Wood Stove vs Pellet Stove: Cost to Heat a Home in 2026

Heating with wood pellets costs about $20 per million Btu of delivered heat, using EIA’s June 2026 pellet price of $261.19 a ton. At last March’s EIA prices, heating oil delivered the same heat for about $50, propane about $37 and electric resistance about $54. Only natural gas, at about $14, beat pellets. For a home that needs the heat that 399 gallons of oil provides, that works out to roughly $875 a season in pellets against $2,208 in oil (our arithmetic). Cordwood can be cheaper still, but only if you pay less than about $300 a cord, which is the break-even price against pellets.

For the oil and propane side of the comparison, see heating oil and propane prices in 2026, and for the full-fuel picture, winter heating costs in 2026.

The Fuel Inputs

Every figure below comes from one of these sources, or is labeled as our assumption.

Two cautions. The pellet price is what U.S. manufacturers averaged on domestic sales, not necessarily what you pay for a bag at a store, so a delivered or bagged price can be higher. Pellet Finder, citing a Maine dashboard, listed $357 a ton in Maine on August 17, 2026. And the oil and propane prices are last March’s, the final EIA readings before the weekly survey paused for the summer. They are a high point for oil.

Cost per Million Btu of Heat

Fuels come in gallons, tons and kilowatt-hours, so the fair comparison is the cost of the heat that reaches your rooms. That means dividing each fuel’s price by its energy content and by an efficiency. Our assumptions: 80% for pellet stoves and for oil and propane equipment, 95% for a gas furnace, 100% for electric resistance, and 75% for a wood stove. EPA says certified pellet stoves usually run 70% to 83% efficient, so 80% sits inside that range.

At last March’s price, oil cost about two and a half times as much as pellets for the same heat. In October 2025, when oil was $3.555, the oil figure was about $32, so oil still cost about 60% more than pellets (our arithmetic).

What a Season Costs

A single reference home makes the table concrete. EIA’s 2025-26 outlook assumed an oil-heated household burns 399 gallons a winter. At 138,500 Btu a gallon and 80% efficiency, that is about 44 million Btu of delivered heat (our arithmetic). Supplying the same heat with each fuel costs:

Pellets at the Maine price of $357 a ton would cost about $1,196 for the same heat, still well below oil or propane at March’s prices. A pellet stove also needs electricity for its motors, and we found no verified wattage figure to include, so that extra cost is not in the table. EPA’s pellet stove page does say most models need power to run the feed and fan.

Where Cordwood Fits In

Wood is the hardest fuel to compare because the price depends on whether you buy, cut or collect it. Rather than guess a cord price, we worked backward: the cord price at which wood matches each fuel’s cost per million Btu. A cord holds about 20 million Btu (EIA), and at 75% efficiency a cord delivers 15 million Btu, so the break-even cord price is the other fuel’s cost per delivered million Btu times 15.

Seasoned hardwood cords were listed from roughly $150 to $575, with an average around $300, in recent search listings for 2026 (as reported in search listings; we did not verify an individual dealer’s price). If that holds where you live, wood beats oil, propane and electric by a wide margin, ties pellets at about the average, and rarely beats gas. A reference home needs about 2.9 cords a season at 75% efficiency (our arithmetic), which is a lot of splitting, stacking and drying. If you cut your own wood the fuel cost can approach zero, and the work becomes the cost.

Wood Stove vs Pellet Stove: Practical Differences

• Efficiency. EPA says certified stoves are up to 50% more efficient than older ones and use about a third less wood for the same heat, and that overall efficiency can be 10% to 20% lower than the combustion efficiency in advertisements. Check the overall figure for any model you consider.
• Power. Pellet stoves need electricity for the feed and fan, according to EPA, so they stop in an outage unless you add battery backup. A wood stove runs without power. If outages are your concern, compare it with our whole-house generator cost guide.
• Work. Wood needs splitting, drying and stacking. Pellets come in bags or bulk and feed automatically, but EPA recommends professional cleaning at least once a year for pellet stoves, and a wood stove’s chimney also needs regular cleaning.

We did not find a verified national price for buying and installing either type, so that cost is left out. Get written quotes that include the chimney or vent, a hearth pad and any permit, then divide the cost by the yearly fuel savings from the tables above.

How to Spend Less

• Price the fuel before the stove. Pellets or cordwood only pay back if they replace oil, propane or electric resistance. Against cheap natural gas they rarely do.
• Buy fuel in the off-season. Ask suppliers about summer or early-fall pricing, and store pellets dry.
• Use the stove as a supplement. Heating the main living area and turning the central thermostat down for the rest of the house is where most savings come from. Our space heater cost guide explains the same logic, and the space heater cost calculator shows the electric alternative.
• Check a heat pump. At 18.31¢ per kWh it delivers heat for about the same cost as pellets with no fuel handling. Try the heat pump payback calculator.

The Bottom Line

Wood pellets deliver heat for about $20 per million Btu at EIA’s June 2026 price, which is well below oil, propane and electric resistance and above only natural gas. A reference home costs about $875 a season in pellets against $2,208 in oil at last March’s price. Cordwood beats pellets if you pay under about $300 a cord. Natural gas, where available, still wins on running cost.

FAQ

Is a pellet stove cheaper than a wood stove?

Depends on your cord price. Our arithmetic gives pellets about $20 per million Btu delivered at $261.19 a ton, and wood matches that at about $297 a cord at 75% efficiency. Below that cord price, wood is cheaper; above it, pellets are. Cutting your own wood lowers the cost further but adds labor.

Is heating with wood pellets cheaper than electric heat?

Yes by a wide margin on running cost. At 18.31¢ per kWh (EIA, July 2026), electric resistance heat costs about $54 per million Btu, against about $20 for pellets. A heat pump at a COP of 2.5 (our assumption) costs about $21, similar to pellets.

Is a wood or pellet stove cheaper than heating oil?

At last March’s EIA price of $5.535 a gallon, yes: oil cost about $50 per million Btu delivered, compared with about $20 for pellets. At October 2025’s $3.555 a gallon the oil figure was about $32. Compare using your current oil price.

How many pellets does a house use in a winter?

For the reference home in this guide, about 3.3 tons (our arithmetic, assuming 16.5 million Btu per ton and 80% efficiency). Search listings cite 2 to 3 tons for a typical season; actual use depends on your house, climate and how much of it the stove heats.

Do pellet stoves work in a power outage?

Most don’t. EPA says pellet stoves need electricity for the motorized feed and fan, though some gravity-fed models don’t and backup battery options exist for certain models. A standard wood stove needs no power.