Friday night in late November. Outside, the first cold has that sharp smell of metal. Inside, the living room is split in two: on the left, an old cast-iron wood stove humming quietly; on the right, a sleek pellet stove blinking with a blue digital display. One crackles and pops, the other purrs like a fridge. On the coffee table, two quotes from two installers, one for each system. The numbers don’t say the same thing.
You scroll through forums, friends’ WhatsApp messages, horror stories about pellet prices, reassuring photos of stacked logs. Your heating budget feels like a bet at a casino you never wanted to enter.
Somewhere between the romance of logs and the comfort of pellets, there’s a cold, precise answer.
And it isn’t always the one we expect.
Wood or pellets: the real cost per kWh
If you strip away the smell of burning wood and the soft dancing flames, you’re left with one dry question: how much does each kilowatt-hour of heat actually cost? That’s where the duel between wood stoves and pellet stoves really happens. A cubic meter of seasoned logs looks impressive. A 15 kg bag of pellets looks small and harmless. Yet, on the bill, they don’t weigh the same.
Behind every cozy fire, there is a calculator quietly adding up euros.
And this is where many people get fooled.
Let’s take a concrete, very real scenario. In many European regions right now, a stere (roughly 1 m³ stacked) of good hardwood logs sits around €70–€90 when delivered. The same winter, a ton of pellets can jump between €350 and €550 depending on the market and panic buying. On paper, pellets sound more expensive.
Except a pellet stove is usually 85–92% efficient, while a typical old wood stove often hovers between 60–75%. With every handful of pellets burned, less heat flies out of the chimney.
That difference quietly reshapes the final cost per kWh.
If you do the math on a calm day, without rushing, the picture gets clearer. One stere of logs (about 1,500–2,000 kWh usable, depending on species and moisture) might cost you between €0.04 and €0.06 per kWh of heat in a well-run modern stove. Pellets, with their 4,800–5,000 kWh per ton and higher efficiency, often land between €0.08 and €0.11 per kWh in recent winters, sometimes less when bought off-season or in bulk.
The plain truth: **logs are often cheaper per kWh, but pellets use them better**. So the question shifts. Not “which costs less on paper”, but “which loses less in real life, in your real house, with your real habits?”
Installation, usage, and hidden costs nobody talks about
Let’s leave the fuel for a moment and look at what happens before the first flame. A wood stove usually means a simpler installation: a flue, sometimes a new stainless-steel liner, a hearth plate, and off you go. A pellet stove drags along a power connection, more electronics, often a specific exhaust system, sometimes even sensors and Wi-Fi control.
The initial check is rarely the same. For the same heating need, pellet systems often cost more at the start.
Yet their brain, that famous electronics, can save money later.
Think about a classic winter Sunday with a log stove. You load it too hard in the morning, the living room hits 25°C while the hallway stays at 17°C. A few hours later, the stove is out, the house cools down quickly and you relight, burning kindling again. It’s alive, it’s beautiful, but it wastes a bit. With pellets, the machine drips heat almost drop by drop. It modulates, starts and stops by itself, keeps a set temperature without you babysitting it. On paper, the extra efficiency eats part of the higher fuel cost.
We’ve all been there, that moment when we throw on “just one more log” and suddenly feel like we’re in a sauna.
The real surprise comes with the quiet, recurring expenses. Pellet stoves need electricity. A few dozen watts for hours and hours, and that means a few tens of euros per year, more if your tariffs climb. Their motors, fans, and electronic boards sometimes fail, and these parts aren’t cheap. A log stove, if it’s well built, can run for twenty years with just occasional gaskets and a glass pane changed once in a blue moon.
*Durability has a price tag, but so does comfort.* The economically “best” choice isn’t just the cheapest fuel. It’s the combination of starting cost, annual maintenance, breakdown risk, and how precisely you can control your heating. **An old log stove in an uninsulated house isn’t the same story as a pellet stove in a renovated home with good insulation**.
How to know which is really cheaper… in your life
There’s a simple method that changes everything: start from your real winter. Not from catalog promises. Take your last heating season and write down three numbers on a sheet of paper: how many kWh you used (or how many bags of pellets / steres of logs), how much you paid in total, and how many rooms you actually heated. Once you have this snapshot, compare that with the offers you’re getting for a new system.
This isn’t theoretical economics. It’s your house, your bills, your habits.
From there, you can simulate what happens if you swap logs for pellets or the other way around.
Many people jump on a pellet stove thinking it will divide their bill by two, just because it looks “modern” and programmable. Others cling to wood, convinced it’s always cheaper because the forest is “free”, forgetting the time, the chainsaw, the fuel, their back. Let’s be honest: nobody really cuts, splits, stacks and dries their own wood every single day of their life. Fatigue and age sneak in.
The best approach is almost boring: list all costs. Fuel, maintenance, chimney sweeping, potential repairs, and also your time. Then ask yourself what you’re ready to do or not to do, realistically, on a cold, dark January evening.
“The most economical stove is the one you can actually run correctly for ten winters in a row,” an old installer told me one day as he wiped soot off his hands.
- List your real costs
Fuel, delivery fees, annual servicing, chimney sweeps, electricity for pellet stoves. - Check your house first
Insulation and air leaks can swallow any savings from either system. - Test your habits
Are you often away? Lazy about refuelling? Sensitive to noise? Pellets and logs don’t suit the same lifestyles. - Think long term
A slightly more expensive but more robust installation can pay back over 10–15 years. - Use off-season opportunities
Buying pellets or logs in spring or summer can shift the economic balance in your favor.
So, which one really wins economically?
Once you lay all the cards flat on the table, something surprising appears. There’s no universal champion. In rural areas, with easy access to cheap wood, a modern, well-sized log stove can be unbeatable for cost per kWh. If someone can cut or buy local wood at good rates, has a place to store it dry, and doesn’t mind feeding the fire twice a day, the savings are very real. The “work” is part of the equation, and for some, part of the pleasure.
In dense urban or suburban zones, the story flips often. Pellets, bought in bulk, paired with a highly efficient stove that runs steadily, can end up only slightly more expensive per kWh… but far more practical.
The emotional layer complicates everything. Wood means ritual: splitting, stacking, the evening log placed with a specific gesture. Pellets mean convenience: timer, thermostat, a warm living room at 7 a.m. without getting out of bed. Economically, that comfort has a monetary value even if it doesn’t appear on the invoice. For a family coming home late, with kids to bathe and meals to cook, that value is huge. For a retired couple who enjoys tending the fire as a daily rhythm, it’s different.
Between the official numbers and the way you live, the “most economical” choice can quietly change sides.
So maybe the real question isn’t “wood stoves vs pellets: who wins?” but “which stove respects both your wallet and your reality?”. Some will mix the two: a log stove for evenings and weekends, central heating in the background; a pellet stove for regular, controlled heat and a small backup of logs for power cuts. Others will choose one path and commit.
And you? When you imagine next winter, do you see yourself stacking logs under a grey sky, or pressing a button while the coffee machine hums?
| Key point | Detail | Value for the reader |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel cost per kWh | Logs often cheaper on paper, pellets more efficient in use | Understand why the “cheapest” fuel is not always the lowest bill |
| Installation and maintenance | Pellet stoves cost more upfront and need electricity and servicing | Anticipate long-term costs, not just the first quote |
| Lifestyle and comfort | Logs require time and effort, pellets offer automation and regular heat | Choose a system you’ll really use correctly for years |
FAQ:
- Which is cheaper to run: a wood stove or a pellet stove?In many regions, a modern log stove fed with reasonably priced hardwood is cheaper per kWh than pellets. A pellet stove can come close or even match the cost if pellets are bought off-season and the stove runs at high efficiency with good insulation.
- Are pellet stoves really economical with current pellet prices?They can be, but it’s tighter. Pellets became more volatile in price in recent years. The key is bulk buying, good storage, and pairing the stove with a well-insulated home so every kWh is used fully.
- Does a wood stove work in a power cut?Yes for traditional and most modern log stoves: they work without electricity. Many pellet stoves stop immediately in a power cut because they rely on fans and electronics, unless they are specific battery-backed models.
- How long does it take for a stove to pay for itself?Depending on fuel prices, insulation, and what heating system you’re replacing, the payback is usually between 5 and 12 years. Replacing electric radiators pays back faster than replacing an efficient gas boiler, for example.
- Can I combine a wood stove and a pellet stove?Yes, some households keep a log stove for pleasure and backup, and a pellet stove as the everyday workhorse. The combo can be economical if each is used for what it does best: logs for occasional intense heat, pellets for steady background warmth.
