Wood burning savings

[Wildsky]

So we have had our wood stove since the end of October, and average monthly savings are around $100 (from electricity not used)

We don't use the stove full time, we use it in the evenings, during the day I've been using the electricity as we didn't have enough wood.

Our coldest months are from October - March, so even using it part time we could save $600 a year on electricity.

We just got a nice fat gift of wood from a friend who used our four wheeler when he went ice fishing... enough wood to keep us going part time till the end of the season! He invited hubby to go with him to his fathers ranch to get more wood in two weeks - so I've had a fire going all day

 

[big brown horse]

Thats great Wildsky!!

How cold is it in Nebraska?

I inherited a wood shed full of wood, but it isn't cold enough to burn it. I didn't light one fire the whole month of Jan. :/

I wonder how long the wood will be good for?

 

[rty007]

well I can bet ya, you could save or maybe even earn some money, if you extracted BOTH heat and electricity from wood and it is possible, but for a store made piece it would cost you some serious money i think, but those that are handy sure can mcgiver something up of an old engine and some other parts.
a link for some gasification chambers:

http://www.gekgasifier.com/gasification-basics/

some theory on that process for those who might want to understand what I rambled about before.

 

[Wildsky]

Thats great Wildsky!!

How cold is it in Nebraska?

Our lowest temp in Jan was -21 Our average high for January was around 35
Our lowest temp in Dec was -39

January is normally colder than December, this year only the first week was bitter, after that it was higher than the average.

Right now we're 27 and I htink the high today is 28 or so.

As far as the climate zone's - Nebraska is 4

 

[k0xxx]

Wood stoves rock! Before we bought one, we would go through about 360 gallons of propane from October to March, which would currently cost us about $650. Even if we purchased all of our wood, it would cost us less than $250 for the entire winter.

Our little wood stove easily paid for itself in two winters, and we love using it. The biggest "pain" is hauling the wood in from the porch, and that doesn't come close to the pain of paying the propane man. We can store an entire winters worth of wood on our porch, so we don't have to go out in the snow or rain to get wood.

We are talking about getting one of the new, high efficiency wood stoves this summer, but we haven't made up our mind yet.

 

[Wildsky]

Wood stoves rock! Before we bought one, we would go through about 360 gallons of propane from October to March, which would currently cost us about $650. Even if we purchased all of our wood, it would cost us less than $250 for the entire winter.

Our little wood stove easily paid for itself in two winters, and we love using it. The biggest "pain" is hauling the wood in from the porch, and that doesn't come close to the pain of paying the propane man. We can store an entire winters worth of wood on our porch, so we don't have to go out in the snow or rain to get wood.

We are talking about getting one of the new, high efficiency wood stoves this summer, but we haven't made up our mind yet.

We will easily break even next winter. Our stove was just under $600, then add in all the tiles and chimney pipe I think we spent around $1000-$1200 (I'll have to check the receipts.) I believe we get a tax break as well (mental note to remember that)

I'm scared to put our wood up on our porch, I see little holes in some of the wood and I don't want to bring in bugs, so I bring in only the pieces I'll throw in the fire within the hour. Pain in the rear!

 

[lupinfarm]

:O That's all you spent on your woodstove?! Most of the woodstove stores here have quoted us $3000 with installation, the woodstove is the most expensive part at around $1500!!!

Yikes. We're not into installing ourselves, we can do the garage one since its going through a thin wall but the house one would scare the poop out of me. It has to go through brick, single... mind you because the pipe will be going through an old window opening the old owners filled in and left the header in.

 

[modern_pioneer]

Mine was 600 as well, and it has paid for its self.

I asked a fellow down the road about gathering downed wood up on his property, no answer yet, and I am still asking around. I can purchase slab wood from the sawmill for 20.00 a bundle which is about 3/4 to 7/8 of a cord.

My wood stove has been burning non-stop since last thursday, though the gas boiler does come on at night, just not as much. I bank the stove off at 2330 hrs each night and set the draft down low. Though it hasn't gone out, sometimes it does if I don't set the draft correctly.

Like your electric bill, last year I saved somewhere between 120-135.00 a month I don't remember.

I also get coal from a local strip mine, 50.00 a ton, and I do burn 1.5 tons of coal a year.

I know natural gas prices have dropped since last year, so depending on cost next year if I burn wood or not.

 

[justusnak]

Oh, I LOVE our woodstove.! Our first year in this house, we didnt have one, we spent $1,400 just in PROPANE! Once we installed the woodstove....our spending on propane has dropped to $700 the first year...and just over $600 last year. We used just over half a tank of propane. ( first year, we used 2 tanks) Our wood is free, other than our labor of cutting, hauling, splitting, and stacking! Nope, I wouldn't want to be without one now. Plus, we can cook on it...and I just love the dry heat. The only problem is....my once white curtains in the family room, are a beautifull camel color now. :/ I need to pick a better color!

 

[Wildsky]

:O That's all you spent on your woodstove?! Most of the woodstove stores here have quoted us $3000 with installation, the woodstove is the most expensive part at around $1500!!!

Yikes. We're not into installing ourselves, we can do the garage one since its going through a thin wall but the house one would scare the poop out of me. It has to go through brick, single... mind you because the pipe will be going through an old window opening the old owners filled in and left the header in.

We could have gotten a fancy one with stone, but it was $1500 and we wouldn't have had enough money left to buy the stuff to install it.
Going in we had no CLUE what we were doing, we looked it up online for the most part, put up cement board on the wall and floor, then went out and picked some tile (kinda looks like slate green/dark grey with a little brown throw in) I did the tiling over about a week, then sealed it etc.
Hubby had a friend come over to help with the hole in the wall - and then the two of us put in the chimney pipe, we eventually had to get a fork lift from hubby's work to get the chimney up high enough!
I had to build a frame to hold the T joint from the wall - the one we bought didn't go out far enough to clear the guttering.

Anyway, it was worth the MONTH it took to get it in, and I'm sure we saved a boat load doing it ourselves.