Heating with Wood Pellets Case study and Fuel Comparison Savings!!!

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Don2222

Minister of Fire
Feb 1, 2010
9,110
Salem NH
Hello

Since Oil has gone up approx $1.00 a gallon and Wood Pellets have gone down approx $1.00 per bag this winter, there is no question about cost savings!

Here are 2 interesting case studies
http://www.mass.gov/Eoca/docs/doer/pub_info/doer_pellet_guidebook.pdf

Paying $200/ton for pellets is the same as paying…
• $1.67 per gallon for heating oil
• $1.18 per gallon for propane
• $12.50 per (1,000 ft3) for natural
gas
• $0.04 per kWh for electricity

For heating, one ton of
wood pellets equals…
• 120 gallons of heating oil
• 170 gallons of propane
• 16,000 ft3 of natural gas
• 4,775 kilowatt hours (kWh)
electricity
 

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I am printing this out and hanging it on the fridge :)
So the next time i get any complaints about another ton of pellets that I bring home i can just point to it.. Thanks bro
 
BBennett said:
I am printing this out and hanging it on the fridge :)
So the next time i get any complaints about another ton of pellets that I bring home i can just point to it.. Thanks bro

Hello BBennett

Good Idea !! You are Welcome!!!
 
This why I love (really love) my pellet boiler!
 
Now there is an idea... a car that runs off of wood pellets. This years big project for someone?
 
Yup. Last time prices went this way, it was on the news and people were really banging down the doors for pellet stoves. Here in NY there was also an announcement that HEAP (free money for people to use to heat their homes via DSS) bennies are going to be cut in half. Talk about newsworthy. If Kero stays at $4.00 per gallon and the average home uses 700 gallons per year up here in the north country...$3000 heating bill? Folks that already rely on HEAP will NOT be able to afford that. But can those same folks afford to plop down $2,000 on a decent pellet/coal/wood type stove? Sure, they can do the math and see a 2 year payback, but if things are already tight, where the hell are they gonna get that money from? The smart ones who dont have an alternative heat source and no access to natural gas should be taking their tax money and investing it in better insulation if they need it, or an alternative heat source.
 
I heated my house with just about 300 gallons of oil this year for DHW and heat when I was on the road. But the pellets were actually my primary heating source. Kept the house up and down toasty warm all year long. No way could I do that with oil at these prices.

Everyone should start looking into anything as a back up, be it solar, wind, pellets or whatever. Nothing better than telling those rat ba$tards what they can do with their oil. Now the car and gasoline, well that's another story.
 
shhhh....geez...dont say pellets are cheaper than oil or wood......there are those who frequent these forums who just hate pellets, and no mathematical proof will ever allay their arguments.....read this fast, as the mods will dump this reply fast! :ahhh:
 
Oh yeah...aaahhh, pellets stink!! You should avoid them at all cost, they're expensive and dirty!!! :lol:
 
Bank said:
Oh yeah...aaahhh, pellets stink!! You should avoid them at all cost, they're expensive and dirty!!! :lol:

oh, yea.........instead, go out, buy a pickup, chainsaw, and woodstove instead! spend all your free time scrounging deadfall and stormwood for next year! Wood is good! In the longrun, you'll save boatloads of money! pellets just arent worth it! trust me! wana buy a woodstove? :)
 
Easy on the woodstove bashing :grrr:

It is about as close to free heat as you can get (aside from maybe solar).
 
Franks said:
Yup. Last time prices went this way, it was on the news and people were really banging down the doors for pellet stoves. Here in NY there was also an announcement that HEAP (free money for people to use to heat their homes via DSS) bennies are going to be cut in half. Talk about newsworthy. If Kero stays at $4.00 per gallon and the average home uses 700 gallons per year up here in the north country...$3000 heating bill? Folks that already rely on HEAP will NOT be able to afford that. But can those same folks afford to plop down $2,000 on a decent pellet/coal/wood type stove? Sure, they can do the math and see a 2 year payback, but if things are already tight, where the hell are they gonna get that money from? The smart ones who dont have an alternative heat source and no access to natural gas should be taking their tax money and investing it in better insulation if they need it, or an alternative heat source.

Maybe that will give them an incentive to pay for heat or find a cheaper way. Giving out free money removes ones lack of ambition. Just provides more money for things they don't really need..........like a $100 a month cell phone bill. The smarter ones could buy a used stove and install for less than 50% of new. Again, there is no incentive for cleaning a used stove when the satellite is pumping out the favorite show. The free money would be better used in training people than band aiding the problem.
As for the disabled and elderly this does not apply, but there are a lot that are not in that class that get money for heat (and usually free money from other agencies along with it).
 
mkling said:
Now there is an idea... a car that runs off of wood pellets. This years big project for someone?

People have been doing pellet and wood chips as fuel for years. Google wood gas to see some pictures of various setups. The drawback is the filtering system and ECM / PCM (aka computer) control.
 
Pellets Rule! Nothing's better except free firewood for an existing wood stove. but pellet stove blown-heat is the best heat for quick warm-up comfort. My question is can you mix dry chainsaw chips in with wood pellets as a freebie pellet extender? I tried it with about a pint of chips, think I'll add more tomorrow. They're free if available and are the right size for the auger.
 
arnash said:
Pellets Rule! Nothing's better except free firewood for an existing wood stove. but pellet stove blown-heat is the best heat for quick warm-up comfort. My question is can you mix dry chainsaw chips in with wood pellets as a freebie pellet extender? I tried it with about a pint of chips, think I'll add more tomorrow. They're free if available and are the right size for the auger.

I agree!! Even free wood takes time to prepare and time is money. I got 3 tons put away in a very short time!!

Also wood chips added to pellets, good question? That is like hamburger Helper added to Hamburg!!!

How did it work out?? Has anyone else tried this????
 
The wood chips idea is very interesting. I have several barrels of oak wood chips from some wood planing I did for a project.... hmmmmm.
 
Those hundreds of thousands of pellet stoves people were fighting over in 2008 are just sitting with flower posts on top of them waiting for oil prices to run up again. Then the pellets will be what everybody is fighting over in the aisles.
 
Putting wood chips in a pellet stove will void the warranty. It could also cause the unit to malfunction with disastrous results.
Wood chips are used to make wood gas in a wood gasifier device that was designed to use chips. Pellet stoves were designed for wood pellets.
 
Wood chips are the cheapest option for an automatic feed system, trouble is that they do not work well with small systems due to the variable size.

It would certainly be possible to design a wood chip stove, getting a uniform chip is harder.
 
I'm hearing statements that aren't followed with explanations. Saying that wood chips from chainsaws "don't work well with small systems" doesn't really provide any explanation as to what exactly that means. If shattered wood knots aren't present among the chips then they will be uniform in size because they are produced by a saw tooth that isn't changing size ever. To say that pellet stoves aren't designed for chips gives no information as to whether or not chips mixed with pellets will work perfectly, or work poorly. No one can say it would work poorly unless they have personal knowledge of the results. So say that using chips will void the warranty doesn't take into account that warranties don't last forever. To say that a mixture of pellets and chips "could also cause the unit to malfunction with disastrous results" paints a totally vague picture. What does "disastrous" mean? And what does "could cause" mean? It means it might or it might not., depending on what? No explanation. Clarity would be appreciated. I'll do what I can to provide an answer. I just loaded a new bag of pellets into my hopper, but after it's down to about a third or forth of a bag Ill mix in a gallon or more of chips and find out what the truth is. Ill bet they'll work perfectly.
 
arnash said:
I'm hearing statements that aren't followed with explanations. Saying that wood chips from chainsaws "don't work well with small systems" doesn't really provide any explanation as to what exactly that means. If shattered wood knots aren't present among the chips then they will be uniform in size because they are produced by a saw tooth that isn't changing size ever. To say that pellet stoves aren't designed for chips gives no information as to whether or not chips mixed with pellets will work perfectly, or work poorly. No one can say it would work poorly unless they have personal knowledge of the results. So say that using chips will void the warranty doesn't take into account that warranties don't last forever. To say that a mixture of pellets and chips "could also cause the unit to malfunction with disastrous results" paints a totally vague picture. What does "disastrous" mean? And what does "could cause" mean? It means it might or it might not., depending on what? No explanation. Clarity would be appreciated. I'll do what I can to provide an answer. I just loaded a new bag of pellets into my hopper, but after it's down to about a third or forth of a bag Ill mix in a gallon or more of chips and find out what the truth is. Ill bet they'll work perfectly.

I think you need a drink!
 
Como said:
Wood chips are the cheapest option for an automatic feed system, trouble is that they do not work well with small systems due to the variable size.

It would certainly be possible to design a wood chip stove, getting a uniform chip is harder.

I am with arnash on this one. To say the chips wouldn't work because of variable size really intrigues me because I've been working my way through 2 tons of crappy pellets with sizes from dust to 3+ inches long! What could possibly be worse than that?

The only reason for Not using wood chips in 'moderation' was the idea of using them to make wine. Now THAT could be the most compelling reason of all!!!!!! :cheese:
 
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