What's cheaper to heat a house, wood or electricity?

New house is running hydronic rayburn heating system with wood as its source of fuel, and a coonara in the main living room also needing wood.
House doesn't have much cooling so I'm going to add 2-3 split systems which heat/cool.

Prices for redgum wood is $360 per tonne, I read about 25kg of wood per day to heat the whole house, not sure how correct this is. 3bed/2bath/kitchen/large living area.
1000kg/25kg=40days.
$360/40=$9 day.
Plus costs for delivery or pick up.

Is there a best type of wood to use which gives a better return/burn time? I understand wood that's dried with less moisture Is best.

Are wood briquettes a better alternative to wood?

What's electricity roughly cost per day?

 

This is like on of those Year 9 maths questions "if train A leaves the station at 9:45am at 80km an hour and train B leaves the station at 9:50am at 90km who will get to the station first"

25kg of wood sounds insane so I think it will come down to

1. wear lots of clothes if it's cold
2. don't wear lots of clothes if it's hot
3. invest in good curtains with pelmets to reduce heat in/out
4. consider tinting windows on east/west
5. suck it and see how much wood you'll need to keep the living areas warm and use reverse cycle in bedrooms

Check into the energy efficiency of whatever split systems you buy as there could be significant savings there.

Ask previous owner for a copy of their power bills and how much wood they would use over winter to help make decision

 

Think of the environment - burning 25kg of timber will release how much CO², particulates etc?

@Westminster - the train driver will arrive first

 

I would have thought this area was your speciality.
@kierank how are your math skills, Train a or b?

 

Train B is an express and doesn't stop

 

@Westminster - both trains leave the station, do they ever return? I don't know how many platforms there are at the station nor how long either train has been there, so I can't determine from the information provided which train arrived first

 

If wood is free then I guess it can work out cheap. In an old house I think a wood heater is critical. In a well designed efficient design electric is probably cheaper for the moment. Hard to know with potential increases in power prices. If you need to get a wood heater maintained that adds to the cost ($200 per year).

 

I'm hearing similar, that wood has become much more expensive and electricity might be cheaper. Working through the figures

 

You might have acres of wood to burn - or neighbours that have excess trees.

Have you asked the old owners what they have found best? Old owners are a wealth of knowledge and in acreage situation are really really helpful. It's not like buying in the city where they just walk away.

 

Yup we have heaps of trees that we intend getting ride of very slowly, so last winter was free next winter will be free too, just a day or 2 loping wood.

Depends on what you burn too, red gum etc is the go but yeah $300/tonne is steep. Guy round the corner from us will fill a ute and trailer of mixed gum dried and split for $160 plus as much free kindling as you want. 25kg a day seems heavy too although could be up there if you keeping going all day everyday

 

Haven't moved in as yet but will ask for sure.

 

Do you think 15kg would be more realistic per day? It does get cold during winter and the 25kg per day I read was from a cold start throughout the 24hr period

 

Use a combo - there's nothing like a wood fire in winter, but the quickness of a RC aircon is gold in the mornings.

We're getting a wood heater put in for next winter, we missed it this year.

 

I use R/C aircon to lift the room temp, and then the combustion fire to maintain it in winter.

In summer have ducted evap cooling + fans + RC so no challenges for cooling

 

At $360 a tonne I imagine wood is starting to get expensive.

There are very, very cheap sources of wood regionally, but you've got to have the ability to transport it and often the machinery to cut it. If you had to hire trucks and cutting saws, it would become uneconomical.

There's also a carbon footprint to consider. I believe wood isn't the ideal fuel source environmentally speaking.

Still, I love wood heaters...

 

Wood heaters are the best!!!!!

 

Found some cheaper prices in bulk, 6 tonne bulk buying at $291split per tonne and cheaper if I buy in summer. Checked my electricity bills for the past months and we average $200 per month.
So should cost a little more if we use 25kg, seems that might be to much a day so wood does seem to be cheaper, but not by much.
And we can conclude that train B will get to the station first.

Cheers

 

What if Train B is on the same track as Train A and therefore stuck behind it

Check gumtree and places like that for wood as well. The split systems will be handy in summer too for cooling but you might not need them much in winter with the hydronic system. I have no idea about efficiency of the hydronic systems so you're on your own there.

What powers the hot water heater?