Firewood vs $$$

I just try and cut while on the clock, so I'm not saving money heating with wood.....I'm actually making money sometimes

 

Since coming home from working on the road I have heated almost completely with wood this winter, I built my own OWB and the expense for it plus all the stuff to hook it up will have paid for itself by the end of this month. Last year I spent close to $3,000 on propane, this year, $43.76 so far! I will keep cutting splitting and stacking!!!

 

I can’t wait until we get our wood stove! Have no idea yet what kind or whatever, but it will go in the basement. We are watching/looking for something used and in good shape. All this wood around here and paying big $$$ for heat is just CRAZY!!!! ~Lissa

 

It's a hobby and relaxing for me even if I do hurt when I over do it. It's beyond satisfying for me so value or not I would do it at slave wage.
Sitting in the house in nothing but boxers when it's single digits and negative whatever with a windchill is priceless.
I don't even want to think what it would cost to do that with the gas furnace.

 

For us, it is simply a good plan to have a stove and enjoy the extra warmth with a lower heating bill.

 

Always good to have a backup.. When we lost power for over 3 weeks, last Halloween, it kept us warm.
Still does, oil backup in house set to 50.. Girls like 75 so much better!!

 

Great points made. I like being outdoors, and have to cut up fallen trees regardless.

Estimating when you system pays for itself in X years, isn’t necessarily the economics way of looking at the investment. Consider the amount of money paid year one was, against the first year savings. You actually have an immediate return. No need to fret on when the wood burner finally catches up to thelowered heating bill . You have serious returns each year.

Plus your heart and muscles are are in a much better state.

 

I'd hate to guess how much money our wood stove has saved us over the years! Plus, i get to go out and cut wood in some of the most beautiful county you've ever seen. This winter has been colder with more snow than normal, and wet too boot. Every now and then, when i've got a good fire going i'll say to my wife, ''I can't believe how much money this stove has saved us''. And, i can get the house as warm as we want it. In the past we've had some storms that knocked the power out for a week. Shoot we just put some soup on the stove in a pan let it warm up and had dinner. No big deal. We're in some wet times now, along with some occasional snow, all i have to do is go out back get a wheelbarrow load of wood every other day or so, depending on the wood and enjoy the heat. Sure it takes some time, blood , sweat, and some times a few tears, ha,ha. but, its sure nice to look at that wood shed full of wood, under cover and a nice big stack that's covered and dry enough to burn as well.

Now, i'm just waiting for the snow to melt down a little so i can get to a good wood cutting unit about 8 miles out of town. Its under some snow right now, and up a pretty steep grade, i wouldn't want to come down with a good sized load of wood on, with all the snow on the road like it is. So, i'll be patient, and eventually be able to get up there and get some more wood to replace what i've burned this year. The chains on the saws are sharp, i've got gas mixed, bar oil ready, and i'm looking forward to getting back up there sooner than later.

 

Yeah so you spend a bit on equipment and put a lot of time into it, but I'm willing to bet most of us here do it by choice and also really enjoy it. I consider it a hobby that pays for itself, and gives me a good reason to go out and putz around outside with splitting/stacking and then tidying.

 

Outside of producing my own food, I can’t think of a better use of my time than making sure we’re staying warm all winter, saving money all the while, benefiting from the exercise, and enjoying it. It’s a no brainer if you’re frugal, poor, or just like giving the finger to the man.
As for adding up the cost of the time involved, I would sooner consider the cost of time wasted sitting in front of the boob tube than anything that I benefit from. If I’m benefiting from the activity I’m being productive, and that’s saving me money vs paying someone else to do it whether I’m cutting my own or stacking wood that I bought.

 

I ran through the economics of heating with wood vs. heating with propane a while back. Don't remember the exact numbers but I seem to recall that propane would cost me around $3500-$4500 annually at current prices and heating load. I know I have invested a lot of money in equipment to support woodburning, including two tractors, several chainsaws, a splitter, and all the gas and oil and other consumables that go with it. A lot of which I would have anyway just to maintain my property. If you're crunching the numbers, you really can't count any part of your actual heating system into the equation as you still need a heating system no matter what the fuel.

Not sure where the break-even point was but I know I passed it a couple of years ago. The last time I heated anything with propane was December of 2016, and I had my 500-gallon tank filled in October of that year. It's now February 2019, I checked the tank yesterday and the gauge is at 70%. I get a call a couple of times a year from my propane supplier, asking if I needed a fill. It's great to say no, you'd only have to put in about 50 gallons (and probably at about eight bucks a gallon too!).

 

The first year we lived here we had no wood to burn, the cost was almost $600/month in 2011 oil prices.
I like the exercise and it helps my wife keep my son in line since we homeschool. If he won't sit still, he gets to go out and stack firewood.
I also enjoy the time working with my kids on the wood.
I'm also a pastor and deal with a lot of men who are breaking free from addictions, they welcome the hard work of splitting and stacking to keep them from the temptation of relapsing.

 

I cant put a price on what the smell of 2 stroke ,fresh cut wood or splitting and stacking does for my mind body and soul. Just Being in the woods Cutting and gathering wood does so much for me. Then you add the times i go with my dog or my son and even my wife and oldest daughter enjoy going fat wood hunting and birch bark hunting. When i go with my son he’ll want to build a fort or small blind and pretend to hunt and i will bring a pocket saw and axe and just cut some small stuff, even bringing back a 5 gallon pail of kindling or small logs. Its an amazing feeling when you can find that overwhelming feeling of happiness and satifaction doing something you love.

 

I did my share of 10-12 hour days at my "job". My usual work week was never less than about 70 hours. Hard to say as I bought work home from the shop.
I ALWAYS had more to do. For years I never spent time on just myself. Everything was either the family or work.
SO I know what you mean about feeling guilty when not being productive. I lived it for 15 years.
At a point I released it was too much and I had to have a change.
After I sold my business it took a good year before I could feel OK about not have to have a plan on what I was going to get done that day.
I was always going, it got to the point I couldn't sleep thru the night, I wake up at 2 in the morning and my mind would go thru what had to be taken care of and on and on.

Now I'm retired, I have all the time in the world to do what I want, or at least I feel that way. I'm never in a hurry, I drive in what my wife calls "grandpa mode".

So I have been at both extremes in my life. I learned one thing. Time does not equal money, you can use time to create money but you can't create time with money.
At this point my time still has value to me, just not a monetary value. I don't think its healthy to look at time as money, if you do then you'll loose alot of valuable time chasing money. If that makes any sense to you.

 

I just spent a gazillion dollars on an OWB...I hate to think of what the payback period is on it. I don't care if I never get my money back even though I'm sure I will. I like to be able to keep my house as warm as I want and not have to worry about the bill at the end of the month. I'd take 4 hours cutting wood over 4 hours of my office job any day of the week.

 

Need a horse. Apparently, back in the day, you could just hook up the logs and the horse would find its way to the mill where the sawyer could unhook it and send it back to the feller in the woods.

 

Ton's of great replies with same sediment as me so my apologies for restating what was said by many.

We aren't saving a ton ton of money like folks with Oil or Propane with having a natural gas furnace, but so far we are saving enough to feel darn good about, its money that don't leave my pocket! Being my 1st burning season I'll know a lot more once the winter is over, but I get my statement and see the usage map from last year compared to this year and I chuckle. One line is going up up up and the other line is going down down down.

There is nothing like having a warm fire in the house to look at on a cold winter's day, its mesmerizing, I watch that more than the TV. There is nothing like the heat given off from a wood stove. It would cost me tons of money to heat my home with the furnace to the warm comfortable temperatures I get to with a stove.

There is no doubt processing firewood is work, hard work sometimes. However I enjoy it, as Backwoods Savage mentioned it's kind of like my little hobby (Ok it's become an obsession but who's judging ). I enjoy being outdoors, in the woods, I enjoy cutting and working. I enjoy the exercise, it keeps me in shape and I can do at my leisure.

 

I forgot to mention that i havnt turned my heat on in 9 years and have never paid for firewood. I do have oil so thats what heats my hot water, i would not even want to know what my heating cost would be if i didnt burn wood.