Actual cost of firewood

[4570Man]

Just an observation...
If I was going to sell firewood...I would seek out long term customers that have the room/ability to store and season next seasons wood as well as the present...
...This would allow loading a truck or trailer directly from the splitter to the delivery vehicle...eliminating loading, moving, unloading, storing, reloading before delivery...IMO secondary handling cost time and that is a valuable asset for most...cutting and splitting is the part most tend to enjoy...the fun ends at the splitter IMO...

Granted a lot of folks just don't have the room but many do...a side line to selling cord wood might also be selling simple, basic, prefabbed wood sheds...

That would be ideal, but good luck actually doing it.

 

[/pine]

That would be ideal, but good luck actually doing it.

I didn't mean it was a sustainable business model... but having less time in it per load it could be offered for less $ as an incentive to build a customer base...

 

[LD1]

Takes me about 5 min to load a cord on the trailer from the pile and don't handle a single piece. One word....grapple

 

[turnkey4099]

TurnKey, if you're able to get out there, yoke up and pull for 3 to 4 hours at 82 years old you're doing pretty **** good! I hope I'm doing that well at your age.

My wife was always on me "We have enough wood!" Without that work 'wooding' I would have been a 400lb couch potato and probably dead before she was.

Still able to boost 60 lb chunks up in thre truck, Manually split and hour or two a day, Run a chainsaw almost non-stop for 2-3 hours, etc. I'm in better shapre right now than I was when I retired from the AF in 1976 - I flew a desk for 21 years.

I wouldn't stop cutting now if some one were to pay for my oil heat.

 

[turnkey4099]

In our town I noticed a lot of wood stacking in pallet sized cubes in the rear of the county police station. Whenever anyone needs any tree work down in town they bring cons along with their their chainsaws and commence to toppling and cutting up and splitting trees. They cut and get rid of the tree for the homeowner at no charge.

I heard they give the wood to the needy that burn wood, but may be wrong on that, they may charge a little bit. It is a fairly big operation to give the cons something to do but it seems to work.

I was a jailer for 15 years. We learned NOT to give a saw to a con. They don't have a clue to running them . One of them took a running saw to the face (kick-back) Fortunately only a scratch. That ended letting them run equipment, Carry - load - sstack was about it for them.

 

[turnkey4099]

I charge $5 a rick and a dollar a mile for delivery. 9/10 people opt for delivery. If you only have a regular pickup youæ±*e going to beat the crap out of it hauling firewood. I don稚 stack the wood on delivery and I have a dump truck, but I handle wood less times for delivery than if I burned it myself.

I paid $3950 for my 89 F150 two by. It was straight out of the paint shop and looked like a showroom model. I needed it anyhow for hauling construction material (total remodel of house down to bare studs - one rrom at a time). Beat a truck up hauling wood? Nah! But some how that powderpuff truck now looks like a rolling violation, bed dished in, had to replace the tailgate it was so dished in I couldn't close it any more, passenger door not matching (due to parking too close when I fell a tree), Mechanically still good though and still hauling that 1/2-3/4 cord of wood.

 

[gladehound]

If the wood you burn has a value in your area roughly equal to what a cord of wood cost....I fail to see how you come out ahead.

Currently you are cutting, splitting, and stacking 6-8 cord of wood to burn in your home.......all so you don't have to give the fuel company $2000.

If you were to cut, split, and stack that same amount of wood, but rather haul it to and stack on someone else's property......collect $2k to pass along to oil company....and then heat your home with oil and not hassle with a fire and mess in the house.

Isn't that about a wash? Equalling no savings....or very little if you factor in delivery cost

That's because you fail to see all the extra expenses, effort & time and equipment involved with selling fire wood compared to burning it at home. You also fail to recognize that a penny saved is a penny earned. So if you sell it or burn it makes no difference. One is called earning, the other saving. At the end of the year, I have $2,000 more in my bank account than if I don't burn wood. It doesn't matter how you try to rationalize your position, that extra $2000 is still there. It's savings! $$$

On edit: I just realized the disconnect between your thinking and mine. You are only thinking about selling the wood as the comparator. My comparator is never felling the tree, never bucking the wood, never doing any of it, versus buying oil. My effort saves me $2,000 (or earns depending on how you think about it) a year. I know this seems high to you, but remember, this type of house runs a good friend $4,000 a winter to heat with oil because all the 300 year old windows leak like a wind storm, and there is no insulation. Original roof and walls. My $2,000 is probably very, very conservative.

 

[gladehound]

Takes me about 5 min to load a cord on the trailer from the pile and don't handle a single piece. One word....grapple

Just another example of the expense of selling your wood versus burning it at home.

 

[gladehound]

RE:deezler....

Not trying to convince anyone of anything. And I don't mean i stick to the facts.

An economical design, super insulated, and passive solar....yep you have low heating requirements. You chose to invest $2k in burning equipment and burn $300-$600 a year in wood.

Those are the facts.

If your heating needs are indeed that low.....don't know why you were figuring $20k-$30k for Geo.

I installed my system myself. Hired the ductwork out. Taking off Federal and local credits.....I came out at $7k or so. But my Geo does two things most people's.wood burners don't. 1. It heata my matter in the winter AND summer. And 2. It cools my house as well. And given your low heating requirements, you probably wouldn't need anywhere near the 4 ton system I installed. As that 4-tons replaced 6 cord a year. So a Geo sized to your house would be even cheaper.

I didn't see you mention air conditioning. .aube you don't need or want that where you live. But that's not the case for most people.

Alot of the proponents claiming how much they save burning wood......ALSO spent the money for an HVAC system with ductwork and all just for cooling.

I save money NOT burning wood. Sure the Geo was a large upfront cost. That's a given. But I needed (wanted) air conditioning anyway, which the house didn't have. And the cost difference between installing a central AC unit.....and the Geo with all the rebates.....was nil.

And at the end of the day....even if I could save $400 or $500 a year burning.....is it really worth the mess in the house, and the hassle? For me...no.

Now before Geo, I heated with wood for two seasons. The alternative was baseboard heat at $300/month more than the wood. So the hassle was worth it then

You try to justify your geothermal the same way that people who heat with wood do yet you chastise them for it. You installed your system yourself. Doesn't your time have value in your area? Couldn't you sell that time and then just pay someone to install your geothermal at a high price?

So by your logic, you didn't save anything by installing it yourself. How much wood could you have bought with 20-30K in a mutual fund cranking out $2K a year in interest. You could have bought wood forever and your account would still grow! You have geothermal because you like geothermal. Didn't save you a penny (by your logic, not mine. I count self installs as savings)

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Instead of paying someone to install my geo, i used the difference to buy a new tractor and backhoe. Lot more fun than writing a check.