pellets in central pa

Hey Gengle, good luck hunting in Perry co. Heard they were seeing some nice buck this year. Lowes in Shippensburg has Somersets. Not sure of $$$. Carlisle is tapped out of wood pellets. AES only has a few tons of OMalleys and Juniata(Energex). Go to Ship. for the good stuff. Hope you enjoy the BBQ. Let me know how it is.

Burnt coal once, got tired of wiping black dust off of everything in house. Too dirty for me. Just drive through a coal town and see what color the siding on the homes are. Trust me, I'm from western Pa. Grandfather worked mines, dad worked in mines & steel mills. Pellets are much cleaner and easier to manage.

Born and raised in berks and Montgomery counties! Job moved me all over. You don't have to take a ton of coal at a time. It is shamokin. Heated my house there on 3 tons and 80+ degrees. I built a simple narrow box in garage with door at bottom. Cost of pellets is 50% more to heat than coal.....

I burned coal years ago, it rocked. They planted house seeds next to me and I lost my storage.

gengle said:

+1 mikhen. Not to mention the coal dust/dirt and emptying an ash pan daily. I took a hard look at coal until I saw a pellet stove in person. I couldn't be happier with it and have not looked back once.

Click to expand...

Sorry but those are 'old wive's tales' about coal. Modern stokers have no more dust/dirt than pellets if you take the same care and, if you look at the stoves at the sites I referenced, you'd see that the ash pans can hold a week's worth of ash even if you are running the stove at max which is 90,000 btu's +!! You have pellet stoves now so it's too late but for newcomers in the Pa. area, it is certainly a consideration if you take a good hard look at modern coal stoves.

mikhen said:

I continue to be amazed at how many pellet burners in SE Pa don't realize the value of burning coal and how many really beautiful coal stoves are made right in the area. Being 'Green' is no excuse for not being warm. :cheese:

Click to expand...

I grew up in a house where my father burned a Keystoker Boiler. Floors through out the house were always filthy. Also replacing the connector pipe every couple of years was enough to talk me out of coal. Not to mention the cost of a proper chimney more than outweighed the savings over a few years. The wife doesn't mind the light white dust from the pellets but hated the black socks at dads. Pellets alone saved me close to 2k a year over oil, I think that's enough for me. Next stove in next house will be wood.

I am in Lemoyne and this is my second year burning pellets. I have bought pellets at Lowe's and Home Depot. Presto logs, American Wood Fiber, Green Supreme, and Greenway are some of the brands I have used.

If you can find them at Lowe's, Greenway Super Premium are great. Good heat and the pellets have a great smell because they made from 100% red oak.

My favorite pellets are Wood Pellet Co. brand. I buy them from Wertz Coal Yard in Mechanicsburg. Superb heat and not much clinker material.

For the coal debate going on, my parents heat with coal, too dusty for me. I live in town and like the convenience and cleanliness of pellets. But to each his own.

We need a new thread, coal vs pellets? Why are cancer rates over 3 times higher in areas that heat with coal? Too many particulates in atmosphere?

I like the ease of "bagged" wood. The smell, the choices, the cost, the comparisons, the enviro impact, the efficiency, the ease of cleaning, the resource, and most of all, my pellet addiction!

stillersnut said:

I like the ease of "bagged" wood. The smell, the choices, the cost, the comparisons, the enviro impact, the efficiency, the ease of cleaning, the resource, and most of all, my pellet addiction!

Click to expand...

And the fact I can drive just a few miles and pickup a month and a half of heat from TSC, Lowe's, Hd, etc.

stillersnut said:

We need a new thread, coal vs pellets? Why are cancer rates over 3 times higher in areas that heat with coal? Too many particulates in atmosphere?

Click to expand...

Statistics, please. %-P How about cancer rates along major highways versus rural areas? Diesel Particulates...???
Don't really want to start a p&*sing contest but people posting about dirty houses due to coal burning are skewing reality. 'I grew up' burning coal..... how many years ago and what kind of furnace was it? 'Too dusty for me'..... what kind of stove? Many of us have coal burning horror stories when the huge furnace in the basement ate 10 tons of coal a winter and radiated heat up through large grates in the floor into the upper levels. Things have changed dramatically. That's what I was trying to get across.
My brother in law has heated with a modern Keystoker for about 5 years now and there is NO dust on his floors or furniture!

Do they have a good amount ton wise? I don't like the Prestos that HD has. About time to buy ton 2.

For those up in the State College/Philipsburg area, Water Wise Pools in Philipsburg has both Pa Pellets and Allegheny pellets at $217/ton or $210/ton if you commit to buying 3 ton during the heating season. There is also a person in Philipsburg who sells the pellet brand that were made by Bald Eagle pellet company. I think those are $205/ton.