Everyone has experienced a cold winter before, but have you ever experienced night after night of below freezing temperatures? When you live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain-range of California, you normally experience about 4-5 months of constant cold temperatures, and I can tell you this based on my own personal experiences. A way in which people that experience living conditions similar or worse than this is by purchasing a stove or fireplace. Upon choosing a fireplace, there are a few differences and features one must consider before finalizing their purchase. For time’s sake however, we will take a look at a few major differences one may look at, when faced with such a purchase. We will also be suggesting that this is an individual who only has the option of a free-standing stove, and due to the inconvenience of their geographic location, can only have a unit that either burns wood or propane. It must also be noted that these are actual differences that must be recognized when making the purchase of anything that has to do directly with keeping you and/or your family warm during the cold season in any mountainous location while being as price effective as possible. These differences are as follows, the cost of fuel to operate the appliance, the cost of miscellaneous parts or installation, and finally, the cost of the unit itself injunction with the cost of its maintenance. The first stove we will discuss is the free-standing, wood burning stove that is large enough to sufficiently heat a typical, 2-story, A-frame cabin. The first expense one must consider is the cost of the fuel in which it operates. For the wood burning stove, if not already previously owned by the individual, the individual must purchase enough wood to last them a full winter/cold season, about 4-5 months, equals to be about 8 cords of wood and a cord normally being 250 dollars, gives us a roundabout total of 2000.00 dollars for one season of burning. The next expense to be accounted for when determining the purchase of a wood stove is the miscellaneous parts and installation. If one can install the unit themselves then they will be able to not see an expense in installation. If the individual cannot install the unit themselves, then an installation fee of 500.00 dollars is acquired. However, even if the individual can install the unit themselves, they will acquire an expense in the purchase of piping, which includes the pipe itself, an adapter from the top of the stove to the pipe, a termination box, and the exterior cap with a built-in spark-arrestor. The cost for these miscellaneous parts and piping is just about 1450.00 dollars. The last expense that one must consider before finalizing the purchase of the wood stove is its overall cost for just the unit and the cost to maintain the unit after its purchase. The unit that will be purchased to sufficiently heat this size/style of house, and includes brick panels, legs, and door of the unit, and is about 1750.00 dollars, and to keep required maintenance for the unit, it must be cleaned yearly at the service charge of about 95.00 dollars. With the three major concerns for one choosing a wood-burning stove accounted for, the same must be done for the propane burning stove to make a more educated evaluation on their advantages and disadvantages. Upon looking at the cost of a propane burning stove, we see dramatic differences in the values of the three major concerns addressed with the wood burning stove for the same 2-story, A-frame cabin. The first expense we look at for a propane-burning unit is the cost of the fuel in which is needed to heat this individual’s home for an entire winter/cold season, 4-5 months of constant operation, which normally adds up to about 1600.00 dollars in propane. The next expense to be discussed when purchasing this propane burning stove is miscellaneous parts and installation costs. Once again, if the individual is able to install the unit themselves, they will see no charge for installation, but if unable to do this on their own, they will be charged an installation fee of 450.00 dollars for this propane unit. Also, once again, even if the installation is done by the individual, they will still see an expense for miscellaneous parts and piping needed to install the unit. These miscellaneous parts include things such as a safety wall-thimble, termination kit, pipe adapter, high-wind cap, and piping, which will normally amount to 410.00 dollars. The last cost one must consider before deciding on the final purchase of the propane stove, this again, being the cost of the unit itself and the cost to maintain the unit after the purchase. The cost of the propane burning unit itself, which includes conversion kit, fake log-set, legs and door of the unit, is about 2100.00 dollars, and the recommended maintenance for this unit is listed at once every two years for a service fee of 95.00. With our major three cost concerns addressed for the propane stove, we will be able to better show the comparison of the two stoves in question. To show a better comparison, the total costs of the three main concerns addressed for each stove are looked at. We must first look at the cheapest way one can purchase the wood burning, free-standing stove. Here, we will add the cost of fuel for an individual who has 8 cords of wood available to burn already owned (0.00), to the cost of individual who will install the unit by themselves (0.00), to the cost of piping and parts (1450.00), to the cost of the wood burning unit (1750.00), and finally the cost of the maintenance for the one year of burning (95.00), making the cheapest way for an individual to purchase this wood burning stove at a total cost of 3295.00 dollars for the first season of burning. This will change accordingly if the individual cannot install the unit themselves, the total cost for one season of burning will be 3795.00 dollars, and if the individual does not have the 8 cords required to fuel the unit, the total cost for one season of burning will be 5795.00 dollars. We will now look at the cheapest way in which an individual can purchase the propane burning stove. This is under the circumstances again, that the individual will do the installation themselves (0.00), then it is added to the cost of the fuel for a season of burning the propane unit (1600.00), next we account for the miscellaneous parts and piping (410.00), and finally add the cost of the propane unit itself (2100.00), we don’t record the service fee acquired for maintenance cause it is not accounted for until after the second season of burning, this will total all costs of purchasing a free-standing propane stove at 4110.00 dollars. If the individual cannot install the unit themselves, an additional fee for installation is acquired (450.00), which will bring the total cost of an individual wanting to purchase this free-standing propane stove to 4560.00 dollars. The obvious comparisons of the worst case scenario, wood stove at 5795.00 and propane stove at 4560.00, it is cheaper to go with the propane stove. But, when comparing the best case scenario for the wood and propane stoves, wood stove at 3295.00 or 3795.00 and propane stove at 4110.00, we see that it is cheaper to get the wood stove, even if unable to install it by themselves, when compared to the propane stove. It’s not until the price of fuel is acquired that the propane stove is cheaper than the wood burning stove. So, in conclusion, depending on if the individual has access to the required amount of wood needed to burn through the first season, the propane stove is the cheaper decision when an individual has to decide between both propane, and a wood burning stove.
