Savings this year?

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romarob

romarob

Member
Jan 2, 2014
10
Westchester, NY
So I open my utility bill for January's gas use and Bam! The first thing I thought was "Did I forget to pay last months bill and this is for 2 months???". Then I realized it was an average Mean Temperature of around 29 degrees last month (January), so I guess the burner needed to supplement the pellet stove quite a bit.
The question is, how much would the bill have been if I hadn't installed the stove last fall? Now, no one can give me an actual number, not knowing all of the specifics, so I suppose it's a bit rhetorical, but does everyone feel that the stoves put a big dent in their utility bill this winter? Maybe it's time to poke around my neighbors business and find out what they paid this year, compared to last year...
 
Zero spent on oil had 3/4 tank left and will use 1/4 of that. All with having stove problems. Savings on oil should be around $1500.00.
 
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John, that's excellent! I'm trying to heat up a pretty large space in an old, uninsulated house, with the "bonus" of some drafty windows, so I'm pretty sure our situations are different. Happy to hear about the savings. Less oil used, the better! Thanks for the reply.
 
BTUs is BTUs, if you burn a ton of pellets, you replaced approximately 120 gallons of heating oil, if you are heating your house the same as before. Many heat their house warmer with a pellet stove than when they were just on oil.

Having said that, I burned 3 tons of pellets this winter, so I know I replaced 360 gallons of oil. That oil would have cost me $1300, while the 3 tons of pellets cost me $800, so I saved $500.
 
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Feel free to double check my numbers

6 tons of pellets is roughly 96,000,000 btus
which equals 1,055 gal of propane.

Pellet cost was 1,580
Propane cost would have been 3,428

Total savings 1,848. And to be honest I would have used more propane than that since I have a crawlspace basement that is cold and kills the efficiency of the furnace because of the duct work
 
Only 125 gals of oil delivered and still have most of that. I did end up running oil for a while because it got so cold, I was afraid of frozen pipes.

Burnt above 3 tons of pellets so far. 1,200 sqft house. 70 degrees consistently unless I'm at work.
 
Well, got a flier from the oil/pellet company today that says "1 ton of pellets is 116 gallons of heating oil". So, my 6 tons comes to 696 gallons oil. Oil price of the day is ~$3.89, which comes to about $2700. Paid $1300 for the pellets, plus $200 to replace the distribution fan, and I'm still up $2200 vs. oil! Wow, that little calculation just made my day!

Haha! guess I didn't double-check my math (I still haven't learned from my 7th grade algebra teacher). Make that $1200 saved vs. oil - still enough to make me smile!
 
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I really can't quantify my savings but I know my stove is saving me money as my central heat is a proPain forced air furnace. With the stove, the furnace only runs when the temps dip down into the low 20s.
 
No fossil fuel burned and to date I have saved over $1650.
 
We bought 20 gallons of diesel just to have something in the tank. Didn't even use it all yet
 
Very simple for me. While using my forced hot air propane furnace, I would go through 1600 gal of propane a year. That's for heat, hw, cook top and dryer. At 3.49 per gal that's $5600. In 2010 I installed my Englander 10-cpm. My furnace hasn't been on since. I only use 400 gal of propane over 18 months. I burn 4 ton of pellets @ $700. I buy in October with a 10% off coupon every year. Just my pellet cost in 12 months is half the cost of my propane fill up in 18 months. Based on my calculations. I'm saving (not spending) $4000 for heat over 12 months. That is worth the the stacking, cleaning and maintenance.
 
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Love these threads, we are all winning over the dinosaur fluid!

We purchased our house almost four years ago. Installed the stove three years ago (1/1/2011).

Year 1: 591 gallons of oil---------------------$1797.00
Year 2: 233 gallons of oil---------------------$ 817.00 (Stove install ~ mid winter)
Year 3: 203 gallons of oil---------------------$ 641.00
Year 4: we have one more oil drop coming, but it is looking good already!

We are on course to burn about two ton this year.

Bill
 
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Another couple perspectives you can use to make you realize the savings vs oil are..

....and this is based off 120 gal of oil = 1ton of pellets

If oil was $3.69/gal, your pellet fuel would have to cost $443/ton to be a wash.

Or..

At $250/ton for pellets, oil would have to be $2.09/gal to be a wash. At $209/ton, oil would have to be $1.74

Fairly sure my ballpark simple math is correct. These figures are just based off BTU
input.
 
P38X2 said:
Another couple perspectives you can use to make you realize the savings vs oil are..

....and this is based off 120 gal of oil = 1ton of pellets

If oil was $3.69/gal, your pellet fuel would have to cost $443/ton to be a wash.

Or..

At $250/ton for pellets, oil would have to be $2.09/gal to be a wash. At $209/ton, oil would have to be $1.74

Fairly sure my ballpark simple math is correct. These figures are just based off BTU
input.
Click to expand...
The other way I like to think about it, once you do the math, is I save $150 in heating oil for every ton of pellets I burn, if I'm burning $275 a ton LG pellets. If I burn cheaper Home Depot pellets, I can save $220 a ton on heating oil. Next year, I'm going to get 6 tons from HD, so I'm already figuring that'll save me at least $1300, unless heating oil goes up more, then I might save more. Or I could get 4 tons from HD, and 2 tons of more expensive LGs from my local feedstore, and save around $1200.
 
Thanks for all of the replies!
Can anyone calculate what their year to date pellet consumption is, compared to last season in the New England area?
 
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