So far this season, all my heat came from wood fall in the "home" woods: a medium large red oak (bark free, dried two summers), medium large slippery elm (bark free, 15% - fresh cut), medium small white elm (dried two summers), and a medium small black walnut (bark free, dried two summers). The big two, red oak + slippery elm, were cut with a battery chainsaw, hauled out on 25 year old hand truck, split with a 35 year old sledge + 25 year old wedge. The other two were near the county road and were hauled a half mile on roads. The marginal cost of the big two is near zero, bar oil and chain wear. The chainsaw batteries will die of old age, not cycle life. My cheap home wood may last through December and then... Non-home wood travels 40 miles round trip and costs an additional $40-50 per cord for fuel depending on the price of gasoline. My heating cost runs $200-300 per year depending on the amount of home wood and the gasoline price. Some numbers: Battery life is 500 to 1000 cycles or 5 to 10 years age. Total cost to replace all my batteries is $500. My batteries are 5 years old and show no decline in capacity so 10 years looks achievable. I cut 5 cord per year at 20 cycles to a cord shared across 4 sets of batteries. Forecast batter cycles = 5 cord x 10 years x 20 cycles / 4 sets or 250 cycles per battery set. Battery fixed cost is = $500/50 cord = $10 per cord. My battery fixed cost would be much lower if I cut more cords and so hit the cycle life instead of old age. My wood furnace was installed in 1987 and required only one blower replacement which I did.
Yep, a lot cheaper than paying a utility bill. I've been using a couple of cheap Harbor Freight saws (corded) for the last few years. I just grab my garden cart, throw in the ecoflow battery and roll out to where I'm cutting, if it's close to the house. Otherwise everything gets thrown in the trunk and I fill the back seat - that is covered with a moving blanket to keep the wife off my butt. I can run the saw for a couple of hours and only take the battery down about 14% from full. If it's sunny, the solar cells keep it almost full while I'm cutting because I take breaks.... A cheap harbor freight manual splitter ($119 on sale a few years ago) or the old axe and hatchet split it all up. Of course I'm in Alabama, so I only need about 1 1/2 cords to run a year. Early this summer I cut about a half cord of BL, 1/2 cord Beech, 3/4 cord Bradford Pear, 1/2 cord of Black cherry and a face cord of Pecan for next year. I'll be cutting about 1/2 cord of poplar, another 1/2 cherry and MAYBE a cord or so of sycamore (lightning strike in the front yard) this winter so I'll be set for the next couple of years. Don't really need much equipment to get it done, and I can't see spending a lot because I'll be "aged out of the game" before I could wear out much of it. (If you know what I mean.)
Pre wood heat for us was multiple fill-ups of a 275 gal HHO tank. Since using wood (about 13 years), we've filled that tank 2 or 3 times. That savings has more than paid for all my wood hoarding tools. We went through about 6 cords/season till I got the current add-on wood furnace, now I'm typically 4 or so. Battery wouldn't get the job done in a reasonable amount of time on the monster tree's I generally seek out. I do have a DeWalt 20v pole saw and that thing is awesome. I've wanted a hand held version for ladder work in my yard trees. Haven't really dove deep in looking yet. Probably soon.
Makita 14", 5 amp-hr batteries. Bar oil tank lasts for 3 +/- battery cycles , I carry 4 pairs, green wood uses less battery and dry seasoned wood more. I cut 19" sticks and transport based on weight up to max of 1000 pounds which 3+/- battery cycles and one tank of bar oil cuts including de-limbing. Very easy to cut more than 1000 pounds of green bitternut hickory and difficult to do for white ash or hackberry with 3 +/- sets of batteries. Some numbers: "Work done" is measured in watt-hours so 3 sets x 36 volts per set x 5 amp-hr = 540 watt-hr for 1000 pounds +/- with Makita. The DeWalt system of 60 volts 9-amp-hr batteries could do the same work with only one battery, 60 volts x 9 amp-hr, instead of my 3 pairs. I tried the DeWalt and returned it since Makita had worked out all the bugs at the time while DeWalt was still work in progress. 5 years later, no regrets. My guess, a 16+" bar would be more workable with a voltage higher than my Makita's 36 volts. The 14" bar works for me.
