around here $259.00/ton???? why??

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iceguy4

iceguy4

Minister of Fire
Nov 16, 2011
1,039
Upstate, NY
118.26 gal of fuel oil x 115,000 Btu/gal = 13.6 million Btu = one ton of wood pellets...From my standpoint (I usually burn 12 tons in my boiler) its a "no brainer" Oil is $2.15/gallon...118.26 X $2.15 =$254.25...less then pellets and next to NO work . And with the cost of fuel down why are pellet prices on the rise? We need to let them sit at the stores...Just saying
 
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It only gets worse depending on where you live. Pellets here are going for 299.00 a ton.
 
sparklow said:
It only gets worse depending on where you live. Pellets here are going for 299.00 a ton.
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Saw some ads last night on CL for pellets so maybe folks are starting to get fed up a bit. If the weather stays on the mild side for a while as it is now, maybe the price points of the BBS will be adjusted to a more realistic level. In a recent "myth-buster" conversation I had while touring a pellet manufacturer, I brought up one of the "excuses" given for the higher prices, that is the industrial pellets sold to the European market. The manager laughed and said the hardwood home-heating market and the softwood pine market used to manufacture industrial pellets don't intersect. The industrial pellets are harvested in the deep south, primarily from the yellow pine groves that exist in Louisiana. He said the hardwood trees of the north are NOT exported to the European market. I asked about the "shortage" of wood as another excuse for the higher prices in New England. He laughed again and said the industry group that monitors timber harvesting in New England just came out with their report and for every tree harvested for pellet manufacturing, 1.7 trees are planted. He told me there is a healthy margin for future demand and we are not near the point where the market has difficulty keeping up with demand. He said the higher prices are mostly attributable to the fact that raw material providers thought they could set a higher price based on last year's uptick in demand and they set their prices before the oil market prices collapsed.
 
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Hahahaha...trade yas. 350/ton here. No price breaks for buying bulk either this year. $5.99/bag across the board no matter how many you buy. Delivery extra on top of that if buying bulk.
 
See my signature line.
 
well its beyond me why anyone would support the greed that is obviously entered the pellet market. with the price of oil being cheaper then pellets there is gonnna be 12 tons not purchased by me. I hope the box stores end up giving them away this spring to make room.. I'm sitting pretty with 550 gallons of oil and not a pellet in sight. I will be poised to jump on a discount pellet later this season.
 
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iceguy4 said:
well its beyond me why anyone would support the greed that is obviously entered the pellet market. with the price of oil being cheaper then pellets there is gonnna be 12 tons not purchased by me. I hope the box stores end up giving them away this spring to make room.. I'm sitting pretty with 550 gallons of oil and not a pellet in sight. I will be poised to jump on a discount pellet later this season.
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Oh, BTW my next heat unit will be a gasification boiler with storage and back to the wood I so love to work
 
Fuel is cheap right now but all's we need is a bad storm or some refinery issues and the price could double in days. If you have a big tank and can stock up on oil while its cheap do it, but it won't stay cheap forever. The next time fuel jumps up they'll probably raise pellet prices also its a double edged sword. IMO
 
It's the price of oil that is wrong



unless you burn oil of course


it's time like this that it's nice to be able to choose where to open your wallet
 
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iceguy4 said:
well its beyond me why anyone would support the greed that is obviously entered the pellet market.
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Mainly because i ripped out my oil furnace a couple years ago and went with electric as my main heat with a propane heater in the living room. Reason being.. oil was rediculous, i needed a new furnace along with all the ductwork. (Old mobile home) did fine except working next to a woodstove everyday and then going home to electric heat just didnt cut it.. so i jumped on great deal for a stove last spring.. love the heat! Dont like the prices of pellets butttt for as warm as i can keep the place with pellets vs. Just staying warm with electric.. ill buy the pellets. I almost wish i had replaced the oil furnace right now.. but whats the price going to be next year? God only knows. I am currently researching making my own pellets as well so we will see what happens.
 
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Cedarjunki said:
Mainly because i ripped out my oil furnace a couple years ago and went with electric as my main heat with a propane heater in the living room. Reason being.. oil was rediculous, i needed a new furnace along with all the ductwork. (Old mobile home) did fine except working next to a woodstove everyday and then going home to electric heat just didnt cut it.. so i jumped on great deal for a stove last spring.. love the heat! Dont like the prices of pellets butttt for as warm as i can keep the place with pellets vs. Just staying warm with electric.. ill buy the pellets. I almost wish i had replaced the oil furnace right now.. but whats the price going to be next year? God only knows. I am currently researching making my own pellets as well so we will see what happens.
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making your own pellets???research it....not worth it
 
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iceguy4 said:
making your own pellets???research it....not worth it
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So quick to say its not worth it..?
I will explain. I work at a log home manufacturer. Specifically i do all railings and custom work. I have ALOT of white cedar scraps along with even more white pine scraps. We just hired in a grinder to take care of our 2 year accumulation and there is roughly a tractor trailer and half of the grindings.

Thoughts are just a cheap low scale hammer press and pellet press. Nothing large scale. Set up at my place of work. Possibly supplied by my employer. In theory i should be able to produce more than enough pellets for myself and enough to heat a couple of our buildings here as well. Possibly sell to a couple close friends or family but nothing on the market. With the amount of shavings and saw dust just from my machines alone would suffice the pellet making. To do it on my own id say no probly not worth it.. to do it through my job to use our scrap and to heat a couple buildings along with my own home. Yes i can see how it might be worth it.. any specific reasons i shouldnt even bother toying with the idea?
 
Cedarjunki said:
So quick to say its not worth it..?
I will explain. I work at a log home manufacturer. Specifically i do all railings and custom work. I have ALOT of white cedar scraps along with even more white pine scraps. We just hired in a grinder to take care of our 2 year accumulation and there is roughly a tractor trailer and half of the grindings.

Thoughts are just a cheap low scale hammer press and pellet press. Nothing large scale. Set up at my place of work. Possibly supplied by my employer. In theory i should be able to produce more than enough pellets for myself and enough to heat a couple of our buildings here as well. Possibly sell to a couple close friends or family but nothing on the market. With the amount of shavings and saw dust just from my machines alone would suffice the pellet making. To do it on my own id say no probly not worth it.. to do it through my job to use our scrap and to heat a couple buildings along with my own home. Yes i can see how it might be worth it.. any specific reasons i shouldnt even bother toying with the idea?
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But that's not the common definition of making your own
You're talking about an industrial small scale operation.
Not quite the same thing as "making your own".

No moving the goal posts in the middle of a discussion ! ;)

Cool project though.
 
I think the best thing is not to buy your pellets yet, when the venders sit on all those pellets they will drop the price. Overall having prices so high hurts everyone, pellet manufactures, stove company's, pellet venders and finally the consumer's. When the weather gets bad and the venders see all those pellets under the snow they will drop there prices. I'm still sitting on 2 tons but want two more but at $269. per ton I will fire up the NG furnace.
John
 
billb3 said:
Not quite the same thing as "making your own".

No moving the goal posts in the middle of a discussion ! ;)

Cool project though.
Click to expand...

Technically i would be making my own either way you look at :) but i see your point.
 
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Because they can right now. Give it a little time. With warm fall so far and the price of alternative fuels way down,they are going to be sitting on a boat load of pellets if they don't lower prices. I would only buy what you need as you need them this year. There is not going to be a shortage any where.
 
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Last year Octobrrr here was very cold and most of November too. They were pulling out fish houses in early November(December seen them floating:)) and that was a major impact on heating fuel use. Was 63 here yesterday and we have had only three mornings that were below freezing.
Way different start to the heating season. Tried to start the snowblower and that was a bust. Probably get a foot of snow next week.
 
Cedarjunki said:
So quick to say its not worth it..?
I will explain. I work at a log home manufacturer. Specifically i do all railings and custom work. I have ALOT of white cedar scraps along with even more white pine scraps. We just hired in a grinder to take care of our 2 year accumulation and there is roughly a tractor trailer and half of the grindings.

Thoughts are just a cheap low scale hammer press and pellet press. Nothing large scale. Set up at my place of work. Possibly supplied by my employer. In theory i should be able to produce more than enough pellets for myself and enough to heat a couple of our buildings here as well. Possibly sell to a couple close friends or family but nothing on the market. With the amount of shavings and saw dust just from my machines alone would suffice the pellet making. To do it on my own id say no probly not worth it.. to do it through my job to use our scrap and to heat a couple buildings along with my own home. Yes i can see how it might be worth it.. any specific reasons i shouldnt even bother toying with the idea?
Click to expand...
First those cheap Chinese machines are made for making foods such as rabbit food...much softer then wood fibers. then the time factor. they have to be put on racks and dried ... do yourself a favor and use "search tempest" to find a machine from someone else who figured he could save... anyway there is lots of info here at this site...good luck
 
flybmw02 said:
I think the best thing is not to buy your pellets yet, when the venders sit on all those pellets they will drop the price. Overall having prices so high hurts everyone, pellet manufactures, stove company's, pellet venders and finally the consumer's. When the weather gets bad and the venders see all those pellets under the snow they will drop there prices. I'm still sitting on 2 tons but want two more but at $269. per ton I will fire up the NG furnace.
John
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Am I reading this rite?? you have a natural gas furnace? why on earth are you burning pellets?
 
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iceguy4 said:
First those cheap Chinese machines are made for making foods such as rabbit food...much softer then wood fibers. then the time factor. they have to be put on racks and dried ... do yourself a favor and use "search tempest" to find a machine from someone else who figured he could save... anyway there is lots of info here at this site...good luck
Click to expand...

Im not looking to argue.. but unless you source out each and every part and build it yourself chances are its chinese. But with that said for less than 3 grand for a press and hammer delivered.. any cheapo parts can be modified later if need be. We have built our own machinery before so its not that big of deal. Have plenty of parts and plenty of motors if needed.
As for drying? I dont see the need to dry something that has already been kiln dried..? Cooled maybe yes. As for time.. that can be found alot easier than finding a couple grand to buy pellets.

Like i said im only considering it.. toying with the idea right now.

I would love to find a pellet made with cedar. But i garuntee if i did i wouldnt be able to afford it.
 
Cedarjunki said:
Im not looking to argue.. but unless you source out each and every part and build it yourself chances are its chinese. But with that said for less than 3 grand for a press and hammer delivered.. any cheapo parts can be modified later if need be. We have built our own machinery before so its not that big of deal. Have plenty of parts and plenty of motors if needed.
As for drying? I dont see the need to dry something that has already been kiln dried..? Cooled maybe yes. As for time.. that can be found alot easier than finding a couple grand to buy pellets.

Like i said im only considering it.. toying with the idea right now.

I would love to find a pellet made with cedar. But i garuntee if i did i wouldnt be able to afford it.
Click to expand...
you will find you will need to introduce moisture to get the pellet to bond to itself....Its a tricky process (research it) Ive watched videos and you need to dry the pellet after its formed. In the plant ( I have toured Vermont plant) they use fans while the pellet is still hot as it rides on a conveyer belt. Yes parts can be modified bet design flaws will be more troublesome. I would liken you using a food grade mill to wood pellets like using a vw to pull a semi trailer.. Good luck with your adventure...Im done trying to "steer you straight"
"
 
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