Heating Oil vrs Pellets.[whole story?]

I know for me, my savings are mostly realized because I can keep my living room, the most used room at 72f and spend less than with oil heating the whole house at 62f. Everyones setup will strongly determine the cost benefit result.

Tonyray said:

this has been an ongoing debate this season due to low #2 Fuel prices.
many claim it's cheaper to burn oil than pellets.. But,
what we rarely see is anyone posting how many Gallons of oil they use in the cold weather.
We do get mostly cost of pellets or cost of Oil....An Example is:

my brother burns 6-8 gallons per day during the cold days/nights and he pays 2.00 gallon for Oil.
so for him that is 12-16 dollars a day for heating. Not necessarily every day. .[not a standard but not un-common.
at average of 5.00 a bag [250.00 ton] for pellets using 2 bags per day on frigid days would cost 10.00 for heating. Again. Not a standard but not un-common.
since some pay Less for oil and some pay More for pellets the numbers are prob mid-point.
I think it would be interesting if your posting about heating oil being cheaper "And your Actually using Oil " while your Stove gathers Cobwebs,
you post your gallons/per day use for a better comparison...

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On the COLDEST days, I burn 6-7 gallons of oil at $1.49 a gal. If I were just using pellets, I'd easily burn 3 bags.

On an average winter day, I burn 4 gallons of oil at $1.49 a gal. If I were just using pellets, I'd burn 2 bags.

I burn for the comfort of it. I have gas fired hot water baseboards in this house, gas fired hot air in the first house. I love being able to have the stove going. The ambiance, the heat, everything. I can burn a full bag starting when i get up till the end of the night, so $4-6 for the stove. I still have the furnace going for the upstairs, set at 62. I saw up to 82 before i shut the stove down for the night. I just think the stove is a warmer heat, if that makes sense.

When people posts that their break even point is this or that, they usually have used some online cost calculator that consideres the gross energy cost for their location and efficiency of their heating appliances. No need to state the number of units (gallons, bags or kwh)

Tonyray said:

not sure what your saving with.. pellets or oil?

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Let's put this way. For the 62f furnace temp it's 1200$ a year vs less than 900$ for Pellets at 72f in my living room.

How much is your comfort worth? A pellet stove or traditional stove creates a warmth that's a lot nicer in my opinion. This is in the pellet forum but I've got a traditional stove. The wood didn't cost me anything but the stove, chimney, 2 chainsaws, trailer, wood cutting tools, gas to get to the wood did cost me a pretty penny. I've got a natural gas furnace. I save around 100 too 125 a month on my heating bill a month in the winter. I'll probably be out of this house before I've hit the break even point.

I work in the cold during winter. I'm not outside but pretty close. When I come home after a cold hard days work you can't put a price tag on being warm and comfortable in your own home. If it costs me extra to run pellets or cost me extra to run the stove due to the upfront cost of everything I simply don't care. Most of us work too hard to afford a house and the costs of living to be uncomfortable in our own homes.

glockshooter said:

I burn for the comfort of it. I have gas fired hot water baseboards in this house, gas fired hot air in the first house. I love being able to have the stove going. The ambiance, the heat, everything. I can burn a full bag starting when i get up till the end of the night, so $4-6 for the stove. I still have the furnace going for the upstairs, set at 62. I saw up to 82 before i shut the stove down for the night. I just think the stove is a warmer heat, if that makes sense.

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BTUs are BTUs. One heat can't be "warmer" than another heat.

reallyte said:

Let's put this way. For the 62f furnace temp it's 1200$ a year vs less than 900$ for Pellets at 72f in my living room.

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So you eat, sleep, shower, etc in your living room? [emoji15]

mass_burner said:

BTUs are BTUs. One heat can't be "warmer" than another heat.

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Sure it can. Forced air is a constant Rollercoaster of hot cold hot cold hot cold.

A stove will keep the place consistent in temperature without the fluctuations. I'm pretty sure that's what he's referring to. I'm sure you get that right? Or are you just nerding out on him?

Babaganoosh said:

Sure it can. Forced air is a constant Rollercoaster of hot cold hot cold hot cold.

A stove will keep the place consistent in temperature without the fluctuations. I'm pretty sure that's what he's referring to. I'm sure you get that right? Or are you just nerding out on him?

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I'm interested in this post, and I believe it's about cost. Subjective observations and opinion don't further that discussion, do they? If they do, I'd like to hear how? Can you separate the hot/cold air and attach a cost?

The thing about Pellets are they are paid for!! No surprises in the mail. I burn on average during a normal winter a bag a day to heat the whole place so price is not that much of a factor for me.

Babaganoosh said:

Sure it can. Forced air is a constant Rollercoaster of hot cold hot cold hot cold.

A stove will keep the place consistent in temperature without the fluctuations. I'm pretty sure that's what he's referring to. I'm sure you get that right? Or are you just nerding out on him?

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how do you know its forced hot air??

If just using BTUs to compare, oil heat is much cheaper, at least for me right now. However, we did just get pellets for less than $4/bag and I have not done the math on that.. But I digress...

We find the heat from the pellet stove to be more comfortable than the baseboard hot water. Our baseboard heat makes the house feel very stuffy. I got the pellet stove a few years ago when oil was over $4/gallon. We have gotten very accustomed to the pellet heat and we feel that paying a few dollars more to be comfortable is worth it.

Its funny how some people on here, no matter what, will ALWAYS believe that heating with pellets are cheaper. If oil were ...........25 cents a gallon they would still reason away how they are "saving, or breaking even"..... that being said I still run my pellet stove along with the oil furnace, but I know im not saving money....

mass_burner said:

I'm interested in this post, and I believe it's about cost. Subjective observations and opinion don't further that discussion, do they? If they do, I'd like to hear how? Can you separate the hot/cold air and attach a cost?

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If you don't think observations and opinion further a discussion you must be a real pleasure to converse with and be around. This is a social forum, not an experiment driven by pure data. Don't be a dick

I vote for the comfort of constant warmth. With corn at $130 per ton here, I find it hard to adjust the thermostatic on the NG to run except on the extremely cold nights and that's just to get some warm air in the basement. This argument will never be settled, it should be put in a folder along with "best stove brand", "worse stove brand", "OAK or no OAK" and did "Oswald kill Kennedy?"

Babaganoosh said:

If you don't think observations and opinion further a discussion you must be a real pleasure to converse with and be around. This is a social forum, not an experiment driven by pure data. Don't be a dick

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Wow, a real tough guy at a keyboard and hundreds of miles away. I wouldn't speak or write to someone like that if I were a thousand miles away or face to face.

Anyway, there are dozens of posts here about how comfortable pellets are, I get it. It's fine, but at some point you are paying a premium over another heat source for perceived comfort.

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room." General "Buck" Turgidson

mass_burner said:

Wow, a real tough guy at a keyboard and hundreds of miles away. I wouldn't speak or write to someone like that if I were a thousand miles away or face to face.

Anyway, there are dozens of posts here about how comfortable pellets are, I get it. It's fine, but at some point you are paying a premium over another heat source for perceived comfort.

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And,.............you have issues with this why?

Deezl Smoke said:

And,.............you have issues with this why?

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I don't. But it should be called what it is, paying a premium.

FirepotPete said:

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room." General "Buck" Turgidson

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Dr.Strangelove,My favorite movie of all time.

mass_burner said:

BTUs are BTUs. One heat can't be "warmer" than another heat.

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Agreed. How about i just like it more? And I don't have to dread a $200-400 gas bill next month, because I wanted to be warm this month? Plus, i get the visual pleasure of a nice fire going while i watch a football game or a movie.

I don't burn oil, so really don't have a dog in this hunt. But to go purely by published comparisons of a million BTU's for January (not withstanding the on-off cycle of traditional heating systems and perceived comfort), oil just edges out pellets in cost in NH. A key part is not shown on that page, but another linked page - this is an average cost of deliveries to customers that use at least 925 gallons/year. And of course, the more you burn, the less the cost - that adds in government contracts/schools/large mfg's (most of which own their own tanks and can negotiate prices), but leaves out a lot of homeowners who pay more than that average and/or are tied to a company because it owns their tank.



And since my boiler burns propane, and I am charged about $1 more per gallon than the published price, it should be obvious why I burn pellets