Did you save any money burning pellets this year?

Wet1 said:

I've done the calculations using heating degree days and found the difference from one year to the next is basically insignificant.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/37220/#397240

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Useful. I should review some of the earlier comments in this forum before I post; they often have information worth checking out. Unfortunately I personally tend to re-invent the wheel. And to your point, it does make sense that the costs should average out over a few years.

This past year I didn't bother doing any calculating
since we went back to oil went it dropped way down.

The nickel and diming makes no sense to me
when it comes to evaluating pellet savings. Never once heard
anyone ask someone how long it was going to take them
to recuperate the cost of their new $4000 oil furnace.
Or mention not to forget about figuring in the cost
of electricity to run it.
They'd look at you like ya had ten heads I'm sure.


I will figure the cost of oil vs. the cost of pellets. If
pellets would cost me the same or a little less, I'd
rather use them over the furnace.

zeta said:

Never once heard
anyone ask someone how long it was going to take them
to recuperate the cost of their new $4000 oil furnace.
Or mention not to forget about figuring in the cost
of electricity to run it.
They'd look at you like ya had ten heads I'm sure.

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Probably because a central heating system is required for a C.O. in most locations, and pretty much needed for any type of resale value of the home. A stove OTOH is certainly not required and generally adds little, if any, to the value of the home.

Bantam said:

Before installation of pellet stove we burned about 900 gal fuel oil/year. I normally fill my tank (1,000 gallon) but last year I bought only 250 gallons of oil at $3.97/gallon thinking price was going to $5.00/gal. It did go up but fell rapidly. Used 348 gallons. So 250 gallons x $3.97 + 98 gallons x $2.50 (what was still in tank from previous winter) = $1,237.50. Burned 5.25 tons of pellets at $179/ton and 10 bags x $4.99 and 2 bags x $5.99 for my total pellet cost at $1,001.63 + gas to haul(about $40)

Total heating bill for fuels were $1,237.5(oil) + 1,041.63(pellets) = $2,279.13
If I did not have my pellet stove oil alone would have been approximately 900 gallons x $3.97 = $3,573.00

Saved approx $1,293 + $90.50(for difference for taxes) = $1,383 by running pellet stove.
In Ohio Fuel oil and pellets are taxed. Where I live is 7%

Did not factor in electric and misc. Only the fuel costs.

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Same numbers here. Spent $2200 heating house w/nat. gas 3yrs ago with 62 deg day and 59 nite.

Now spend approx $1100/yr on pellets and $250 on maint. but here the kicker .. house is at 73 day .. 68 nite.

The pellets are saving me HANDS DOWN, no comparison, not even close.

Paybacktime on stove 2-3 years.

i wish i was getting returns like some of you guys...
i use everything to heat my house and i will use pellets this year in an area
but wood gives me more heat so to say but i am thinking i will try a pellet insert one of these days

Well, I spent about $1500.00 on pellets, and would have spent less on oil (brother in law owns an oil co.), however I like the warmth of a stove...keep the house at about 72 where the oil burner I would keep it at 68

hbfirefighter said:

. . . where the oil burner I would keep it at 68

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Turn the oil burner thermostat up to 72 and it will keep it at 72 . . . . sorry, couldn't resist. ;-)
Mike -

Well it turned out that it was much cheaper to heat my 648 square foot home with hardwired electric baseboard heat than the $2,500.00 Quad Sante Fe installation.

The electric heat units and wire were free. I purchased and installed a sub-panel and two thermostats. Using the electric starting January 10th the cost averaged $5.00 a day. With no lifting, lugging, cleaning, storage, dust or noise.

Since the Sante Fe is now out of warranty I will be installing a hot water coil in the fire box and the first few feet of chimney pipe.

Everytime the Sante Fe fires up it runs for ten minutes before the room air blower kicks in. When the thermostat stops calling for heat it has a ten minute cool down cycle. Converting that lost heat to hot water will be fairly easy and greatly improve the efficiency of the stove.

IMHO every pellet stove should have a hot water coil installed.

I checked out a friends New Englander install. He has used it three years. Had one messy hopper fire out of warranty. The folks at New Englander sent him all the parts for free to get the stove back in top notch condition.

Since he had the stove apart he installed one foot of stainless pipe on the left hand side of the stove. That runs into a 40 gallon hot water heater then into his heating system. It has made all his hot water and helped with the hot water heating for over a year.

Since every pellet stove I have seen has a forced draft from the combustion blower I would shoot for a really low stack temperature.

We didn't do formal calculations, so we are not sure of exactly how much money we saved with our new Mt Vernon, but were way more comfortable and we probably did save plenty of money compared to what it would have cost to stay as cozy as we were with our trusty pellet stove. We have a high-efficiency primary heating system with two zones, oil fired, and this last Winter we took delivery on just less than half the oil we used during the previous Winter (for equivalent time frames). Before the pellet stove, we kept the house very cool. We keep it way warmer now - the pellet stove thermostat is set to 80d at 4AM, 72d during the mid-day, 80d again from 5PM to 9PM, then 72d again overnight.
(We also have a Sunda solar pre-heater for domestic hot water and that reduces our oil consumption dramatically too (most noticeably in the Summer)).
We just packed away 5 tons of Canadian soft wood pellets that we paid $255 per ton for in April.

Just the thought of not buying oil from some tinpot dictator or Islamofascist government is enough to make me happy.