Heating with oil and propane is still the most common method outside the cities. We have a natural gas line here in Nashua, NH and north through Manchester and up to Concord. There is also a line that runs from Canada down through Maine right along the Atlantic coast. However, everyone else has the choice between heating oil and propane. Therefore, most people have some other kind of supplemental heat source for their home. Wood stoves and pellet stoves are the most popular.
In the last few years some companies have come out with wood pellet furnaces. These are fed by a hopper that is installed outside of your home. Therefore, you need a delivery company that can blow the pellets through a pipe to the location of the hopper.
Lastly, the least expensive fuel(unless you have free wood like me)is anthracite coal. Coal has become a dirty word and companies promoting it do not call it that anymore. None of these heating system alternatives are cheap to install. They can run from $2000(for a cheap stove) or $15K for the pellet furnace/hopper system. There have been state and federal tax credits available to help subsidize the cost. There is even a town in northern NH trying to get hundreds of people to switch to support the local pellet mill in their town. They are offering specific tax incentives to help subsidize the pellet furnace installation.
Wood pellet heat is much more common in Europe than it is in the US. There are many electric generation plants in EU using bulk wood pellets to fire their plants. There are several wood pellet plants planned for construction along the eastern US coast just to supply pellets to be shipped to Europe. Europe has mandated that their CO2 production must decrease. Therefore, coal consumption is going to go down. They will switch the electric generation fuel to either natural gas(from Russia or the ME)or wood pellets from North America.
If you are in the Midwest, you might want to look at something else:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDMQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.deere.com%2Fen_US%2Fparts%2Fmedia%2Fpdf%2Fhomeandworkshop%2Fstoves%2Fcorn_stove_brochure_08_08.pdf&ei=m3gLU86aG7C4yAGhi4GQCA&usg=AFQjCNGvuSUUPfjfpL_MbLPH02Y_N8-O4Q&sig2=npzOkQzP-Koz1tbPLTg3bQ&bvm=bv.61725948,d.aWc&cad=rja
Its a pdf download from John Deere. The table of interest didn’t copy well, but the numbers are there.
Heating Cost Comparison for Traditional and Alternative Fuels:
1. Fuel Type, 2. BTU Value per Unit, 3. Units Required to Produce 1,000,000 BTUs, 4. Fuel Price per Unit, 5. Cost to Produce 1,000,000 BTUs, 6. Appliance efficiency, 7. Effective Cost Per 1,000,000 BTUs
Shelled Corn 7,500/lb. 125 lbs. (2.23 bushel) $5.58/bushel $12.44 85% $14.64
Electricity 3,143/KWH 293 KWH $.10049/KWH $29.44 100% $29.44
Natural Gas 100,020/cu. ft. 1,030 cu. ft. $15.89/100 cu. ft. $16.37 85% $19.24
Fuel Oil 139,000/gallon 7.1 gallons $4.25/gallon $30.18 80% $37.73
LP Gas 91,690/gallon 11 gallons $2.209/gallon $24.30 80% $30.38
Wood 16,464,000/cord 0.0607 cords $195/cord $11.84 60% $19.73
Wood Pellets 8,000/lb. 125 lbs. $180/ton $11.25 87% $12.93
Friday’s closing price for corn delivered to the elevator was for our farm was $4.22, about the highest since before harvest. The summer of 2013 was not good growing year, yet the total yield was a record high. The extra yield is likely due to drought resistant genetics of the new corn. In my opinion, if we ever have an average or better growing season, the farmer’s price of corn will be below $3.
I have heated exclusively with wood pellets for the last 5 years as have many people in my Town. This is the first year that local suppliers have run out, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Tractor Supply, Walmart and a number of others.