Cost for 200 pounds of firewood - Ask travis

Its kind of interesting, because in someways the people in the middle of the country have it the easiest. Their heating needs are less then ours, but their cooling needs are less then yours. Budget wise this means they have about the same costs year around, that is their heating needs are offset by their cooling needs.

Here in the brutally cold northeast, we need a heat that is high in BTU's, and that is why we use a lot of oil up here. We pay for it thats for sure, we have to combat the cold. Fortunately mother nature gives our budgets a break in the summer. :thumb:
 
Ok I don't want to come off as a jerk here Travis but,
By your own admission the fire could have been prevented.

I don't have an ash pan on my boiler either. But I take care not to let any flammables get around the door area. When ashes do fall out of the door, and they do, I take the shovel and scrape them all out into the snow.

If the fire Marshall is right, I suspect he is. a breaker somewhere should have opened. I think it was just one of those situations that snowballed.

Wire shorted, no breaker tripped
apparently there was something close enough to this that caught fire, this caught the slabs on fire Radiant heat set the house on fire.

Whats to stop your propane boiler from going through a similar set of events? Not a thing.

In my situation heating with an outdoor boiler is the only way to go. Our first year here we spent around $1500 on propane, To cure that problem would have required a New furnace and new windows. of course renting neither of which I would have had to pay for. but at $250 a month I'm not going to get a whole lot payed for. In fact since I don't have a lease I'm quite sure that my rent would have gone up at least $100 maybe $150. so in the end I pay anyway.

Firewood around here sells for $140 a cord I burn 5 to 6 cords a year.

fire wood cost is $840 per year. So that means even though I spent around $1300 building and installing my boiler 3 years ago I'm ahead of the game. over three years my cost has been $3820

3 years of propane with out adjusting for price hikes would have been $4500

IF the land lord put in new windows and a new furnace and cut my heat bill in half, but raised my rent $100 a month I would have spent $5850. over the last 3 years.

As for the safety of it, I've never ever found any where hot ash has gotten out of the stack and landed on the snow, the greenhouse is only 30 feet or so from it and I haven't burned the plastic yet.
I still say a properly installed/maintained/operated outdoor boiler is no more dangerous than any other form of heat. In fact in some ways it is safer. Theres no way My boiler is going to give me carbon monoxide poisoning. Can you absolutely without any doubt guaranty that from your propane boiler? My outdoor boiler is never going to develop a leak and explode my house either.

Anything improperly installed/maintained/operated can destroy your house.
 
Feul cost comparison

Firewood - that is green is not firewood.

I piece of oak - green - in the spring will not float in water. I tried it. It also will not burn - at least not on its own. Sure you could but in a roaring fire with a real hot bed of coals, and you could boil the moisture out of it. But - it is not firewood - yet!

I had a Ford Ranger one time. I could pack it and get maybe 1/3 cord of wood into it. So that is what 1000 pounds and pushing it at that.

Cord of wood - then would be maybe 3000 pounds?? Sounds reasonable.

Cost of seasoned wood cut and split in southeast mass - uhh - $200 / $250 - say $250!

OK -- $250/3000#= about .85 cents. Oak gives off far more heat than maple. So to get a cost per BTU, per pound which is really what it's about is tough. Even at that it doesn't really tell you much.

It also depends on "how" the firewood is burned. Fireplace? Airtight stove? Steel stove? Cast Iron? Front loader, Side Load, Top Load, baffles, no baffles, Cat converter.

I have tracked my energy usage for the last 10 years, so this is how I compare the difference.

I burn about 1.5 cords per year. Small house, woodstove in living room, I don't turn on the oil heat except occasionally. I still use ~about~ 500 gallons of oil during the course of the year. Hot Water mostly, and a little heat in a couple of rooms in the cellar. Below ground level, real easy to heat. I keep them at 62 degrees.

My house is about 1100 sq/ft, well insulated, new windows.

If I were to heat with oil only, hot water, baseboard, I would use about 100 gallons per heating month in the coldest months. I would guess December, January, February, and most of March. About 400-500 gallons, more than I use now.

So at $3.00 per gallon for heating oil = $1500
1.5 cords of wood at $250 per cord = $375

Savings of burning wood compared to burning oil = $1125

Intangible benefits:
1) I get to keep the house at about 75-78 degrees in the winter
2) If I had glass doors on the woodstove - I get to see the pretty fire.
3) I can burn my scrap wood for heat
4) I can find FREE wood (heat) in lots of places.
5) If I buy cordwood I can get it at about half the cost of seasoned, cut and split. So I "could" buy it 2 years ahead and let it season.

In other words the cost of burning firewood is far more variable (controlable) that the dependance on oil.

Sooo - that's "my" 2 cents from the noobie.
 
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