Heating Our Home

Luckily our home came with wood stove in our living room and a wood furnace in our garage.  Seeing how heating oil has risen to close to $4.00/gallon, I find it to be beneficial to have alternative sources to heat our home.  The picture below is of my partner, Dan, using the chain saw to cut up some of the wood that came with the house.  This was seasoned wood that we had to cut and split.  This wood we use in our wood stove.  The wood stove is wonderful.  We use it every night and it really heats our house well.  So far we have purchased 3 cords of wood, we have used about two cords and the last cord should get us to the summer.  One of the cords we purchased was split and delivered.  From now on, I think we will just buy it like that.  By the time you cut it, split it (rent a splitter), I don't think it is worth the $20/cord you save.  The average cost for a cord of seasoned wood split and delivered ranges from $200-225.  For logs of wood it is around $175-200 a cord.  I would compare a cord of wood being equivalent to 100 gallons of oil.  So you can see there is definitely a price difference in oil and wood.

I mentioned we also have a wood boiler furnace.  Unfortunately this broke on us at the beginning of winter.  Due to being on a tight budget after moving, we decided to wait and have it fixed this summer.  We know nothing about wood boilers and want to have it fixed right.  You don't want to mess around with it.  The photo below is of the 3 cords of wood we purchased for the wood boiler that is stacked in our wood shed.  We haven't used it, but it will be well seasoned by next winter and we will split it for our wood stove probably.

We have had to purchase oil to help with heating this winter.  So far we have only gone through 200 gallons.  We are getting ready to purchase another 100 gallons that will easily get us to summer.  This summer we really want to insulate our house better in a few areas.  We are pretty conservative with our heat and keep our house temperature low.  We are both gone 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week.  I don't see the purpose in having the heat up for that time.  Usually our thermostat is set at 50 degrees.  When we come home and fire up the wood stove that will raise the house temp to between 60 and 70 degrees.  We are comfortable with the house temperature like this, I am sure not everyone would be.  If you don't have a wood stove or pellet stove, I would recommend looking into one.  It is amazing how well they heat, it is a different feeling of warmth, really wonderful and comfortable.  Plus I think it is good to find alternative ways to heat your home.