Wood and Pellet Stove Heating Cost

Wood and pellet heat is bought by the cord or the ton, and gas and electricity are bought by the therm and the kilowatt-hour. Those units aren't comparable, which is why so many claims about wood being cheap or expensive are unfalsifiable.

The fix is to convert everything to cost per million BTU of delivered heat — accounting for the appliance's efficiency. Do that and the comparison becomes arithmetic.

The comparison method

For any fuel:

Cost per million BTU delivered = (price per unit ÷ million BTU per unit) ÷ appliance efficiency

You need three numbers per fuel: what you pay, how much energy is in a unit, and how efficiently your appliance converts it.

Full worked method for the conventional fuels: heating cost by fuel type.

Why is wood hard to price?

Three variables move the energy content of a cord enormously.

Species. Dense hardwoods — oak, maple, hickory, beech — carry substantially more energy per cord than softwoods like pine or spruce, because a cord is a volume measure and dense wood packs more mass into it. Buying "a cord" tells you nothing about the heat in it without knowing the species.

Moisture content. This is the big one. Freshly cut wood can be half water by weight, and burning it spends a large share of the energy evaporating that water before any useful heat reaches the room. Properly seasoned wood — typically dried six months to two years depending on species and conditions — delivers far more usable heat from the same volume.

Wet wood also burns cooler and dirtier, which means more creosote in the chimney — a fire hazard, not just an efficiency loss.

Measurement. A full cord is a stacked 4 × 4 × 8 ft volume — 128 cubic feet. A face cord or "rick" is 4 ft high by 8 ft long but only as deep as the log length, so it's a fraction of a full cord and the fraction depends on how the wood was cut. Buying by the face cord without knowing the log length makes price comparison impossible. Always establish which measure you're buying.

Pellets are easier to price

Pellets are manufactured to a specification, which removes most of the variability:

• Sold by the 40 lb bag or the ton (typically 50 bags)
• Consistent, low moisture content by manufacture
• Graded by ash content — premium grades produce less ash and need less frequent cleaning

That consistency makes pellet cost per BTU straightforward to calculate and compare, which is a genuine advantage over cordwood even when the raw price per unit of heat is similar.

Stove efficiency

Modern EPA-certified stoves are substantially more efficient and cleaner-burning than older units. Efficiency and emissions figures are published for certified appliances — use those rather than assumptions.

Older, uncertified stoves are meaningfully less efficient and produce far more particulate emissions. Replacing one with a certified model is a real improvement in both fuel use and air quality.

Open fireplaces are the extreme case: they can be a net heat loss, because they pull heated indoor air up the chimney faster than they deliver radiant heat to the room. An open fireplace is an amenity, not a heating system. A fireplace insert converts it into something that actually heats.

The costs beyond fuel

Wood heat has costs that don't appear in the price per cord:

• The appliance — stove or insert, plus installation
• Chimney or venting — a listed chimney system, or lining an existing masonry chimney to the appliance's specification
• Hearth pad and floor protection to the required specification
• Annual chimney sweeping and inspection — non-negotiable
• Storage — a dry, covered, ventilated space; wood stacked on the ground reabsorbs moisture
• Your labour — hauling, stacking, loading, and ash removal, daily through the season

And pellets have one more: electricity. Pellet stoves run augers, combustion fans and controls, so they draw power continuously while operating. Modest, but it's a running cost and it creates a dependency.

The outage question

This is where wood and pellet stoves diverge sharply, and it matters if resilience is your motivation.

A non-catalytic wood stove needs no electricity at all. It keeps producing heat when the grid is down, which is a genuine advantage in areas with frequent or long outages.

A pellet stove stops when the power does. No auger, no combustion fan, no heat — unless you have a battery backup or a generator. Some models offer battery backup accessories for exactly this reason.

If backup heat during outages is a driver, size a generator or battery for the stove's load — see the generator sizing calculator and battery backup for a furnace, which covers the same problem for a different appliance.

Safety and code

This is the part that isn't optional.

Clearances to combustibles — from the appliance, the connector pipe and the chimney to walls, ceilings and furnishings — are specified by the appliance's listing and by code. They're not guidelines. Reducing them requires listed shielding installed to specification.

Floor protection — hearth pad type, size and R-value — is likewise specified.

Chimney and connector. Must be the correct type, correctly sized for the appliance, and correctly installed. An existing masonry chimney frequently needs lining to suit a modern stove.

Combustion air. A tight house may not supply enough air for good combustion and draft. Many installations require an outside air connection — and this becomes more likely after air sealing work. See how to air seal a house.

Permit and inspection apply in most jurisdictions. Insurers also frequently require documentation of a compliant, professionally installed appliance — check before you buy, because an undocumented installation can affect coverage.

Detection. Working smoke alarms and CO alarms are essential with any combustion appliance. See smoke and CO alarm placement.

Annual sweeping and inspection. Creosote accumulation is the primary chimney fire risk, and it accumulates faster with wet wood and low-temperature burning.

Air quality

Wood smoke contains fine particulate matter, and it affects both outdoor air quality and — through leakage and poor draft — indoor air.

• Burn only seasoned wood. Wet wood smoulders and produces far more particulate.
• Never burn treated, painted or manufactured wood, or household waste.
• Some areas have burn bans on poor air quality days, and some have restrictions on installing non-certified appliances. Check local rules.
• A well-drafting, correctly sized, certified appliance burning dry fuel is dramatically cleaner than the alternative.

Related: indoor air quality after electrification and why your house feels stuffy.

Where it makes sense

Good fit:

• You have low-cost or self-harvested wood and don't mind the labour
• Outage resilience matters and you want heat independent of the grid
• Zone heating a main living area, reducing the load on a central system
• You want the ambience and are honest that it's partly why

Poor fit:

• Buying retail seasoned cordwood in an area with cheap natural gas
• No dry storage space
• Nobody willing to load, tend and clean it daily
• Air quality restrictions in your area
• An open fireplace expected to heat anything

A note on comparison: before concluding wood is the cheap option, price a heat pump on the same per-BTU basis. A heat pump with a seasonal COP of 3 delivers three units of heat per unit of electricity, which often lands below retail wood on cost per million BTU — with no hauling, stacking or sweeping. See heat pump payback calculator.

The bottom line

Convert everything to cost per million BTU delivered or you're not comparing anything. For wood, species, moisture content and whether you're buying a full cord or a face cord all move the answer substantially — and seasoned wood is the difference between an efficient stove and a creosote problem. Pellets price more predictably but depend on electricity, which removes the outage advantage that's often the whole point. Get the installation done to code by a professional, sweep annually, and price a heat pump on the same basis before deciding.

Work out your own numbers with the electricity cost calculator and heating cost by fuel type.

Standards and code reference

The standards behind this guide, for looking up in the edition your jurisdiction has adopted:

• EPA 40 CFR Part 60 Subpart AAA — residential wood heater emission standards
• NFPA 211 — chimneys, fireplaces and solid fuel appliance venting

Code editions and local amendments vary. Confirm the adopted edition with your AHJ, and treat manufacturer instructions as governing wherever they are more restrictive.