Okanagan Douglas Fir

Efficiency does not equate to economy. If a heating appliance is 80% efficient, it means that 80% of the energy put in comes back out in the form of heat. Even if you had a 100% efficient source of heat, if the energy you put in is expensive, it will still be expensive to operate.

I was being completely serious. My total cost per kWh here is $.23194, or $69.37 per million Btu at 98% efficiency. Pellets at $900/ton and 78% efficiency would cost $69.93/ million Btu. You are absolutely right about the cost of that energy.

bcarton said:

I was being completely serious. My total cost per kWh here is $.23194, or $69.37 per million Btu at 98% efficiency. Pellets at $900/ton and 78% efficiency would cost $69.93/ million Btu. You are absolutely right about the cost of that energy.

Click to expand...

Wow, electricity in NH is very expensive! I know my electricity went up this year in Maine, so you scared me to go check to see how much. Last year I paid a little over 14 cents a kWh, and this year, it's 15.3 per kWh. Whew! I thought we might be over 20 cents too.

bcarton said:

According to that spreadsheet pellets would have to reach $900/ton to cost as much as my 98% efficient electric heat.

Click to expand...

WOW!

chken said:

Wow, electricity in NH is very expensive! I know my electricity went up this year in Maine, so you scared me to go check to see how much. Last year I paid a little over 14 cents a kWh, and this year, it's 15.3 per kWh. Whew! I thought we might be over 20 cents too.

Click to expand...

For us, on Unitil, or kWH rate is about .15 per I think. But they keep raising the delivery charges. I guess there's some shortage of natural gas, and as of 11/1, our delivery charge is rising again (they just raised it in May), another 35-40%. Should be another $50/mo for us. How the states just rubber stamp this stuff is beyond me.

That rate is for Liberty Utilities, and it includes both the delivery cost and the energy service cost. The energy cost alone just shot up 47% to $.15487, and the delivery charge (over 250 kWh) adds up to $.07707. I expect to fully recover the cost of a used, installed pellet stove in one season.

$0.24 per kW in MA if you use over 500kwH per month. Last month we used 502kwH...grrrrrrrr.

That's just wrong. If you go over the 500 they stick you with the higher price for all the kWh? Here, it's a very slightly lower price for the 1st 250, then anything beyond that gets charged at the slightly higher rate.

Of course, with electric heat it's kind of academic. My winter usage gets over 4000 kWh/mo. Not anymore, starting this weekend.

bcarton said:

That rate is for Liberty Utilities, and it includes both the delivery cost and the energy service cost. The energy cost alone just shot up 47% to $.15487, and the delivery charge (over 250 kWh) adds up to $.07707. I expect to fully recover the cost of a used, installed pellet stove in one season.

Click to expand...

I included my delivery charge in the 15.3 cents per kWh. Our delivery rate is about the same, 7 cents per kWh, and our electricity cost went from 7 cents per kWh last year to 8, so we're at 15. I can't imagine all the screaming here in Maine if our utility went from 7 cents to 15 cents just for the electricity.

TimfromMA said:

$0.24 per kW in MA if you use over 500kwH per month. Last month we used 502kwH...grrrrrrrr.

Click to expand...

I would agree with bcarton. Typically, like taxes, you pay the higher rate on the incremental amount. So, you pay the lower rate for the amount below 500kwh, and you pay the higher 24cent rate on the incremental 2 kWh.

The utilities in NH have almost complete control over pricing and policy. The next thing for them is a massive power line through the middle of the state to send cheap power to southern New England from Canada with no real benefit to us. The 400 old fools that run the state are completely clueless. There is a little more competition on the supply side but the profit is on the distribution side of the bill. NH is an exporter of electric power and yet we have the some of the highes prices in the country. The utilities lobby in New Hampshire is the most powerful and influential political organization in our state funded by laws they have written.

Wow I am in Indiana and our rate per. kwh goes down with volume usedfrom .12 to as low as the .06 range but typically with all the fees and such added we average out to an all up .11 to .12 per kwh so if I can keep my stove running as sole heat source I have a chance of recovering the stove cost in 1.5 to 2 years at best. But in the mean time the room where my family spends the majority of all our time is WARM so there is big intangible benefits.

Have been using Okies since 2008. Paid $355 for Douglas Firs a month ago. Have used 15 bags and do not notice any extra heat. Ash is much less but the scraping is brutally more difficult. I feel we are using more pellets, not less, in our Santa Fe insert, which has performed fabulously. 1100 sf ranch.

jackiec said:

Have been using Okies since 2008. Paid $355 for Douglas Firs a month ago. Have used 15 bags and do not notice any extra heat. Ash is much less but the scraping is brutally more difficult. I feel we are using more pellets, not less, in our Santa Fe insert, which has performed fabulously. 1100 sf ranch.

Click to expand...

Interesting. Wonder what others will report....

Im only on my 3rd bag of DF and the house is noticeably warmer. I haven't burned enough to get an accurate assessment of ash content.

I have 10 bags of Okanagan Gold in the garage, and I'll go pick up some of the Douglas Fir this weekend. Hopefully the stove will get installed this weekend, too!

I'm in hampstead, east coast seems to sell out but they do keep getting deliveries of the NEWP (check the website as needed for what they have in stock). I have a ton of NEWP plus picked up some bags of the Oak Gold and will try them out. Maybe the next week try out DFs. The NEWP seem very ashy in my XXV and filled up the bin with a week. I'm trying out the Oak Golds, picked up a few bags to test them out and will burn for a week and see. Glass stayed relatively clean with the NEWP and doing well with Oak Gold.

My St Croix ash pan is very small.

6" wide x 12" long x 4" deep.

Even with DF, I have to empty that sucker every 2 - 3 bags.

wow guess I shouldn't complain

I had a napolean NPS40 at a different house with a huge bin, I could go 2-3 weeks without emptying....though that stove had other issues like caked burn pot.

TimfromMA said:

My St Croix ash pan is very small.

6" wide x 12" long x 4" deep.

Even with DF, I have to empty that sucker every 2 - 3 bags.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a lot of ash.... Not sure of the dimensions of my ash pan but I'd guess it's 12" x 6" x 8". And I only have to empty it after every ton even with cheap box store pellets. If my dimensions are accurate that would mean my ash pan is twice the size of yours and therefore would only have to empty it every 25 bags if it were in my stove. So hearing that even with the df pellets you have to empty every 4 bags seems like excessive ash.??

mepellet said:

Sounds like a lot of ash.... Not sure of the dimensions of my ash pan but I'd guess it's 12" x 6" x 8". And I only have to empty it after every ton even with cheap box store pellets. If my dimensions are accurate that would mean my ash pan is twice the size of yours and therefore would only have to empty it every 25 bags if it were in my stove. So hearing that even with the df pellets you have to empty every 4 bags seems like excessive ash.??

Click to expand...

Poor choice of words on my part.

The ash in my pan accumulates in 2 piles underneath and on either side of the burnpot. When those piles get near the top of the pan, I empty it. The pan isn't close to being "full".

TimfromMA said:

Poor choice of words on my part.

The ash in my pan accumulates in 2 piles underneath and on either side of the burnpot. When those piles get near the top of the pan, I empty it. The pan isn't close to being "full".

Click to expand...

OK. Got ya. Sounds better!

jackiec said:

Have been using Okies since 2008. Paid $355 for Douglas Firs a month ago. Have used 15 bags and do not notice any extra heat. Ash is much less but the scraping is brutally more difficult. I feel we are using more pellets, not less, in our Santa Fe insert, which has performed fabulously. 1100 sf ranch.

Click to expand...

As a whole, Okanagans are all about the same in regards to dry BTUs. Okie DF is rated at 9000btu, Platinum is 8900 and Gold is also 8900, so one shouldn't expect any discernible difference. The big difference should be in ash residue. The DF is rated at 0.10%, and the Plats are 0.29% and the Gold 0.21%. Having said that, basically anything under 0.3% is darn good.

I think when you go to a new variety of pellet, and are burning a whole bunch, or testing a bunch, you really need to consider tweaking your air settings in order for them to burn properly.

TimfromMA said:

Poor choice of words on my part.

The ash in my pan accumulates in 2 piles underneath and on either side of the burnpot. When those piles get near the top of the pan, I empty it. The pan isn't close to being "full".

Click to expand...

I thought Piazzettas had teacups for ash pans! Anyhow, burning DF Blazers, I can easily go 10 bags even with the teacup-sized pan before having to empty it. Mostly I do it out of routine rather than need. The PowerSmith only needs 5 secs to run around the ash pan.

JohnD said:

I just talked to a gentleman at East Coast Lumber in Hampstead, NH. I was going to order 2 tons of New England Wood Pellets and 2 tons od Okanagan Golds. The NEWP's were $279/ton and Okanagan Gold's were $299.... Both were sold out today. The gentleman at East Coast said that 3 tons of Okanagan Douglas Firs would last as long as 4 tons of the other two.... So he said the $375/ton would average out because of the quality of the pellet. I've had bad luck in the past with other so called super premium pellets....Anyone have an opinion, preferably based on experience with any or all of these brands? Thanks....

Click to expand...

Hi, just joined to answer this question even though it's a year old. I ran into it on a hit from a google search for Okanagan Fir, thought my experience might help someone.
I have burned all three brands in my hard to clean. builds up ash too quickly but throws good heat Englander multi-fuel stove. The Okanagan Fir was the hottest pellet I've ever burned and consistently so over three seasons. Also almost the priciest at $360/ton from my local supplier. I've burned over six tons at this point - so more than a small trial.
As I mentioned my stove is a bit maddening in the cleaning department so I've searched through about twenty brands and blends for a pellet that is very low ash and reduces constant vacuuming and upkeep. The Fir is far and away the best I've tried. It cuts my need to clean by a factor of five from a lot of what I consider run of the mill pellets. Very low ash, very little burn pot build up. It has the highest tested BTU/lb I've run across save one other I'm testing now. Unfortunately that one is a ridiculous (IMO) $400/ton at a different dealer. I couldn't resist a quick two bag test though.
The other two pellets mentioned - NEWP and Ok Gold I found to be good to very good although again I only ran two bags of the NEWP so far. Gold I ran a ten bag trial on last year and found them almost as hot as the Fir but considerably ashier for me in the Englander.