Home Heating Costs - Yikes!

Its February in New York and I am about to go downstairs and stoke up the fire. I have a pretty decent wood stove with a catalytic converter and a built-in fan. It does a great job of heating the main room of the house and there is something about having a fire at home that just feels good. But until this morning I didn't fully appreciate just how much that fire is saving me money as well.

I have been working this morning on a new section for the Energy Bible on home heating costs. I was leveraging a nice little chart that I got off of a Department of Energy Web site that shows the comparative BTU's for different types of fuel sources such as heating oil, natural gas, electricity, wood, etc. Its a useful chart because otherwise comparing the potential costs of different fuels is difficult since they all use different units of measurement when you buy them. For example, heating oil and propane are measured in gallons but wood is measured in cords, coal in tons and natural gas in a special metric called therms. Without a chart like this determining your best fuel option is rather difficult.

My home is heated with #2 fuel oil and its cost has gone through the roof in the last year. I knew it was bad but I didn't realize how bad until I used the chart and some government data to see what the run up has been. According to the DOE the cost of fuel oil has gone up 94% in just one year! If you ever needed proof the the post peak oil crises is already upon us there it is. And its not much better for other types of fuel. Propane for example has gone up 52% in one year.

I see these numbers and wonder what the heck those of use who live in northern climates are going to do in the long run. It would be naive to think that the price hikes are over. Heck, this week a barrel of oil just went to over $100 per barrel and many analysts think it could be between $150-$200 by this time next year. Its not like we can look to the government to bail us out given that the oil boys, Bush and Cheney, are in office for another year. Moreover, a bail out is only a temporary solution for a government that has just ballooned its national debt like crazy in the last seven years. I strongly suspect that we will truly begin seeing the start of a national migration to warmer climates given these costs but that is not something that can happen overnight. Housing prices area hitting new lows and the inventory of houses is completely overloaded. Many people couldn't sell if they wanted because they would take a huge loss. So what is a person to do?

Well, it does strike me that heating with wood is one option. I ran the numbers this morning and at current national prices ($3.40 for fuel oil and $190 for a cord of wood) the cost of heating with wood is less than half the cost of heating with fuel oil assuming one has a reasonably efficient wood stove. A thousand gallon of oil costs $3400 and the equivalent heating capability using fire wood (a bit over 8 cords) would only cost you $1,546. That is a pretty dramatic difference and it is only going to get bigger as fuel oil and other home heating fuel costs continue to rise.

Take a look at the analysis in the Bio Energy section of our Web site and see what you think. With the charts I provided you can quickly compare any heating fuel such as oil, natural gas, electricity or propane with the cost of heating with wood. I bet the numbers will surprise you as they did me.