What does Firewood really cost?

[chopped]

Yes a not so good joke..

 

[Scooby074]

Yes a not so good joke..

Guess it proves the fact you never know when its your time

 

[R_Walter]

I wanted to add one more cost. $37.99 for 1 gallon of Stihl Bar & Chain oil at the local JD dealer.

It's only $9 - $11 per gallon in my neck of the woods.

 

[turnkey4099]

It's only $9 - $11 per gallon in my neck of the woods.

Same here and I buy my B/C oil at WalMart, Poulan brand. Been running around $7 this year.

Harry K

 

[ihookem]

I figure it cost me 20 bucks a cord or so if i have to go get it. If I find some on the way home it cost a few dollars a cord. I don't think like you guys though. I figure it this way. I started burning in 1991 because my Jan. heat bill was 103 bucks. I got a Menards wood stove, pipe and hearth. Total cost was 750 bucks. I saved about 5600 dollars the 14 years I lived there. I already had my baby! a Stihl 011 for 210 dollars. In 1992 a new baby arrived, a Stihl 034 wood boss for 434 dollars with tax. Not long after another baby come into my life, an 026 for 413 dollars. So you see in 14 years of living there I saved about 3500 dollars in heat bills. This was promply put against my mortgage to cut the interest (9.5% the first 3 years) most likely saving me a total of say 3000 dollars in interest over the 14 years in my first house. This covers all my saws and gas and I still have the saws! Except for my first saw, RIP. 011, you were a good saw. I went on to burn in my next two houses, I'm still ahead after 19 yrs of burning and saving 1500 a year now with my new EKO 25 (9500 dollars) and happy to say our fourth saw arived, a Stihl 441 for 783 with tax. What the heck I cut when I don't have work and split and stack when I get bored. I call it my red neck workout and won't have it any other way being in the woods and running my favorite tools.

 

[MossRoad]

What does Firewood really cost?

It cost me 6 hours on the splitter yesterday. That's what it cost! :laughing:

 

[D7E]

I sell 100-150 cords a year of spit firewood so obviously i use 100% wood at home (10 cords per winter) And the woodburner came with the house . If i was not in the wood business i believe oil would be cheaper and my time better spent doing something more pfofitable !

 

[jimcolt]

Here in New Hampshire the winters are long and cold. I built a passive solar home 30 years ago.....and I use wood for the rest of the heat. I average 2.5 cords a year, cut on my own land, split with a splitter that I built. Doesn't matter what it costs me.....there is no foreign oil being burned at my place....and I enjoy that feeling. My wifes Grandfather was still hand splitting his wood at 92....just a few weeks before he died. I hope I'm doing the same....but using my splitter. I use maybe two gallons of gas per year in the splitter, and another two in the chain saw. The Kubota uses perhaps 2 gallons of diesel dragging the logs to the house.

Suposedly trees consume almost the same amount of carbon while they are growing...as they produce when burning.....thats pretty close to carbon neutral, and I get a warm house and some exercise as a bonus!

Jim

Home made splitter, home made forks....

 

[MossRoad]

Nice looking splitter.

As for wood burning and carbon... the tree soaks up the carbon as it grows. If it dies and falls over, the carbon gets released slowly as it rots. If you burn it, the carbon gets release quickly. Either way, it gets released.

I justify my wood burning like this...

We bought 20 acres, 10 of which were wooded, with a 4 and 6 acre field. We reforested the 4 acre field mechanically with 2000+ trees, half pine and half mixed hardwoods. We let the 6 acre field go natural and it, too, is now a forest. The state forester estimated the 10 acre woods had 20,000 trees in it. We remove about 50-100 12" diameter x 60' locust trees from it annually, which opens up small clearings where other tree species just seem to show up and grow. The woods is full of mixed species trees, animal life abounds, the highly erodible soil is stabilized, the creek receives very little soil runoff and we convert massive amounts of carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Pretty sweet deal. :thumbsup:

 

[OzGrasshopper]

Hi All, by my experience it seems some of u get very well priced wood in the northern hemisphere....here in Oz wood is sold by the ton -not cord. checking on i'net to compare prices it says a cord is approx 2 to 2.5 ton? a ton of hardwood ready cut here is $120 - $150 if u have to buy it in. we use dead wood from the farm & i agree with other posters - cutting wood is good for health & soul - i love cutting wood. we have a wood heater with oven & HWS connection to solar - no snow down here, but have fire burning about in evenings from about May to August. we would have fire on 24hrs a day about 14 days of winter with a solar passive north facing house - even at $150 tone its a lot cheaper than gas or electric heating which is other alternative. cheers OzGH

 

[LD1]

Hi All, by my experience it seems some of u get very well priced wood in the northern hemisphere....here in Oz wood is sold by the ton -not cord. checking on i'net to compare prices it says a cord is approx 2 to 2.5 ton? a ton of hardwood ready cut here is $120 - $150 if u have to buy it in. we use dead wood from the farm & i agree with other posters - cutting wood is good for health & soul - i love cutting wood. we have a wood heater with oven & HWS connection to solar - no snow down here, but have fire burning about in evenings from about May to August. we would have fire on 24hrs a day about 14 days of winter with a solar passive north facing house - even at $150 tone its a lot cheaper than gas or electric heating which is other alternative. cheers OzGH

Wow wood is really expensive down there.

Here in the states, wood varys by location. Im my particular area, wood is bringing 120-180 a cord. The average species in my area are ash, oak, maple, etc. They weigh roughly 3500-4000 per cord. So that maks us only paying ~60-90 per ton. But I still cut my own and even sell a little. Cant get rich off of it but I do enjoy cutting

 

[dex3361]

Mom doesn't like dad to run the fireplace in the house; and its not for safety reasons.
before going to bed dad likes to stoke the fire and shut it down, a slow all night hot fire. (I aint saying its wrong or right, its what he thinks he has to do) anyway the living room heats up nice and toasty; and the thermostat for the heat pump is out there. so the heat pump thinks the house is warm and wont turn on; and mom freezes in the back bed rooms.

I usually turn on the blower to the heat pump and let it distribute the heat throughout the house.