Craigslist bargain!

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
yeah most of us new pellet heads should have invested in a wood burning stove! Heats a bigger area and wood is cheaper :(
 
kast said:
yeah most of us new pellet heads should have invested in a wood burning stove! Heats a bigger area and wood is cheaper :(
It still amazes me we have new people coming here all the time which are looking for info on, or are contemplating buying, a pellet stove. The reason most are looking to do so, is to save money over NG or oil... yet even after they are given the hard numbers (which show oil and NG are cheaper today), they still decide in the end it's a good idea to spend (waste) $4000 on a pellet stove and order 5 tons of $300/ton pellets!?!?!?!? Quite a money savings...
 
Wet1 said:
kast said:
yeah most of us new pellet heads should have invested in a wood burning stove! Heats a bigger area and wood is cheaper :(
It still amazes me we have new people coming here all the time which are looking for info on, or are contemplating buying, a pellet stove. The reason most are looking to do so, is to save money over NG or oil... yet even after they are given the hard numbers (which show oil and NG are cheaper today), they still decide in the end it's a good idea to spend (waste) $4000 on a pellet stove and order 5 tons of $300/ton pellets!?!?!?!? Quite a money savings...

PT Barnum was spot on right.
 
Wet1 said:
kast said:
yeah most of us new pellet heads should have invested in a wood burning stove! Heats a bigger area and wood is cheaper :(
It still amazes me we have new people coming here all the time which are looking for info on, or are contemplating buying, a pellet stove. The reason most are looking to do so, is to save money over NG or oil... yet even after they are given the hard numbers (which show oil and NG are cheaper today), they still decide in the end it's a good idea to spend (waste) $4000 on a pellet stove and order 5 tons of $300/ton pellets!?!?!?!? Quite a money savings...


not all of us spent 4 grand on a stove or 300 bucks a ton for pellets.


(just to let you know, i only spent 1 grand on pellets and burned MAYBE 20 gallons of hho. had it been ALL hho, probly add up to 15-1800 bucks to keep my house a constant 70-73 deg.)


mike
 
I'm with you. I only need 3 tons for the winter so thats where my savings are. If it were more than that then I'd have to think about it.
 
Just keep those pellet puppies maintained and use the oil or whatever while the price is right. Next time the poop hits the prop you won't have to run all over the Internet wondering what pellet stove to buy or talk your spouse into it or stand in line for installation or anything else. Just buy some pellets, drop them in and light'er up.

It's all about options folks.

And don't look for oil to head back up anytime soon. The problem is going to be that by the time it does go back up, not just temporary spikes but a sustained rise, the pellet mills will belong to their banks. And getting rusty.
 
I agree with the comment on "keeping options open". A decision to buy a pellet stove should not be made just on estimated fuel prices over the next few years.

I'm a new owner finishing my first season and it's working out well. If I did my arithmetic right when I bought, I'm still on target to recover my investment. Meanwhile, price swings, pellet availability, costs of other fuel, opportunity cost in buying and maintaining a stove, etc. are variables I can't predict. But we can manage risk at least in part. We control whether to buy more pellets or cut back. The real risk, I think, is being locked in to one fuel only and not having options.
 
Stentor said:
I agree with the comment on "keeping options open". A decision to buy a pellet stove should not be made just on estimated fuel prices over the next few years.

I'm a new owner finishing my first season and it's working out well. If I did my arithmetic right when I bought, I'm still on target to recover my investment. Meanwhile, price swings, pellet availability, costs of other fuel, opportunity cost in buying and maintaining a stove, etc. are variables I can't predict. But we can manage risk at least in part. We control whether to buy more pellets or cut back. The real risk, I think, is being locked in to one fuel only and not having options.

A reasonable and sensible assessment.
 
Thanks, Gio! I enjoy reading comments on this board (and especially those that agree with me). Seriously, the different points of view and the large number of postings get some really useful information out there. It's helpful to a newbie like me.
 
Hey even as long time user my use has changed over the years. I burned just a ton a year for years..it has been just the last 3 years it is my main heat source. I LOVE the fact I can have the most of my fuel bill paid for now and just coast through the winter months. I would never have been able to afford hho to make my house 70 degrees. With Mom and Dad living with us I think they would have died of frostbite with what I keep my heater on. I would guess I would only stop buring pellets if the prices went through the roof. I am also trying to go a little Greener!! So with the pellets and recycling the bags I felt my footprint's getting a little smaller.
 
Wet1 said:
kast said:
yeah most of us new pellet heads should have invested in a wood burning stove! Heats a bigger area and wood is cheaper :(
It still amazes me we have new people coming here all the time which are looking for info on, or are contemplating buying, a pellet stove. The reason most are looking to do so, is to save money over NG or oil... yet even after they are given the hard numbers (which show oil and NG are cheaper today), they still decide in the end it's a good idea to spend (waste) $4000 on a pellet stove and order 5 tons of $300/ton pellets!?!?!?!? Quite a money savings...

That is the key word "today". What people don't realize is that the price of oil or NG or LG can go up as fast as it came down. Let a major war or incident happen and "bam" the price of oil is back up. The global market is so unstable, it doesn't take much to make it fluctuate either way. Where I live in the south, I can't get NG where I live and LG is not as cheap, electricity isn't a better deal, so my best option is wood and with pellets being easier overall IMHO, that is the way I went. I'm like the others, I like the idea of having more than one option.
 
My twist is If I heated my whole house at say 62 I would spent maybe less than the 3 tons of pellets I use than Heating the main living area at 70 with the heat drifting up to the second floor to get 62. A added bonus is the majority of my fuel bill has already been paid for and in the garage. But having a stove since 93 ...this was only my second year buring like this.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.