(Mmm, sitting near my wood stove watching the wind howl and snow pile up - and um, working, too - honest)
My gas forced air heater is on it’s last season. I’m thinking of replacing with a wood pellet heater. Not sure of cost competitiveness though.
CC
A rather misleading oversimplification. Ask how much wood do you have to burn to keep a house warm in a VT winter. Answer average of 4.8 - 5.4 cords per winter. And this is hardwood not pine. Next question is how many trees does it take to provide that much wood? A cord is 128 cu ft so you need 614 - 691 cu ft of wood per winter. How many acres and how much time does it take to produce this abount of wood? Answer varies depending on where you are, but I found that for Nebraska an acre produces 22 - 24 cu ft a wood a year max. So you need at least between 25 and 31 acres of forested woodlot to heat one house with wood.
BUT this isn't the end of it; trees don't fell themselves and cut themselves into convenient lengths and then transport themselves to your stove. You need fuel and equipment (you aren't going to haul 5 cords of wood in your little VW bug - think big pickup at $35,000 - $50,000) to harvest the timber and a fair amount of time to manage and harvest the timber for fuel as well, so heating with wood is a complicated expensive and resource intensive process not "mmm"
We have wood burning stove at our ranch house too. Actually it is dual fuel. Wood and Coal. There is no better way to go for heat. And we have an endless supply of fuel for ours.