# wood vs propane



## wally (Oct 9, 2007)

I need some one smarter than me to answer this for me..first of all its 11 degrees outside and I had to get another load of wood from the barn.. my question is it cheaper to maintain a chain saw and spliter (wood is free) and my time to cut,split and stack wood for a fireplace insert that is 80efficenct and can heat 80000 BTU or a propane heater for the same BTU
thanks


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## Stephen in SOKY (Jun 6, 2006)

Here's a fuel cost calculator you can plug your costs/efficiencies into to compare: http://nepacrossroads.com/fuel-comparison-calculator.php


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

11 degrees outside of what? Where is this tropical hot spot?

As for maintaining a chain saw, and a barn to keep wood in, probably not but,
purchasing firewood might just give propane a good run for the money.

One thing for sure is that propane does not grow on trees, wood does


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## ronbre (Apr 26, 2009)

well after 38 years of heating with wood..trying to make it less work by putting in a very expensive outdoor wood boiler..honestly..it would probably have been cheaper for us to heat with propane..but..i did this to help our son so he didn't have to try to pay the enormouse propane bills at his house (our furnace heats his house too)..but we end up buying most or all the wood, doing most of the hauling and stoking the furnace, cleaning out the ashes..getting up and putting wood on the fire in the storms..etc..

propane is a heck of a lot easier ..i was totally against the outdoor wood furnace..and still am not totally happy with it..

it is very very very hard work..last year we burned 40 cord of wood and we are at 19 cord this year so far...i spent $2600 plus on wood in 12 months


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

We have a propane furnace & the winter of 2007 our propane was costing us $1.39 a gallon & it was still costing us over $300.00 & $400.00 a month on a keep fill basis, this is a new house with great insulation, vinyl windows, etc.
We bought a pellet stove (I know not a wood stove) that winter & haven't had to have our propane filled since Feb. 2007. I really believe the pellet stove has paid for itself already & we only figured when we bought it that it would offset our propane costs.

The dryer & cookstove our both propane too but don't use much at all.


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## cfabe (Feb 27, 2005)

I heat with wood in an outside wood boiler (woodmaster). I've run the house on propane to check the usage and it would cost me $400-500 a month at current rates. This is for a 1600sqft ranch house with good insulation and windows. That's around $3000 a year for propane. I cut wood from my 15 acre woodlot and feel it is a good use of my time. I don't know how we would get through the winter financially speaking if we had to buy propane. Right now we use about 200 gal a year for summer hot water and backup heat when the fire goes out.


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## travlnusa (Dec 12, 2004)

We did some math, and based on what we have come up with, we will be installing a woodstove over the summer. 

Hoping to get lucky with a Craigslist deal this spring or summer.


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## Old Vet (Oct 15, 2006)

It all depends on how much your time is worth and what to do with the barn if not for wood. The rest is easy sure it is worth the money. Now if you take time off from other employment to cut wood then no. I can't answer your question with out know a lot about you but in my case it sure is.


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

ronbre said:


> well after 38 years of heating with wood..trying to make it less work by putting in a very expensive outdoor wood boiler..honestly..it would probably have been cheaper for us to heat with propane..but..i did this to help our son so he didn't have to try to pay the enormouse propane bills at his house (our furnace heats his house too)..but we end up buying most or all the wood, doing most of the hauling and stoking the furnace, cleaning out the ashes..getting up and putting wood on the fire in the storms..etc..
> 
> propane is a heck of a lot easier ..i was totally against the outdoor wood furnace..and still am not totally happy with it..
> 
> it is very very very hard work..last year we burned 40 cord of wood and we are at 19 cord this year so far...i spent $2600 plus on wood in 12 months


Sounds to me like you are being taken advantage of, big time.:stars:


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Wood is cheaper if you cut it yourself.
It's a LOT of work and very messy if you have an indoor stove.
Wood only works when youre there to keep it going.
The ideal thing would be to have both available
Every home should have at least two heat sources, one of which requires no electricity


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## Old Vet (Oct 15, 2006)

Bearfootfarm said:


> Wood is cheaper if you cut it yourself.
> It's a LOT of work and very messy if you have an indoor stove.
> Wood only works when youre there to keep it going.
> The ideal thing would be to have both available
> Every home should have at least two heat sources, one of which requires no electricity


Oh no not a back up what kind of people do you think we are survivalist. I like wood because I don't have to come up with the $300 to fill the 250 gallon tank up with two times per year. Now I use 1 tank every two years unless I am gone away for a while.


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## o&itw (Dec 19, 2008)

Much of this answer depends on you an your property. Here almost all rural property has an excess of wood, and one is going to need a chain saw, anyway, to keep things in order anyway, due to icestorms windthrow, and reasonable silvculture. So the cost of the saw itself, may not be an issue. 
Chains, sharpening and upkeep will be a cost. I personally like to split wood. It relieves stress, and is a great physical work out. With decent wood, I can split wood by hand about twice as fast as with a machine. That being said, I buy most of my wood from a retired neighbor as I can hardly cut it and haul it as inexpensively as what he sells it to me for (I split it myself)

Almost all our wood here is hardwood, the majority, white and post oak, and hickory. We get substantialy more BTU from our wood than those in the north that are heating primarily with confiers and hardwoods such as birch and maple.

I woul have some form of commercial heat (I have electric, some others here have propane) It would scare me a bit to be witout wood heat. The further one lives out in a rural area, the more likely one is to be without electricity (therefore any kind of forced air heat) for a long period due to ice storms, wind damage etc. This is even more dangerous if it is in the middle of a snow or ice storm that brings down trees and prevents travel on the roads.

Here, it is wise to have some kind of gas or electric furnace, but the cost of heating with wood is much much cheaper. My (inside) wood furnace is not large enough to comfortably keep the house warm below 5F, especialy if it is windy. But I hate to think what my electric bill would have been for the past 3 weeks of sub freezing weather without it.


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

Probably the best thing would be to have a well insulated and reasonably airtight house. It will pay off in the long run, sometimes only 4 years. If your house keeps the heat in, you don't need to keep burning so much fuel.


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## adamtheha (Mar 14, 2007)

I get all my wood for free (pallets), takes me about 20 minutes a day to chainsaw enough for a cold (-15 C) day, and I get to go outside! Propane out here is retardedly expensive, thanks to taxes. Probably $400 a month to heat my mobile, not including the electricity to run the furnace fan, add another $200 for that.


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## woodsy (Oct 13, 2008)

wally said:


> I need some one smarter than me to answer this for me..first of all its 11 degrees outside and I had to get another load of wood from the barn.. my question is it cheaper to maintain a chain saw and spliter (wood is free) and my time to cut,split and stack wood for a fireplace insert that is 80efficenct and can heat 80000 BTU or a propane heater for the same BTU
> thanks


Wood here, I ain't woodsy for nuthin.
I never liked petroleum products for heating, they leave you vulnerable and dependent on the system , not to mention cost hikes.
Wood heat takes time , effort and some money but if you don't use muchmore than 6 cord per season then its manageable, i think.
A 3-400 hundred dollar chainsaw will last 10 years at least and splitting wood by hand isn't too bad either, although renting a wood splitter for $25 a day isn't bad either.
Its definitely more worth it if you can cut the wood from your own property like we do, saving a thousand to 15 hundred a year easy enough. Thats about 20 grand saved over the years.
And, you don't feel like your wasting money when its 
75 -80 degrees inside :clap:


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Some of it depends on price of propane.....Old Vet said he paid $300 to get a 250gal tank filled....he wouldn't get it done here, as propane is 2.50/gal here right now, and I've seen it way over 3 bucks in the last year or two.

Another thing you have to factor in, as I always do when I start figuring on home produced anything: How much do you have to earn at a job to NET the amount you pay for anything ?

For example: Say I saw a 2x10x16 from logs from my place....I not only look at the cost of that pc of lumber bought at a lumber yard ( say 15 bucks ) + sales tax ( nearly 10% in TN ) = 16.50.....but then I'd have to EARN 40% MORE bucks to pay the federal taxes ( income 25%, self employment 15.3%), so add another near 8 bucks, making the TRUE VALUE of my homemade hunk of lumber $24 !! 

PLUS you get the pure joy and satisfaction of legally beating the tax system...ahahahaaaaaa

SO, anytime you start figuring how much something home grown, or home made, or home produced costs.....DON'T forget to add the 25-50% ( YMMV ) that is costs YOU to net the money you're gonna pay for whatever you didn't produce.....and how glad the guys in DC, and your State capitol are that you didn't produce it, but "contributed to the economy" instead....


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## Montanarchist (Feb 24, 2005)

last year we burnt around ten cords of pine and fir that i cut on our own acreage. Not including my labor I spent $20 to get chains sharpened, 7 gallons of fuel and mix, and probably used up about one chain life. So about $5 a cord. We heat with only wood in our 2300 ft2 house so I can't even guess what it would have cost us in propane, but I'm sure it would be magnitudes higher.


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## Fae (Mar 9, 2005)

I have to say I think wood is less expensive, at least for us. This winter we are dependent on propane and it is really hitting us hard. The woodburner is out of commission right now and I plan to replace it with a fireplace anyway. I bought 100 gallons of propane on Dec. 14 @ $1.90 per gal. and had to buy another 100 gal. on Jan.5 @ $2.20 per gal. My neighbor had to buy propane yesterday and it had gone up to $2.25 per gal. Lord willing, we will make it through this winter(which is far colder than a normal winter here) and next winter we will have wood heat again.


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## davel745 (Feb 2, 2009)

I am not sure about cost effectiveness of burning wood, especially 19 + cord a year. As for myself. I am 65 and cut and split about 5 cords myself. It cost around $500.00 this year. This included a new Stihl chainsaw. Figures out to about $100.00 per cord. Next year it should be a lot less. My DW helped stack it. We use propane for a tank less water heater and cooking it costs us around $350.00 per year.

We wouldn&#8217;t be able to live here if we can&#8217;t use wood. I am hopeing to get a wood, coal and oil burning furnace in the near future. (All one unit) In the future we use going to use Agricultural fuel oil for a tractor and as a backup for the new furnace. And a few pickup loads of coal should supplement our needs too.

Wood for me as long as I can do it.

Dave

.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Well first off we can't get Propane hauled out here.We do have couple 100# Tanks we fill every other year.But we cut wood for Winter takes couple Gallons of Gas,use Used Motor Oil for Bar Oil.Do my own Sharpening.Chain last couple Years.Use maybe quarter Tank of Gas in Pickup.

So far as cost its not enough to worry.

big rockpile


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## woodsy (Oct 13, 2008)

In the chart (link in 2nd post)of fuel costs and efficiency wood is nearly 1/2 the cost per BTU than oil or propane, and thats at $250 per cord.
Bulk tree length firewood here runs about 100 per cord when buying a 10 cord load , delivered.


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## deb (Jul 27, 2002)

ronbre said:


> well after 38 years of heating with wood..trying to make it less work by putting in a very expensive outdoor wood boiler..honestly..it would probably have been cheaper for us to heat with propane..but..i did this to help our son so he didn't have to try to pay the enormouse propane bills at his house (our furnace heats his house too)..but we end up buying most or all the wood, doing most of the hauling and stoking the furnace, cleaning out the ashes..getting up and putting wood on the fire in the storms..etc..
> 
> propane is a heck of a lot easier ..i was totally against the outdoor wood furnace..and still am not totally happy with it..
> 
> it is very very very hard work..last year we burned 40 cord of wood and we are at 19 cord this year so far...i spent $2600 plus on wood in 12 months


I don't think this is fair. 

You shouldn't be doing all the work and paying all the cost if the heat is also going to your son's house. 

It also isn't a fair comparison to the OP's situation because you are talking 2 houses vs. his 1 house.

deb
in wi


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## wally (Oct 9, 2007)

Your replys are the reason i enjoy this site so much.thank you..got to go and fill the insert again


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

Go with coal. long burns, even heat. Cheaper than wood, propane, nat. gas, electric. The only thing cheaper is to be cold!!!

If you burn 200 gallons of propane. You would use less than 1 ton. In most of the country you can get "local" bituminous coal for 70-100 dollars. In the northeast you can get anthracite for around 200 a ton(very clean burning). You need a furnace to burn bituminous cleanly. But anthracite can be burned in a stove.


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

I am cross posting my post from the other current propane thread. 
_____________________________________________________________

When the hubby worked for the farmer for about 17 years, we heated with a big old wood furnace in the cellar. Lots of work to go to the woods, get the trees down, and hauled back to the house and cut up. Stuffed the cellar full and a big pile outside sittting waiting to be used the second part of winter.

Then we bought our 2 acres ,and brought in a new double wide about 19 + years ago. Hubby got a factory job and we heated the house with 500 gallons of propane a year. We thought things were great. Easier on our backs, etc, etc. 
While the price of propane kept going up. The last delivery we took was $ 2.45 a gallon and that was a locked in yearly price too. Current price here locally is $ 3.42 gallon. Just no end in sight. The propane company was not nice to deal with. 

We made the decision not to be held hostage by propane prices. 
Spring of 2008 we took out a loan and bought our OWB. We have Central Boiler 5096 model and very happy to be heating with wood again. This is our second winter. We figure we have enough wood in place, to go this winter easy and the next one also. As near as I can figure we use about 12 to 14 FACE cords a winter. Our last load of wood a year ago, was a tri axle log length load of about 18 face cords, that cost us $ 575. Hubby cut it to length for our furnace. Our house is approximately 1250 square ft all on one level. We added on 4 yrs ago this spring and did all our upgrades -new windows, roof, and siding entire structure. No basement. We only use propane now for our cookstove which is hooked up to a 100 pound propane tank. Cost so far for cooking is about $ 11 a month.

My hubby's parents were so impressed by our outside wood boiler furnace that they also bought one. They are very happy also and saving big heating dollars. They were using fuel oil , about 6 tanks for the year. 

Would I use propane as our primary source of heat again ? 
NO ......
I can keep the house now at 75 plus with the wood, where with propane it was at 68 and I always felt cold with that.
Oh, and all of hot water too now ....we don't use the electric on the hot water heater in the winter. The hot water through the heat exchanger heats it.
So for less than $ 50 a month, we have our primary heat and all kinds of hot water.


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## insocal (May 15, 2005)

I can't speak as to cost, but here's what my family did when we had the cabin in the CO Rockies (and my parents lived there for a couple of years full-time). They used the propane furnace to keep the place from freezing when they were out and about, and on really really cold nights - they set the thermostat at 50F IIRC. Then they used the wood stove (actually a glassed-in carousel freestanding fireplace) to heat it up to comfort level when they were there. The pipes never froze during this regimen, but boy some mornings were frigid. It kept the propane costs to a minimum, and yet they didn't need too much wood to be practical.


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