Heating With Wood Versus Electricity- Which is Cheaper?
By Mrs Money on February 1, 2010 – 5:59 am -
photo credit: VirtualErn
When we bought our house three years ago, there was a wood burning stove in our living room. That thing is so ugly. I thought. I can’t wait to get rid of it and put a fireplace in! Fast forward to our first winter, and I’ve now fallen in love with the wood burning stove. Not to mention the time it pretty much saved our lives when our electricity went out for a week last winter!
To save money and also reduce our carbon emissions, we, like so many other frugal people, lower our thermostat during the winter. We keep it at a temperature that feels comfortable to us. I can’t help but wonder if it would be more cost effective to heat more with wood when we’re home versus using the furnace. Right now, we’re using wood from the huge tree that fell on our house a couple years ago, which I guess you could say cost us nothing, or cost us a ton of money from having to pay the deductible and the money it cost to do all the repairs to the house.
Either way, we didn’t pay any money out of pocket to purchase the actual wood. The only problem is now that we’re running low on wood, so I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth it to pay for some more wood. There’s nothing better than a roaring fire in winter. We really enjoy it. But on the other hand- is it going to cost me more to get the wood, keep the fire going etc, versus using the furnace? I’m not sure. Then I worry about the smoke causing pollution and being horrible for the environment (not that using the furnace isn’t). So it’s hard for me to tell whether or not I should use the furnace or suck it up and buy some more wood.
What do you think will save us more money: heating with wood, or heating with the furnace? Which one do you think is greener?
Posted in Green Living, Home Ownership, Save Your Money | 30 Comments »
February 1st, 2010 at 12:31 pm
I have heard that fireplaces aren’t as cost efficient as you might think, since you are supposed to keep a nearby window cracked. I think.
But anyway, I have no first-hand knowledge on it.
I think the most important thing is to have a non-drafty dwelling!
Our last apartment was fairly warm, but this one is so horribly drafty. It’s freezing in here, even if the heat is on high. We have towels and blankets over some of the windows to try to help, but I think it’s going to be cold in here until summer.
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Kacie- You are?! I haven’t heard of that. Interesting!
I agree, no drafts is awesome. It’s so weird- our bedroom, if we keep the door shut, will get to like 40 degrees! We have put insulation under the floors and there are vents in there so I have no idea what the heck the problem is.
I would love to live on an upper floor again. We were in a second floor apartment before we bought our house and the bills were a lot lower.
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February 1st, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Where DH’s family is from in the Southern Alps of France, people frequently use wood burning stoves to heat their homes. Heating here is often by electric radiator–if that’s the case, look out! In France, with the energy prices as they are, heating with a wood stove can bring the prices down compared to using electric radiators. If your heat functions on gas, the wood stove may not make much of a difference.
The cost also has so much to do with how efficient your home is. My brother in law will use only the wood burning stove to heat his new home *when needed*, but he has put incredibly thick insulation and a ‘passive heat’ system on the Southern wall to collect the heat from the sun and pipe it though the house–how cool is that?
DH and I always thought it would be great to have a wood stove, but there is also the question of pollution as you note. Apparently the wood smoke is pretty bad for the environment and is outlawed in big cities like Quebec. . .that surprised me.
I’ve also heard of people using corn burning stoves, which I find rather fascinating as well . . .
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Simple in France- That is so cool how your BIL has his house! I would love that. I think we may need to have our insulation checked by a professional. We could use any tips we can get!
Wow! I didn’t know that the wood smoke is that bad. Crazy! Corn burning stoves sound really cool. I’ll have to research that!
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February 1st, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Not long ago there was an article in the WSJ that basically said efforts to reduce pollution by replacing wood and dung burning stoves in the third world would be much cheaper and more effective than increasing the gas mileage of cars. As I recall, indoor fires emit small particles that cause 1.5 million deaths each year.
The big difference between us and the third world is they burn open fires in their house while we have chimneys.
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:01 pm
LeanLifeCoach- Wow! I hadn’t heard that. Thanks for letting me know. I would love to have geothermal heating one day.
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February 2nd, 2010 at 4:28 pm
so we use a woodstove. I love it!!! We can have our house as hot as we want…….
a few things: we do not keep a window open, I’m not sure why we would need to? It is a bit more work, but in the end it is worth it….. Our heating bill last month was $100, and that was w/a really, really cold spell (i’m in Texas), for about a week. Right now, our windows are old and very leaky, so that is our next replacement, and I know that will improve the heating. In our bedroom, since it is down the hall and around the corner, we have a corner fan, it helps pull the warm air into our room. We are also using a portable radiator, but that is just b/c our windows are so leaky.
For our wood, Joe cuts down trees from our 2 acres, and also, a lot of people want their trees cut down and hauled off, so then that is some “free” wood. Joe likes working outside, so it’s not a problem for us
Sorry this reply is sooooo long….. but i really love our stove. it may be extra work, but definately worth it overall:)
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Sarah- We love ours too! Our last heating bill was like $180! That’s why I was looking at getting more wood. I think we need to replace some windows too. Our bedroom is FREEZING but we have new windows in there so I have no idea what the problem is.
I’ll have to look on craigslist for free wood too. I wish we had some extra property like that!
Thanks so much for your comment.
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February 2nd, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Of course, I might be biased, since we pretty much heat with wood, but my personal opinion is that the emissions from home heating are so much less worrisome than industrial emissions that I would really rather the legislation take aim at industry rather than the home owner.
That said, geographic location does make a difference. It makes sense to heat with wood where we are, because of the ready supply of fuel and the fact that smoke and particulates don’t hover in the atmosphere and create air pollution like they do in, say, a valley where the air movement is very different.
As for money? SO MUCH CHEAPER to use wood, I can’t even tell you. We pay maybe $400 for the whole winter’s worth of wood. That amount of money would buy us about a week of continuous use of our oil furnace, which doesn’t even heat our big old stone house very efficiently.
In the end, it really is such a personal thing. Everyone’s situation and house are different.
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Kristin- I think they should take aim at the industry too, but I don’t know if we’ll win that one.
WOW! We had our last electric bill of $180 and I thought that was bad. I’m going to look into getting some more wood though.
I LOVE love love the wood burning stove! I just don’t like when I have to go out and get wood and it’s freezing. There’s nothing better than having the wood burning stove open and reading a book or knitting by the fire!
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February 3rd, 2010 at 12:38 am
You generally do need to keep a window cracked with a fireplace, to make sure that the chimney draws properly. However, the real loss of energy dollars comes not from the cracked window, but from the existence of the chimney itself. I’ve heard that wood stoves are more cost- and energy-efficient than fireplaces.
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:27 pm
How Green- Interesting! I really should have a professional come out and take a look at our chimney and wood burning stove. We haven’t had it cleaned and we’ve lived here almost three years. Eep!
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February 3rd, 2010 at 1:36 am
Hello there! I’m from SD and we’ve been having some pretty chilly weather lately. We mainly heat with electric baseboard heaters mounted near the ceiling, but also have a wood burning stove. We haven’t used it a whole lot this year simply because we didn’t move out here in time to cut and dry enough wood. The windows and patio doors are DRAFTY. We’ve plastic-ed over them finally and it seems to be a lot warmer in here. Anyway, when we use the wood burning stove, we can turn the electric off entirely-so nice! Just be sure you have carbon monoxide detectors and all that. One of the most informational sites I’ve found is woodheat.org, being a beginner myself! Good luck and enjoy that heat!
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:28 pm
so.dak- WOW! SD! That is a lot colder than where I live. Isn’t it amazing how much of a difference that plastic makes?!
Thanks so much for that site! It has lots of great tips I’ll have to share with my hubby!
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February 3rd, 2010 at 5:56 pm
We, too, have a “built-in” wood burning stove in our great room upstairs, and one in the family room downstairs. My husband built our home and put the stove upstairs in the wall (so it doesn’t stand alone). It keeps our 2700 sq. ft. home so TOASTY warm we often have to crack the windows (NO, you don’t have to crack them when you use one) and go around in shorts. While I don’t really care for the look of the stove-front and would prefer another “look” in the great room, it is well worth having it and putting up with it due to the heat it gives us all winter in the sub-zero temps. OH, and our 2 cats LOVE LOVE LOVE it!
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February 3rd, 2010 at 5:57 pm
OH – forgot to mention – we keep it going 24/7 (even when we aren’t home!) during the cold winter months! Every one in my family LOVES to come to our house because it’s always so darn cozy and warm!
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:16 pm
SusieQ- I would like to come to your house too! That sounds fabulous! Ours doesn’t make our house that warm
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February 4th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
I grew up with a wood stove in southern Colorado where it was really cold with no back up source of heat, if the fire wouldn’t light, it got really cold waiting for mom or dad to light it for you!!!! The way we got our would was to buy permits from the forest service and then go cut it yourself. There is nothing as rewarding as burning a log, which you know where it came from and the time and effort you know to get it!!!
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February 4th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Also if you can build a wood box on the outside of your house, and place a small door through the wall then you can fill it, and not have to have the wood sitting out in the open leaving chips on the floor, out of site out of mind basically, plus then you can still get the wood from the nice warm comfort of your house!!
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 5th, 2010 at 7:39 am
Christie- That’s really cool! When we lived in CO, we got a permit to cut a Christmas tree and we loved that
That’s a great idea. We’ll have to build a wood box when it gets warmer!
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Christie Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Just another thought….Also the type of tree you burn can have huge effects on how much emmisions you have. Such as cotton wood burns very fast and produces lots of ash where as pine burns slower and doesn’t have nearly the amount of ash. Just food for thought.
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Christie- That is very interesting! I didn’t even think about that. We are burning maple right now. I’m going to have to have someone come check out our chimney and make sure it’s fine.
Thanks for letting me know about that!
February 6th, 2010 at 1:01 am
Growing up in the “bush” of Alaska, I grew up with woodstoves, and even to this day I prefere the heating ability of a good wood stove:-)…I see you mentioned on a comment about needing to have someone look at it, I deff would not put that off, and either look at it yourself, or have someone look at it- because like anything regular maintenance equals a well working item.
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Mrs Money Reply:
February 7th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
akborn- Do you still live in Alaska? That is so cool. I’ve always wanted to visit there. I’ll definitely have someone come take a look at it soon. It will be totally worth it!
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Akborn Reply:
February 7th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
For now I am in Alaska. Would like to venture out and about but for now hanging tight and saving. Lol. Don’t live in the “bush” any more, city life. I deff say a visit here is worth a thousand worths:-) I personally is just tired of the cold lol
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Akborn Reply:
February 7th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Ment words not worth. Opps lol
Mrs Money Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
I’m going to have to make it a priority to get out there.
Christie Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Yes…chiminey fires can be deadly!!!
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March 4th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Kacie (sensetosave.com) just gave me the link to your blog so I know I’m more than a month late in my post!
We currently have a wood burning stove insert in our fireplace and at first I hated it, but after 2 years I’m sad to leave it. As his second job my husband runs a tree removal business, so he gets TONS of wood for free (and actually sells it on the side) and our bill has never been over $100 even in the deadest of winter. We use it to heat our whole house (our bedroom is furthest away and is a bit chilly, but we sleep in a cooler room anyway–it never dips below 52 degrees, so it’s safe)! We have ceiling coil heat (dumbest thing EVER) and before he had the wood burning stove, his electric bill was $250!!! So, we save $150/MONTH just by having the wood burning stove insert!
We do not keep any windows cracked, but we do have a carbon monoxide detector and clean the chimney thoroughly at the beginning/end of the season and also burn creosote removing logs once every 4-6 weeks to make sure it stays safe!
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Mrs Money Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Courtney- hi! Thanks for coming over. Kacie is the best.
Wow- $250 is crazy! That’s great you save $150 a month by using your wood burning stove! Our bedroom sometimes gets in the 50s too, and that’s with the heat on. I don’t know what is wrong with that room.
I need to have someone professionally come clean it. Better safe than sorry.
Thanks so much for your comment!
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