Burning oil just feels wrong

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Michael6268 said:
?????
I assume you mean you will be heating only a portion of the house with the stove as opposed to the whole house with the furnace...
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I wouldn't make that assumption, I am unsure about Tonyray's situation, but in my situation you would be mistaken.. I heat my whole house (basement and main floor) for less than I can heat my main floor using propane. The main floor is the only place my FHW pipes are run, so I don't even have the option to heat the basement that way.
 
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bogieb said:
I wouldn't make that assumption, I am unsure about Tonyray's situation, but in my situation you would be mistaken.. I heat my whole house (basement and main floor) for less than I can heat my main floor using propane. The main floor is the only place my FHW pipes are run, so I don't even have the option to heat the basement that way.
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Assuming that oil is cheaper as stated, and assuming the furnace is sized and working appropriately., there is no way pellets are going to be cheaper or cost the same to heat the same sq ft or in your case more sq ft...
 
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There are a lot of assumptions there, to make another assumption :)
 
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I wonder why so many former pellet burners come here to try to tell the rest of us we should be using Oil...:mad:
run your furnace and don't worry bout the rest of us... we'll be fine with our stoves..
If we haven't decided to use oil by now, nothing you preach is going to change that..
btw: my Harman P61A heats the whole house after it's been on for quite a while then it's just on 24/7
furthest away from the stove? somewhat cooler by 4 degrees. not a deal breaker..I prefer the cooler end myself..
 
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Michael6268 said:
there is no way pellets are going to be cheaper or cost the same to heat the same sq ft or in your case more sq ft...
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Yeah... we get it!
so_what.JPG

Dan
 
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Michael6268 said:
Assuming that oil is cheaper as stated, and assuming the furnace is sized and working appropriately., there is no way pellets are going to be cheaper or cost the same to heat the same sq ft or in your case more sq ft...
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that's the point!!
even if it cost more to use pellets, so be it...
cost more to fly 1st class than coach even though everyone aboard is going to same place but people still do it.
personal comfort & preference rules if u can afford it..
 
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Michael6268 said:
Assuming that oil is cheaper as stated, and assuming the furnace is sized and working appropriately., there is no way pellets are going to be cheaper or cost the same to heat the same sq ft or in your case more sq ft...
Click to expand...
In my case, I bought 150 gallons of propane last month for $500 (ok, it was only $499.58). I go thru 200-300 (or even more in extreme cold) gallons per month during winter and keeping the thermostat at 64* . The boiler is old and the FHW is only run to the main floor, so I don't have the option of heating the basement.

I can easily heat the entire house at less than 2 tons a month, even with chit pellets (2 tons = $500). So yes, it really is cheaper for me to heat my whole house to 70-72* with pellets. Although I don't "need" to heat the basement to 70, it makes for warmer floors on the main floor, and since I like to go barefoot in the house; no socks or slippers, I would kill myself slipping on the hardwood floors ;). If I only heated the main floor (as the boiler does), then my savings would probably be more evident.

If I could get the cheaper propane, such as other states have, I might do something different, but won't know until/unless I get that option.
 
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No way do I feel guilty. With pellets at their highest price yet here and dragging those bags around no thanks. I don't miss lugging pellets up and down the stairs one bit. I have pretty much gone over to targeted electric spot heating the last few years anyways. Pellets were great before they got stupidly priced but not now.
 
drizler said:
No way do I feel guilty. With pellets at their highest price yet here and dragging those bags around no thanks. I don't miss lugging pellets up and down the stairs one bit. I have pretty much gone over to targeted electric spot heating the last few years anyways. Pellets were great before they got stupidly priced but not now.
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I used a couple Electric space heaters one year for a while..
no thanks... Electric bill made me pass out.
btw: no one should feel guilty about what they use..
use what you can afford or what you feel is cheaper.[for you].
 
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IMO, we all do what we have to do to heat our homes and keep our families warm. In my case, I use whatever is going to do that at the least $$. Right now, pellets are not cost effective.....throw in the maintenance, lugging pellet bags, etc, etc, and propane is my choice right now.
 
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imacman said:
IMO, we all do what we have to do to heat our homes and keep our families warm. In my case, I use whatever is going to do that at the least $$. Right now, pellets are not cost effective.....throw in the maintenance, lugging pellet bags, etc, etc, and propane is my choice right now.
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agree with with you but some of us don't mind the once every couple weeks or so maint [when u have a good stove and good pellets] and lugging up a bag of pellets for lot of us is our only exercise..lol
 
Tonyray said:
I wonder why so many former pellet burners come here to try to tell the rest of us we should be using Oil...:mad:
run your furnace and don't worry bout the rest of us... we'll be fine with our stoves..
If we haven't decided to use oil by now, nothing you preach is going to change that..
btw: my Harman P61A heats the whole house after it's been on for quite a while then it's just on 24/7
furthest away from the stove? somewhat cooler by 4 degrees. not a deal breaker..I prefer the cooler end myself..
Click to expand...
But Tony, I haven't seen anyone saying what anyone"else" should be doing. More just what we each are doing and why. Be that whether we understand someone elses plan or not. I've been burning oil this fall, it got cold enough finally and my knee healed (maybe enough) to move a few pellets and mix the heat sources. Turns out overnight last night with the stove set quite low the heat never came on. And I planned all along to mix heat sources in mid winter. Just sayin.

There is poster here who heats his house to 60 daytime and in the 40's at night. Ok, I won't ever agree with him ! But he is free as a bird to do so with what ever kind of fuel is his preference, just glad I don't live there.
 
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alternativeheat said:
But Tony, I haven't seen anyone saying what anyone"else" should be doing. More just what we each are doing and why. Be that whether we understand someone elses plan or not. I've been burning oil this fall, it got cold enough finally and my knee healed (maybe enough) to move a few pellets and mix the heat sources. Turns out overnight last night with the stove set quite low the heat never came on. And I planned all along to mix heat sources in mid winter. Just sayin.

There is poster here who heats his house to 60 daytime and in the 40's at night. Ok, I won't ever agree with him ! But he is free as a bird to do so with what ever kind of fuel is his preference, just glad I don't live there.
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haven't seen anyone saying what anyone"else" should be doing.
Insinuations of "foolish for example" to be burning pellets while oil is so cheap does irritate some of us..
It's the preaching of " why would u use pellets" that gets old. why bother coming to a pellet forum just to preach oil...? But,
not a big deal at the end of the day and it's all amusing . we all know what oil is in our areas and we all choose for vary of reasons,, I do enjoy the back/forth bickering for what it;s worth. I;m prob guilty of Pro pellets but last time I looked, it was a Pellet stove forum..>>
 
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Tonyray said:
haven't seen anyone saying what anyone"else" should be doing.
Insinuations of "foolish for example" to be burning pellets while oil is so cheap does irritate some of us..
It's the preaching of " why would u use pellets" that gets old. why bother coming to a pellet forum just to preach oil...? seriously,
not a big deal at the end of the day and it's all amusing . we all know what oil is in our areas and we all choose for vary of reasons,, I do enjoy the back/forth bickering for what it;s worth.
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How long has this been bugging you for , LOL? No seriously, I get it.
 
alternativeheat said:
How long has this been bugging you for , LOL? No seriously, I get it.
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ok..
what looks like ranting [in print] is many times Not...
I'm good with it all. If it;s Not Oil, then it;s room temp vres stove temp, feed rates, types of pellets etc.. never ending back/forth opinions..
 
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Tonyray said:
ok..
what looks like ranting [in print] is many times Not...
I'm good with it all. If it;s Not Oil, then it;s room temp vres stove temp, feed rates, types of pellets etc.. never ending back/forth opinions..
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Hmmm, speaking of which, I ran the stove about 20 hours in stove temp from yesterday till a few minutes ago. Kinda rare for me but I want to get a little better handle on it for later in the winter when I intend to mix heat sources. Unfortunately it was a flawed test because my wife came home a few weeks ago with two new kittens. Don't ask about how that correlates, just suffice it to say a room gets closed off at night that influences the house thermostat that won't in the real cold weather most likely. but this is all part of what I'm trying to work out.

At my settings from yesterday to today incidentally, I learned that I would not throw ThemaGlo pellets off my list of can burn pellets. Fine at those settings, might be messy for big heating though.
 
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alternativeheat said:
Hmmm, speaking of which, I ran the stove about 20 hours in stove temp from yesterday till a few minutes ago. Kinda rare for me but I want to get a little better handle on it for later in the winter when I intend to mix heat sources. Unfortunately it was a flawed test because my wife came home a few weeks ago with two new kittens. Don't ask about how that correlates, just suffice it to say a room gets closed off at night that influences the house thermostat that won't in the real cold weather most likely. but this is all part of what I'm trying to work out.

At my settings from yesterday to today incidentally, I learned that I would not throw ThemaGlo pellets off my list of can burn pellets. Fine at those settings, might be messy for big heating though.
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heard the Therma Glo are pretty good pellets..
 
Tonyray said:
heard the Therma Glo are pretty good pellets..
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Certainly no worse than some I've burned and maybe a little better than a few others. Not bad, decent heat. My wife picked up 5 bags at HD yesterday while I prepped the venting after summer. Found a couple of odd clinker looking things in the clean out T cap. Who knows, maybe some summer condensation dripped in there or what ever. Right now the stove is shutting down, the oven is on in the kitchen and it's 55 deg out, figures.
 
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ThermaGlos have been alright for me this year - as you say a bit ashy, and there are other pellets that I'd rather have, but no on my "do not buy" list if the price is right.
 
Tonyray said:
Insinuations of "foolish for example" to be burning pellets ...
It's the preaching of " why would u use pellets" that gets old.
why bother coming to a pellet forum just to preach oil...? ....
last time I looked, it was a Pellet stove forum..>>
Click to expand...

Thanks........
I've thought about starting a thread titled
"I'm burning oil this year"....
or
"Money should be the most important thing in your life"...

Dan
 
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Tonyray said:
my house is poorly insulated so I know that regardless of low oil cost, my furnace will drink oil like a drunken sailor so I will need to fill the tank often. No real savings there.
rather burn pellets as the cost will be similar or less and I like the constant heat as opposed to warm up then cool down all the time.
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Well, aren't you not saving on pellets then either, heat from the pellet stove escapes too.
 
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