Partially yes, We have 25 acres, pretty much all forested, plus 80 acres of leased land, so yeah there's plenty.
Well that certainly makes the price of oil advantageous for you, doesn't it?
Mother nature is out there growing you more potential energy.
I don't happen to have that advantage so my turning to wood (which I'd have to purchase) doesn't give me much relief (if any) from the rising cost of energy.
We do supplement with a natural gas furnace as well, but I would guess we maybe go through 2 cords in a winter.
Unless you happen to live ina 200 sq. ft house, I'd say you're probably burning wood as much for the wonderful ambiance that a wood burning stove gets you, than as a
primary heating source.
Two cords of wood? To heat an average American home
in the North!?
Maybe in Florida that'd be enough wood, not hearabouts.
I have a fairly modest home fairly well insulated and I currently use about 700 gallons of heating oil for both heat and hot water.
19,600,000 Btu/cord x .50 = $12.24 /MB+u
Note 4: Wood prices will vary considerable across the state.
B. Fuel Quantity /Cost Comparison:
A homeowner is using 700 gallons fuel oil per year and wants to switch to wood heat using an airtight stove and half dry red oak at the above prices. Compare these:
(1) 700 gal fuel oil x 140,000 Btu/gal x .65 efficiency = 63.7 MBtu Annual cost = 700 gal x $1.50/gal = $1,050
(2) Wood required =
63.7 MBtu useful heat/season
-------------------------------------
19.6 MBtu/cord x .50 eff. = 6.5 cords
At $280 per cord I'd spend about $1,820 compared to the roughly $2,800 I'll spend if the rpice of heating oil is $4 a gallon.
Of course in order to heat my home with wood, i would need to invest in a larger wood burning furnace, and I'd have to build another chimney to accomodate its exhaust.
So I need about $10,000 to install a wood burning furnace which might save me $1000 this year.
I might install an existing woodstove to augment my heating systems, but even that comes with real expenses like installing it, buying stovepipes that go up threefloor and then the cost of punching a hole through my metal roof (that I just paid $5300 to install this spring), too.
No I think my best bet is to augment heating my first floor with natural gas furnce because the installation is minimal, and the price of gas, while rising, is still somewhat better than the cost of # 2 jhome heating oil.
But thanks for you input, Bern80, because you really have made me think about this problem (one I've been putting off for a while) and by doing so, you have galvinized me to taking steps to deal with this situation.
Note to self: move gas furnace from shedquarters to living room
this week.