Coldest night so far. What are ya burning??

Smokey you must be living a cold spot. I haven't seen any temps in So. Maine anywhere near that.

If you find out they are available, let me know. They'd be fine for the pellet boiler!

I would want to see some consensus from the pellet stove manufactures that torrefied wood pellets are considered to be appropriate fuel for their units. If there were to be house fires from these units while not burning approved fuels, you risk compounding the reason for your being left out in the cold. If these pellets are going to be marketable, you can be sure there will be heating units made that are appropriate for them. Just my 2 cents.

Still burning Green Supremes and quite pleased. Saving the Turmans till it gets cold

The Black Hills are super hot

Lots of cold spots in (southern) Maine just get out of the built up areas and away from the coast.

Few people calling you out smokey... Just take a picture with something that shows the current date like a newspaper and put all the naysayers to rest. Lol

I'm not calling him out. I've got no reason to do that.

You mean like the Portland Press Herald with it's Portland temperatures from PWM and over 15 miles from me and on the coast?

Or we could use the heating degree day figures from one of the more local airstrips which for 01/24/2013 was 63 on a base 65 balance point meaning the average temperature at that location for that date was a whole 2

Those that think I'm telling a big one can find all kinds of information that backs me up.

I'd hope you folks do realize there are dozens of search able temperature data bases.

I have no problem with your comment subsailor, I used to live on a man made peninsular where the temperature varied several degrees from one end to the other and a little over 7 miles towards the mainland it normally varied 10 to 15 .

i'm not calling you out either. still getting used to even living here.

it also seems like a lot of places south of me in other states were way colder too.
some big blast rolling in off the lakes perhaps.
i have put a second thermometer outside (analog) to try and get a feel for the accuracy of my digital one.

Maine isn't a flat uniform state and after awhile you'll figure out where the boundaries are for the "normal" differences in things like snow fall, rain fall, temperatures,etc. are.

Torrified pellets would work in the pellet stoves with a little modification. The feed timer, whether mechanical or electronic, would have to be modified to slow the feed rate to about 80% of the rate of feed for wood pellets. The hopper then would last longer, but the stove was designed to have a maximum heat output and that should not be changed. The benefit would be that the volume of stored pellets would decrease significantly because of the higher energy content of the torrified pellets and the higher density of the new pellet. More energy would be in the hopper and so a full hopper would last approximately 40 to 45% longer. Another advantage would be that moisture and humidity would not affect the moisture content of the torrified pellet as they are not hydroscopic and are more like coal when stored. Of course all of this comes at a higher price. How much higher is not known at this time, but to sell, it must be competative.

I work in Cleveland (right on Lake Erie) it can be almost 10° cooler at night where I live (about 57 South/Southwest) because of the Warm water that the Lake still retains... I can feel the difference when I get out of the car

Wasn't trying to start trouble. Just seemed like you were defending yourself and figured the best way would be to post a pic because as we all know..... PICS OR IT DIDNT HAPPEN! :D

I too sometimes see a large temp variation between reported numbers and house or car thermometer readings. It is all very local. I don't trust the reported numbers as much as my own thermometers.

I believe it will be at a higher cost. The pellets are still made the same way and then your adding the time/energy to heat them. More labor and resources have to add to the bottom line.

We should start a thread on this subject. I bet it draws a crowd.

A good amount, if not all, of the fuel source to heat the wood to torrify it comes out of the wood as VOCs in the process. They are collected and mixed with air to create the heat needed in the process.

i just stumbled on a little custom hopper management trick.
some of you may know this already, but for me it's the first time i've burned a second type of pellet.
i'm just filling the void in the hopper as it empties. with the mwp blend.
these will then feed in first and leave the softies that are further from the auger opening.

i actually mixed the blend in with the softies in the whole hopper.
but during the day today i will just keep 100% blend running in the front emptied "cone" until tonight and then let to softie/blend mix fill in as night falls.

i'm pretty sure i'm more excited about this discovery than a normal person would be.
but i'm not normal. i'm a pellet head. : )

i do the same

What ya all won't do in the cold?

I can't seem to do that. Once I see the funnel I have to level them in the hopper. I get to touch em that way. Then I look for long ones and I just have ta break em in half or 3rds. I get to touch em again.

There are some weekly meetings several of us should attend.

Hot dam just clocked hamers a
@ 295 exiting blower...

Topping off with green teams for the night.

I got rid of meetings a long time ago along with pagers, cell phones, and various other annoyances.

Just leave me alone and let me be warm. I don't need no stinkin' meetings.

i believe august was the last time i actually answered the phone.
i knew it was the hardware store calling letting me know the extra j-channel to finish the house had come in.

Burning Somersets on level 3, 5 being the hottest. The italian stallion keeps the house at 71 ccozy degrees and a bag lasts 30 hours