Natural Gas vs. Firewood Cost Survey

By Tim Carter
©1993-2008 Tim Carter

Summary: Are you considering a gas fireplace over a wood burning fireplace? The following survey compares natural gas and firewood burning for a number of cities in the United States and clearly shows the benefits of gas fireplaces.

The following survey was compiled by comparing the cost to operate a vented set of fire logs that burned an average of 75,000 BTU's per hour vs. the cost of burning seasoned firewood at the rate of approximately 21 pounds per hour. The firewood cost was based on purchasing a full cord at one time. The gas prices are winter rates. The firewood prices were obtained from leading firewood distributors.

The first set of numbers listed under each city is for natural gas. The second set of numbers is the firewood cost.

City	Gas Log Cost	Firewood Cost
Albuquerque	$0.17 - 0.22	$0.95 - 1.22
Atlanta	$0.42 - 0.55	$0.95 - 1.20
Baltimore	$0.32 - 0.42	$0.99 - 1.27
Birmingham	$0.39 - 0.51	$0.67 - 0.86
Boston	$0.48 - 0.63	$1.06 - 1.36
Charlotte	$0.37 - 0.48	$0.65 - 0.83
Chicago	$0.29 - 0.38	$0.47 - 0.58
Cleveland	$0.31 - 0.41	$1.04 - 1.33
Columbus	$0.35 - 0.45	$0.90 - 1.15
Dallas	$0.39 - 0.51	$0.78 - 0.99
Denver	$0.43 - 0.69	$1.19 - 1.52
El Paso	$0.13 - 0.17	$1.12 - 1.43
Houston	$0.26 - 0.34	$1.08 - 1.38
Indianapolis	$0.28 - 0.37	$0.76 - 0.97
Kansas City	$0.22 - 0.29	$0.67 - 0.85
Las Vegas	$0.35 - 0.46	$1.58 - 2.02
Lexington	$0.37 - 0.49	$0.73 - 0.96
Los Angeles	$0.66 - 0.89	$1.02 - 1.61
Miami	$0.37 - 0.45	$1.12 - 1.46
Minneapolis	$0.28 - 0.37	$1.04 - 1.33
Nashville	$0.42 - 0.55	$0.79 - 0.98
New Orleans	$0.27 - 0.35	$1.08 - 1.38
New York City	$0.46 - 0.60	$1.03 - 1.31
Philadelphia	$0.32 - 0.42	$0.86 - 1.10
Phoenix	$0.32 - 0.42	$1.82 - 2.32
Pittsburgh	$0.29 - 0.38	$1.15 - 1.47
Raleigh	$0.39 - 0.51	$0.79 - 1.00
St. Louis	$0.27 - 0.36	$0.68 - 0.87
Salt Lake City	$0.63 - 0.71	$1.12 - 1.43
San Antonio	$0.28 - 0.37	$1.08 - 1.38
San Francisco	$0.36 - 0.47	$1.62 - 2.07
Seattle	$0.35 - 0.50	$0.71 - 0.92
Tulsa	$0.32 - 0.42	$0.47 - 0.60
Washington, D.C.	$0.57 - 0.74	$1.08 - 1.38

Comments

eric johnson
29 Jan 2008, 17:46

Obviously compiled by the natural gas indusrtry. Burning 21 pounds of firewood an hour would require an extremely large (castle-sized) fireplace, and would probably put out enough BTUs to heat that castle!
Compare the cost per BTU of gas and firewood- firewood is, at worst, half the price.

AsktheBuilder
29 Jan 2008, 18:09

Eric,
Those numbers in that table are, Gulp, over ten-years old....... I have been trying to get updated data from an independent source but had no luck. So the numbers of both fuels in the table could be way off.

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Natural Gas vs. Firewood Cost Survey

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