Home Heating - Oil versus Wood - A choice on PEI

Here is our basement prepared for the installation of a wood furnace - see the wood crib on the right!

Here is the wood furnace installed - see how neat it is

How do you insulate yourself from the high risk of ever higher oil prices? Our home heating bill is the largest single expense that we have. With 3 buildings totaling 6,000 square feet our bill last year was over $5,000. Heating oil last year was 42 cents a litre - it is now over 60 cents and where might this go in 5 years time? This equation faces all of us to some degree. Even the average home on PEI with 6 months of winter might pay $1,500 a year. What if this rose to $3,000 or even $4,000? This risk is real and immediate.

Our response? Go to wood. On PEI access to wood is easy and not too expensive. You can pay between $120-$150 a cord depending on the quality. Many have access to their own wood. A furnace fully installed and able to heat 3,000 square feet or more is about $4,000. Wood for the season is about $500 (Our monthly oil bill) While the cost of wood will rise, the effort of installing wood will keep the rise way below that of oil.

We will pay off the capital in just over a year and will then be seriously ahead of the game from then on.

But think of the pollution? Wood is from the current income stream of carbon. Oil and gas is from the sunk capital.

The effort is in storing the wood. I am finding that running the system is fun. We have also put the oil furnace in relay so if I don't get up early enough, the oil will kick in and give us our morning shower.

Things to pay attention to? A great chimney. Red Clay Construction are the chimney kings on PEI. A great Plumber who knows this technology back to front - Ross Petrie, brother of Ian the broadcaster is the man. Great wood - Sebastian Manago has a sustainable hard-wood operation in Kings and of course delivers seasoned wood.

I will keep you posted as to how this all works out