NoMoreOil - 21 July 2008 02:33 PM

Just curious - you say that you have burned 4 tons / year without a hiccup....  How big is your house ?  One story ?  Two ?  How warm do you keep it ?

This will be my first year.  I have a Quad CB 1200

I don’t know where in Central Maine you are - but ‘plenty of pellets’ does not exactly describe the Bangor-area.  I hope that there are more coming down the road.  I have 3 in my cellar, and 3 more on order from Dysart’s.  I hope 6 is enough....

6 Tons is a LOT.
I burned 5 last year between 2 stoves running pretty close to 24X7. The Harman in my basement stayed on the very lowest setting most of the year, but the Hastings on the main level ran around midpoint. Altogether I am heating just under 2000 square feet with the two stoves. The only LP I burned last year was for hot water, and a small Rinnai unit in my son’s room.
The room where my St Croix stove is kept around 72...with most of the rest of the house around 67-70.
Not sure how big your home is, but it sounds like there is a good chance you’ll carry over some pellets for next year.

It is going to be really interesting if the pellet manufacturers really crank up the production for 2009 only to find out that 1000’s of new stove owners overbought...and have extra supply going in to next year. There could be some phenomenal deals on pellets next Spring.
Also, you wonder how the craigslist resellers are going to make out trying to gouge people this winter. My sincere hope is that new supplies will be coming on line in late fall and that the gougers out there will have to “eat” their pellets

Hello all,

We’re new to the pellet stove world, our insert is installed but not fired up yet. Got a question for all you pros burning pellets here in Central Maine. As I read the threads I see people buying in bulk. I was warned not to purchase in bulk because the pellets are easily broken down by moisture. Should this be a concern? Is anyone burning anything but pellets? Our stove will do corn and a few other materials. Also without a truck I am not sure the best way to be purchasing. Any help for the beginner would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Quadra Fire Mt. Vernon AE Insert.

Joe, I wouldn’t have any concerns about buying pellets in bulk. I have bought 3-4 tons in the fall or I have bought 10 bags at a time during the heating season. Both work, but having them on hand is piece of mind and easy.

That being said you have to decide where you are goign to store them. Basements are fine if they don’t get wet or really damp. I have a cheap humidifier going to keep the air 45%. No problems.

Stove shops and manufactorers store pellets otuside, so they are not as fragile as some may think.

My wife drives a Subaru Wagon and can get 15 bags home at a time. I can put 25 in my SUV.

You can also go to Lowes or HomeDepot in Augusta and rent a truck from them for 19.99 for 75 minutes and use that to transport your pellets. You don’t have to buy them from them, you can drive right to a stove shop, etc.

Hope that helps.

Thanks a lot. We have a barn, no where close to air tight, but dry enough. Certainly in the winter we expect the air to be drier than it’s been this summah. My thought was to bring in a ton at a time in the barn and then transfer a few bags at a time to the storage bin we’re locating near the fireplace. I bought my stove from The Stove Barn. At the time the buying process started we were being quoted $240 a ton through them. Now they can’t get pellets and when they can it’s $265. Where should I be looking to buy? I’ve heard Knight’s Farm Supply and Springbook would be good places. Any more thoughts?

Alternative Heating Solutions on Western Ave right almost across from Pat’s pizza in Augusta, near the state house had many tons out front last night when I drove by. Athen’s pellets. 265 a ton.

Knights has a big list for waiting for the cheaper pellets, but has some expensive hardwood for 280 I think.

Rocky’s Stove shop in Augusta has been getting in a lot and that’s where I have been buying mine. Gets weekly shipments.

Home depot in Augusta had some the last time I went in.

Get a list and a rotation and call around every couple days.

Joe in Maine - 22 July 2008 09:39 AM

Hello all,

We’re new to the pellet stove world, our insert is installed but not fired up yet. Got a question for all you pros burning pellets here in Central Maine. As I read the threads I see people buying in bulk. I was warned not to purchase in bulk because the pellets are easily broken down by moisture. Should this be a concern? Is anyone burning anything but pellets? Our stove will do corn and a few other materials. Also without a truck I am not sure the best way to be purchasing. Any help for the beginner would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Quadra Fire Mt. Vernon AE Insert.

We have a US stove bio-mass and a corn stove.  Corn burns great, we buy bulk last year was $125 a ton from farm in southern nh, but sure will go way up this year.
There used to be a co-op in maine to purchase corn from, think it was on the western part.  Good luck, we also mixed corn and softwood corinth pellets and had no problem.

It looks very interesting to me, The people may be having a clean look to this.

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GAYATHRI

Maine Treatment Centers

Lets face it, a lot more people will be burning pellets this year in Maine than ever before.  With the price of heating oil so high no one wants to run out of pellets especially after they have doled out $3,000. for a new stove.  So not really knowing how much they need and if there is going to be a shortage, many people are opting to get their pellets now and not take the chance. 

Prices should come back down in the spring if not late winter.  It all depends on oil prices this winter.  The higher oil goes the more people will make the change.  If oil goes down a little, less people will change over and pellet prices may drop sooner than next spring.

I am heating apartment houses with pellets and I could not afford to be caught running out of pellets this winter so I have 11 ton on hand.  I worked at finding the best deal I could and got some other people who needed pellets involved and ended up getting 10 ton for $170./ton.  That was a one time deal for this year. 

Next year I plan on having a silo up and getting bulk.  By that time there will be enough people in Maine delivering bulk so there will be some competition in that market too.

All you guys that have made the change over should think about putting in some type of bulk holding system.  This will be cheapest way to buy pellets in the future and will be a lot less work too.

As far as I’m concerned I have made the change over from oil and I will never look back.

I am hoping that the supply of pellets is not going to be an issue for years to come.
At the very least, we will have 2 ways to heat the house.
Whichever is cheaper is the one we can use.

I am looking forward to that hot air coming out of the stove and not hearing the furnace run!
When I had looked at the Quad’s the dealer checked the temp of the air coming out of the stove.
It was up near 150 F.  Sounds good to me!

I have a stove full of ash in three days, rather than in two weeks, they put our a lot less heat and burn and start HORRIBLY!! Unfortunately I cannot take these pellets back to the store, so I have been mixing in 25% corn with the pellets to get them to burn even close to okay. So a word of advice from a friend, don’t EVER buy Pennington pellets, its not worth it.
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maria

Maine Drug Treatment

I purchased one bag of Pennington pellets at Homedepot, they look cheap. Lots of powder and they don’t smell fresh. I’m guessing these pellets are made with garbage and sawdust.

tyru007 - 29 April 2008 01:23 PM

Anyone have suggestions for places to buy pellets in central Maine location?

I know I added this here last May but since I have added much more to the Maine DIr. and other /roots/ of the site. All are complete with links, address, phone and email

http://www.woodpelletfuel.org/find_pellet_fuel/Maine/