Burning wood for home heating.

Reducing our home heating oil bill has become a top priority. As we end our heating season and total up the expense for heating our home this past winter, the cost exceeded $4000. Included in this is an insurance "budget cap" that guaranteed we paid no more than $3.85 (I think) per gallon of fuel oil this year. We can't afford to pay by the fill so we sign up for a budget plan that estimates our usage, the cost of oil and splits it all into 12 monthly payments. When you sign up for one of these budget plans, in the small print, it tells you that the insurance costs an extra $149. per year. And this cost doesn't even include yearly service on our oil burner.

In an area with abundant wood, it makes sense to investigate burning wood (in multiple forms). The ideal situation would be to burn cord wood. Living in Maine, we have an abundance of wood and good folks that make their living from cutting and selling firewood. We ourselves have 55 acres of woods. So, for the cost of my labor, we ideally pay little for the wood we burn. For each of the options I investigated, it's important to calculate the payback period. This is the time it takes to "pay ourselves back" in savings vs. our initial investment. Any of these options requires operator addition of fuel. So, yes there's a bit more effort involved in burning wood but eliminating most of $4000. to heat our home (2010-11 costs) is worth the trade off.

Option #1: Pellet stove.
Pros- Easy to use. Minimal install (one, 3-4 inch hole through the wall).
Cons- Need to pay for pellets at $250/ton. Uses electricity. Weekly take apart and clean. Pellet stove can't heat whole home; maybe basement & 1st floor at most. Still have to burn oil. "Space heater".

Option #2: Wood Gasification Boiler
Pros- Would use existing hot water baseboard plumbing to distribute heat to whole house. Burns cord wood that we could cut off our lot = little cost for fuel.
Cons- Price tag starts at $7500. not including install & chimney. Requires electricity. Would have to build small addition to our home to keep boiler inside heating envelope. Couldn't afford water storage system that would increase efficiency of boiler.

Option #3: Wood Stove
Pros- No electricity required. Burns cord wood we can get ourselves.
Cons- Would have to install $2000. chimney which requires some interior remodeling and loss of closet space. May not heat whole home. May still have to burn some oil. "Space heater".

We've chosen option #3. Our financial resources are not unlimited and this was the most affordable option with the quickest payback. We've purchased a Vermont Castings Defiant. It was the end of the heating season and we received $280. off. This list price of this stove was about $2800. We have yet to get a quote on chimney costs and are comparing steel double wall vs. traditional masonry. We're estimating about $2000. for the chimney.

At our annual cost in 2010-11 of $4200 year, here are estimated payback figures.

Option 1: Pellet Stove (incl. vent kit) $2800. = 0.67 years*
     (BUT then subtract 5 tons pellets at $250. per year, $1250. per year and the cost of fuel oil, $2100.)
     (*this option may only reduce our heating oil expenses 50%)

 Option 2: Wood Boiler (incl. chimney, install) $12,000. = 2.86 years
     (may still have to burn some oil early in the morning and if it gets real cold)

Option 3: Large wood stove. $2660. + chimney $2000. = $4660. = 1.1 yr payback
     (may still have to burn some oil early in the morning and if it gets real cold)

While none of the options are ideal (what is ideal?) We feel investing in a large wood stove (this is the biggest they make) has the potential to reduce our heating cost the most.

A consideration. Both a pellet stove and wood stove are space heaters. They will be warmest closet to the appliance leaving cool spots towards the walls. So, we will add some vents between floors to take advantage of natural convection and also install a duct over the stove to take heat to the second floor.

I'll add more as things progress.