here. Come by and do work on it, etc.. officially moved in March 2018. Had to get oil tank filled 3 times and we werent living here!! I said hell no is this going to continue. I had plans for woodstove when we bought house. Never realized how much I would love it.
This is what is missing in modern life. Lots of people don’t understand the satisfaction that comes with hard work. Process wood for a while and video games seem stupid. Lots of folks think so many things are dangerous, I’ll take hard work over a sedentary life eating junk food.
