After crunching the numbers...

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Shortstuff

Shortstuff

Feeling the Heat
Jun 5, 2008
461
Southeastern MA
I've recorded every penny I've spent on fuel oil since 1995 on a spreadsheet and decided to crunch the numbers to see if the purchase and use of a pellet stove has really made any difference. As you would expect, there are a lot of variables that come into play. The weather, how well insulated the house is, installation of more efficient appliances such as water heaters, a new boiler and so on.

In my case, my pellet stove (installed in 2008) is used to heat only part of my house, just over 800 sq.ft. The oil boiler is still used to heat the remaining 1300 sq.ft. So even though my stove is used to heat only 40% of our home, we have seen a 64% reduction in the use of fuel oil in the past 2 years. With all things considered (cost of pellets, etc.) we saved more than $1,000.00 in heating cost in 2009 and well over $800.00 in 2010. In the end we will have paid for our pellet stove investment in 3.5 years.

Those are numbers I can live with. Now if I install another pellet stove and reduce my fuel oil usage to zero...
 
I just had my Fahrenheit furnace installed in late Dec., the Propane truck pulled into my driveway yesterday, guy read the gauge, turned around, and left. There's $320-$350 I've already saved, which is more than 2x I've spent on my total pellet supply so far (just over a ton in total, I've burned about a dozen bags since late Dec.) since my pellet burner has been running. :)
 
Multiple Pellet stoves in the home is a great choice if you have the room to install them.

We have 3 stoves in a 2400 ft ranch style house.

Its a weather driven thing as to which stove, or how many stoves we run on any given day.

During more moderate days in the winter we run just one little stove and on colder days, run one of the bigger ones, then add in the little one if it gets really cold.

You might want to look into a good used stove from such places as an ad on Craigs List.

I paid $200 each for two of my stoves. This makes the payback time go away really quickly.

Heating with fuel oil is just plain spendy for sure.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Snowy
 
Great job on making a great investment. Will oil/propane prices moving higher each week and projected to be even crazier in 2011, you are well ahead of the curve on being prepared.
 

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FordMastertech said:
Local heating oil dealer I use, today's price $3.149 and that's cheap around here, they can keep it.
http://firehousediscountoil.com/
Click to expand...

I think I paid $2.59 on my last fill up, I am about 5/8 right now on the tank, I am sure I will make it to Spring using only hotwater. :)
 
lordgrinz said:
FordMastertech said:
Local heating oil dealer I use, today's price $3.149 and that's cheap around here, they can keep it.
http://firehousediscountoil.com/
Click to expand...

I think I paid $2.59 on my last fill up, I am about 5/8 right now on the tank, I am sure I will make it to Spring using only hotwater. :)
Click to expand...
Thats the price, $2.599, I paid in late October. I usually fill up in the off season, just under 200 gallons or so for heat and hot water for the year but I was running the old tank to empty to change it out with the new Roth tank I just bought.
 

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FordMastertech said:
lordgrinz said:
FordMastertech said:
Local heating oil dealer I use, today's price $3.149 and that's cheap around here, they can keep it.
http://firehousediscountoil.com/
Click to expand...

I think I paid $2.59 on my last fill up, I am about 5/8 right now on the tank, I am sure I will make it to Spring using only hotwater. :)
Click to expand...
Thats the price, $2.599, I paid in late October. I usually fill up in the off season, just under 200 gallons or so for heat and hot water for the year but I was running the old tank to empty to change it out with the new Roth tank I just bought.
Click to expand...

I use a place called Fast Fill Oil out of West Springfield, they are currently at $2.99 as of yesterday....not bad!
http://www.newenglandoil.com/massachusetts/zone12.asp?x=0
 
Snowy Rivers said:
Heating with fuel oil is just plain spendy for sure.

Snowy
Click to expand...

and with oil hitting $100 a barrel real soon, it will get even MORE spendy!

To the OP, that's some good numbers. Did you search out and find the degree days for your area over the same time periods to see if the total went up or down? That would be a necessary part of the equation to determine savings versus usage.
 
Sure there are lots of variables, but in the summer our electric bill is ~ 125.00 - 140.00 and in general heating 1,100 sq. ft. with electric was costing us right around 500.00 / month, so figure 350.00 just for heat in the winter thats 11.50 / day. I use exactly one bag / day in the dead of winter, so I figure i'm saving 7.50 / day x 30 days = 225.00 / month. figure 4 months of winter 1 each of fall and spring, i'm saving around 1,125 / heating season using pelelts. I had my first stove for 14 years so it paid for itself in 2 seasons, so in the remaining 12 seasons I saved 13,500....
 
Snowy Rivers said:
Multiple Pellet stoves in the home is a great choice if you have the room to install them.

We have 3 stoves in a 2400 ft ranch style house.

Its a weather driven thing as to which stove, or how many stoves we run on any given day.

During more moderate days in the winter we run just one little stove and on colder days, run one of the bigger ones, then add in the little one if it gets really cold.
Click to expand...

Do you know what you are? You are an ENABLER. I have been eyeing a second pellet stove insert for fireplace #2 of 2.
 
tjnamtiw said:
Snowy Rivers said:
Heating with fuel oil is just plain spendy for sure.

Snowy
Click to expand...

and with oil hitting $100 a barrel real soon, it will get even MORE spendy!

To the OP, that's some good numbers. Did you search out and find the degree days for your area over the same time periods to see if the total went up or down? That would be a necessary part of the equation to determine savings versus usage.
Click to expand...

Where might I find the "degree days" you mention? That would be a very important factor to "factor in".
 
Shortstuff said:
In my case, my pellet stove (installed in 2008) is used to heat only part of my house, just over 800 sq.ft. The oil boiler is still used to heat the remaining 1300 sq.ft. So even though my stove is used to heat only 40% of our home, we have seen a 64% reduction in the use of fuel oil in the past 2 years. With all things considered (cost of pellets, etc.) we saved more than $1,000.00 in heating cost in 2009 and well over $800.00 in 2010. In the end we will have paid for our pellet stove investment in 3.5 years.
Click to expand...

I am sorry but Im having a hard time believing that you saved anywhere near that kind of money. You numbers have to be way out of whack to have that kind of savings or there was something seriously wrong with your house, insulation, etc.
 
Amaralluis said:
Shortstuff said:
In my case, my pellet stove (installed in 2008) is used to heat only part of my house, just over 800 sq.ft. The oil boiler is still used to heat the remaining 1300 sq.ft. So even though my stove is used to heat only 40% of our home, we have seen a 64% reduction in the use of fuel oil in the past 2 years. With all things considered (cost of pellets, etc.) we saved more than $1,000.00 in heating cost in 2009 and well over $800.00 in 2010. In the end we will have paid for our pellet stove investment in 3.5 years.
Click to expand...

I am sorry but Im having a hard time believing that you saved anywhere near that kind of money. You numbers have to be way out of whack to have that kind of savings or there was something seriously wrong with your house, insulation, etc.
Click to expand...

Ok, here are the numbers. Gallons of fuel oil used is where the savings are:
 

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Amaralluis said:
Shortstuff said:
In my case, my pellet stove (installed in 2008) is used to heat only part of my house, just over 800 sq.ft. The oil boiler is still used to heat the remaining 1300 sq.ft. So even though my stove is used to heat only 40% of our home, we have seen a 64% reduction in the use of fuel oil in the past 2 years. With all things considered (cost of pellets, etc.) we saved more than $1,000.00 in heating cost in 2009 and well over $800.00 in 2010. In the end we will have paid for our pellet stove investment in 3.5 years.
Click to expand...

I am sorry but Im having a hard time believing that you saved anywhere near that kind of money. You numbers have to be way out of whack to have that kind of savings or there was something seriously wrong with your house, insulation, etc.
Click to expand...

I can believe it. What kind of fuel had you been utilizing?

My numbers are better than that when I was burning propane!
 
Good old fashioned #2 fuel oil. Since we purchased our house 16 years ago it has really evolved. It was built in 1960 as a summer cottage and we literally gutted it right to the exterior sheathing. We found 1" (that' right - one inch) insulation in only a few walls. That's why if you look at the first 2 months we lived there in '95 we used more fuel than we did in all of either '09 or '10. Over the next 10 years we worked hard and all our exterior walls are 2x6's with R-19 and the attic is more than R-30. All Anderson windows and doors. We did 90% of the work ourselves so we spent a lot of time and effort to details and the house is snug, but not too tight. I still have about 1,000 sq.ft. of floor above crawl space to insulate and the other half of the house has a cellar and garage underneath.
 
So in your savings you are not factoring in what you spent on insulating the house?

Wheres the pellet cost in your report?
 
Amaralluis said:
So in your savings you are not factoring in what you spent on insulating the house?

Wheres the pellet cost in your report?
Click to expand...

Ok now you've got me confused. All the work, upgrading, insulation and home improvements were done before I even knew what a pellet stove was, prior to 2008. Everything we did was to increase and improve the overall efficiency of our home for both heating and cooling. As far as the cost of pellets, we used 3 tons for each heating season at a cost of less than $900.00 per season.

I also quit smoking 14 and a half months ago and have saved even more money. 440 days at $14.00 per day equals $6160.00 to be exact. I know exactly what my numbers are and I've posted my findings to share with others and you are free to disagree and disbelieve all you want to .
 
Shortstuff said:
tjnamtiw said:
Snowy Rivers said:
Heating with fuel oil is just plain spendy for sure.

Snowy
Click to expand...

and with oil hitting $100 a barrel real soon, it will get even MORE spendy!

To the OP, that's some good numbers. Did you search out and find the degree days for your area over the same time periods to see if the total went up or down? That would be a necessary part of the equation to determine savings versus usage.
Click to expand...

Where might I find the "degree days" you mention? That would be a very important factor to "factor in".
Click to expand...

Try this site http://www.degreedays.net/. Type in a city, ZIP, airport disignation and get up to 36 months or more. Check it out.

I found it yesterday when I set up a spreadsheet for oil and pellet usage. You can get yearly, monthly, daily or average figures.
 
Thanks Ro3bert, looks like I've got some more learning to do.
 
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