40 bags of pellets per month?

In this cold snap we are currently in I am burning 3 bags per day........................

Mr. Detail said:

I am a newbie here and I am researching to buy a pellet stove as a back-up system in case the power grid goes down for an extended time period during the winter months. As I was surfing the other day different manufacturers, I happened upon a review by another buyer for a certain model pellet stove and the person said in their comments that they burned 20 bags of pellets in 17 days. Now without knowing the size (btu) of his/her stove and the home dimensions (sq.footage) I thought to myself that was alot of pellets for only 17 days. I would have to build a storehouse out back just for the sacks of pellets if a real emergency happened. Any comments?

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Pellet stoves need power to work. Sorry to burst your bubble. Might want to think about a wood stove for emergencies. You could get a generator but then your better off heating the house with oil running from the generator.

last night with 5 degrees outside..I burned 1 full back between 6:00 pm and 7:am..ill burn another 1/2 bag today (not home so turned down).
so 20 bags in 17 days isnt out of the question

I have a fairly small house..maybe 800 sf
and with the pellet stove I keep my living room at 73 which keeps my bedroom at about 68

Hopefully you are going to power this pellet stove with a generator if you ever get an extended power outage. I would say that 40 bags is just about right for my 45K btu pellet stove and1,800 square foot home in Central Maine. Sounds lke an expensive back up plan for once a decade at worst use. May want to look into portable propane.

Another affirmation that 20 bags in 17 days is normal.
1 bag of pellets will provide the heat of approx. 2 1/2 gallons of oil.

Agree with the others. There are far less expensive back up heating methods.
I'd look into one of them.

Mr. Detail said:

You guys need to understand, I have no problem paying about $160 per month for the 40 sacks of pellets. It's just that I have no real place to store all the bags. Where do you guys store yours? I have a small 1200 sq. ft. brick colonial with a half of a garage full of junk. The other half is the downstairs bathroom.....

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When the power is out, you won't be able to run the stove! A woodburner would do you much better.

For storage, I'd suggest getting rid of some of your "junk" and store pellets there.

I agree with you, storing of pellets is a problem.
One has to get sometimes a little bit creative. I have mine left and right of my garage entrance sitting. Luckily there is a roof overhang so the pellets are protected from rain or snow.
As burning pellets just got out of the ground a couple of years ago, most homes are not set up or even have space to accomodate the space requirements.
This is one item most people forget too.
Further one will realize that we need quite a quantity of pellets to heat the house too. like in your case 40 bags per month, which seems reasonable, without knowing the size of your home and daily outside temperatures.
One forgets easily that pellet stoves are just space heaters and not always perfectly suited for every home.
In a certain way I call it a compromise in heating the home.
I enjoy using it, even though with some of the disadvantages like space requirements or daily maintenance.

I agree about getting the generator. You'd need one to run a pellet stove anyway so why not just get a transfer switch so you could power your boiler. As a bonus, you'd have a working fridge, lights and tv.

Mr. Detail said:

You guys need to understand, I have no problem paying about $160 per month for the 40 sacks of pellets. It's just that I have no real place to store all the bags.

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In your post you said you were interested in a pellet stove for "backup in case power went out".
You've been getting responses based on what you said.

With the cold snap we're having I'm burning 2 bags a day. I started the season with 3 tons, and figure I will need atleast 1 tone more maybe 2 to get thru winter.

Hopefully you have got the message that this doesn't make sense (no power = no functioning pellet stove).

The cost of the stove, generator, and pellets makes this a crazy proposition for only back up heat in a power outage. Never mind the cost of the flue and install and the space the stove and fuel will take up.

The pellets come shipped on a skid. A one ton skid is typically somewhere around 4.5'x4'x4'. Ideally they should be stored someplace dry.

Living in PA, you might want to consider a coal stove as coal is cheap and plentyful around you. You can store the bags of coal anywhere.

BadDad320 said:

In this cold snap we are currently in I am burning 3 bags per day........................

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Same for me BadDad ! We have a Thelin 3000 as well!

Mr Detail...just go back to the Forums link at the top of the page and select the "Hearth Room" forum for lots of great info on Coal stoves..I wish we had coal here on PEI!!

MrDetail, I am heating a 2100+ sq ft home with a Thelin Parlour 3000... It does the job quite well depending on the outside temp. I sometimes shut doors to unused rooms to heat less space. The kids are off at college so those rooms can be closed. I have oil fired hot water with cast iron radiators. so far this winter season I would estimate I have used about 50 gallons of oil and most of that was for hot water. Downstairs is about 72*+ and the second floor is about 64*+.

Mr. Detail said:

You guys need to understand, I have no problem paying about $160 per month for the 40 sacks of pellets. It's just that I have no real place to store all the bags. Where do you guys store yours? I have a small 1200 sq. ft. brick colonial with a half of a garage full of junk. The other half is the downstairs bathroom.....

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I cleaned the junk out of my single car garage...and its now a pellet house.
I also have a 8'ft square shed thats waterproof that I could use..but a long walk thru the snow to get to..so I decided on the garage.

Mr. Detail said:

Wet1, yes I do understand now that without power it would be fruitless. I already have the transfer switch hook-up for a generator from the Y2K days. I like your idea of the coal stove. Any thoughts on a good website or research spot for coal stoves? Does this site cover coal?

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I posted a good link in your other thread in the Hearth Room.

One of those wall mounted LP gas stoves and a 50 gallon LP tank. No electricity.. no cleaning... fuel will stay good for years.
I bought a small one that uses one of those small fat tanks... heated a large garage in 15 min. Amazing little things. Couldn't imagine what the larger ones do. Plus a small generator could run one with a fan attached.

Here in Central Maine- we've only lost power once in 5 yrs-at 5 am when we first got up. Only for a 4 hr. stretch,and we have a "Lil' Hammer" log propane back-up-so it was no big deal.Wanting to get away from using oil so much- we put in a pellet,all the while knowing we would eventually have a generator anyways.This just pushed us to buy it a bit sooner is all. We bought a smaller one{$300} 1200 watt-it runs the pellet- tv, couple of lights.We have a propane cooking stove,small propane wall unit down cellar in case of whatever..propane Empire heater in the garage. Currently, we are insulating & sectioning off,one bay in garage where any car work needs to be done- to keep heat in better.This set-up works for us.The pellets are stored in second bay-but I wish to build a separate pellet/wood shed. We'll average using 3-4 ton pellets per year.A future garage solar hot air collector will be built on the south wall of the garage in the near future.Even with all the {exspense} & creative thinking-planning that goes into these stoves, we still like this choice over using so much oil- as it does a decent job in zone heating.I'd have to say it does a better job than the propane Lil' Hammer in pumping out the heat- so its possible we will take that out & switch to pellets in that room. Even with the stove going 24 hrs a day- our light bill went down from not using the blower on the oil so much also-which was a bonus.1 & 1/2 story-1500 sq/ ft house-We are very glad we made this choice.

MButkus said:

One of those wall mounted LP gas stoves and a 50 gallon LP tank. No electricity.. no cleaning... fuel will stay good for years.
I bought a small one that uses one of those small fat tanks... heated a large garage in 15 min. Amazing little things. Couldn't imagine what the larger ones do. Plus a small generator could run one with a fan attached.

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Hmmm, bought one of those LP wall mounts too thinking it would be great... NOT! Since it is "vent free" it is not odor free. I put it in the basement at the bottom of the stair well so the heat would rise up to the kitchen during a power outage, well yes the heat does rise and would be good except for the OVERWHELMING, headache causing fumes that it emits. I am a firm believer in the fact that there is not good way to use a "vent free" heater. My wall mount LP heater gives me a headache and just about intoxicates my children the ONE time I used it. It just hangs there now, UNUSED! (maybe if it were vented somehow, but then the efficiency goes way down).

Why get a stove like that for backup, get a coal stoker and be happy. You can get one of those and feed it dirt cheap to heat your whole house. Coal has to be cheap where you are. Why pay premium price for pellets when you can get something better for half the price? Coal ton for ton has 1.7 times the btu value and for you eliminates the storage problem. Just toss it out back in the rain and snow. The wetter it gets the cleaner it will be and it burns just fine wet. Your only problem is the dust but you will get that with whatever you are burning. From what I have read they make stokers that don't require electricity so it answers your backup problem. You can find out more about coal specifics by looking up the NEPA forums at the bottom of my signature line.

Mr. Detail said:

You guys need to understand, I have no problem paying about $160 per month for the 40 sacks of pellets. It's just that I have no real place to store all the bags. Where do you guys store yours? I have a small 1200 sq. ft. brick colonial with a half of a garage full of junk. The other half is the downstairs bathroom.....

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I stored my pellets outside in the yard under the plastic they came in, this sumer I will be making a shed out of a fiberglass truck cap I picked up for free it is from a tacoma long bed and should cover 2.5 to three tons depending on how tall I make my supporting walls (at least standing height)