Actual cost of firewood

[hosspuller]

Heating with wood is a hobby for me. The fireplace insert w/ installation cost $2000 20 years ago. I have worn out a chainsaw. Saw supplies are about $75 per year. The wood is brought to me by a tree service as a favor. So, I think my cost per year for the last 20 years is about $200 - $300 per year. Electric would be likely double that for heating.

Sitting by the fire watching the fire is worth something... TV cable costs $120 a month here. The view through the glass door is equal to that. ( which stays clean. This current cold snap, insert has been fired continuously for 2 weeks.)

 

[LD1]

Same law exists in ohio, but never enforced.

Alot of people advertising they deliver a "cord" of wood......then show a pic of a regular truck stacked level.....or even thrown on.

Too many customers dont know what a "cord" is.

And the few that do.....usually dont buy from the people who sell a "truckload" and claim its a "cord"

 

[bcjmmac]

I burn a few cord of hardwood (mainly poplar & white birch, some maple) every year. Larch, willow & spruce I keep for the firepit, alders I chip. All done while cleaning up the property - cutting along lines, grown up areas, etc (bought an abandoned farm property). Likely 50-75$ in running costs. I only use a saw, split with an axe as nothing is super large (18" max). Spend 2-3 days in the late fall cutting, blocking, splitting and stacking firewood - which I enjoy doing.
Energy efficient fireplace is for comfort and back up heat. Have geothermal so not much in savings. I dry word for 2-3 years & don't burn softwood in the fireplace so no chimney issues - had it cleaned after 5 years usage and the crew got less than 1 cup of creosote/ash out of the 2 story chimney.

 

[square1]

Same law exists in ohio, but never enforced.

Alot of people advertising they deliver a "cord" of wood......then show a pic of a regular truck stacked level.....or even thrown on.

Too many customers dont know what a "cord" is.

And the few that do.....usually dont buy from the people who sell a "truckload" and claim its a "cord"

Most States adhere to NIST Regulation.

"2.4.1.2. Cord. The amount of wood that is contained in a space of 128 ft3 when the wood is ranked and
well stowed. For the purpose of this regulation, ranked and well stowed shall be construed to mean that
pieces of wood are placed in a line or row, with individual pieces touching and parallel to each other, and
stacked in a compact manner."
"2.4.4. Prohibition of Terms. The terms face cord, rack, pile, truckload, or terms of similar import
shall not be used when advertising, offering for sale, or selling wood for use as fuel."

You're right though, unless there is a complaint, the sale of firewood is pretty much off the radar.

 

[LD1]

Most States adhere to NIST Regulation.

"2.4.1.2. Cord. The amount of wood that is contained in a space of 128 ft3 when the wood is ranked and
well stowed. For the purpose of this regulation, ranked and well stowed shall be construed to mean that
pieces of wood are placed in a line or row, with individual pieces touching and parallel to each other, and
stacked in a compact manner."
"2.4.4. Prohibition of Terms. The terms face cord, rack, pile, truckload, or terms of similar import
shall not be used when advertising, offering for sale, or selling wood for use as fuel."

You're right though, unless there is a complaint, the sale of firewood is pretty much off the radar.

Yep. Im kinda on the fence about the issue.

On one hand.......i feel big brother has no business telling someone how to sell. If Joe-Bob cuts up a tree and wants to sell the wood, thats his business.

On the other hand....too many ignorant customers that dont know what a cord actually is. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have delivered a cord of wood, and the customers are actually surprised by how much wood I bring them.

Lots of ads on c-list that just make me chuckle. There was one, I'll see if I can find it, guy advertizing a ford ranger truckload with 1' high side boards.....claiming that the boards makes it equal to a full 8' bed.:laughing:

 

[Rock Crawler]

I'll say this about my firewood collecting... I really look forward to it! I have a camp fire area back in my woods that we invite other people to during the spring/summer/fall and we drink, play music, cook on the fire and party. My kids have sleep overs down there and tent camp around the fire area. I essentially create 2 stacks, a face cord each, that is the camp fire wood for the year plus any trees that come down on the 14 acres. I also place 2 similar stacks up by the house.

But I actually start to get excited in the spring and fall when I see weather that will alow me slip into the woods with my saw, splitter, UTV and trailer. I take my chains and stuff, grab the dog and go do man things in the woods all day. My wife likes that I am out of the house and not going stir-crazy like I have been the last few weeks with -5°F to 10°F weather. I start really getting frustrated and confrontational when I can not head out into the woods.

I will start talking about the weekend plans in the woods by Wednesday and be so excited to go play tree guy that I get giddy. Then I start to get sad as Sunday starts to close down on me, my fun time with my toys is over again.

At the camp area, I'll burn down one of the face cords (16" cuts is what I do, 5' hight and about 10' long between trees that I use as my wood stands) and then get to collecting more trees from the ground. I also walk the woods and spray paint any standing dead trees so that in the fall once the leaves and the brush die off I get in and remove the dead trees and backhoe out the roots if I can get to them with the tractor.

Otherwise... I sit in the house like a lump, or I go spend money that I shouldn't, or I pester my wife for lovin.... She would rather that I go play in the woods! Honestly... so would I! It's hard to put a price tag on fun, enjoyment, stress relief and exercise.

Now, if I were pressured to hit some target for heating the house and it became a "job" instead of a leisure activity, I am sure that it would change how I feel about it. But we burn for pleasure, not for necessity. We have gas wells on the property that provide heat from our ground, so the cost of heating/cooking/water is minimal, often we just pay the $18 maintenance fee to remain connected to the gas company. They are a pair of ball valves in the basement away from taking over as our gas supplier in the case of a problem with our wells. I'm set up to double isolate the gas company from my house, or I can swap and double isolate from my well line.

I think that those of us that do not have an imposed quota of wood have a better mental outlook than at least some of the full time fire burners because we are doing this as a choice. I can cut 5 cord, or I can zero. It makes no real change. But I cut what I cut, as I want to, and burn with no regard the labor required to get the wood. It's a hobby.

 

[check]

I'll say this about my firewood collecting... I really look forward to it! I have a camp fire area back in my woods that we invite other people to during the spring/summer/fall and we drink, play music, cook on the fire and party. My kids have sleep overs down there and tent camp around the fire area. I essentially create 2 stacks, a face cord each, that is the camp fire wood for the year plus any trees that come down on the 14 acres. I also place 2 similar stacks up by the house. But I actually start to get excited in the spring and fall when I see weather that will alow me slip into the woods with my saw, splitter, UTV and trailer. I take my chains and stuff, grab the dog and go do man things in the woods all day. My wife likes that I am out of the house and not going stir-crazy like I have been the last few weeks with -5°F to 10°F weather. I start really getting frustrated and confrontational when I can not head out into the woods. I will start talking about the weekend plans in the woods by Wednesday and be so excited to go play tree guy that I get giddy. Then I start to get sad as Sunday starts to close down on me, my fun time with my toys is over again. At the camp area, I'll burn down one of the face cords (16" cuts is what I do, 5' hight and about 10' long between trees that I use as my wood stands) and then get to collecting more trees from the ground. I also walk the woods and spray paint any standing dead trees so that in the fall once the leaves and the brush die off I get in and remove the dead trees and backhoe out the roots if I can get to them with the tractor. Otherwise... I sit in the house like a lump, or I go spend money that I shouldn't, or I pester my wife for lovin.... She would rather that I go play in the woods! Honestly... so would I! It's hard to put a price tag on fun, enjoyment, stress relief and exercise. Now, if I were pressured to hit some target for heating the house and it became a "job" instead of a leisure activity, I am sure that it would change how I feel about it. But we burn for pleasure, not for necessity. We have gas wells on the property that provide heat from our ground, so the cost of heating/cooking/water is minimal, often we just pay the $18 maintenance fee to remain connected to the gas company. They are a pair of ball valves in the basement away from taking over as our gas supplier in the case of a problem with our wells. I'm set up to double isolate the gas company from my house, or I can swap and double isolate from my well line. I think that those of us that do not have an imposed quota of wood have a better mental outlook than at least some of the full time fire burners because we are doing this as a choice. I can cut 5 cord, or I can zero. It makes no real change. But I cut what I cut, as I want to, and burn with no regard the labor required to get the wood. It's a hobby.

Do you have your own gas well that supplies your gas needs? How does that work?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

My dad has a gas well, and still pays to maintain a gas company connectuon also. And he still burns wood also.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Do you have your own gas well that supplies your gas needs? How does that work?

Yes we have 3 wells. In 1990 we bought the property and there were 3 capped off "dead" oil wells. We tapped into them and combined them into one line and ran from the wells to the rear basement of the house. We also have street gas coming in from the front of the basement. We brought the black pipe together right over the furnace and hot water tank where we installed 4 ball valves for isolation, 2 on the street side and 2 on the well side. Between those valves is a tee that goes on to feed the house it's gas needs.

In extreme cold, such as now we outrun the well feed and swap back and forth, but during the milder weather we run entirely on our well feed. We did sell the Marcellus (deep) mineral rights a couple years back, but we did not sell the layers above that, so the old wells are ours to do as we wish.

The wells are left over from when there was abundant oil under this ground, they collected the oil and burned off the gas. You can't get oil without gas, but they didn't want the gas so they used to open up valves and light it... When I was a kid I was fascinated to see 40 foot blow torch like fires shooting into the air for hours, and the screaming howl of the pressure!!! They would do this all over the couple thousand acres that they worked, always bleeding off the gas pressure to allow new gas to push through the rock layers bringing them new oil to harvest.

Our wells are no longer a part of that oil well gig, we just use the gas free and clear. We keep our garaged heated with Reznor natural gas 50,000 BTU hanging furnaces to 45° all winter, and if I want to work in the garage I just knock the thermostat up to 70 and go work in a T-shirt even though it is 5 degrees out. It does spoil you! The thought of working in a cold garage.... PISH! No way! I'm so spoiled, I also put AC in the upper level of garages where I work on things, that way if it is 90°F outside, I go kick the AC on and take it to 72 degrees and can weld/work in comfort. Our lower level of garages are 3/4 under ground, so even on these 0 degree days I go down to grab the tractor and it is 40 degrees or so in there. In the heat of the summer it will still be 65 or so down there. The expensive insulated doors and sprayed foam insulation help a lot with keeping both levels of garages climate controlled. That was the best thing ever! That and when we re-did the siding we had the entire house wrapped, then put on insulated vinyl siding in place of the standard siding. Overall, the ability to heat and cool the structure has gotten much easier with the updates.

 

[4570Man]

You’d have to have side boards and a 8’ bed truck and stack the wood to come close to getting a cord on a pickup. Even then not much short of a 3500 DRW can handle the weight. I get mad every time I look through the wood adds. It’s hard to judge volume because most people put a picture from a pile, but most people’s seasoned wood was cut last week. I’ve got an add with a picture of a wood stack and an add with a picture of my loaded truck selling a truckload. That add gets a lot more responses. I can haul a tad more than a cord loose and a cord and a half stacked.