'08 Heating fuel

[flip]

Well, I had to put the minimum in my tank 3 times this year to get through. We run our furnace off of propane and my girlfriends brother's apartment (furnace and water heater).  He keeps his house at 60 in the winter and his water heater on pilot.  Tried supplementing with some electric space heaters in late Nov. and Dec. and got some $325-$375 electric bills.   I'm sitting here pondering what is going to happen come this fall and winter with fuel prices soaring.  Can't really afford to change over to a heat pump and with the forecast don't think heating fuel will be very affordable.  Anyone else out there worried about this yet?  I plan to build in the next 10 years so putting in a boiler and using my "free" wood fuel would not be economical either.  Kinda hosed in sothern IN. :(

[ronwood]

flip,

With the cost of fuel it sure seems that it might pay for itself. If you put an outside boiler in you could always take it with you. You might find a used boiler. Around my part of country you could buy a used Hardy for around $1500 last fall.

Ron

[OneWithWood]

I second the outdoor boiler and I would recommend a dual fuel unit.

If you ever get up this way give me a shout.  I would be happy to show you our installation.  Might even have a bottle of Glen sitting around, you never know  ;)

[ohsoloco]

I have enough firewood to get me through the end of the '09-'10 heating season, even managed to get three cords set aside this year to sell in the fall    I honestly don't know how I'd make it if I had to buy heating oil, or if I had to use the electric baseboards in the house  :-\ 

What about installing a woodstove?  It would be much cheaper than a boiler, and you'd still have your propane as backup.

[flip]

The way my house is situated there really isn't any place to put a wood stove :( .   I thought about reinsulating but the house was a block barn so no where to put any more in the walls and the upstairs has already been insulated with batting.  The second level is a play room and a bedroom for the kids on the weekends.  You would think a small house would be cheap to heat and cool...wrong.   :

[ohsoloco]

That's too bad.  Sure they don't burn as long as a boiler (typically), and you can't zone the house, but the initial start up cost is pretty cheap in comparison.

[cuttingman423]

i feel your pain  i bought  a house 2 yrs ago and was paying 1.859 per gallon for heating oil if i recall correctly and now its 3.599 and i bet it will continue to climb thats why im putting in a wood stove this summer. With that stimulus check the goverment is kind to give me is buying the chimney pipe and through the wall kit (triple wall bouble insulated)   i have enough supply to last at least 2 yrs  so between now and then find more people with wood lots that  have downed trees   to clean up .  prices keep going up and paychecks do not  i forsee an abrupt crash  in the future for middle class Americans.

[flip]

I hear that CM423.  Something else to give a person ulcers for 6 months.  Maybe I need to start playing the lottery : :D

[olyman]

government is playing the lottery---with you and my money-----------

[Toolman]

Ive been burning wood for past 10 yrs. now. I started when oil went to $2.00 a gal. I thought the world was coming to an end then(can you believe that?!) Considering I paid .89 gal the year before how could you blame me. I built my own home and purposely installed 24" blanket insul under roof. That's a big deal for keeping heat in. When it snows the snow takes forever to melt off roof. Therefore a strong roof is a necessity. With help from my portable sawmill, 2x6 red oak beams solve that problem. I heat 3500 sq ft. comfortably on 3 chords of wood a year. We had a hard winter that took 5 chords one time. I have a large wood stove in basement below stairs. My home is one floor rancher with finished living area`that opens on southside to the yard. The heat from stove radiates up steps and heats entire home. Two ceiling fans run low speed upstairs that circulates the air. The only downside is that bedroom doors need to be open for warm air to enter. I get all my firewood for free. Sometimes I'll mill logs for someone in exchange for firewood. I get alot of locust this way. I always maintain a supply of 15 chords just in case I can't get wood due to down time in event of an illness or injury. Burning wood is a pain in the *ss, its alot of work and responsibility to prevent a fire. You know, keeping chimney clean, etc. But, I look at it as money in the bank. Around here a chord is selling for $160.00 . If you burn 4 chords a year it  is still cheaper than burning oil for season. My neighbor has a home similar to mine, but lousy roof insulation. He uses 9 chords a year. I'm thankful I am able to use wood. Anybody considering using it, maybe this bit of info. will help determine  what you want to do.

[splitter]

Purchased a outside wood furnace three years ago, (Heatmor) has already paid for its self. Would pay for its self quicker now with the price of heating oil. I'd go threw the woods and pickup limbs before I would pay todays heating oil prices. You can burn almost anything in a outdoor furnace. Splitter

[SwingOak]

I have a coal/wood stove I'm going to install this summer. I spent about $4,000 on fuel oil this winter. My last top-up I paid $3.82 a gallon, and it cost me $1100.

Coal is about $190 a ton delivered, and 2-3 tons will get me though the winter. Unfortunately, I won't be able to use the anthracite I'll need for the stove in my forge too.  :(

I'm also going to build a solar water heater, I just have to settle on a design and where to put it.

[bowlofjokes]

I been worry too. We used about 150 gallons of oil in the past 7 months. Heated almost exclusively with wood in a wood stove. I've basically been hand splitting since last July. I was mixing in green wood with the seasoned. Hey, our founding father didn't wait around a year for their firewood to be ready. My neighbor is going to drop a few trees and let me have them. If he doesn't do it soon I have to take down another one in my back acre. I have probably 3 cords split and will need double that for sure. Here in CT I see crazy things with my fellow wood hunters. After the town cuts down a tree we will go truck it up, and so do many others. We saw a Honda civic/accord pulling a small tailor to haul off rounds; guys still wearing khakis from work. I saw an ad for some rounds at $125 a cord delivered; I might take it. Cut split is $225 around here.     

[Toolman]

Here is another good way to get firewood.

A couple of years ago the remnants of hurricane Ivan travelled up eastern seaboard through southcentral Pa. Very high winds and heavy rain. I travelled through some local back roads and saw numerous blowdowns etc. I drove through a large housing development and saw trees of all sizes blown down everywhere. I spoke to a property owner looking at an oak tree laying across his driveway. I asked him if he wanted it removed. He said "hell yeah, if you want it I'll pay $50.00"
I told him I'll be right back. Hooked up my 12 ft. trailer to pickup. While there, I had people approaching me from out of the woodwork about removing. I hauled away about 7 chords from that development that day, making trips back and forth and pocketed $375.00. The people named their price. Some smarter people did'nt pay me cash after I told them I was using it for firewood. I considered the cash a bonus. I did this for 3 days with my neighbor. I gathered over 3 years worth of firewood in one weekend and pocketed approx $550.00 dollars. Most tree service companies were charging $150.00 dollars just to show up. They would'nt even haul the wood away!!

[treenail]

When the price of heating oil dropped so low about a dozen years ago or so, I gave up cutting firewood for my home. Not so this year. Luckily, I didn't get rid of my wood, hot air furnace with water heating exchanger, or my kitchen wood stove. Back in the late 1970's, when the oil skyrocketed, I was able to shrug it off by using wood to survive. Guess that is how things will go again. I am feeling some concerned for a lot of people in the colder regions that don't have the ability or the access to wood heat though. The elderly in particular. I do think that we will have to approach the future with open minds about how we are going to power our needs.

[Ironwood]

Local fire depts need to be offering wood heating seminars. I can't imagine the number of house fires that these (not here , but generally) inexperienced folks are going to have. Everyone seems to be rushing into wood heating with anything they can get there hands on. It certainly is an interesting time.

Ironwood

[fuzzybear]

   Living in the bush like we do, we have no choice but to heat with wood.  Oil delivered to us is imposible, and until we factor in the fuel for skidoos to haul it in ourselves it would be around $2.99 a LITER!  I could never, nor would ever want to fill up a 200 gal tank every month. It would cost me around $2250 a MONTH or about $14,000 for the year.

[thecfarm]

I feel sorry for the people who cannot do anything differant,but some how pay the high price of fuel due to thier age or health.I'm not rich by along ways and I'm almost thinking about working some of the shut down in July.First time in 20 years.Times are hard now and everything cost so much.My wife cooks most of our food from scratch but all of that stuff is going up too.We use to have chickens,for eggs and meat too.Didn't do it to save money.It cost more to raise them for eggs and meat than what we could go buy that stuff for.Grain now is so high we gave all that up.Fox helped out too.But I'm not going to replace them.My Father would complain about things being high,but he lived back about 40 years.He wouldn't believe it if he was alive to see it all now.