Heating with wood

18 years ago

Can someone advise?

We lost one 100 year old tree. It has dropped two major

limbs, both on the house... there are 6 more trees, all the same age. The power company will take them down and grind out the stumps because they threaten our house AND their wires. Lots of wood to use.

This month's electric bill is $200, in the winter, it will be $300 and the gas bill will be the same... each month. We've installed insullation and all new windows. Its as good as it will likely get.

Wondering if its time to install a woodburning system. In Illinois, the specks require a building on concrete a certain distance from the house. It would seem that warm air is put in, cold air moved out out with some sort of electric motor...

We are not young, feeding the beast would most likely be required at least once in the night. Though I would

consider small electric space heaters for the bedrooms

before I would go out on a cold winter's night here in Zone 6.

Has anyone here installed such a system, does it really save, or just use up excess wood or save on total gas useage.

Your experiences, thoughts, and advise, please... and thanks!

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Comments (3)

garyg
18 years ago
I think that you are talking about an outdoor wood-burning boiler. Do you really want to go outside and "feed the beast" every day? These may be restricted to more rural areas. You could also install a wood stove or pellet stove.

If you save $100/month in heating costs using wood, for 6 months in the heating season, and the wood burning unit costs $5000 installed, you have an 8 year payback time ($5000/$600 per year = 8.3 years). Play with the numbers as you see fit. This doesn't include the price of wood after you burn the free stuff, or the work involved in cutting, splitting, stacking, and storing the wood.

I suppliment an electric heat pump with a masonry wood-burning fireplace w/insert. It came with the home so no cost to install. I scavenge a lot of wood to burn in the fireplace. At $180 per cord to buy, not sure if I'm saving money even with 13 cent/kw-hr electricity. But it does kick out the heat, and its the focal point of the family room.

Good luck.
frog_hopper
18 years ago
Put in a wood stove, or an insert if you already have a fireplace. Those outdoor wood burning furnaces smoke like the dickens, cost a lot more, and do require tending. They are banned some places because of the smoke. I expect to see them banned everywhere if they all smoke like my neighbor's unit.

A woodstove or insert has minimal costs compared to the outdoor unit and can be used when you have free wood available. The outdoor units that I have seen are integrated into the heating system and practically force you to burn wood.

I wouldn't have one on a bet, and I have an essentially endless supply of firewood on my property.
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nevea2be
18 years ago
If you're spending $200 a month on electricity during the month of June I think you really need to look at were you are using up all that energy. Here in zone 5 with us running a swimming pool and two ac units our bill last month was $168. Your electric company may offer a free home audit to see what you can do to use less electricity. That would be the first place to start and then maybe look at insulation in your house. Keep in mind that spending an extra $100 a month to heat you house is not bad by any means.