I spoke with gentleman a couple days ago who is replacing a failed outdoor corn burner and wants to continue the use of wood/bio-mass of some kind for heating his 6,400 sq ft load. He is looking at a Garn and a pellet boiler along with slight consideration of a high efficiency LP boiler.
His first preference is the Garn but he asked me what I thought given his age (60ish). He is very active and in excellent health .
He does not have his own wood supply and although he could augment his yearly consumption with a few face cords off his property, most of the fuel would have to be purchased. So basically he is looking at either buying wood or buying pellets.
Fuel costs per million btu's would be roughly $31.50 for LP, $13.70 for pellets and cut split cordwood is about $8.65 based on local prices for these fuels. (LP @ 96%, pellets <85% and wood 85%)
My concern, and his, is that given his age, handling cordwood may get to be a problem in 10 years or so. On the other hand, he does not like the added complexity of the pellet boiler and being tied to a fuel he can't produce himself.
If you were in his shoes, what would you be thinking?
His first preference is the Garn but he asked me what I thought given his age (60ish). He is very active and in excellent health .
He does not have his own wood supply and although he could augment his yearly consumption with a few face cords off his property, most of the fuel would have to be purchased. So basically he is looking at either buying wood or buying pellets.
Fuel costs per million btu's would be roughly $31.50 for LP, $13.70 for pellets and cut split cordwood is about $8.65 based on local prices for these fuels. (LP @ 96%, pellets <85% and wood 85%)
My concern, and his, is that given his age, handling cordwood may get to be a problem in 10 years or so. On the other hand, he does not like the added complexity of the pellet boiler and being tied to a fuel he can't produce himself.
If you were in his shoes, what would you be thinking?