To add in, it costs me approx $1150 a year (Gas) to heat a well insulated century home..
I'm am using a 15yr old forced air furnace that would at best be around 60-70% efficient

How much does a cord of Wood cost ??

$350

A full cord cost me $185. Not bad stuff either.

Interesting stuff, Reading up on this I found that there could also be significant difference in heat/energy output between wood types, woods such as oak and apple putting out twice the heat per cord compared to the lighter woods such as aspen and white cedar, think maple sat somewhere in the middle

So you have wood type, quality of wood, and seasoned or not to factor into the price

This is starting to sound more like cooking than heating your house, DH will be out fishing and trying to shove it into the wood burner at this rate.

Or you could set yourself up as a tree surgeon, thus earning an income and heating the homestead for free.

Does no one sell the swedish type stoves in Canada then?

My 2c regarding wood heat...

I've a Pacific Energy stove designed to heat 3,000 sq/ft. at 80% efficiency (http://www.pacificenergy.net/pacific...it_classic.php).

My house is on 3 floors, 4,600 sq/ft in total, and utilizes electric baseboard heaters in each room. Hydro bill per month is $105 - this is the sole utility bill I receive and covers all baseboard heat, hot water and kitchen appliances.

I use roughly 2 cords of wood per winter, and burn fir - it lasts far longer than pine. If I purchase wood, pine is generally what's delivered, and it costs c$150 per cord, maybe a little less - that's a delivered and stacked cost. A weekend spent on Crown Land with a chainsaw gets me the same amount of wood for nothing more than my time and trouble.

I live out of city limits, so have no fire coverage. My home insurer was very picky about the stove I chose, and how it was installed. There's also a 3 cord per season limit on how much wood should be burned in it (how they'd ever monitor that, I've no idea). The stove burns very efficiently - since November the ash tray has only had to be emptied twice. The heat it generates means that the main and upper floors of the house have all the baseboard thermostats set to around 17 degrees and they rarely turn on.

Like most things, looks simple at first glance

My uncle's a joiner so for him to heat with wood is a no brainer,
for me it’s a lot of effort for what would most likely provide inferior heating and no cost benefit

but that’s an LHV value, a value that has already taken into account a 10% loss up the chimney, when comparing it to electricity or gas that puts its efficiency as a fuel source rather than a wood stove at 70% still very good (when you consider the average fireplace is around 10%)

I care little about the semantics of what the value means. I just know my house costs bugger all to heat all winter.

Of course, but as you stated its free wood...

and if I had easy access to free wood then my wood fireplace may still be in place, but when its not free then the percentages count

True, but if I paid for it, my annual heating cost would rise by an average of $25 p/mth, which is a negligible amount given that a fire's not just about the heat given out, there's also the ambiance and focal point it gives to a home.

I agree with this.

Outside of late fall/winter the climate here is much better than the UK and summers are typically longer, sunnier and warmer. Winter though, can be very manchester esq...although this winter has not been too bad overall and skiing can be had as easily as elsewhere in Canada.

To give some perspective, white rock gets about 2100 hours of sun a year...cornwall about 1400 and a large bulk of those extra hours occur during spring and summer. Spring arrives sooner here than the rest of Canada (sometimes as early as late feb) and summer tends to stick around longer.

An over-looked area here where reasonable acerage can be bought is the campbell valley (langley). A bit more than an hour (hour and 15??) to downtown Vancouver. But much less than that to local town centres.

a bit too rural for me personally....it does, at times, remind me of the the english country side, minus decent pubs and quaint villages of course.

http://www.realestatevancouver2010.c...lley/F1200443/

http://www.metrovancouver.org/servic...ellValley.aspx

For me my price would be much closer to DBD's at around $300 a cord, which would put it on par with gas, add in the insurance premium for keeping the stove and I’d be losing out

I totally get the ambiance thing…

But I will say many come with some Butt ugly chimneys, and sorry looking set ups that seriously ruin the effect (mind did)

our wood is $200 per cord and 4 cords were delivered in August in two loads. Compared to what it cost to heat on electric, its costing 50% of that to heat with wood.